Suburbia Vol. 4 • Yearbook

Volume 4

The things that will remind us of our time together

One last note from Mina and Skijler,

A quilt can say a lot. It is threads — memories, stories, moments — all intertwined. It is the patchwork of different perspectives sewn side by side, as if they have been cut from the same cloth.

To us, Suburbia’s journey has felt like weaving a great, wide quilt. It began as a single loose string in geometry class, when we huddled together around our desks -- gushing over a little indie film titled Struck by Lightning. The movie had been about Glee’s Kurt Hummel blackmailing everybody at his school to submit pieces to his literary magazine club; and as the minutes passed by, our conversation about Struck by Lightning slowly turned into a starry-eyed discussion about creating our own literary magazine at West Ranch High School. We were just two freshmen fools who started meeting up at Starbucks to stare at cool, retro layout designs, spitting out possible magazine names while running down the large hill, and running around upper/lower campus like giggling buffoons with a white “LITERARY MAGAZINE” sign-up paper.

It was strange. It was exciting. It was new. And soon, Suburbia began weaving into more.

With gaping mouths, we watched students start to pour into Room 206 with artworks clutched in their colorful hands. We stood for the first time in front of our club and wrote on the whiteboard weird, wacky ideas that made no sense at all but were still so fun to create. We danced alongside members and hummed along to Lady Gaga with jingle bells in front of Piers One Imports for our Christmas bake sale. We touched with shaky fingers our first magazine issue of many and took as many as we could to share with the community. We typed away stressful emails sent towards our publisher with hands in our hair. We struggled to push chairs and tables around in the library to set up art galleries for our launch parties. We caroled while people took pity on us, hosted garage-band concerts at 8 p.m., and partied with Halloween costumes at Casa Pelaez.

Four years later, after all these wild, thrilling experiences, here we now are with our fourth issue printed, thousands of dollars raised, and dozens of artists featured. Suburbia has draped over our high school experience -- consuming every moment of our lives with a purpose and inspiration. Forty-eight pages of creativity became more than just a random thing; it became a part of us. Playlists attempted to capture the essence of indescribable illustrations. Handmade dresses swayed to the rhythm of original musical compositions. Poetry animated previously paralyzed sculptures. And it was all created, collected, and curated by the students, for the students.

For this last issue of ours, we wanted to focus on the personal creations of the people who helped make Suburbia possible. Never could we have imagined that we would be able to be besides such an inspiring, creative group of people then grow to call them our friends. Both of us decided that this magazine should be reflective of these amazing classmates. For the cover, each member picked out a special memento from their time in high school. It was interesting to see how small, seemingly ordinary things could mean so much to different people; and that is also what our literary magazine means to us. To find the extraordinary within the mundane. These are the things that would remind us of our time together. This is what would last forever in our hearts. This is Suburbia.

What s ‘ the squee ze ?

Photo by Joshua Gundred

The Sunset

Lyrics by John Csoti

Don’t try to fill up the silence

Because I knew I’d cry if you said a word

I tried to pick up the pieces

But I knew myself it would never work

The rain touched everything except for where

You stood and the outline

I just stopped and stared

Because someday we’ll both be gone

And I’ll spend my days moving on

Left Page:

Top artwork -- “Girl! Sunset!” by Sarah Hassan

Bottom artwork -- “Seagull” by milkkleaf

Right Page:

Top artwork by Kenny Cosme

Graphic by Angela Lee

So don’t get too sad yet

Tomorrow’s still here

So don’t get too sad yet

I wish I could tell you

All the things that I’m thinking

But truth is

I wanna see you with me

And we could be so much

And I could be your everything

And I’m enough and you’re in love

We’ll watch the sun set

So sit here with me

Mess witha We dareyou. GO DDE S S

Models: Pisa Spizzirri and Bridgette Mercier

Makeup: Alana Pelaez

Styling: Ayden McKenzie

Photography: Maya Christensen

BY TAYLR SMAW

There is nothing left, but memories. Bodies are filled with nonexistent spirit, standing with the crowd as the chewed up gum on their soles. Remove them.

The world spins around the lost years. Gone forever, gone at last.

Every sin I have made follows me, it drags along the ground leaving a chime i will never forget. 4 years of changing, but remaining the same. My same ways, my same mind. The same mistakes every year.

New faces blend in with the old reminding me to change.

I am in this body forever.

As my footsteps graze the gates, my soul is uplifted floating among the many I believe is beneath me. With whom, in fact, I am equal to.

I have made a bad name for myself; it is written on every form.

I am forever stuck.

Stuck with a diploma with the wrong name.

Nobody cheers.

All is silent but one: myself.

My heart has grown from big to small and big again. I am an unsolvable puzzle. My true character outshines the rest, it is one that should be left in the shadows. My future lies ahead, I must hold on tight for it is no I who is leading. My simplistic mind barely gets me by and now the years are dead. The years slowly burn away. Ones I must treasure. But, in someone else’s body because I don’t know my own Not a mentor in sight. A future I am destined to fail. A reality to sink in. The inevitable. New body. New heart. Page one. 4 years. And more to come.

SUMMER

The wind is swelling with anticipation

The buds are whispering excitedly

The clouds are hurrying on their way

Yet time seems to be standing still

And the world seems to burn with suspense

Breathing in And out

And in

And out with a sigh, I sense

I sense the coming of something new the return of something familiar something so close I can reach out

So close that when I reach out, my fingertips brush up against it

So close that when my fingers dip in to it I can skim some of it off the surface

And dipping into that golden feeling I can almost see it, almost taste it, almost feel the warmth of the sun spread over my skin

I feel the calm washing over me, but it’s a fleeting feeling that floats away whenever I finally grasp this golden glow

But I know that some time soon, I can feel it again

Sometime soon

Sometime soon I will be at rest

at peace with the world

My mind will be quiet

It will be quiet and empty of worry

Void of anxieties and fear

Not caring whether it’s Monday or Saturday or Tuesday or Thursday

My mind afloat, aimlessly journeying through the months

At peace, empty,and quiet

Calm

My thought will be allowed to drift

Drift away

Drift

Drift off to the open blue sky through the open blue ocean the open blue of summer

Capture the Stars in the Night Sky : How to Take a Long Exposure

Story by Angelique Noblejas

Photos

by Angelique Noblejas, Kenny Cosme, and Zoe Barron

Six Steps for Long Exposure:

Step 1: Make sure your setting is on “S” for Nikon and “TV” for Canon.

Step 2: Get the lens that has the biggest opening. A 1.8 lens works the best for long exposures but try to get the smallest opening lens.

Step 3: It is best to go somewhere that has no lights so the camera can pick up only the light coming from the stars. Also,set your aperture to 30 seconds.

Step 4: Set your ISO as a big number, so around 1000.

Step 5: Also try to make sure you can have a tripod so nothing is blurry.

Step 6: Point and shoot the camera at the night sky and wait for your camera to do the magic!

Dear Diary

Dear Diary,

I always thought that was a funny way to start writing, yet something about it makes it almost easier to fill the rest of the page with ink. It gives us a false impression of meaningfulness- as if we’re writing to somebody- as if our thoughts are important enough to be appreciated by another soul. But they’re not, and I’m afraid mine never will be. Because until you have something to write about, the only audience for your thoughts will be the diary that you write them in.

By Austyn Malynn

Dear Diary,

What do you suppose is the meaning of pain?

It’s all around us these days and I’m not quite sure of the meaning it holds. Everyone is suffering in some way, and I’m beginning to think pain can no longer be described as something special or something different from that of our default settings. If we’re all in pain, how can it be relative? I used to think pain was something that made our stories different from the others. Now, I don’t think pain makes us different; it makes us human.

Dear Diary,

I’ve always found that the concept of love escapes me. It’s not the feeling that I can’t understand, it’s the very essence of love that I’ve never been able to grasp. I’d like to think that it’s more than just attraction. I’d like to think that it’s just as magical as the movies paint it to be. The thing is, I’ve found it quite rare for things to live up to their on-screen counterparts. So often we are told that love is the goal, the happily ever after, the thing that makes life worth living. But if it is, in fact, a facade- what happens to our happy endings? The possibility that love is simply a distraction from the mediocrity of the human condition is the everpresent thorns on the long stemmed rose. But in the end, just because the flower has thorns, doesn’t mean I wouldn’t love a rose once in a while.

GI V E ME YOUR B E S T

photos: Alana Pelaez models: Holland Smiley, Kenny Cosme, Maya Christensen, India Bramhall

Art by Eli Christensen

A CALMING PLAYLIST A CALMING PLAYLIST

By Racquel Gee

Lonesome Dreams ------------------------------ Lord Huron

Landslide --------------------------------------------Fleetwood Mac

Woodland ------------------------------------- The Paper Kites

Blood ----------------------------------------------- The Middle East

On Your Collarbone ------------------------------ Jordan Klassen

Santa Monica Dream -------------------- Angus & Julia Stone

Mykonos ----------------------------------------------- Fleet Foxes

The Wind -------------------------------------------------- John Park

Generation Why ------------------------------------- Conan Gray

The Ghost on the Shore ------------------- Lord Huron

First Love Never Die ---------------------------------- Soko

From Eden ------------------------------------------------- Hozier

Out Like a Light --------------------------------- The Honeysticks

Novels ------------------------------------------------- Rusty Clanton

Human -------------------------------------------------- Dodie Clark

Next to You -------------------------------- Of Rust and Bone

MY SIDE

Lyrics by Elizabeth Banescu

Art by Anonymous

You were the melody, I was the harmony

You helped me spread my wings

Opened my heart, opened my mind

You've let me see things in a new light

How can I possibly thank you

For all the ways you've changed my life

If I could prove to you Everything I said is true Would you listen to me And understand what I want you to see

I'm not claiming to be an angel Please look through my eyes And see it from my side

We're so close, and yet so far

It wasn't easy to get where we are

Someone like you is a rare find

I know I can trust you with my life

If you give me a chance

I won't let it slip from my hands

GOODBYE

SENIORS

Photos by Sam Haro

Art by Sam Haro, Lauren Souza, and Aiden D’Ambrosio

“My favorite part of high school was pushing through the hard times and becoming a better person towards myself and others.”

-- Lauren Souza

Q : What has been your favorite part about high school?

“My favorite part of high school was being able to be apart of WRTV and expanding my interests in film production.”

“My favorite part of high school was discovering new interests I wasn’t aware of.”

-- ElginTacata

I’ve seen that sunrise a thousand times before.

It paints the hills of this place in gold every single morning. Sometimes it’s warm, casting color into my cold morning’s face. Sometimes it’s shrouded in fog, and sometimes it blazes as if it were the afternoon.

I’ve seen that sunrise a thousand times before. It must have been a thousand times.

Or a thousand and one. A thousand and two.

I think—

You do not live in a Home. A Home works its way through you.

It catches your ankle on a bottom step that you always forget is there. It digs into your reserve of time and feels your reserve of hot breaths and heartbeats deplete. Its atmosphere molds around your form as you configure yourself to find space to breathe. Its scent sticks on you and your dreams take place there.

The art room has big windows and there was once a mouse in its supply closet. The right wing of the theater has a garage door that was never meant to open into the cafeteria. But it does.

When you believe that there is a special quality— a sanctity— to just being, that’s what makes a home. Each footstep, contributing to a sort of composite rhythm, consecrates that concrete which would otherwise be cold. Lifeless. Dead. The soles of our shoes, like heartbeats, pulse through hallways and give life to a place that could very well have had none.

That’s the thing about High School, really. We chose to make it what it is. Or rather, that’s the thing about us— we chose to be who we are. We each took our passions and ran with them. Or maybe we discovered new ones. We met people who shared those passions, and we spent hours with them— giggling under our breaths in back rows of desks and staking out for booths at In-N-Out and complaining about there being nothing in SCV but the Westfield mall in the Westfield mall. In this controlled environment, we’ve proven ourselves to be anything but controlled. We are rich; complex; human. Together, we are unlike what the world has seen or has yet to see.

Class of 2019— think about that: Class of 2019. Some of us have known eachother since Kindergarten. We’ve watched each other grow in ways that nobody else has. We’ve changed and discovered; taken off sprinting and doubled back.

[A Graduation Speech by Zoey Greenwald]

THAT’S THE THING ABOUT HIGH SCHOOL, REALLY. WE CHOSE TO MAKE IT WHAT IT IS. OR RATHER, THAT’S THE THING ABOUT US — WE CHOSE TO BE WHO WE ARE.

HATE REWRITTEN

Blackout Poetry Pieces by River Allen

Photography: Ayden McKenzie

Models: Isabella Kludjian, Zoey Greenwald, Quynn Lubs

Styling: Ayden McKenzie

Makeup: Alana Pelaez

"If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married."

- Katharine Hepburn

Collage by Quynn Lubs

Graphic by Angela Lee

mother always told me, men would break my heart they’ll shatter your dreams, your life will fall apart but i didn’t see it, at least not in you but i was an idiot, i was such a fool days weeks months go by we were caught up in a fight and i had soon realized that she had been right -- yoojin lee

KENNY COSME

ANGIE

ESSENTIAL HIGH SCHOOL ALBUMS

1) Hunky Dory ------------------------------------------------------- David Bowie

2) I Like it when you sleep ------------------------------------------------------ The 1975

3) Depression Cherry ----------------------------------------------- Beach House

4) Rubber Soul --------------------------------------------------------------- The Beatles

5) Gravedigging ----------------------------------------------- The Buttertones

6) Disintegration -------------------------------------------------------------- The Cure

7) Me Oh My Mirror ---------------------------------------------------------- Current Joys

8) Always Room --------------------------------------------------------- Diners

9) Catching Up With ----------------------------------------------------- Depeche Mode 10) Morrison Hotel ---------------------------------------------- The Doors

11) Too -------------------------------------------------------------------------- FIDLAR 12) American Beauty ---------------------------------------------- The Grateful Dead 13) City Club ------------------------------------------------------ The Growlers 14) IV ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Led Zeppelin 15) Transformer --------------------------------------------------- Lou Reed 16) Saturdays = Youth --------------------------------------------------- m83 17) This Old Dog ---------------------------------------------------- Mac DeMarco 18) Little Dark Age ---------------------------------------------------------------MGMT 19) LP ------------------------------------------------------------------------- SALES 20) Meat Is Murder ---------------------------------------------------------- The Smiths 21) Buds ------------------------------------------------------------ Surf Curse 22) Max Baker ------------------------------------------------ Tijuana Panthers 23) Self Titled ---------------------------------------------------------- Vampire Weekend 24) Andy Warhol --------------------------------- The Velvet Underground 25) The Year of Hibernation ------------------------------------- Youth Lagoon

Playlist by Maya Christensen

Art (left) by Erin Kim Graphic by Angela Lee

Right Page:

Photo by Keertana Padmanaban

Left Page:

Photos by Alexa Empleo

Fl oatin g

Photography: Ayden McKenzie and Alana Pelaez

Styling: Ayden McKenzie

Senior Staffers’ Essential High School Albums Senior Staffers’ Essential High School Albums

MINA: “What’s The Story Morning Glory” ---------------- Oasis

JOSHUA: “What Do You Expect” ------------------------- Vaccines

ALANA: “Hot Fuss” ---------------------------------- The Killers

SAM: “In Tongues” --------------------------------------- Joji Miller

SIMON: “Dadadaism” ------------------------------- YAPOOS

TAYLR: “A Hackney Pursuit” --------------------------- Brutus viii

AYDEN: “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” -- Simon & Garfunkel

KENNY: “Sun Transmission” ----------------------- Inner Wave

ZOEY: “Bury Me at Makeout Creek” ------------------------ Mitski

SKIJLER: “Pure Heroine” ------------------------------ Lorde

ANGIE: “Warm” -------------------------------------------- Forrest