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New valedictorian policy removes prestige
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While the typical valedictorian definition acknowledges the single highest achieving student, the Conejo Valley Unified School District [CVUSD] has strayed away from this normality, and has once again proposed a new policy: the Latin Honors system. After 18 years of the current policy, Board Policy 5127, in place, where students are recognized for their…
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Episodes of overstimulation flood kids media
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Next to candy or dessert, TV was always a special treat for me as a child, and I found myself glued to the screen whenever I had the rare opportunity to watch a show or movie. Today, it shocks me when kids can barely sit through a 20 minute episode of “Cocomelon”– although I…
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Copy-paste culture has taken over cinema
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All too often, I find myself turning on the TV to the same movie. Except it’s not. The plot is practically identical, the characters are the same cliche archetypes and I still find myself on my phone halfway through. Cinema’s level of apathy when it comes to plot and the only clear motive being…
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My identity is in my name
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As summer came to an end, the inevitable ring of the first school bell brought a new year of teachers inquiring about my name. While my name is definitely not unique, it is slightly long and has a variety of nicknames. “Elizabeth,” they call, followed by “any nicknames?” Every year, my response is the…
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Driving courtesy continues to decrease
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Daily patterns of traffic show how driving courtesy has shifted into a mindset where many motorists focus on just themselves. Driving etiquette is essential in making roads safe and pleasant to use, yet so many people rarely feel this. The need for safer drivers is not a matter of blaming individual people; rather, it…
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How to prove to yourself that you are not a failure at seventeen
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“Your teenage years are the best of your life,” is a commonly regurgitated cliche that has infiltrated my perception of adolescence, since my earliest cognisant memory. My thirteenth birthday was a pivotal moment in my upbringing. As I entered the elusive world of being a teenage girl, I felt exhilarated but simultaneously frightened. On…
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Dystopian literature should be your wake up call
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I have spent many mornings drifting away into faraway lands of audiobook narrations in my English classes, occasionally getting lost in my winter fatigue as I cling to a coffee and try to stay awake. But there are moments within these stories that revive my attention as I remember the power of keeping literature…
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Facing fear and isolation in today’s political climate
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I have an incredibly vivid memory of crying in my room the night that Donald Trump was elected as president last year. As someone who had recently accepted their queer identity and begun to accept their gender identity, seeing the voting map slowly turn more and more red was so incredibly disheartening and gut-wrenching.…
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Fear of wokeness scares away compassion
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It feels as though I have awoken to a new America. Gone are the days of the word “woke” referring to awareness of racial and social injustices. The term has now evolved into an insult pointed towards progressive viewpoints, its likeness used by conservative pundits and politicians. With the demonization of this word comes…
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STEM is not the only equation for success
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Throughout the majority of my life and academic career, one subject has always haunted me. I’ve suffered from nightmares, many tears shed and all nighters pulled because of the one thing I cannot seem to understand: math. As I progressed through high school, and my math classes only got harder, I noticed myself internalizing…