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It's Okay to be a Work in Progress
It's Okay to be a Work in Progress
By Rayhanatu Diallo
Photo By Aisha Diallo
Life is just one bundle of responsibilities. As a teenager, you’re constantly bombarded with school assignments, projects, jobs, responsibilities by parents, and much more. And yet we still have to push through. As high school students, we are expected to handle everything that is thrown at us – because our teenage years are supposed to “prepare us for the future.” As a result, every choice we make predicts our whole adult life, and now we are expected to have perfect grades, look perfect, think perfectly, just be perfect. But is this what was intended upon us? Was this intended upon society in general?
From the moment you were born, you have your life planned out for you. You go to school for 12 years, you spend another 6-7 decades working, and spend the rest of your 20 years in retirement (that’s if you’re lucky). Any major inconvenience that happens in your life gets immediately shunned. A person with zero imperfections, no negative unexpected thing being thrown at them, whether it’d be the life they’re living or other factors like looks gets glorified (which is why ideal features that are impossible to achieve without surgery are glorified, while natural features are shunned). Many ideologies follow this, one being the popular American Dream.
However, we’re human at the end of the day. It is physically and mentally impossible to live a “perfect” life. We make mistakes and we have many things that we don’t like about ourselves that we want to fix. We aren’t naturally psychics; we can’t predict the future. Life is always going to throw something unpredictable at us, but we shouldn’t put ourselves down for it. Your life is meant to have imperfections. We are meant to make mistakes. Living this ideal life with no slip ups isn’t a part of our nature.
Photo By Aisha Diallo
I mentioned before about the list of expectations we have in order to set ourselves up for adulthood. However, the happiest and most successful adults are probably still figuring life out themselves. What makes them happy and successful is their acceptance to all the new things life throws at them.
So if you’re just like me – sitting and stressing out about everything, and anything – just know that it’s okay. At the end of the day, you’re human. Figuring it isn’t the zenith of living. It’s just a facet of the journey. Your job is to simply lean in, learn, and enjoy the view.
BUILT BY THE GAME
BUILT BY THE GAME
Who Are You Without it?
By Samantha Woode
It’s in that moment, when you’re the last to cross the finish line, or you hear the final buzzer after a nail-biting loss, that you truly feel like you’ve fallen. You shy away from your coach’s face, from the crowd, and from your parents’ hanging heads. You don’t see effort; you see wasted potential
You think about the discipline instilled in you, the cold nights and hot summer days spent putting in work when nobody was watching. Envy quietly settles in, and constant comparison takes over, measuring your journey against theirs until it ruins your love for the game. That determination to be great is paired with a lack of confidence, planting a seed within you, watered by nothing but bottled-up tears after underperforming. And if you ever do reach your dreams, will it be enough? Will it be worth the tears, the pain of injuries, the missed time with family? Or will it feel like everything you imagined simply because it’s who you are? Before you know it, it does become who you are. And if you never learn to shake that feeling, never learn to shift that mindset, then who do you become without it?
For many athletes, their sports journey starts at a young age, little league football, baseball, or AAU basketball. These organized activities bring structure into lives that may not have had it before. They teach teamwork, discipline, and self-confidence. They also introduce a single purpose: to win, and to keep winning.
As these players reach high school, sports become routine. Wake up. School. Practice or games. Sleep. Repeat. You keep your name, but now it’s always followed by, “Don’t you play…?” Although they are student-athletes, performance outside the classroom often has a greater impact on their mood and sense of self-worth. Praise fills the room when success comes, justifying the obsession with overworking. Underperforming, on the other hand, feels like a personal failure, an overwhelming reminder that there are levels to the game and that you haven’t even scratched the surface.
As athletes grow older, expectations only increase. Get tougher. Get stronger. Get faster. They’re expected to push through pain, through injury, and through burnout, but rarely are they taught how to process failure. The game runs on standards that can build an athlete, but when identity becomes too tied to performance, it can also break them.
For many athletes, this is a lived experience, an untold story. Senior athlete Maya Gad described how deeply her identity has been shaped by her time on the field and on the track. “Honestly, I don’t think I would be the same without sports,” Gad said. When reflecting on her experiences, she explained that athletics taught her discipline and how to show up for others, shaping the person she is today. Without those lessons, she believes she wouldn’t be who she is now.
While sports opened many doors for her, Gad also reflected on a side of being a student-athlete that is often overlooked: sports-related depression. When asked about mental burnout, she shared that she experienced it firsthand during her time playing.
“I definitely have, especially during soccer season,” Gad said. “I felt like I was putting in so much work and still underperforming. I had two sprained ankles this past season, and I knew I could have pushed myself more, but because of something I couldn’t change, I just wasn’t capable of doing what I knew I could do. It put me in a really bad state of mind. I loved the sport, but I just wanted it to end.”
Hearing a story like Maya’s reveals the constant voice many athletes carry, a voice telling them they could always do more. It’s an overwhelming pressure that builds within athletes and one that needs to be silenced. The only way to quiet that noise is by taking the extra step and asking for help.
Photo Provided by Maya Gad
Sports will continue to be a major part of athletes’ lives, teaching meaningful lessons that go far beyond the field or court. But when it’s finally time to hang the jersey up for good, it’s important for an athlete to realize they are more than who they are with it on, they are more than their performance. Sports can be part of who you are, but it’s just as important to love the person you are without them, because eventually, that’s who everyone will really know.
Wanting to be the best version of yourself is fine, but if it comes at the cost of your mental health, it isn’t worth it. Sports can be a powerful form of expression, but they can also expose vulnerability. If your experience feels similar to Maya’s, it shouldn’t be ignored. The most important step is doing what she did, talking to someone. For her, it was athletic trainer Mr. Fruscella. For others, it might be a parent, a friend, a coach, or a teacher. The game that builds you is powerful, but when it’s all said and done, that strength should be used to build yourself beyond it, because knowing who you are will always matter most.
How to prepare for PROM
By Armani Franklin Moore
Prom is one of the most memorable nights of high school, so preparing ahead of time can help you enjoy the night instead of stressing about it. Follow these steps to make sure you’re fully ready.
Step 1: Decide Your Look
The first thing you should do is decide what color and style you want to wear. This includes your dress or suit, shoes, accessories, and hairstyle. Knowing your look early helps everything else fall into place, especially when choosing matching accessories or coordinating with your date or friends. It also gives you enough time to find something you truly like instead of settling for whatever is left.
Photo via google images
READ MORE ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR PROM
READ MORE ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR PROM
Step 2: Set a Budget
Prom can get expensive quickly, so it’s important to decide how much money you’re willing to spend. This includes your outfit, tickets, hair, nails, makeup, transportation, and dinner. Setting a budget helps you avoid overspending and allows you to plan realistically.
Step 3: Buy Your Outfit Early
Once you know your budget and style, buy your dress or suit as soon as possible. Waiting too long can make it harder to find your size or preferred style. Buying early also gives you time for alterations if needed, so everything fits perfectly.
Step 4: Make Appointments in Advance
Hair, nail, and makeup appointments fill up quickly during prom season. Schedule these appointments weeks ahead of time to secure a spot. This ensures you won’t be scrambling at the last minute or forced to do everything yourself if you don’t want to.
Step 5: Plan Transportation and Logistics
Make sure you know how you’re getting to and from prom. Whether it’s a car, limo, or ride from a family member, planning ahead prevents confusion or delays. You should also buy your prom tickets on time and know who you’re sitting with so everything goes smoothly.
Step 6: Prepare a Small Emergency Kit
Bring a small purse with essentials like mascara, hair ties, bobby pins, lip gloss, and travel-size makeup. These items can help you fix small problems quickly so you can continue enjoying your night without worrying about your appearance.
Step 7: Relax and Enjoy the Experience
The most important step is to enjoy yourself. Prom is about making memories with your friends. Preparing ahead of time allows you to feel confident, stress-free, and ready to have fun.
Fictional Characters & A TWO-WAY Mirror
Fictional Characters & A TWO-WAY Mirror
By: Naysha Rivas
For many years, the brilliant minds behind books, television, and other forms of media have given us a variety of characters like Scott Pilgrim and Luz Noceda. Characters like these help us relate to and connect with others who have shared similar experiences, even if it’s just the experience of growing up and navigating day-to-day life. However, as great as these characters are, have you ever wondered why we feel so connected to them? How we may be able to see ourselves in them? Well, there’s actually psychology behind it. Some of these reasons are as follows:
READ MORE ABOUT FICTIONAL CHARACTER & A TWO-WAY MIRROR
Healing:
The first thing to bring up is how fictional characters can become a source of inspiration. Some characters are portrayed as brave, kind, and always able to see the good in others. We aspire to be like these characters and in a way, it’s sort of healing. A newer example of this is a show called ‘Bluey’. Many of you already know what this show is, it’s a preschool show about the daily life of young Bluey and her friends & family. But while this show is aimed at little kids, many older viewers have also enjoyed the show too. As a result, this has made many people see ‘Bluey’ as a comfort show as there’s references to older audiences who understand better, and this show can get quite serious at times which have older audiences care about these talking dogs. Now, some of you may have no idea about ‘Bluey’, so let me mention a show that you are more likely to be familiar with. That show in particular would be ‘Arthur’. Again, it’s aimed for a younger demographic, but older audiences have found themselves enjoying this show too for the same reasons. Not only that, but these same reasons help remind us (the viewer) of our own experiences and struggles through day to day life. So even if stories with talking animals or are like ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. The World’ and ‘The Owl House’ that have fictional humans fighting off people (either on Earth or The Boiling Isles) with magic and weapons, they’re all grounded in reality with the lessons learned and the characters going through them with in it’s unique ways of storytelling.
Representation (Part 1):
Second reasoning to this topic has to do with representation playing a major part. As there are multiple smaller sections in regards, this will be divided up with sentences. Starting with how teens are portrayed. On especially Netflix shows, teens are shown to barely attend class, speak slang words every so often, look way older, and commit heinous crimes on a regular basis. Examples like these already make viewers alienated and not care about the show as they ditch it and find something else. Not to mention that these “teen stereotypes” are written by older people who have clearly never met and interacted with a teen. That’s why people would praise a show about teenagers for actually acting like teenagers. It once again makes everything feel grounded as viewers can relate to the stress and drama that can happen to them, and not feel like aliens of some sort living in some ‘Fahrenheit 451’ dystopian scenario. This is the end of one smaller section, and now it’s time to shine a light onto another form of representation. Earlier I had mentioned stress. Stress can be the aftermath and/or cause of mental disorders. Already, having one at minimum can negatively affect daily life as things like OCD for example can take over your life, making it a hellish cycle to face constantly. Now, imagine you’re trying to find something to watch, and what you end up finding is…insulting. Characters with these “mental disorders” are seen as crackhead quirky people who excuse it all the time and the disorder overall is treated as one big joke. That’s how we get cases like Sia’s autism movie ‘Music’ and another movie ‘Split’ that terribly depicts a person having DID as psychopathic. These depictions are especially harmful as someone who doesn’t have a disorder sees media like this and thinks it’s okay to pin down an autistic person as a way to help with their meltdown. But, when done right, it is forever appreciated by viewers and it helps make everyone feel seen. One example of good representation is in the movie ‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’. There’s a scene where Puss is at his lowest point. He’s having an anxiety attack after witnessing the Wolf in the distance, reminding him that death is coming and his time is almost up. He’s sitting below a tree, away from everybody so he could be alone. What happens after? His friend Perrito finds him frantically breathing. And what does he do? Does he slap him and tell him to “snap out of it”? No. He lays right next to him so Puss can pet him in order to calm down. This works and they are able to talk to each other about what had happened prior. He’s a brave character. The one that everyone admires. And yet…he has a panic attack, and that’s okay. This “humanizes” him in that aspect and it helps viewers feel seen as many have gone through something similar. It’s considered one of the best showcases in media as it shows a proper way to help someone with a panic attack. It comes from a movie about a Spanish cat with only 1 life left traveling to find a wish-making map so he can get his 9 lives back. Oh, and along with friends and enemies trying to get the map too. Even so, this matters especially in children’s media, where kids are able to see and identify themselves to these characters more than ever. This can also help viewers figure out more about themselves as it could be their first time seeing characters with the same struggles and routines as them. It can overall help people feel more like they matter and have a place in this world.
Representation (Part 2):
Notice how newer shows have black and hispanic main characters? Well, this brings in the other side of representation that wasn’t mentioned earlier. This is referring to people of color being represented more and more as time goes on. Which is great! In a way, it’s similar to how nowadays, there seems to be more left-handed people in the world. Why? Well, because the world slowly stopped caring about fitting people into a box and forcing them onto other ideologies. Sure it may seem overdone as shows try to shove representations down viewer’s throats with stereotypes (like the sassy black friend) as they check off boxes to make sure it’s blatantly obvious (aka DC Comics). But when done right, as in the writer's care, it makes everything worthwhile. Another trope improving over the years that relates to this is how black hair is considered “messy”. Unfortunately shows like ‘Winx Club’ have shown a black girl crying over her hair being ruined as it’s styled in an afro. (It even shows another girl flicking it while a bouncing sound effect plays while she looks at it weirdly.) Examples like this are harmful as it’s basically saying that black hair being styled in anything but straight is ugly. That’s a terrible message to tell viewers, especially younger generations who will believe this and see non-straight hair as ugly when that isn’t the truth. Thankfully newer shows like ‘Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur’ have portrayed black hair as beautiful and something to be proud of embracing. Current viewers are able to appreciate something at the moment while newer generations can appreciate it also and can grow up with it. In a way, representation ties in with “healing” as it helps current viewers who are older heal their inner child with something that wasn’t shown as much back then. But as much as progress that was made to show minorities more often in the media, there’s still one major problem that lurks within. For some weird reason, casting directors haven’t been doing the best job with finding the right people for their role. An example of this is when casting choices about the supposed ‘Daria’ spinoff (titled ‘Jodie’) had come out. In that list, they show Jodie’s voice actor, and…she’s half-black while Jodie isn’t. She’s a black character, and yet…they didn’t cast a black voice actor? Cases like this tend to happen often nowadays as casting directors will label anyone who is half-black as black and call it a day. This fiasco doesn’t only apply to race. Remember earlier I brought up Sia’s autism movie? Well, one of the biggest issues with ‘Music’ was that they casted someone who isn’t autistic…to portray an autistic character. You think that it would make more sense to hire an autistic actress for an autistic character? But this dumpster fire of a movie went with the latter. (Although they did originally have an autistic person on set, but was fired after Sia said something about her being “too difficult to deal with”. Hence why the recasting.) The point is that unfortunately as much progress has been made to show positive portrayals of representation, there’s still so much that needs to be done in order to fully achieve showcasing positive representation in the media. But these are the stepping stones to understanding the importance and healing process of it all.
Overall, this concludes on how people tend to connect well to fictional characters. With so many others relating, it helps being able to also connect with other people, whether online and/or in real life. We are able to see just how much of an impact any types of fictional media have created to those many people of color and/or mental health warriors, and even earn a voice within a world that would often disagree. In a way, it’s like we get to ”dig a bit deeper”, like a two way mirror. One side reflects back, while the other side offers a lot more that you wouldn’t have seen before.
All Photos Via Google Images
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