WARRIOR SPORTS UPDATE:

LAST NIGHT (Nov. 21) - Girls Varsity Basketball

Hawaii Prep      9  4   6    7       26

Waiakea         18  9  12  11       50

Waiakea scorers

Pua'ena Herrington 24

Jolie Mantz    12

Korrilyn Fernandez 8

Maya Kaneshiro 4

Ava Santos 2

THURSDAY NOV. 17

GIRLS BASKETBALL defeated Hawaii Baptist 59-44

BOYS BASKETBALL lost to Kamehameha Hawaii 54-42

FRIDAY, NOV.18  

GIRLS BASKETBALL lost to Campbell 56-43

BOYS BASKETBALL lost to Hilo 56-38

GIRLS SOCCER defeated Kauai 6 - 0

BOYS SOCCER - defeated Kauai 4 - 0

SATURDAY, NOV.19 

GIRLS BASKETBALL JV defeated Maui HS 31-30 / Varsity beat Kailua 67-47

BOYS BASKETBALL JV lost to Kamehameha Hawaii 48-32 / Varsity beat Konawaena 45-37

GIRLS SOCCER - beat Kamehameha Hawaii 2-0 / beat Konawaena 4-0

BOYS SOCCER - beat HPA 6-1 

CANOE PADDLING - Long Distance Unofficial Varsity Boys (Open/Coach Steerman) 3rd / JV girls 7th / Varsity Mix 1st

Upcoming

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22

TRYOUT JV BASEBALL 3:00p - 6:30p

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23

GIRLS BASKETBALL - Varsity Only at Kohala 5:00p

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26 

GIRLS JV SOCCER - host Honokaa 11v11 1:00p

D. Kalei Namohala - Athletic Director

For more information:

https://sites.google.com/k12.hi.us/waiakea-high-school-athletics/athletics-home

Thanksgiving is about giving our appreciation

By Paisley Menino

    Since thanksgiving is upon us I thought to reflect and be appreciative about the 3 things I'm most grateful for.

One thing that's important for many of us is our families, which is the #1 thing I am forever most thankful for. They will always be my #1 priority in life. My parents have put so much at risk for me and my siblings. They are always there and try to make time for me and for what I need. At the end of the day you can always count on your family to be there for you and to help you get ahead in life.  This Thanksgiving, spend quality time with your family if at all possible.

Secondly, we need our friends, our peers, and the people we spend time with every day. They make  you laugh and are there for you. I have had the same best friend since I was in third grade. Through the years, we have become more than friends now and I would easily describe her as like my sister. We know anything and everything about each other. Even though there was some arguments along the way and we have gotten mad at each other. In the end we always forgave each other and tried our best to overcome whatever comes between us.  Everyone should take the time to reflect on those people around us and to make sure we say a kind word when possible.

Finally, let's be thankful of our health.  Good health is what enables us to do what we do every day.  These past 2 years with the pandemic has been a challenge for all of us.  Some of us have even lost so many family members and friends due to bad health problems. You could be fine and healthy one day, and then the next day you could come down with a virus.  Health is important for everyone, but especially for those who have health issues and who are vulnerable to these terrible infections.  

These past two years have shown us how precious life is and how vulnerable many of us are to the unpredictability of life.  We cannot control everything that happens to us, but we can control how we prioritize our time, to ensure we take care of our families, our friends, and our health.  Be grateful and give thanks to those 3 things in life.  You never know what tomorrow will bring.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Generation Z:  The generation of change

An opinion piece

 Generation Z. Just saying that sparks a very wide range of reactions and opinions based on who you ask. As time moves forward, we are seeing more and more members of Generation Z get older and enter the world of adulthood. Graduating college, graduating high school, entering the workforce, and being launched into a world that does not know how to handle them. Generation Z is unlike no other generation of the past. Generation Z is the first generation to grow up with technology like cell phones and social media, and who have experienced these high paced advancements in technology. They are the generation that has been the most disconnected to other generations as a result of these high pace changes. And they are the generation that is utterly, utterly, pissed off. Generation Z is the generation of change that is driven by anger. The generation that is not afraid to speak up through the usage and advantage of technology, and who have taken matters into their own hands; because at times, they are the only hands they can trust to pull themselves out of the position they have been forced in.

Generation Z is a generation of individuals that were born from the mid 1990s to the early 2010s. And from the start, there has been a horrible hand dealt to Generation Z from the beginning. From the start of the 2000s, there has been the bombing of 9/11, the Iraq War, the war in Afghanistan, the 2008 Great Recession, Hurricane Katrina, and many more events in the 2000s alone. Generation Z was born into a time of destruction and as time continued to progress and as Generation Z continued to get older, things only started to continuously get worse and worse. With the 2010s came the increasing threat of climate change, a threat that has been looming for decades, but pushed to the side to linger. The world is starting to heat up and more and more, the threat that climate change poses to our basic survival is growing and growing. Warfare continues to rage on. There is a continuous onslaught of hate and terrorist attacks against minority communities and groups like BIPOC, the LGBTQ+ community, muslims, jews, indigenous communities, and more. The lack of justice, and the issues of police brutality and institutionalized hate, continuously swept under the rug of compliance.  School shootings only further increased, causing thousands of deaths across our nation to educators and students, all of whom will now never see a future.  The election of Donald Trump in 2016 only furthered to worsen these issues because he clearly did not care for wanting to take action against all the issues talked about, and rather fed into the fire. At this point, the 2020s is like a cherry on top. A global pandemic that has irrevocably changed every aspect of our society and our lives, the overturning of Roe V. Wade and the evergrowing threat to Abortion Rights, the increasing deaths of millions, and so much more. 

This destruction, this repeated cycle of pain, has become normalized to Generation Z. The fear that all these events instill into every single one of us, is something we have all experienced from the moment we were born into this world. And we have had to deal with navigating and adjusting to all that the world throws at us, with the feeling of having no control and power to do anything about it. Generation Z’s voices, for so long, have been isolated from the conversation of what is happening in our world. Older generations wish to exclude us from the conversation, to shield us away from the horrors of the world, and to try and deal with the journey back to normal, back to a time before. But in doing so, they fail to move along forward with the advancements our society has made alongside Gen Z. So they begin to fall further and further behind as time moves on, and they try to stick to a time of the past. And when Gen Z tries to reach out to them for help, we have been met with nothing but puzzlement. So Generation Z has had to learn to pull themselves up. To learn to be reliant on themselves, and to learn how to navigate the world in their own way. They had to craft their own pathway and go through the hardships of finding their own way. 

Generation Z is a lonely generation. There is a large disconnect between older generations and Gen Z., and it has caused a type of loneliness that has isolated them and forced them to trust no one but themselves, and others who experience the same thing. AKA, other members of Gen Z. There is a connection between other members of Gen Z because so many of our experiences and our emotions are shared with others who have dealt with the same thing. And that kind of connection is one thing that binds all of us together. 

In recent years, as explained earlier, late 2010s and now, in the beginning of the 2020s, so much has changed in our way of life and our society. But there has been lots of bad events and changes during this time, but there has also been good ones. Black Lives Matter, which grew in popularity nationally following the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner in 2015 at the hands of the police, and once again saw a surge in popularity, following the deaths of George Floyd in 2020, is an example of a movement for change that has risen in popularity during this time. There are two other large movements that happened during this time, being #MeToo, which encouraged victims of sexual harassment and assault to tell their stories, which started in 2006 by Tarana Burke, but became a global movement in 2017, and March for Our Lives, a student led movement, starting in 2018, advocating for gun control legislation, following the events of the Parkland shooting and the increasing amounts of school shootings, due to the loose laws on gun ownership. 

What all of these have in common is that they are led and pushed forward, mainly by Gen Z, and they have gained popularity and have gained traction through the usage of social media. Social media has become a powerful tool in how we spread awareness and how we spread information about the issues we experience around the world. But what social media has been able to accomplish that other outlets haven’t been able to do in the past, was to provide easy and accessible ways for an individual to tell their story, and share it with the world. To be able to show a perspective that is normally untold, and gives so many people the power to be able to gather a large audience and to gain attention of others in a short amount of time. Social media is a relatively new thing, and Gen Z is the first generation to grow up with, and fully embrace social media. They move forward with social media and are the ones who understand and know how to utilize it, as well as how to push social media to new bounds. Older generations have been the most apprehensive and judgemental of social media, but as they notice how much social media has been able to do in recent years, only now do they begin to join. But they struggle to keep up many times with how fast social media evolves and changes, often asking members of Gen Z for help to be able to understand what has become second nature for them. Generation Z has learned how to utilize social media to its fullest potential.  Social media also has allowed further inclusion of diverse perspectives, and has allowed people from a wide range of backgrounds to bring attention to the nuances and layers of events. It has allowed so many different communities and minority groups like BIPOC, the LGBTQ+ community, Muslims, Jews, etc. to be able to speak up about their experiences, and to be able to explain the deeper layers of hate that others have been made ignorant to, due to lack of accessibility. They have widened the gaze and are often the ones who bring change forward and bring these issues to the forefront. And what social media has been able to provide these communities, is a platform. And Gen Z, especially Gen Z members of these communities, have been at the forefront of those supporting and bringing attention to these required changes for a safer and equal future. 

What movements like BLM, #MeToo, March for Our Lives, and so many others, been able to demonstrate, is that Gen Z is a generation that now has the tools and the ability to speak up to a large audience, to be able to instill change, and garner attention to movements of change that push to move our society forward in a safer and equal direction. They have gained confidence to be able to speak up about issues of injustice that other generations have not been able to do as easily, due to inaccessibility and lack of resources. And they are the ones who push things forward and push for change, as most older generations try to keep up. Social media is a tool that brings people together and has been used as a tool to unify people together to drive change forward. There is power in numbers, and Gen Z knows how to use social media to garner those numbers. 

But what truly drives Gen Z to be the generation that advocates for advancement, as well as for  inclusion and diversity, is anger. Generation Z has been failed by older generations time after time. The people of an older generation are often the ones in power (in government for example), and time and time again, has Gen Z been failed by them. Many people of an older generation, especially in the South and Southwest of the United States, has demonstrated that they want to keep things the way they are, or even want to make things how they have been in the past. This has been seen with so many issues regarding LGBTQ+ rights, climate change, abortion, gun control, climate change, racial equality, indigenous rights, gender equality, sexual violence, and so much more. But one of the biggest ones in recent times, has been the COVID-19 pandemic. Gen Z, as they graduate college and enter the workforce, and as they graduate high school, has been placed into a position that puts them at an immediate disadvantage. If you are, for example, a person of color, you are placed at a further disadvantage. College is at an all time high of a price, the cost of living is increasing further and further. The wages people are earning are not rising any higher, and what is being demanded of workers is increasing further and further. Increasing mental health issues and a lack of understanding from others, who do not have that empathy to try and accommodate for this increasing issue. Gen Z has been tackled with so many big life changes and have had so many  obstacles thrown at them that they have been forced to navigate around, and have seen, time and time again, how the older, more conservative, people in power, fail to help them. How the pandemic was handled, especially in 2020 by former President, Donald Trump, as well as the rising conservative party, has demonstrated that we can not trust them. For they have placed us in a position that could have been avoided, had they handled things differently, and they are actively trying to make society a place that suits their wants and their vision of a future, often without taking into consideration how it affects our future. How it harms our future and are actively trying to prevent change from occurring. 

Generation Z has an uncertain future because of this. I, like many others, have to worry about an uncertain future. I have no idea how I am going to pay for the huge amounts of money that college requires. I don’t know how I am going to get a job that ensures that I can be both happy and successful. I don’t know if my future contains having to deal with the destruction that climate change can inflict upon us if we do not limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius in time. I do not know if I will have equal rights and opportunities as my peers in the future. I will have to continuously, constantly watch my back for fear of attack, uncertain if I will stay unharmed another day. I do not know when I will become apart of the 93%, I do not know if I will be able to support myself, I do not know anything, and I have been placed into a position, alongside all of my peers, in a place where our future is uncertain on whether or not we are going to be able to have enough money to pay for the cost of living. I live in fear alongside everyone else in my generation. We live in fear of our future. We live in fear because we have been placed in this situation by a generation in power that has failed to help us. And we can not keep taking it anymore. We have learned that we can not trust the older, more conservative members of our past generations. So we have to take matters into our own hands. And we have the power to, through outlets like social media, and we work together because of that connection we have from the experiences we have shared together. We have gained power now. And we demand change, because no one else will. 

Now, reading that is probably a lot. Especially if you are apart of the mentioned, older generation. I do not believe that all members of older generations, like the Baby Boomers and Generation X, are a part of the problem. Members of these generations have demonstrated that they support change and empower Gen Z voices. Politicians like Bernie Sanders, a politician who has been advocating for change for decades, and Beto O’Rouke in Texas, are examples of politicians who have stood with Gen Z and have given us hope. And if you are a part of these older generations, you can help too. What I aim to talk about with Gen Z is to explain why we are so driven fir change in politics. Why we are so outspoken and to help understand why we are unapologetically focused on bringing necessary change. And there are ways for older generations to help us to move this change forward. As I said earlier, there is strength in numbers, and that includes all people of any age, who are willing to help. And you can help in numerous ways. I have two ways of helping us out, that you can start with. The first is to educate yourself. Research these movements, research why we need to change. Learn about different perspectives, about different communities. Learn why we need to change and why we need to move forward. Listen to us, listen to those who speak up, ask questions, and we can help you to understand. Listen to what they have to say, what stories they have to tell. And listen to a diverse range of stories and voices and experiences and learn. The second is to speak up. Speak up when something is wrong. Speak up alongside others. Say something in support, encourage our voices, encourage others stories. Talk about your stories and experiences. It is scary to do. I understand that fully. I am scared to speak my stories and I didn’t do so for a very, very long time. It takes a great amount of courage to tell your story. But we stand with you and we support you and we want to listen to you. And when you speak up, we are here to back you up. Whether in person or from afar. A lot of what I have talked about stems from my own observations of Gen Z and I am open to discussion about these topics and from the perspective of someone older. Because your stories matter as well as ours, and hearing your perspective, only makes us stronger and understand more about our past, of where we start from and where we were, and how we can move forward from there. 

Generation Z is the generation of change. And if we keep going like how we are today, and we keep moving forward, we can create a better future for all of us. 

• Ashes

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