"Adversity allows you to be creative.”

Teen rom-coms have a way of making yourself compare your dull life with Regina George’s, to question why your Friday nights aren’t filled with adventure and drama like the teens in Riverdale. This genre has never reached relatability with (the majority of) Gen Z, casting 30-somethings as high school juniors (see: Never Have I Ever, Darren Barnet). However, it seems that recently, these unrealistic films that capture the ‘essence’ of high school have tackled a new level of idealistic standards: elite universities.

 In addition to the archetypal high school experience, some shows and movies have made it clear that it is now a requirement to shove an acceptance and/or talk of attending an Ivy League or other elite college to a typical teen film. This further exacerbates the already pressurized standards teens are expected to live up to. It seems that through movies and shows centering around teen rom-coms, the standards of social life and studiousness are expected, or you’re not doing high school right. On top of clear skin, looking over 20, and a room big enough to be featured in HGTV, add getting accepted into a top tier school like it was nothing to attain the *high school experience*. 

Getting into schools like Harvard and Yale seem like a breeze in popular teen romance, gracing viewers with comments like “I don’t understand, Dartmouth was my safety school” (Veronica Lodge, Riverdale) upon a rejection letter among other questionable top-college acceptances by other shady characters within the show. The Kissing Booth 2, which premiered on Netflix on July 24th, creates this exact narrative.

Before this film’s existence, the original Kissing Booth portrayed Noah, the main love interest of the plotline, talking about his acceptance into Harvard. This alone created perplexity, as viewers had not seen any efforts Noah made to get into college, let alone an Ivy League school. The Kissing Booth 2 revisits this topic, mentioning the redundant narrative of top tier schools, including UC Berkeley and, you guessed it, Harvard. Like Riverdale, the upcoming film is no stranger to dropping hints that top schools are synonymous with main characters who haven't shown qualities to get into a top college. 

In the trailer of The Kissing Booth 2 alone, Noah casually mentions to high school senior and girlfriend Elle, the protagonist of the film, "..you should come here to school with me," implying the simplicity of college admissions. The top Youtube comments under this trailer are filled with skeptics and confusion, criticizing the film as a victim to another stereotypical rom-com plot line. "These movies make it seem like getting into Harvard is [as] easy as calling an Uber," writes one user. Others sarcastically taunt The Kissing Booth 2's oversimplified version of college admissions, referencing direct scenes. "How to get into Harvard: Step 1: buy a book named "How to apply for Harvard University". Step 2: Put in a car trunk. Welcome to Harvard!" High school rom-coms not only make applying to college seem like signing up for a free 1-week trial, but further hammers in the point of unrealistic societal expectations that have continuously been portrayed in movies and shows alike. 

Overemphasizing high school experiences have become so normalized in movies, that it soon became a default stereotype for students to expect plenty of drugs, sex, and fights, all the while maintaining perfect grades and on-and-off relationships within just four years of their lives. It appears that Hollywood repeatedly forgets to include the number of excruciating hours spent on AP homework, studying for standardized tests, and keeping up with outside extracurriculars that are done multiple hours a week. Colleges like Dartmouth that are considered ‘safeties’ in the world of TV have less than a 9% acceptance rate. So why is it that TV and movie producers decide to select already hyper-competitive schools as a backup plan, and crowd over other elite universities that the show’s characters must attend? The reasoning is simple: to rake in views and popularity, shows want to appeal to an average high schooler as the life they never had. Filling the cast with attractive actors and actresses who almost always are well into adulthood, to-die-for wardrobes, and always seem to entangle in endless drama, rope in captivated teenagers to watch a life they can’t live themselves play out. The consequence of this, however, lies within embedded objectives to every teen rom-com film. As high school students vicariously live out their favorite character’s dramas through episodes and movies, it, in turn, paints an unrealistic picture to become everything a teen character depicts in these types of rom-coms- sociable, popular, adventurous, and a thrilling life outside of school. This further boosts the expectation of socially acceptable beauty standards repeatedly pressured into teens to look a certain way, all the while maintaining academics. The Kissing Booth 2 is no exception. A movie about attractive teenagers who live exciting lives with close relationships has no problem thinking that getting into elite colleges is with just a blink of an eye. The world of Hollywood televises flawless high school experiences, including any student’s dream accomplishment of acceptance at a top university.

October, being the final month before the long-awaited 2020 presidential election, has come with lots of changes in today's political climate.  The urgency to make it to the polls and exercise people’s right to democracy has become more important than ever.  The clear divide between the candidates and their corresponding parties have made this election a quite controversial one.  Despite the U.S. feeling overwhelming dichotomized by clashing political parties and problematic politicians, the current climate has encouraged many people to speak up about prominent social issues in today’s society.  The discussion of these issues is not where it ends however, and the voter turnout rate for the 2020 election is predicted to be colossal compared to those of recent past elections.  Whether it be the polarity of the candidates or the civil pressure to do one’s part, people will be showing up to the polls to cast their ballots this November 3rd. 

The increase in people speaking out about social injustice online and coming out to vote has raised a very interesting question in society.  Why now are people feeling a greater calling to exercise their civil rights and get involved in changing the current political climate?  There can be several different reasons why people are now choosing to become involved, but it would be naive to think that the many major events that took place within the past year are not a large factor.  From the spread of Covid 19 and complete lockdown, to the protestors fighting against police brutality towards the black community, the issue of how this country is run has become a much more impending matter to many Americans.  The decisions made in the government, specifically regarding Covid 19, have had a direct affect on every single citizen living in the United States, which in turn has made people far more aware of how the government’s actions can affect them.  This increase in the U.S. of people speaking out against social injustice and showing up to the polls can also be seen on a much smaller scale on UHS’s own campus. 

Our own UHS students, the majority of whom are not even eligible to vote yet, have begun speaking out in much larger numbers about the issues they see present in our government and justice system.  They have gone past speaking out on social media and have formed the Social Advocate Club; a safe place where students can discuss activism and educate themselves on world issues.  The group meets monthly to discuss politicized contentions, such as climate change, prominent social movements, and tokenism on the basis of race and sexuality.  While young people are often discouraged from discussing their own views on these issues because they are viewed as “too young” and “too ignorant”, the club’s goal is to break this stereotype and get more students involved.  The Social Advocate Club not only gets students to become more aware and educated, but they have also created an environment where young people are able to feel valid when discussing their political views.  

This increase of involvement seen both at UHS and nationwide supports the idea that when people see the effects of government action firsthand, they feel a responsibility to outwardly support what they believe is right.  Despite the negative causes, such as Covid 19, for this influx of voting and activism, people becoming more aware of social injustices has resulted in a lot of positives.  The more people coming out to vote, the better, and as said by Wall Street journalist, Peggy Noonan, "Our political leaders will know our priorities only if we tell them, again and again, and if those priorities begin to show up in the polls."  These months of what feels like political chaos should be a wake up call to all that voting is now more important than ever, and if you are unable to vote, there are still so many ways to make your voice heard!

As you may have already known, Among Us is the hit game that has taken the world by storm.  Blending together simplistic animations and concepts with elements from mystery party games like Mafia, Among Us is a terrifically enjoyable game to play with your friends miles away—at least if you manage to keep them by the end of the match.  If you somehow haven’t heard of this game developed by “InnerSloth” studios, it is a 2d animated multiplayer game with up to 10 players in a single match, where there are one to three randomly chosen “impostors” who can eliminate the other innocent crewmates.  There are two ways to win as crewmate: either collectively complete all the assigned tasks only given to crewmates, or vote off all the other impostors off.  The crewmates cannot see who the other imposters are, so they have to figure them out through deduction or eliminate themselves trying.  To win as an imposter, you have to eliminate all the other crewmates, until there is a tie between the number of imposters versus the number of crewmates.  The game has been extremely well-received by critics, shown by its “Overwhelmingly Positive” review on Steam, a 4.4/5 rating on the IOS App Store, and a 4.5/5 rating on the Google Play Store.

In my personal experiences of playing, I have found it both exhilarating and joyous when playing on a discord server with friends, but extremely frustrating when playing with unknown players whose only medium of communication is a very tumultuous chat.  Additionally, in a game all about deception, it becomes very fun and difficult to figure out who’s the impostor or who’s your next victim.  After playing for a decent amount of time, I can tell you the sound of vents opening and lights flickering now makes me shiver.  I cannot express how many times I have watched cartoon macabre scenes unfold before my very eyes, and how I could only helplessly gaze at the impostor escaping by jumping in a vent, leaving a blood-squirting, bone-protruding carcass to be uncovered by unsuspecting crewmates.  However, even with these exaggerated events teeming with harmless, cartoon violence, there was yet another feature that perpetually haunted my mind: how do you spell imposter/impostor?  Certainly with an “-er”, right?  Or an “-or”?  Hm.  Now, oftentimes dictionaries will say that both spellings are correct, but I specifically wanted to know which one was preferred.  Thus, I went on a quest to find the answer. 

The video game industry has certainly boomed in the past few months, with major media companies pushing forward new series and surprising successes in what seems to be every other week. Free games like Among Us and Valorant are taking their place among nearly decade-old action classics such as Team Fortress 2 and CS:GO (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive). New indie hits like Phasmophobia, Hades, and Fall Guys are conquering the scene once ruled by timeless masterpieces: Minecraft, Undertale and Stardew Valley. More expensive games such as Ghost of Tsushima, Doom Eternal, Animal Crossing and the currently unreleased Cyberpunk 2077 are competing for the upcoming “Game of the Year” Award.

With so many people at home, desperate for something to take their minds off the world, success can be found in the most unique settings. That is why it is not entirely surprising to see the new free-to-play hit, Genshin Impact, take on October 2020 full Steam (no pun intended), but it might be surprising to see just how it became so.

Genshin Impact is a free-to-play action role-playing game developed and published by miHoYo, a gaming company based in Shanghai known for previous games such as Honkai Impact 3rd and Collapse Gakuen. The game features a fantasy-based open world environment and action based battle system and offers a rich, single player campaign and a multiplayer mode with up to four players to play together. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Android and iOS on September 28, 2020, and is planned to be released for Nintendo Switch. 

The game has received mostly positive remarks from critics and general reviews (such as IGN, Metacritic, PC Gamer, etc.), but not for reasons you’d expect from a role-playing game. “Genshin Impact’s story is one of its weaker points, using just about every anime character trope and story cliche in the book,” IGN writes, “Characters will re-explain the same magical jargon like they’re getting paid by the word, and the story meanders from one amusing misadventure to another with little cohesion.”  Yet IGN also praises the same cast of characters as, “[a] cast of quirky characters (a whopping 23 of which are playable) [that] are a lot of fun to interact with and play.” 

Since the beginning of quarantine, I have received more than a few screen time reports that would cause any other normal human being to do a few double takes. This is in part due to the fact that my coping mechanisms tend to lean towards endlessly scrolling through social media, lying around in positions that would make chiropractors have a heart attack, and eating food that would make nutritionists *gasp in Spanish*. I know that I am not the only one with this issue. Knowing that the continuation of this behavior will lead to a not-so-great future, I recently set out to find some new ways to cope with 2020. Though it required some discomfort to arrive at my current state, I can honestly say that I feel much better after having practiced these ideas for about a month. Because I am not one to withhold a good thing from those I care about, I will share what I have found with the hope that you will find the results to be the same if not better for you. 

My first recommendation is to go outside.  I cannot stress this enough. Going outside does wonders for your mental health and also gives your eyes a break from staring at screens all day. In a 2015 study comparing the brain activity of healthy people after they walked for 90 minutes in either a natural setting or an urban one, it was found that “those who did a nature walk had lower activity in the prefrontal cortex, a brain region that is active during rumination — defined as repetitive thoughts that focus on negative emotions,” (Harvard 4). In other words, going outside decreases your awareness of those negative feelings that tend to invade and taint your day. Personally, after going outside more often, I felt rejuvenated and more prepared for my upcoming classes. Also, it became increasingly difficult to get stuck in my feelings. However, with the knowledge that it is starting to cool down, I know that many of you will not want to go outside. In that case, listening to nature sounds on a sound app can also be helpful. I personally find it rather enjoyable to do this while sipping on a cup of tea and reading a favorite Jane Austen novel. But alas, not everyone wants to spend their time buried in texts so you do whatever floats your boat. What really matters is just that you get in touch with some form of nature, be it digital or physical. 

Minecraft, a sandbox game released in 2011, is one of the most influential games of the past decade. Officially the best-selling video game of all time, surpassing old classics like Tetris, Super Mario Bros., or Pac-Man, it has a lot to offer. While it may seem like just a block game, it is much more than that.

When a player first spawns into the game, they are greeted with a world that you can do anything with. There are two primary modes to the game: Survival Mode and Creative Mode.

In Survival Mode, the player has to collect resources and items to build, survive the night, and advance in the game.  These resources can be obtained from mining in caves underground, chopping down trees, or defeating monsters like zombies or skeletons.  There are several tiers of tools ranging from wooden to diamond tools, with each tier being more resilient and efficient than the one below it.  Once advanced enough, the player may choose to build and enter a portal to the Nether dimension, a fiery, dangerous landscape where even more useful resources exclusive to that dimension can be found.  The ultimate challenge is found through a portal to the End dimension.  The End is a massive floating island in open space, where the Ender Dragon lives and needs to be defeated.  Going to the End requires certain resources obtained from both the regular world and the Nether dimension, so it is an endgame feature and cannot be achieved unless the player has the right resources.

In Creative Mode, resources are unlimited.  The player is free to fly around the world, with no damage done for falling or getting hurt by monsters.  In this mode, the player can build anything they want with no limits or dangers.  Build a house, a castle, or a city- it’s all up to imagination.

Overall, the main game modes are both good.  Both are easy to play for the first time and are very intuitive to the new player.  Because no specific objectives or tasks are forced in-game, players are able to progress at the rate they choose.

To rate Minecraft, I will use a system using different categories based on aspects of the game. In these categories, anywhere from 1-5 stars can be earned. The average (mean) of the numbers of stars will be my end rating.

CATEGORIES:

• Ease of play (is it hard to get started? Are new players getting lost?)

• Accessibility (how easy is it to access it?)

• Variety (Does the game have variety in what you can do, or does it get stale after a while?)

• Handling (How is the game controlled? Is this easy or hard to handle?)

• Enjoyability (Is the game fun to play, or is it a bore?)