Columns

I spent two months of my summer in Costa Rica as an exchange student, and I attended a high school there for one month. Costa Ricans are some of the frendliest people I have ever met, so naturally, I made a lot of friends.

Skype is by far the best way to stay in contact with my Costa Rican friends, since it is as close to talking to them in person as possible while being over 2,000 miles away. Considering that I wish I was still in Costa Rica, I use every opportunity to "Skype" my friends there.

For the past decade, I've been swimming two hours a day, six days a week and 11 months a year with DACA (De Anza Cupertino Aquatics) up until roughly two months ago. Am I crazy for that? Possibly. Since then, I put club swimming on the back burner for a couple of months and started practicing exclusively with the school team. It's been ... different.

The most fortunate students walk graduation, not with a fistful of tassels hanging from their caps or their names printed almost too many times to count throughout the ceremony program, but with the knowledge that they will take with them something unique from their high school experience that others would have been just as privileged to have come across. Some are lucky enough to impart with the wisdom of a teacher, while others are blessed to have made a close friend. And then there are students like me, who will be fortunate to graduate with both.

Dear California State Budget Committee ,

Recently, I have been listening to the radio and reading the newspaper frequently. As a high schooler, I have started to realize that the budget crisis is on its way to affecting me personally. I know there are plans to cut health care, education funding and infrastructure spending. What really shocked me, however, was when I read that there are plans to cut library funds and close down public libraries across the state. I may be just a teenager, but I know that this would be a really terrible decision to make.

On March 26, the most amazing thing happened to me—I went to a John Mayer concert.

Spring is here! The sun is shining, the birds are singing and ... the juniors are stressing. With the SAT, the ACT, subject tests, summer program applications and AP tests piled on top of one another, it's no wonder the junior class comes to school each day looking more and more like they're walking in straight from the battlefield.

San Francisco Bay: home of the Hyphy movement, Silicon Valley and fault lines threatening massive earthquakes every day.

Since kindergarten, we've learned how to duck under a table and cover our heads if the ground starts shaking. We know where to meet our families in case of an emergency and what should be in our emergency-aid kit (canned foods, water bottles and first aid in case you're slacking).

There seems to be a trend among the YouTube community of people starting their own daily video blogs, or "vlogs" for short. These intriguing videos are snapshots of many popular YouTube stars' lives, which create a vortex that I've been trapped in.

It was an intense wrestling practice. The room felt like a sauna. Sweat was steaming off of the hard-working athletes. The team was preparing for a tough tournament that they would attend the following weekend, and everyone was anxious. The only thing I remembered from that day was the face of the person I was wrestling. The rest was a blur.