Daily Archives: May 24, 2022

Editorials/Student Voice, School Life

Boat Dance

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By: Carla Tizcareno

The Boat Dance this weekend wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be. Last weekend, Highland Park Senior High hosted a Boat Dance for any high school student that had the chance to buy a ticket for $20-25 during either lunch.

That Friday, it was pretty chilly, but most of the students were wearing shorts or summer dresses. A lot of people didn’t dress very interestingly. It was mostly jean jackets and khakis. There were a few people that showed up in gorgeous dresses and dress shirts like it was prom.

It was made clear that the boat departed at 7pm but it didn’t end up leaving until about 7:30. By 6:50, the lines were super long so it took a while to board the boat.

After departing, the karaoke in the back of the boat began. People grabbed their friends and sang songs by Taylor Swift, Rihanna, and even some Disney songs came up. The karaoke side definitely wasn’t as popular as the front of the boat, where there was a DJ and tons of lights. People were jumping along to the music and shaking the whole boat.

There were some students on the top level of the boat that were throwing chairs overboard. Other than the chairs being thrown, the top level and middle of the boat was pretty calm.

There were two spots to buy snacks and drinks. There were candy bars, nachos and cheese, chips, and Pepsi products. Thank god the water was free because I wouldn’t have survived the night without it.

After a few hours of cold lake air, dancing, singing, and musty teenagers jumping around aimlessly we got back to shore. The DJ played some closing songs as we all got off the boat. People loved stopping at the middle of the sidewalk causing a lot of hold ups.

The parking situation was even worse. There were cars stopping randomly in the lot and in the street to pick up some other students. It took me 20 minutes to even get out of the parking lot. Everyone was pretty much gone by 11pm. Overall, the dance wasn’t all that great in my opinion, but a lot of the underclassmen really enjoyed it. I truly felt like the night was cut short. Was it worth $25? Meh, not really.

National

America’s fastest growing cities

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By: Caelyn Hippen

Image taken from:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=
https%3A%2F%2Fwww.weforum.org%
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tomorrow&psig=AOvVaw3QD8M5M1iQ-
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Cities all over the world are rapidly growing, and most populations live in urban areas. 80% of Americans live in urban areas, and 55% of the entire world’s population live in urban areas. This number is already large, but that percentage is expected to increase to 68% by 2050.

Big cities and urban areas are becoming more popular because big cities have bigger, and more, job opportunities overall. The more jobs offer a higher pay.

Another pro to a big city is that there are better schools and more opportunities for a better education. Better schools are more often found in big cities with better and more qualified teachers, and better opportunities for students.

There are 3 main factors to a city’s success and growth.

  1. Transportation and housing supply – the more available houses there are, the more people there will be that move in. Then, depending on the availability of parking, people will want easy access to transportation to get to work.
  2. Amenities – specifically natural resources. People want to live in a city that is industrial and modernized, but people also want a place to go to relax and enjoy the outdoors. An example of this is in Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a huge city that has many different types of homes, restaurants, transportations, etc. But then, you see Vondel park. Vondelpark is a 120 acre park that has ponds, food, walking and biking trails, and a lot of flowers and trees. It is a great place to relax in such a big city.
  3. The 3rd and final factor is education – I talked about education before, but like I said, parents want the best for their children. Having good schools near their new home or their job is very important and could decide on what city people live in completely.

According to Worldpopulationreview.com, Phoenix, Arizona is the fastest growing city in the USA (as of 2020). In a one year period, the population in Phoenix grew by 25,000 people, compared to the other fast growing cities of the year, which only grew by 10,000 people.

Between 2012 and 2017, Seattle was the fastest growing city, with a population increase of 14.2%, followed by Austin, Fort Worth, and Miami.

For more information on the growing cities of America, please visit:

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘(500) Days of Summer’ movie review

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By: Eva Olson

Image taken from:
https://www.imdb.com/title/
tt1022603/

‘(500) Days of Summer’ is a romance/comedy movie starring Zoe Deschanel as Summer and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tom Hansen. This movie follows the story of Tom and his relationship with Summer over 500 days.

This movie was very interesting because it would go back and forth between different days of their relationship out of order. One minute of the movie could be a day after they broke up, then the next it could be pre-break up. This really kept me on my toes throughout the whole movie and made it extremely intriguing.

I enjoyed how the film wasn’t a typical romance/comedy movie and it had a kind of sad feel to it. It was cool to watch Tom’s journey in getting over Summer and realizing that some people aren’t meant to be.

I loved the soundtrack of this movie. I really liked how they met in the elevator because Summer was playing The Smiths. I also found the scene where Tom was dancing to “You Make My Dreams” by Daryl Hall & John Oates amusing, especially when the cameo of Harrison Ford as Han Solo showed up in the car window.

The characters were all very complex and layered. I could relate to almost every character through their personalities or their actions. I liked how each character had their flaws and wasn’t perfect; this made them feel more real.

I thought the costumes were all well done. They all fit the characters and suited their personalities very well. I really enjoyed the setting too, and the fact that it was in Los Angeles was interesting.

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. It was well done and I found the storyline very intriguing. I would give it a 5/5 star rating. You can watch this on Amazon Prime Video.