DEATH TO COOTIES

EMMERT

Remember way back in the day when we were kids- We used to cut hearts out of construction paper, write silly little love notes and give out Valentine cards and candies to all our friends classmates? The good old days, when no one was left out or lonely on Valentine’s Day. Things have changed since then.

“When we were little it was about friends, but now it’s more about relationships,” says HHS senior Yelena Guseva.

Candy and hearts used to be the only thing that mattered. It wasn’t about boyfriends or girlfriends, or relationships and romance. Boys and girls had “cooties,” but candy was candy and friendship was reason enough to celebrate.

Now what used to be cute and thoughtful is considered “cheesy.” We grow out of our innocence the older we get. Candy gives way to bigger and better gifts: Heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, red roses, jewelry, stuffed animals, balloons, cards, fancy dinners—Now handmade stuff is “cheap.”

The expectations get bigger the older we get. “We become more romantic and put our feelings into it. Some people aren’t as satisfied with just candy as we used to when we were little,” says HHS’s Zhanna Antosenka. The stakes get high for this one particular day we’ve chosen to celebrate love.

V-day grows up with us—it means more the older we get.
No more cooties.

Written by Nadezhda Simakov
Image by Jessi Proulx

FIRED UP

EMMERT

Most teenagers like to hang out with friends, go to after school jobs or anything to take up the time you have to think about homework. Gabe Morales, a senior at Heritage, brings after school activities to a whole new level –using kerosene. He has a passion for Fire Poi— a type of fire dancing.

It was the summer of junior year when he first heard of this new hobby. A friend from his wrestling club mentioned it to him and advised him to try it. Gabe was intrigued to start so he bought a starter kit and went to YouTube to learn how to Poi. Once he was more comfortable with playing with fire, Gabe started using a staff, and then upgraded to a sword. The final upgrade: spitting fire.

Burns come hand in hand when it comes to playing with fire and Gabe is no exception. When it comes to accidents, Gabe has had a few; nothing hospital-serious, usually just some mild burns. He finds the fire calming and warm, and is really only scared of burning off his eyebrows or hair.

Right now Gabe is involved in our Concert Choir and Varsity Wrestling team, keeping busy and enjoying his after school activity. He doesn’t plan to give up Fire Poi anytime soon and wants it to become a part job so that he can share his talent for everyone’s enjoyment and make some side cash. After high school, he plans to go to Portland State to study in music education so that he can be a high school music teacher.

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Images by Cody Calhoon
Written by Julia Garcia

WINTER’S BONE

EMMERT

Up here in the Northwest, particularly in the winter months, sun is hard to come by. It rains for days, it gets cold and the dark hours of the day get longer and longer and it’s preferable to stay cooped up in the house. Some might enjoy the rain, but others flourish in the sun. Local resident Deanna Bixby hates the winter because of the fact that she can’t go out and enjoy things and is depressed because the lack of sunlight, and she’s not the only one. These dark days mean less sunlight, and less sunlight means the potential for getting necessary and vital amounts of vitamin D plummets—just like a lot of people’s moods and energy levels around this time.

Images and Editing by Daniel Ostapenko
Writing by Jeremy Hess

This general mood-plummet can in part be explained by Seasonal Affective Disorder, also appropriately known as SAD, festers around this chilly time of year. Energy levels go through the floor, and gloomy symptoms of depression come about. Teachers see it all the time, and it sure doesn’t help around finals time when you’re trying to finish a test and just want to curl up and sleep under a fog of sunshine-less gloom. The only cure: lots and lots of vitamin D-filled sunshine.

As well as being a good cure for the Winter Blues, vitamin D has a host of other health benefits. It can help with healthy weight loss, assists in the natural absorption of calcium in bones, reduces the risk of colon cancer, and helps maintain a healthy immune system. Here in Vancouver we get deprived of this beautiful vitamin for months and months out of the year, so any chance you get, make sure that when the sun is out, go out there and soak up some good old vitamin D.