6. Sauerkraut 2025

Teachers have a lot of influence. On the surface, people would notice that they have the ability to control your grades, your workload, and the difficulty or pace of your course material. These powers are pretty common across all learning environments, and they allow for an adequately functional educational system. However, because school plays such a big role in our lives, even the smallest steps taken by teachers can have a huge impact on our school days, our learning experience in the class, and, in some cases, the overall tolerability of our entire high school careers.  For instance, some teachers like to assign seats, and the frequency of seating rearrangements throughout the school year varies depending on the teacher. Something as simple as the seat your teacher chooses for you could determine the course of your entire learning experience. If you’re closer to the teacher, you’ll likely be compelled to pay more attention to lectures, and if you sit next to people you aren’t a...

Pressure holds a lot more power in our daily lives than we realize. I often feel like I can only start my work towards the end of the day or procrastinate until I’m a few days away from the deadline. Then I find myself working faster, the deadline being a motivation for me, and I hardly get distracted from what I am doing. The pressure from the nearing deadline pushes me to focus and put in my best effort, rather than if I allow myself a lot of time. The more time I have the less serious the task feels and I prioritize other activities with closer deadlines.  Pressure isn’t just a last-minute motivator though; it’s a force that shapes our actions, decisions, and even our identities. It has the power to bring out the best in us, pushing us beyond our perceived limits. When we’re under pressure, we tap into a level of focus and determination that might not otherwise surface. Deadlines, expectations, and responsibilities all create a sense of urgency that forces us to rise to the occa...

Silence is one of the greatest powers in the world, it brings peace and time for people to reflect on themselves. However, it can quickly viewed in the opposite way, when in discussion with others. Silence is the most powerful when it creates emotional distance and allows unresolved feelings of tension to fester. I think you are all aware of the silent treatment and how toxic it can be. I think not many people realize how controlling and manipulative the silent treatment can be in relationships, whether it be familial, romantic, or platonic. It can be used as a weapon to help regain power over a person who you believe wronged you . Yes, it may be comforting to the person who is giving the silent treatment, as the “silent treatment” can act as a form of protection, but the effect it has on the one the silent treatment is being inflicted on is intense. The person who is on the receiving end of this type of treatment is left in a state of uncertainty, wondering what went wrong, and will ...

     Exercise. One of the most important and beneficial things in the world. Exercise is something that individuals can use for a multitude of reasons. It can be used as a hobby to take part in it on the side, or to actually wanting to gain muscle and achieving any particular gym-related goals. To me, exercise is a mixture of many different things. I believe that playing sports, having any sort of physical activity outside, or even being in the gym and lifting weights can all be different types of exercising.      So now, let’s answer the question as to why taking part in exercise is even important? When our body exercises, our brain releases chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin . Our body is able to feel rewarded after the strenuous work that we put into these diverse activities. Therefore, these “feel-good” hormones are released in our body, which in turn creates a cycle that makes us want to continue exercising.       Exercising i...

One of my favorite Webtoons is this story called “Eleceed,” which tells the story of a young high schooler named Jiwoo Seo who learns that he has extremely fast reflexes and the ability to move at the speed of light. With his newly gained superpowers, he is flung into the “awakened world,” fighting various supervillains with his other superhero friends and secretly saving the lives of civilians. It’s such a good story—I love the plot, the art, and the characters—and I look forward to reading it every Tuesday when a new chapter uploads at 6 PM.  But to be honest, there’s also so many other stories that literally have the exact same plot. On just Webtoon’s platform, there is literally a whole genre dedicated to stories about people unexpectedly gaining powers and fighting to save the world—this week, five out of the ten new Webtoon Originals contain a main character with some sort of supernatural ability. And let’s not forget about all the comics, books, and movies that have been mad...

Back in October, Hiroshi Shimomoto began to publish weekly chapters of a manga, titled Smother Me , about a thirteen-year-old trained assassin. Compared to most manga series, this work especially stood out because of the thick, messy art style and the brevity of the series—ending after only fifteen chapters published over three months, compared to typical mangas that are published over at least half a year and often contain over twenty-five chapters at least (this fact is also more surprising considering Smother Me was being published officially in Shounen Jump , a major manga magazine in Japan, and online).  With all these factors in mind, and the unique story Shimomoto illustrates, I began reading it a couple weeks after it started being released online. The main plot of the novel is unusual but straightforward: the main character, Akio a.k.a. Snake—given the name for strangling his victims—was sold off at a young age because of his mother’s poverty. From that point on, Akio ends...

This past weekend, my robotics team competed at the FTC States Championship (a robotics competition). With our 15 dedicated members, we were excited to compete and potentially make the World’s Competition too. But things didn’t go as planned. Not only did we fall short, but we performed worse than usual. It was crushing. A team that has become like family was left feeling like all our hard work this season meant nothing. The problem was that we in fact were world-class level. Our engineering, outreach, and strategy were solid. But in FTC, its not just about what you do, its about how well you tell the judges what you did. And that’s where we struggled. The judging process, mean to evaluate forty-eight teams in a single day, has major flaws. It rewards those who know how to frame their achievements in the best light, sometimes even stretching the truth. Some teams took advantage of this, inflating their impact and making their work seem bigger than it really was. Meanwhile, we focused o...

  The unreleased cover art for Kanye West's "Never See Me Again" (2009-2010) via Genius Lyrics In the past three weeks, Ye (Kanye West) has arguably done more to damage his perception and influence than he has done over the course of his career. I would go so far as to say he found ways to eradicate whatever hope fans had for him and his well-being—both in his morality and health. As a former large fan of Kanye West myself, I have decided to change my rhetoric today in order to show more of my perspective.  Starting around the eighth of February, Ye decided to post a flurry of impulsive tweets about several sensitive topics and figures. These tweets were ingrained with antisemitism, racism, hate speech, bigotry, and borderline ableism. Among the tweets met with the most backlash, Ye offensively tweeted in defense of and in admiration of publicly known figures such as Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs —an alleged abuser and rapist in his 2024 indictment and detainment at the Metropolita...

Teachers—a pivotal aspect of one’s growth as a person who contributes meaningfully to society—are responsible for nurturing the next generation of leaders, scientists, and innovators . From the very beginning of our educational journey, we have had about 25 teachers, each one adapting to our strengths and weaknesses to better support us. Our elementary school teachers were especially important t o the development of our young minds . Students with elementary school teachers who enriched them academically, introduced them to proper habits, and instilled an appreciation for learning will more likely succeed in later stages of their education or their life in general.  A teacher’s influence even extends beyond the classroom by shaping student’s problem solving, mannerisms, and confidence—all skills that can be applied to the real world. This is also how many students develop hobbies and interests as their teachers encourage them to explore these interests and foster curiosity. Teache...

     Power has always been a defining feature when it comes to shaping history , and in American history, power was put into the hands of white men who wished to keep their definition of order, that being white men at the tip of racial and social hierarchy with the most power. They were able to keep their power by putting down other’s power and confining them in a system that did not favor them.      If we go back to the days when the United States of America was first independent and free, we will see that the customs of freedom, liberty, and justice for all were not given to all people but rather to a certain demographic.       The United States declared independence on July 4th, 1776 ; they declared independence from Britain after years of mistreatment. However, it was quite hypocritical of them to declare independence after a couple of years of mistreatment only to continue to mistreat enslaved people. I mean it took a little und...

We all witnessed one of the most important Super Bowl half-time performances last Sunday during the Super Bowl LIX , where Kendrick Lamar stormed on stage and brought the West Coast to New Orleans. His performance brought icons such as Serena Williams and Samuel Jackson dancing to his hit song “Not Like Us,” which directly addressed his industry rival, Drake. The energy and competitiveness of his music brought the stadium to life as fans chanted the iconic lyrics to his song. Music is a form of expression. Artists can craft careful narratives through powerful lyrics and beats, controlling the rhythm and tempo that they intend for listeners to follow. Many artists like Kendrick imbue their lyrics with emotion and purpose, delivering a profound message and experience for fans. In many of his songs, he reflects on his past traumas growing up and guides the listener throughout the tracks. His thematic and thoughtful lyrics earn him accolades like the Pulitzer Prize and Grammys.  A pri...

Everyone knows something you don’t. This may sound really scary at first, but interpreting this statement in a more positive way is important.  One of the first things you learn as a kid, whether you acknowledge it directly or subconsciously, is that there are a lot of different people in the world. Growing up, my elementary school teachers taught students to embrace uniqueness, and I think this helped many people with accepting parts of themselves at a young age. For example, the hobbies and interests we have now often came from things we discovered about ourselves in our childhood. It’s easy to understand this logic—that you are the way you are because of your specific past experiences—but it can be tiring to always reference it. Nevertheless, learning to love yourself by appreciating even the things that set you apart from others, while difficult (extremely, especially as teenagers ), can sometimes be easier to understand than its complement: learning to love others by appreciat...