by Annie Thorndike Hello, friend. Are you with me? I think about you, often, I carefully wonder deeply, shivering don’t take my words as advice for I too am lost listen though, ancient people sing their voices, crack like their skin beautiful, the sound is to no one, but in the deep and reverberating cacophony, friend, you will find dying branches cold leaves and hope of elegant and aching frost which will carry you, cleanly, into the long and deep silence. [divider] Annie Thorndike is an Early Honors freshman and was born and raised in Anchorage. She is planning on attending design school after graduating. She loves movies, music, and…
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Free Speech & Hate Speech
by Keegan Sudkamp-Tostevin What is free speech? Our understanding of this concept seems to be relatively clear. Most Westerners would define it as the idea that speech alone cannot constitute violations in law, so long as there isn’t an illegal call to action or credible threat behind it. We might disagree on the mild semantics, such as the extent of a legal call to action, but there is a fairly substantive definition behind it which the majority of people seem to rally behind. But what is this new idea of hate speech – this bastardized product of the era of the millennials, the era of political correctness, and the personalization…
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Stargazing in the Amazon
by Felipe Restrepo The beauty of this experience Is not knowing when magnificence will appear. Two weeks ago we stumbled, fell, and bled With mud and sweat dripping down our face Along the march to our current place: An Earth-bound paradise; A world of grandiosity at every step And novelty along each turn. With the rising sun comes the howler’s deep roar, And with the waking of the stars, the anurans’ nightly song. A continuous cacophony of organic beasts, Each exemplifying its ability to thrive In a place where death is nigh. And yet the diversity of Life, Is relentless despite the strife. Tonight, alone in the canoe, Prostrate, as…
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Resonance
by Aaron Tooyak Whenever a certain sonata would play, My mother would share her cherished memories with me. She told me stories – making special note of her youth. I imagine her – peeking around a door. Listening from a distance, Her left eye shows, then both, then her whole tiny body. Her ears twitch as she watches her grandpa lead each ivory note to the next. Major, minor, white, black. Beautiful, soft notes. The grand piano sings through the experienced player. Forever imprinting sounds into my mother’s brain. The memory echoes through time – as it once did in that home. The imagery resurrects itself in my mind, as…
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End of the Season
by Thomas O’Harra When this season started, back in November, I was so excited to race. There’s something in the air in the early season, everyone pumped up and excited. I got so nervous before the races back then, I could barely eat breakfast on race morning. And sure, I still got really nervous before my sprint race in Kazakhstan, and my sprint race in Switzerland, and some of the races at Junior Nationals, but the further into the season that I got, the more comfortable I felt before each event, and about racing in general. That isn’t to say, however, that I was less excited about racing. I love…
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Observing the Double-crested Cormorant
by Ashana Armstrong I had observed the Double-crested Cormorant in Washington years ago, but had no clue what all those black birds were that just stood, perched on the piers in Puget Sound. Now I know what these creatures are and the history that they have with humans. These really are fascinating birds that need to be watched more often. Before I get into my observations, I would like to thank Professor Scott Swann, Matt Drennan and Rich McDonald for helping me along the way this term in regards to birding. The main two sites I ended up watching the Double-crested Cormorant was on the shoreline in Bar Harbor and…
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Mourning the Loss of Art in Film
by Evan Nasse A Cinephile is defined as, “A devoted moviegoer, especially one knowledgeable about the art of cinema.” It is this definition that has been falling slowly by the wayside as Hollywood adopts a business model of finding profitable, “entertainment,” and moviegoers becoming apathetic about what they view. The problem goes deeper than that if you look at cinema over the last ten years, compared to what you would find in cinema from fifty years ago. Several publications discuss the decline in film quality as a whole. Some writers on the subject are calling it, “The Death of Cinema,” who believe cinema should be given up, that there will…
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A Thousand, Thousand Wishes
by L.J. Bosela Dandelions are a generally misunderstood flower. I think that is why I like them. Amah told me once, when I was just a child, that I was like a dandelion- brightly golden, in laughter and in countenance, set amidst a dark and solemn family, and like a dandelion, I was indefatigable in my tenacity at life. She didn’t mean it as a compliment. I knew that. But I took it as one. Growing up, children all love dandelions. It is only when your soul grows old and tired – tired of the drudgery we humans are so apt to turn our life into – that you see…
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Hang Loose
by Crystal Dalison After my island cruiser of a car finally succumbed to its lifetime of abuse, I had to hitchhike to work every day. Because I lived out in the jungle, down a sparsely populated dirt road, my morning commute usually involved a lot of walking. Crazy as it may sound, I didn’t mind it too much. Don’t let anyone tell you that hitchhiking on the island is easy, because it isn’t, but it can be a lot of fun – especially if you happen upon a consistent ride like I did. Even though she was always alone when she picked me up, I always sat in the back…
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Change Your Mind
by Garrett Okonek Psychology has been similar to medicine for a long time. Both have traditionally looked for illnesses in patients, then have used specific treatments formulated for those ailments. In medicine, the focus is on sicknesses of the body, which are tangible and are usually caused by a specific thing, such as a virus or an injury. However, psychologists deal with sicknesses of the mind. Mental illness is sometimes caused by specific things, like chemical imbalances of the brain or head injuries, but more often results from a variety of causes, like a traumatic childhood or a recent death in the family. Diagnoses can still be made, but someone…
