Tuesday 27 September 2016

Secret Senior Scheme Surfaces Saturday

Kimberly Horton

This Saturday, all fifty-six members of the senior class of 2017 stayed behind after the high school barbeque event, dressed in grubby clothing. As the sun sank behind the hills, seniors began to congregate near the clock tower, many of them carrying mysterious rolls of brown parchment. What could these possibly be for?

The purpose of this strange class gathering soon became clearer as cans of spray paint were produced—perhaps a mass act of vandalism led by… Mr. Brewster? Why would the high school principal lead the senior class in an effort to deface school property?

The mystery began to unravel itself as students rolled out their large pieces of parchment, each with a design cut out of it. It appeared that these papers would act as stencils—stencils that formed a creative design including the senior’s name. Soon, the air began to fill with the overpowering smell of aerosol paint; the seniors were beginning to leave their mark by painting designs  on the blacktop between the playground and the CASTLE.

Seniors chose their designs based on things that were important or meaningful to them.

Inha Kim (12) captured his love of film and cinematography by incorporating his name into the film of a movie reel. It may as well capture his love for art, too. The detail put into his stencil shows his passion for art.

Other students, like Jing Low (12), have more than one or two interests they wanted to capture. Jing’s design features her love for the Japanese language, music, and computer programming.

“It was nice to see different paintings come together as a fusion to portray the artistic side of our class,” said Yeorin Yun (12). “It created a great opportunity to come together as a class.”
Senior class president Jarrod Chang (12) recalled a mistake he had made in laying out his stencil, which caused him great stress. “You know those things you put down after your stencil?” he asked a fellow ExCom member, Sheldon Ang (12), referring to pieces of paper meant to cover up parts that didn’t need paint. “I forgot to put some of those down.”

In the end, however, no matter how stressful it may have been to design, cut, and paint each stencil, every senior’s picture turned out looking great. Every design reflected a part that they wished to be remembered for—whether that be music, football, or Pepe the frog.

Joel Frohlich (12) remarks, “I enjoyed watching others express themselves in a creative way. I also found it intriguing how others want to be remembered at our school."

The class of 2017 is a class filled to the brim with quirky characters and great talent. From mountain vistas to guitar-trombone fusions to samurai swords, this year’s senior class has created a tradition to reflect themselves; this tradition will, hopefully, carry on to allow future seniors to express themselves in an artistic way, though the future senior classes will not need to be quite so sneaky. 

Presidential Preparations

Laura Joy Phillips

Once every four years, the American Government and U.S. History classes at Dalat set up a miniature version of the presidential election, which includes debates and the final vote. The whole school is invited to watch the debates, and students from grades 7-12, as well as the staff, will be allowed to vote. This year, due to curriculum changes, the American Government class will manage the project by itself, and preparations have already begun.

On Monday, September 26, Mr. Sasse, the American Government teacher and overseer of the event, divided the class into groups and assigned tasks. Two of the groups—representing Clinton and Trump—immediately threw themselves into research for the first presidential debate, which the whole class watched the following morning. They will continue to follow their assigned candidate’s actions and strategies in order to later present them to the school.

A third group, comprised of Josiah Brake (12) and Noah Graves (12), has chosen to represent Gary Johnson, but they must first collect forty-five signatures (including those of at least ten staff members) before their candidate will be allowed into the debate. In the actual presidential race, Johnson did not make the threshold and therefore will not participate; however, the point of the Dalat elections is not to merely reenact what is going on. In fact, in the two previous elections held at Dalat, McCain and Romney won instead of Obama. When asked why his group decided to go through the effort of representing Johnson despite the extra work required, Graves (12) said, “it is important to have a third party represented so that it adds variety to the debate, and it is not the same old things that we've all heard already.”

The remaining students in the class have been split into two groups, which are competing to see who can come up with the best way to organize the voting process, which includes distributing 538 electors among the students and staff eligible to vote in the Dalat presidential election.

This project not only teaches the students conducting it, but it also encourages the school to be more aware of current and upcoming events. The rest of the school will hear more about this as the election itself draws nearer, but until then, people can do their own research and thinking to develop their positions. The Dalat presidential election is an important reminder to engage with what's happening in the world, to evaluate multiple sides of a debate, and to exercise critical thinking.

Sneak Aftermath: Seniors Arrive Home

Joel Frohlich
           
Sneak finished, after four days of intense bonding, and students returned to school.

Whether or not they were sorely missed, the now sunburnt seniors walk around campus once again. The seniors are still tired from their thrilling vacation. Most have exciting experiences and stories to share with wondering underclassmen. But the questions on many minds still hang in the air: What were the results of this exciting trip? Was it worth the year of work during junior year? Did the travel truly bring the classmates closer together?

Smiles are now commonly shared amongst many in the Class of 2017. Some younger students have realized that certain seniors now spend more time in cliques that they had not been a part of before Sneak. In fact, the cliques of the senior class may appear less obvious now. Perhaps it is because the Class of 2017 is mixing remarkably well.

If questioned, the majority of students that returned from sneak would agree that the journey did bring the class together. Kimberly Horton (12) said, "I feel like, as a whole, we're all so much more comfortable with each other. It's not weird anymore when someone just goes and sits down with another group of friends—because we're all friends now."

‘Comfortable’ is certainly a great word to describe the relationship between the classmates now. Inside jokes are passed throughout the halls between classes. Memories are embedded fresh in the minds of the seniors; memories that will be cherished for a lifetime.

With cliques nearly abolished, more smiles are shared, inside jokes are passed throughout the day, and unforgettable memories and experiences are embedded in the students’ minds; it is safe to say Sneak worked. It certainly brought the seniors together just as it was intended to do. Was it worth all the work during junior year? That is a question for another time...

Thursday 22 September 2016

Ready to be Served

Susan Oh

“Class of 2017, you guys are the heroes now. We can’t wait to see how you are going to leave a mark as the school year goes on,” Teddy Zimmer (11), the drill instructor of the night, proudly announced as the night ended.

After coming back from an unforgettable week of Sneak, seniors only had one thing to look forward to this quarter: the After Sneak Dinner. The After Sneak dinner is one of the greatest traditions Dalat has continued. The event is solely planned, prepared, and presented by the junior class. To the juniors, it is a great way to see and practice for another big event they have to present at the end of the year: JSB.

Thrilled, all the seniors gathered around the outdoor basketball court and waited for six o’clock to hit. They tried to figure out what the theme was by looking at the invitation the juniors had handed out the night the seniors arrived back from Sneak. Was it a murder mystery? Taken? Narnia? Could it be Mean Girls? No one could really get a hold of the clue. Then when the clock hit six, while everybody was still busy talking, Josiah Brake (12) quietly reminded the sponsors that it was time.

The whole class made their way down to the chapel, and the first thing they saw was Teddy Zimmer and Adrian Nonis in their military uniforms looking sharp. The class had to wait for another three minutes before the doors opened, and the fun night began.    

The theme of the night was ‘Superheroes.’ The chapel was decorated with posters of Marvel heroes, the tables were decorated with little superhero logos, there were coloring papers on the tables, and the famous superhero songs were playing in the background. Each senior even had his own superhero poster made. Along the side of the walls, there were game stations, each representing qualities a superhero must have. For example, Twister was agility, human jaw sting was strength, and the game of Chubby-Bunny was communication.
The night began as our class president, Jarrod Chang, was declared kidnapped by Tommy Han, the junior class president. Our goal for the night was to save our president but before going to the rescue, the senior class had to train. The rest of the night consisted of fun games, amazing Mexican food, and crazy photo booths. In between the acts, the junior class surprised us multiple times by lipsyncing and dancing to Disney’s classics, such as “Be A Man” from Mulan and “Zero to Hero” from Hercules.

“We had a really fun time preparing this for the senior class. Personally, my favorite part while preparing for the night was when we had to practice how to be sassy for ‘Zero to Hero,’” said Rainbow Chan (11), who was in the entertainment committee. Everybody could definitely agree that the performances were one of the highlights of the night. The senior class is now more looking forward to JSB!     


A Sneaky Service Project

Jarrod Chang

“Mercy is falling, is falling, is falling. Mercy is falling like a sweet spring rain.” Believe it or not, this was the song that was stuck in the heads of fifty-six seniors and hundreds of Thai students for an entire week. The senior class of 2017 started their Senior Sneak in Koh Samui, Thailand by participating in a service project at the Koh Samui School; and the above song was just one of many highlights.
            On the 14th of September, the seniors woke up at 7am and hopped onto the back of five pickup trucks with no idea what the day had in store for them. Crammed with ten seniors in each cargo bed, the pickup trucks rolled into the local school. The seniors were met with curious looks from hundreds of Thai teenagers. As the guide escorted the seniors to a large hall, where the first group of sixty local students were already waiting for the arrival of the strangers from Malaysia, both parties grew anxious. And when the seniors were informed that the icebreaker was singing and dancing to an unknown Christian song, a palpable tension rose between them. Even so, all of the seniors approached the activity with a positive, open mind and learned the lyrics and dance moves of “Mercy is Falling” in an instant. After ten minutes, each senior partnered up with a Thai student, and everyone sang and danced their hearts out. It was truly a memorable experience. Ask any senior today about the song, and chances are that they still remember every word and action.
            Christy Chow, one of the seniors who led the activity, said, “The song became an extraordinary part of our Sneak as it had a good message coupled with a catchy tune.”
            After the unforgettable song, the seniors’ service project progressed to a more intimate but educational level as each senior received the opportunity to teach the Thai students English in a one-on-one role-playing activity. The most interesting aspect of the activity was definitely when the guide called up groups to step onto the stage and act out the scenes. Everyone, including the seniors, dreaded the intimidating microphone; but once the groups reached the front, they settled down and had a fun time. The entire room would erupt in cheers and laughter when the seniors or the students acted as props or played their characters with great charisma. The seniors then played interesting group games, such as Amoeba, with the students; and again, screams of joy and intense laughter permeated the large meeting hall.
However, before the session ended with the first group of students, a completely unexpected phenomenon occurred. The seniors got their fifteen minutes of fame. Most of the Thai students grabbed their phones and wanted to take selfies with the seniors to capture this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Lines of girls formed around the seniors whom they found the cutest, snapping numerous photos and added the seniors on Facebook. Jerald Lim, Ben Finlay, and David Unruh were the most popular as they were basically treated like celebrities.
Reflecting on this bizarre experience, Finlay said, “It was a bit shocking that so many people wanted to take pictures with me, but it was really fun to be treated like a celebrity for the day.”
The service project was certainly exhausting, but the seniors definitely enjoyed the experience as they kicked off their Senior Sneak on the right note by serving the local community with passionate hearts.

Bicep Society: Flexing in Koh Sam

Wei Sing Goh

With veins popping and blood rushing through his arms, Ning Kang Chia (12), pushed himself as he finished his last set of bicep curls. Bicep Society is a newly-formed group of student-athletes dedicated to prioritizing their biceps as the most important muscle group to work out.

Upon reaching the beaches at Koh Samui, the members of Bicep Society, consisting of Hasung Cho (12), Jerald Lim (12), Wei Sing Goh (12), Ning Kang Chia (12), Woo Young Chung (12), Sam Huang (12), Keito Watanabe (12), and Sheldon Ang (12), decided to put their hard work on display by taking a group photo of all the members flexing. Standing in the warm ocean water, the members flexed like they had never flexed before. Arms were violently shaking in an attempt to make the biceps look as big as physically possible.

On the afternoon of the island hopping tour during Sneak, another group picture was taken at the peak of Emerald Lake. Again, the members flexed as hard as they could. With sleeves rolled up and ecstatic smiles plastered over their faces, they celebrated to the creation of Bicep Society along with the close bonds that were shared among the members. A third group photo was then taken at the very last minute on the boat ride back to shore after a long day of island hopping.

Although the sizes of biceps varied among the members, it did not matter. The goal of Bicep Society was to create a close community of members who worked out together and pushed each other to their limits. “Bicep Society is not and will never be a competition of who has the biggest biceps,” as stated by the founder, Hasung Cho (12).

When asked about the origin of Bicep Society, Cho (12) stated, “It all started when Jerald (12) and I realized that the true workout is not for strength, not for sports, but for the good looks that can be maintained in the future.”

Along with the great group photos taken at Senior Sneak (see below), the seniors had a great time in Koh Samui. 

The Bridge That I Almost Crossed

Hasung Cho
                   
Desperately swaying my arms back and forth, I tried to grab onto anything I could find. Unfortunately, I kept sliding down and down and down until I realized this really could be end of me, Hasung James Cho…

It was on the second day of the presumably wonderful Senior Sneak. All of us seniors were thrilled in excitement at the idea of going to a waterfall to swim and take photos with breath-taking sceneries. The waterfall was not a grand one like Niagara Fall, but it was more of a cliff with a stream of water flowing between huge rocks. In order for us to get to the waterfall, we climbed up a hill and had to abandon the nice dirt trail for a path full of rocks varying in sizes.

But little did I know what was going to happen next.

I found myself sliding down the waterfall with nothing to grab onto. If the waterfall actually had a body of water at the bottom, I would have been less worried; however, this waterfall ironically only had rocks at the end. During that moment of falling, I did not have any flashbacks of my childhood or memories about my friends; only one thing went through my mind: “Am I really going to die today?” I was just trying to be a good boy and was warning Jonathan Lafferty (12) to not cross the waterfall because it was slippery. But little did I realize that I was dumb for stepping on a slippery stone to warn Jonathan, instead of just pointing at it. After that mistake, everything went chaotic. I immediately sat down to gain balance, but that did not stop me from sliding down the rock I was on. I then fell off that rock and began panicking.

When I first lost my balance and started to slide down, I thought I would be able to stop and avoid any further danger because my life has always been that way. I nearly get into dangerous situations but escape unharmed. But this time was different. I thought I was actually going to die and cross that bridge into Heaven. After few moments of struggling and panicking more, my leg, fortunately, got caught between rocks and stopped me from sliding completely down. My chin slammed on a rock as a result, but I was glad my chin crossed the bridge into Heaven instead of my whole body and soul.  

After the fall, I realized I was probably closer to stupid than brave. My friends were pretty shocked by my near-death experience. As Jerald Lim (12) said, “Thank God you are still alive; I almost broke into tears!”

Such a wonderful Sneak could have been ruined with my tragedy, and I am glad God has saved my life from this chaotic fall. And, hey, I still have to live in order to leave my great legacy behind on this Earth. 

Sunday 11 September 2016

Try Tuesday Tea Time

Alan Luchtenburg

Often, when students describe what X-block they just came from, they talk about an AP class, a session that provides extra help for a hard class, or band practice. The one X-block that makes people say “what?” is the one that takes place in room 6 on Tuesdays. At 3:15p every Tuesday, students gather together for the Tea Time X-block—they simply drink tea for thirty-five minutes. Every week Mathias Maurin (12) brings a different tea; he makes sure that he never brings the same type of tea too many times. His tea selection goes from the Japanese "Genmaicha" to a decade old "Puerh."

The afternoon I first joined the X-block, Maurin taught me how to drink tea “properly.” I first thought that it was crazy that there was a way to properly drink tea, but, after learning, I appreciated it more. The X-block is a great break in the week; it’s a good time to relax, sit with friends, and, most importantly, drink tea!

“Tea time is a place to drink great tea and do nothing else in particular; people come to talk, chill, or work on homework. It's relaxed, and that's what makes it fun,” says Maurin.

Everyone has a great time there, with no stress whatsoever. The best part is that you can pretty much do whatever you want! People do homework, gaming, talking, etcetera. Whatever the activity, it’s a ton of fun.

There has never been too many or too little people there. There have been days where there are ten people and other days when it would just be Mathias and me. During this time, when there aren't very many people, we have insightful conversations. But when more people come, it’s a great time to meet and get to know new people.

Tea Time is where it’s at! It’s hard to argue that any other X-block is as great as Tea Time. Again, drinking tea, talking, and having a good time in a relaxing but social atmosphere, helps one clear up his or her mind. So, if you ever find yourself wondering what to do during X-block on a Tuesday, come to Tea Time. Everyone is welcome! 

The Power of a Fearless Life

Jonathan Lafferty

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you..." This verse from
Acts spurred our discussion on living “Fearless,” the theme of this year’s Spiritual
Emphasis Week (SEW).

SEW (September 7-9) provided a space to worship God with other believers and to recapture what it means to follow Jesus. It was a time to relax and reflect, as well as a welcome break from homework. James Grout, a former youth leader of the C&MA, came down from Colorado Springs (United States) to share with the Dalat community the first few chapters from Acts, along with several chapters from his own life. The worship team, led by Joshua Allen, came together for long hours to prepare and practice for this week. They led songs related to the theme, such as "No Longer Slaves” and "You Make Me Brave.”

Lydia Kim (10), a vocalist on the worship team, said, "It was a very memorable experience to sing on stage and lead worship. Looking at all the people who got together to praise God and worship his name was moving!"

With dry humor and humility throughout the six sessions, Grout entertained the crowd with stories from his youth, including his slip-up on the basketball court, a stolen golf cart, and his miraculous healing in Mexico. His humorous stories wrapped around the idea of fear, providing good illustrations of how fear can appear in lives. He also spent time getting to know Dalat students.

Noah Graves (12) and a couple of other seniors took him out to eat on the first day, and this is what Noah had to say: "It was great getting to know Mr. Grout! He asked us about our lives and where we came from. It was a great lunch, but I don't think he could figure out our Penang food..."

When Grout wasn’t igniting everyone with laughter, he was sharing thought-provoking messages. The power of Grout's messages came from the first few chapters in Acts. He reintroduced the rag tag team of disciples who turned fearless by the power of the Holy Spirit, even amongst persecution.

 Amber Victoria (9), a new student at Dalat, said she learned this week that "it's always good to forgive—to turn the other cheek when someone does you wrong."

This lesson came from the shocking story of the stoning of Stephen in Acts 4. A group of Jewish leaders quickly turned on this disciple when he started proclaiming Jesus as the risen Son of God. They went from merely insulting him to throwing large stones at his head. As they crushed him, Stephen looked up to heaven, and he blessed his persecutors. Stephen didn’t fear his own death; instead he spent his last few moments on earth praising God and praying for his murderers. Fear is something all people deal with in one form or another. As taught throughout this week, the power of the Holy Spirit is the only way believers in Jesus can live fearlessly.

Who's the Dictator?

Caitlin Goh

On Tuesday, September 6th, a group of twenty high schoolers performed a rather short but extremely unique piece of drama in PenangPac. The title of the drama was “How to Build a Dictator.” So, who’s the dictator?

The play started out with Mr. Sasse sitting in the middle of the stage, frozen. Everyone gathered around him with puzzled looks on their faces. “What’s going on? Are we supposed to do something?” said Shoko Tezuka (12).

 The drama then continued on with a party where a bunch of surveyors came out to interview people. At this point, many people were startled and felt confused about the questions being thrown at them. The survey started out with a plain, simple question—“What is your name?”—which led to other personal questions. An English teacher, Debbie Chinn, asked, “Why are they being so nosy?”

Some of the following questions were also thrown at them: “Do you use Facebook or Instagram? What is your favorite ice cream flavor? How important is privacy to you?”

The play then resumed with Kimberly Horton and Justus Goh confusing peoples’ minds and making them feel unintelligent. The crowd had to choose between the color chartreuse and spring bud, and moved to the side of the room according to the color preferred. About 90% of the crowd didn’t know what the colors were. Nevertheless, the crowd moved accordingly without knowing what they were choosing.

At the end of the drama, a few girls came out to reveal information they’d found about the selective people from the surveys. The researchers selected some of the people who took the survey and searched them up online. They tried their best to find whatever information they could find from Facebook, Instagram, etc. Everyone was shocked about the things that had been revealed.

“It was indeed interesting to know that Mr. Tompkins has skinny dipped before” said Kylie (12). The researchers worked hard backstage gathering all the information to reveal and embarrass the audience. As Megan Chang (12), a researcher said, “It was a lot of pressure to have to make sure we got enough information and that it was good, but we ended up having more time than we expected to research, and it was a full house so we had a lot more people to do research on. It turned out great!”

When the show ended, everyone walked out with a smile on his or her face. “It was an unique experiment. The whole process was totally unexpected and the revealing part was LIT,” exclaimed Peter Kim (11).

So what is the message from the drama? The message depends on how the individuals interpret it. It is what they’ve got out of the play.

Monday 5 September 2016

Merdeka Day in the Dorms

Chloe Castro

     What? No school on a Wednesday? Yes, that's right, August 31st was a no school day for Dalat. It was the Malaysian holiday, Merdeka Day. This is the day Malaysia declared its independence from the British Empire in 1957. For most, it was a day to catch up on sleep, homework, and social media. While that’s what most of the dorm kids did, it was not the only thing they did. Knowing that a national holiday would probably bring lots of traffic, the dorm parents planned activities or parties for each dorm. The activities included were 3x3 basketball, NBA 2K16, ping-pong, foosball, henna, manicures, and watching movies. Jaffray hosted with the ping-pong, foosball, and NBA 2K16. Zeimer had a Bourne movie marathon. Jackson played chick flicks while all who came enjoyed snacks, henna, and manicures.
            As a dorm student myself, I looked forward to this day. I didn’t feel like going out and the dorms provided the perfect opportunity to stay in. Each dorm is unique in how it works and stays together. I love going to each dorm and watching the interactions. In other words, each dorm has personality. The Merdeka Day activities allowed dorm kids to hangout and have fun instead of being absorbed in social media or homework.  
That morning in Jaffray, we had crepes for breakfast as the sunlight shined through the windows. To my surprise there was quite a bit of bustling. Apparently many wanted the day to start. As I ate my breakfast there seemed to be a problem. We had the ping-pong table and the ping-pong balls but we only had one paddle. This was a slight problem, and we soon found that it’s a bit difficult to hit a ball over with just your hand. It’s not impossible, mind you, but just a bit difficult. In order to solve this problem, someone volunteered the idea to make paddles out of cardboard. Scott Poulter, the dorm assistant, took on the task with Rahul Gill (11) to make the paddles out of cardboard. After layering, cutting and taping, the paddles were soon ready for testing. The dramatic moment ended in victory as the ping-pong ball was successfully served to the other side.
“It was difficult to make a paddle out of cardboard because it’s hollow and doesn’t have much structural strength. The good thing was that we used duct tape to give the handle and faces some grip. Uncle Scott still wrecked everyone with the cardboard paddles,” explained Gill.
Throughout the day, dorm kids continued playing ping-pong with multi colored cardboard paddles. The Merdeka Day ended in a cool and rainy night. After a fun day of problem solving, laughter, and relaxation, we all settled down to prepare ourselves for school the next day. 

Junior Class Skips School

Bena Mauger

On Tuesday, the 30th of August, the junior class skipped the whole day of school for Servathon, an annual fundraiser for JSB and, eventually, Senior Sneak. This year, the juniors cleaned up the parks in the Tangung Bungah region.
The junior class split up into many different groups, each going to various parks. Some parks were so big that they needed two groups to help. Within the groups, the juniors partnered up to share the workload. 
These students, and their sponsors, had many different jobs during the day. One of the biggest jobs during Servathon was raking leaves. They raked and raked leaves. Yigal Ang (11) was put to the task of raking a large field with many leaves and said, “Leaves never end.” Ang eventually got tired of that job and switched with another junior. He was put to work chipping off the paint of gates and monkey bars and then repainting them.
Many of the juniors who had the job of painting came back with the paint that was meant for the monkey bars and gates on their faces, in the hair, and on their clothes.
Rainbow Chan (11) was one of these people who was painted on. She was supposed to be painting railings and some park benches. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the best experience because she was dehydrated. She warns the future juniors who will do Servathon next year to “get that H2O into your bodies.
Another job at Servathon for the juniors was scrubbing off graffiti on the stone benches at the parks. Similar to with the leaves, they kept scrubbing and scrubbing until they had to leave. To their dismay, they could not get rid of all of the graffiti before they had to pack up. But the Tangung Bungah look a little cleaner after spending some time with these juniors. 

Junior-Senior Ice Cream Date

Kylie Toh

The clock struck 4p as the seniors waited excitedly at the Student Center for the juniors. “I remember this like it was yesterday! I can’t believe that it has been a year!” Lilian Li (12) recalled about coming back from Servathon a year ago. The seniors from the Class of 2016 planned a party for the juniors as a token of appreciation for working so hard that day. Therefore, the seniors from the Class of 2017 decided to do the same for the current juniors.
Those who had a free X-Block went early to help set up the Student Center for the event. They arranged tables, prepared drinks, and brought out the ice cream. After making the necessary preparations, they lined up on opposite sides of the Student Center, ready to greet the sweaty, exhausted juniors. Huge smiles were plastered on the junior’s paint- stained faces as they came into the room and saw rows of drinks and vanilla ice cream cones prepared for them.
“I didn’t even know that you guys had this planned! It’s so nice! I was so happy when I got the ice cold drinks.” Ke-Erh Huang (11) exclaimed.
            The juniors of the Class of 2018 divided into small groups and went to six local parks around Tanjung Bungah. They scraped off the dirty old paint from playgrounds and replaced it with shiny new paint, raked leaves, planted flowers, and even cleaned the parks up.
“I had a super awesome time there! It was so much fun having the day off from school to work with friends. I got to bond with so many people that I don’t usually talk to in school too!” Areeya Kunawaradisai (11) gushed.
 The junior and senior class had a great time bonding over 100-Plus and vanilla ice cream as they looked forward to their Merdeka Day break which was the next day.

Writer's Block

Inha Kim

Alrighty then, let's see… Why hello there, an email from Miss Grad? Reminder for Senior Scribble? Shoot! I forgot about it completely! Better write something real quick… Mm hmm… Uh… What… do I write about?

How about I take a look at what other people wrote about? Yeah, let's do that. But how do I get there, though? She (Miss Grad) showed us before, but I completely forgot where. Ah, I'll just google it. S.E.N.I.O.R. S.C.R.I.B.B.L.E… And… There it is! Okay, let's look through… School stuff… School stuff… More school stuff… School sports stuff… Am I allowed to write about anything else? Ah, whatever. I'll just write some made up crap about how the school’s art class changed my spirituality and stuff. Teachers here really seem to like reading about things like that. Cool. Opening up Google Drive…“WHAT!” Oh, we're having dinner soon. “WHAT ARE WE HAVING!?” Beef stuff? What the heck is that supposed to be? Well it's meat, so it can't be that bad. “I’LL BE THERE IN A SEC!”

An undisclosed amount of time later…

Right! Back from dinner, brushed my teeth, took a shower… Time to write an article… What was I writing about? Oh yeah, art and stuff. I write this and I walk away with an easy A. He heh… Yeah…… Doesn't really feel that great though. I mean, what am I thinking? It doesn't show anything about my character, personality, or wit. It's just gonna be another bland, “safe” piece that's gonna give me a grade but ultimately be forgotten. I don't wanna do that anymore. But… What will happen if I write anything else? No one I know ever did anything “out of the box” and got a passing grade… I wanna be original but I also need to go to college! You know what? Who cares? I'll just do something original. I’ll be like Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction. Yeah! Alright! I'm all pumped up now! Let's do this!

An undisclosed amount of time later (yet again)...


…… Um… Okay… No, that's not right… That's not right either…What do I write about? All that hype about being original, and I can't even deliver one sentence. Some brilliant writer I turned out to be. Guess I should've just written about the art thing then, huh? NO! That is a coward’s way out! I am an artist! I am original! I am… Not getting any sleep cause it’s already 6 in the morning.