Wednesday 25 January 2023

Final Semester of High School

By David Kim 

2023 was a year that we seniors, the Class of 2023, thought would never arrive. However, to our collective amazement, it is already here, and nearly a month has already passed. In addition, with scheduling complexities (refer to "Scheduling Complexities!" for more details) resolved, the second semester of the 2022-2023 school year has officially begun.

This semester is a time that seniors must decide on what we will study and where to spend the next four years of our lives based on our college decisions. This is a rather difficult and intimidating process for many of us, as evidenced by Michael Hsu's (12) remark, "Seniors deserve more respect, especially from freshmen who don't know what we are going through," or Noah Lee's (12) realization, "I have no idea what I'm interested in or what the future is going to look like."

It is no secret that many of us are reluctant to leave our community here at Dalat; however, when asked about this, Trevor Nichols (12) responded, "I feel like even though the end of the year is so near, all of us still don't use that as an excuse to be sorrowful, and instead seek to make the best of what little time we have left." 

This is very true; high school is a special time in our lives, and the memories we make here will be cherished for years to come. Planning and thinking ahead into the future is important, but it is also important to balance it with appreciating the present and enjoying the remainder of our senior year.

Overall, this semester represents a time of looking back at our high school experience while also looking ahead into the future. It contains a mixture of emotions, ranging from nostalgia for the past to the fear of uncertainty about the future. However, at the end of the day, it will not be long before we all graduate and start the next chapter of our lives, and we are all striving to make the most of our final semester of high school.

Thursday 19 January 2023

Chicken Rice That’s Our Senior Advice

By Joycelyn Fung

Amidst the lunch rush, blobs of Pepto Bismol forge their way, dispersing crowds of blue and displaying their senior lunch privileges for all to see. Braving through Penang’s scorching sun or torrential downpour, each senior has only one thing in mind. Despite the multitude of food choices, nothing measures up to the glory that is chicken rice. 

The chili sauce perfectly scratches that unseen spot like an itch that can’t be reached. The rice bursts like popping boba, having been soaked in flavor, bursting with every bite. Meanwhile, chicken so succulent envelopes you in a warm embrace from the horrors of the math test or Krebs cycle just moments before. Each morsel of chicken rice opens a pocket of sunshine tuning out the downpour or unrelenting heat each senior had to face to reach this treasure. While no argument stands against the greatness of chicken rice, a highly debated topic remains: Boon Kee or Beng?

The journey to Boon Kee requires more action and risk calling forth a trusty car and speedy driver. Not only do the seniors who opt for Boon Kee have to brave rush hour, but they must also race back to campus to avoid the dreaded “N”. Even with such demands, some claim the superiority of Boon Kee. 

As Nicole Khor (12) puts it, “Boon Kee is so much more buss you cannot disagree. With one bite, I’m sure you’ll fall in love with it too, 100% guarantee! What are you waiting for? Go and try Boon Kee baby!”

On the other hand, a trip to Beng only takes a five-minute walk. This walk, however, doesn’t come with the comforts of a car, and hungry seniors make their way through nature’s temperaments. 

Willing to endure such conditions, several seniors make a claim similar to that of Haylee Douglas (12), “Beng is the superior chicken rice because not only can I get two chicken rice for 10rm but the chili sauce is 10x better than Boon Kee, and you can just douse your chicken rice with it!”

With each spoonful of chicken rice, this argument is quickly forgotten, and chicken rice remains a steady constant through the ups and downs. Whether it be Boon Kee or Beng, they fuel us through senioritis, college applications, and our many lasts. Put chicken rice in our hands, and we can achieve the impossible as graduation comes closer, a spoonful at a time.

The Final Semester: A Senior’s Perspective

By Jasmine Hassan

Stepping foot back onto campus grounds would have felt exhilarating during the years leading up to this one – the nervous anticipation, giddy excitement, and newfound motivation forms one giant homogeneous blob – yet, for a senior, the final semester feels undeniably different. 

“Where did all the time go?” Nicole Khor (12) sighed, sluggishly grabbing the same pink backpack she has had her entire high school career. 

It almost feels as if just yesterday Christopher Jang (12) was having the time of his youthful elementary life, devouring vanilla soft serve, and strutting in his oversized cowboy hat. More than a decade later, he carefully evaluates the complex numbers provided by his Calculus class, a mathematical language most seniors as underclassmen used to find completely foreign. 

Like Chris and Nicole, this semester conjures up a sentimental confluence of emotions, triggering reminiscence in many of us. Ten years ago, “ten years” would have sounded like forever. Ten years later, it has frankly felt like the blink of an eye.  

In our late middle school and early high school years, the seniors were the big kids, the people we would admire, but were intimidated by at the same time. Yet, being a senior now feels surreal, and weirdly, the exact same as it did just four years ago.  

“It doesn’t even feel like I’m a senior,” says Joycelyn Fung (12), who joined Dalat at the beginning of seventh grade, an overwhelming six years ago. Now, she carefully constructs unique and coherent supplemental essays for her looming college applications. 

After concluding my last first day of the semester, I stumbled upon an internet image that fully encapsulated what it felt like to be in the final year of high school – a picture of a melting clock. It represented the merciless speed of time, and frankly, how baffled I was at the amount of precious seconds, minutes, and hours I and many others obliviously endured to mould us into who we are today. 

Though it should be strikingly obvious (and a little cliché), every second counts. Yet, sometimes I forget that it will not be long before I, dressed in my blue graduation cape and academic mortarboard, strut down the aisle, alongside the village of people whom I was lucky enough to grow up with, one last time. We come from all walks of life, and have yet to uncover what the future holds – an uncertainty that tends to stir fear in high school seniors. 

Not only has the dreaded second-semester-senioritis kicked in, but the bittersweet epiphany of leaving this island in merely 21 weeks has taken a toll on the entire senior class, a constant numerical reminder that time is truly of the essence.  

Scheduling Complexities!

By Michael Hsu

New semester! New opportunities!

This semester the influx of 7 new students completed placement tests and chose their courses well ahead of schedule. Mr. Dobson cites this earlier confirmation of new students’ schedules and an efficient “form and spreadsheet system” behind prompt responses from guidance to students navigating course selections. However, with a growing student body -- the Dalat High School community has never been so big before -- and more opportunities for those in Learning Support/Exceptional Learners, certain courses have inevitably been stretched to or beyond capacity, including A block Home Ec, B block Forensics, C block Spiritual Disciplines, D block Media Lit, among others.

Seniors and, in particular, Juniors took advantage of the option to replace a study hall with an additional course, typically Media Lit. To accommodate this change, some students had to reshuffle their schedules. For example, Alicia Lim (‘24) switched from D block Bio to A block Bio to accommodate Media Lit in her schedule. Commenting firsthand about the different atmospheres in the Bio blocks, she responded curtly, “It's worse in A block.” Thankfully, Ms. Goh was able to keep her in Bio for one last day on the 12th before schedule changes kicked in the following day. According to Ms. Goh, she paid Mr. Chin “sincerely” for the temporary transfer.

On the other hand, a record low number of students enrolled in Band, with Mr. Kearney specifically citing a shortage of percussion players. Taewoo Song (‘23) and Peter Hsu (‘25) have been subsequently resourced to the musical endeavor. Nevertheless, second semester saw MVP Adam Lim (‘23) transferred back into choir. Expect excellent performance from the perfect pitch prodigy.

Notable Sound Booth resident Joshua Emmanuel (‘23), however, will not enroll himself in Tech II for the 5th semester… “I'm deeply hurt and saddened that I cannot take a class that I enjoy.” As a result, Joshua Emmanuel will not be able to advance to Tech VI. However, the Tech I class from semester one saw almost a complete reconstruction in Tech II: after fulfilled scheduled changes, Aaron Andrews (‘26), Aiden Boyd (‘26), and Taewoo Song (‘23) all managed to free their H blocks for a high-tech class with Mr. Roylance. To the sole senior who jumped ship, the freshmen expressed mixed sentiments: “I don’t honestly care because you were always breaking things” (Rio Randrianarivelo), “U betrayer” (Jueun Seo),  “Bro, why you’d have to leave?” (Aaron Andrews), and “It’s much more fun now” (Aiden Boyd).

Of course, some requests go against handbook policy or may require approval from multiple individuals in different departments. Overall, however, schedule changes were a logistic success. Kudos to Mr. Dobson for spearheading the inter-departmental effort, who remarked, “we even finished a day earlier than normal.” In contrast to the process from years ago, when “students waited in a queue outside the office,” the current system works better. Finally, our HS counselor encourages “students [...] to present suggestions or frustrations either directly or via PAL” to further improve the current system.

Special thanks to Mr. Dobson and Mr. Hieber for providing the background information in this article.