4. NZ Sea Lions 2026

(Credit: California Missions, Library of Congress) San Jose. Los Angeles. San Francisco. Chicago . Massachusetts.  What do all of these places have in common? At first glance, perhaps not much, being scattered throughout the country. Some are cities and others are states. Yet, despite these differences, they all share a common characteristic: none of their names are rooted from English.  I have lived around the name San Jose for so long that I barely think twice about it. It appears on addresses and maps; to me, it’s just the name of a city. However, when I look deeper into those two words, I learn something new: San Jose comes from Spanish and it means Saint Joseph. In a country where English dominates everyday life, why are many of the places we call home named in a completely different language? San Jose is far from the only example of this. Los Angeles translates to “The Angels,” while San Francisco is named after Saint Francis who founded the Franciscian Order, a Catholic...

                                                                                                                                                                     Image of Hiromi Higuruma “Have you ever killed someone who ticked you off? It feels better than I expected.” Ever since I read the Jujutsu Kaisen manga in ninth grade, I have always found Hiromi Higuruma particularly interesting. Part of it stems from my interest in law, but his constant doubts about the true meaning of upholding justice certainly ...

  “Do you speak another language?” Well, yes and no.  My family’s native language is Indonesian. I have heard it growing up and all of my relatives speak it. As the oldest child, it was spoken to me by my parents and grandparents, and was the sole language they used to communicate with. Apparently it was my first language before English, which was only introduced to me when I went to daycare.  To think that I was once fluent in Indonesian baffles me. Now, English is my primary language and my Indonesian is at a beginner level at best. I struggle to piece together words to form sentences, which directly affects my ability to communicate with my family members. What’s curious is that when people talk to me in Indonesian, I can understand them perfectly; the only problem is that I cannot respond back to them, unless I speak English. This phenomenon is common among immigrant children. It is known as one-way bilingualism , and I have also observed it in some of my friends. As ...

Ok. So you’re sitting in your classroom, done with your work, bored as you could POSSIBLY be–and you just want to talk to your friend about the latest school gossip. But it’s silent work time. And even though you’re LITERALLY DONE and not bothering anyone at all, your annoying teacher is still telling you to be quiet.  …No? This is high school, not sixth grade? Well, I don’t care. Listen to my methods anyway; I think you’ll still find this enlightening.  Scenario 1 - No Chromebooks Method 1: Whispering (5/10) Note: This method only works if you’re seated next to your friend in class. If you're not, see this guide on How to Make Your Teacher Like You .  Wait until the teacher is on the other side of the room or turned away.  Turn towards your friend–not too eagerly.  Whisper in short sentences.  This method is pretty good for quick little statements that don’t require lengthy conversation. Stuff like “cute outfit!” or “meet me at lunch.” The only problem is ...

As I walk to school, I feel the season shifting. My breath in the morning becomes more apparent against the cloudy sky, the droplets of water laying on the leaves of the tree, or the cold breeze hitting my face as I step out the door. As time marches on toward Winter, the thought of sitting on the couch with a warm cup of hot chocolate in my hands and my dog cuddling up next to me sounds really appealing. The warmth emanating from the cup and my dog’s body heat defrost my ice cold hands. Paired with watching my favorite heartwarming show, it can’t get any better than that! What is that show?  Well, it's Violet Evergarden ! It’s hard not to call Violet Evergarden a masterpiece. Because it is. It’s the beautifully animated, detailed frames of Kyoto Animation coupled with Kana Akatsuki’s captivating story that draws you in and never lets you go.  It follows an orphan who initially serves a military officer as a weapon. He later gifts the orphan to his brother, Major Gilbert, who...

Back in May, I experienced something that I never thought I would have to go through. I broke a bone. I know, I know, it’s common. But, for some context, I got injured A LOT as a kid.  My mom said I used to climb things on the playground and jump off them because I didn’t know how to get back down; you can imagine how I often believed I was a superhero, a type of Spiderman that’d always land on their feet.  I once went flying off a swing across a park because I swung too high; I fell so many times on my elbow that I broke my seventh layer of skin, and have a permanent scar; I’ve had my fair share of knee scrapes or face scratches, but never, NEVER a broken bone.  I won’t go into detail about how I got injured (it was certainly unpleasant), but I ended up walking away from the hospital with a fractured collarbone, a recovering dislocated shoulder, and a fractured shoulder bone. During finals and AP season, it was such a hassle to have my dominant hand tucked away in a slin...

(Credit: Siri Shortcut: Record a Voice Memo, Vision Ireland) There is something oddly disturbing about hearing your own voice in a recording. The first time I heard myself in a video or a voice message, my immediate reaction was “Do I really sound like that?” The audio recording isn’t distorted or edited in any way; that is genuinely what others hear when I speak. That voice, which I have known my entire life, feels completely unfamiliar. The strange part is that I hear my voice all the time. I talk constantly, so you would think that I would have a pretty accurate idea of what I sound like. But when I speak, I don’t hear my voice the same way everyone else does. I hear it partly through vibrations that travel through my body, changing the way the sound reaches my ears. The voice that I recognize as our own when I speak is actually a version that I only get to hear. I thought that I had a deep voice. I don’t. That makes me wonder how much of my identity is based on things that other p...