Table of Contents

 Broader Picture: What's Happening?

Corey LoDuca - Staff Writer & Chelsea Schack - Multimedia Co-Editor

Corona Caused an Oil War

Jennifer Woo - Staff Writer

Oh, what a time to be alive! In last month’s “What in the World” article, we discussed the coronavirus when it was in its beginning stages in the United States. It’s an understatement to say a lot has changed since then. 

Despite all the chaos and rapid change occurring in the US, there is a large-scale economic price war over oil occurring on the other side of the world that could potentially worsen the recession that is predicted to result from this pandemic.

In a nutshell…

Coronavirus has caused a major disruption in all aspects of daily life. People aren’t driving, factories aren’t running, airplanes aren’t flying, ships aren’t shipping. All of those activities require one thing: Oil.

Since no one needs oil to do these activities right now, prices for oil are dropping. If people need less oil, logically, countries should make less of it.

But that’s not the case. Big oil producers like Russia and Saudi Arabia are actually increasing their oil production to try to make up for lost sales (side note: for all of my APUSH friends, we saw this happen when farmers tried to make up for the lack of sales by increasing their production, but it actually backfired and led to a giant recession and they had to burn their crops to drive prices back up and it was not fun). 

As of now, it looks like there’s not going to be a ‘winner’ in this price war. All major oil producers are gonna end up losing money, and the current goal of this price war is to lose the war slightly less than opponents… which is still technically losing.

How did this start?

When China closed their factories and industries for their coronavirus quarantine, their demand for oil decreased dramatically. According to the US Energy Information Administration, China is the world’s second largest consumer for oil, using 14% of the world’s supply. There is less fuel being used for air travel, shipping, electricity, gasoline, and a general decrease in use of almost every byproduct of petroleum.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is, as the name suggests, an organization of the world’s top oil producing nations such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Iraq, and Venezuela. OPEC nations collaborate and decide how much oil they’re going to produce and at what price. 

Recently, OPEC has been urging it’s nations and allies (like Russia and the United States) to decrease oil production in order to keep prices up. However, individual countries could increase oil production to better their economies, but in order to keep the oil economy healthy, nations choose to take one for the team. 

Oil producers like OPEC nations and Russia should have decreased oil production to match the decrease in global demand for oil to keep a steady price for oil. 

However, Russia’s off and on relationship with OPEC nations has been unraveling recently. Russia didn’t want to continue to cut oil production like OPEC requested, and it has led them to break ties completely and dramatically increase their oil production, against OPEC’s wishes. 

What’s in it for Russia?

By flooding the market with more barrels of oil than we currently need, prices for gas and oil from Russia will decrease, giving Russia the ability to wipe out our US oil industry, because we won’t be able to keep up with their cheap prices.

Russia knows they can make more money during this decrease in need for oil due to COVID-19 outbreaks by increasing oil production to make up for lost profits.

What’s in it for Saudi Arabia?

Saudi Arabia is currently acting mostly out of defense. With Russian oil prices dropping, Saudi Arabia has to act in a similar fashion in order to protect their nation’s economy. 90% of their export earnings are from petroleum exports. If Russia wipes out their petroleum sector, their economy will fall apart. 

How is this going to affect us in Orange County?

We’re gonna see gas prices drop a lot. Which is great for everyone who drives, but the effect it’s gonna have on our economy is definitely not worth the cheaper miles. 

The United States is the world’s biggest producer and consumer of oil. So, on the producer side, this is a bad situation for us, because no one’s going to want to buy our expensive oil when they can buy cheap oil from Russia or Saudi Arabia. On the consumer side, it’s great that gas is gonna be cheaper, but our industries are going to lose a lot of profit which will inevitably affect prices for our daily necessities. 

This tit-for-tat price war proves how reliant we are on the global oil economy, and gives yet another reason to develop cheap alternative energy sources. It has the potential to damage our economy (and many other nations’ economies) for years after this coronavirus outbreak is over.

Quarantine Recommendations: Movies & TV

Quarantine Recommendations: Books

QuaranTeens: Journals from Staff

RECIPE: Lauren’s Lemon Loaf

Lauren Le - Staff Writer

Ingredients

Cake

• 1 cup sugar 

• ½ cup coconut oil, melted and cooled

• ½ tsp vanilla extract

• 2 eggs

• ⅔ cup buttermilk

• 5 tbsp lemon juice (add more if needed, to taste)

• 2 cups flour

• Zest of 1 large lemon

• 2 tbsp poppy seeds

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1 tsp kosher salt

• Lauren’s spicy recommendation: ¼ tsp cardamom

Glaze

• ¼ cup apricot or peach preserves

• ¼ cup lemon juice

• 1 cup powdered sugar

• Optional: lemon zest, if you want it to look extra pretty

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Measure out the buttermilk and coconut oil, and set them aside with the eggs for at least 20 minutes to reach room temperature (relatively, I know y'all are impatient). Grease and line a 9x5 loaf pan with parchment. (Or a muffin tin with muffin liners. Or a bundt pan with butter and flour. You get the idea.) Get all your ingredients measured and ready to begin mixing. (I usually take this time to go over to my neighbor's front yard and steal a lemon from their tree.)

2. Whisk together the lemon zest, flour, leavening agents, salt, poppy seeds, and cardamom, if using. 

3. Using either an electric mixer, or the whisk attachment with a stand mixer, beat the coconut oil and sugar on medium speed until combined. They won't get fluffy like butter does, so just do it until the mixture homogenizes. 

4. Add both eggs, lemon juice and vanilla, and increase the speed to high. Beat until pale yellow and somewhat frothy, about 2 minutes. This step makes sure that the resulting cake is light and rises to its full potential. 

5. If you are using a stand mixer, switch to the paddle attachment. Next, add in the dry ingredients in three additions and the buttermilk in two additions. Alternate between the two, starting and ending with dry. 

6. If you’re not a wimp, taste the batter at this point (I survived Salmonella. You’ll be fine. An alternative would be inviting over someone you highly dislike and make them taste it, just in case.). If it’s not sour/lemony enough, add lemon juice 1 tbsp at a time until it tickles your fancy.

7. Transfer the batter into the baking vessel of choice, and pop it into the oven until golden (about 1 hour for a loaf, or half an hour for muffins). Since this isn’t a quickbread, the top will be smooth, so don’t look for the distinctive banana bread crack. You will burn it. 

8. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. Leave to cool for another 50 minutes at least.

9. 15 minutes before serving, start making the glaze.* Don’t do it before, it’ll make the glaze all gross and watery. Or it will make the cake soggy. Not cute. Whisk together the jam, juice, and ginger if you’re into that. Put the powdered sugar into the bowl, and add the wet ingredients a little bit at a time, stirring completely before the next addition. Drizzle as you like over your cooled cake, and eat to your heart’s content, then text me about how much better it is than the Starbucks one. 

   *Glazes are weird, every time you make them they turn out different no matter how exact you are measuring your ingredients, At the end of the day, it all comes down to personal preference and the humidity of your kitchen at that particular moment. So don’t come for me if it doesn’t turn out right initially. We’re social distancing anyway, and I trust that if you’ve survived this far in your life, you’ll be able to use your big fat brain to get to your desired consistency. 

   If you try this recipe at home, let the Evolution staff know! Post a picture and tag @ocsaevolution!

Can Conservatory Go the Distance?

Corey LoDuca - Staff Writer

The transition to academic distance learning was a unique experience for students and teachers. Tests and lectures were rapidly adapted to fit platforms like Zoom and Schoology, and many of us were left worrying about the future for our grades, events, and conservatory classes. It seemed like some conservatories would have no problem switching to alternative platforms or submitting work digitally, but being physically present in class seems to be vital for others, especially performance-based conservatories.

With many students reporting feeling overwhelmed and stressed with the new distance learning’s academic workload, we knew that come March 23rd, conservatory would certainly add to our to-do lists. 

Quarantine is without a doubt a great opportunity to channel feelings of uncertainty, isolation, or anxiety into a creative outlet. OCSA students and conservatory teachers are aware of this, and many teachers are taking this into account when approaching distance learning strategies. Mrs. Barbara Hallman has led VA Mixed Media students in various assignments including making their own Amabie-- protective, mythical creatures in Japanese culture that prophesize upcoming harvests and epidemics. Students were vulnerable about their feelings of concern regarding the current COVID-19 pandemic and explored ways to creatively protect themselves and others. Another project had students making shrines to whatever they wanted , encouraging many to get some fresh air outside and focus on what they enjoy even during quarantine. Over in Musical Theatre, Senior Capstone teachers Mr. Pietro Marinaro and Ms. Amy Harwell have been assigning written work prompting students to consider how being actors, dancers, and singers helps them deal with the crisis. The idea is to prompt reflection regarding how students can process their feelings in a way conducive to the creative process one might embark on when creating a character for a role or performance.

Some of the biggest struggles for students have been the limited access to materials, equipment, and software at home. Musicians in the Popular Music conservatory have been assigned music composition projects but many do not have access to the necessary software. An anonymous PM student expressed frustration with this and shared “I honestly have more work for one conservatory class than I do for three academic classes put together… I feel extremely overwhelmed."

However, some instructors, like Chef Kogi of Culinary Arts & Hospitality, have tried to keep lessons simple and accessible. Not all students in CAH have access to chef-grade equipment in their homes so Kogi has been sharing videos of herself cooking staples like bread. Culinary students have been submitting pictures of their dishes online and lamenting the fact that they cannot taste each other’s food.

Unfortunately, many are missing incredibly formative experiences, even despite having access to the needed materials. FTV conservatory director Mr. O had students check out equipment to create their senior projects before remote learning began. But with the progression of the COVID-19 outbreak, many seniors have had to indefinitely postpone filming ―due to the number of people required on a film set― in order to practice social distancing. 

Some art forms are inherently collaborative and it seems like that is what students are missing the most. Creative writers are used to turning in their work digitally but have less opportunities for feedback and communication with each other. Distance inevitably makes some aspects of creating art together impossible. As one IM wind studies student put it, "I really don't think online learning is suitable for [my] conservatory, especially since most of the time we spend... is working on ensemble repertoire." Despite the snags and challenges we can still gain a lot from being creative right now, and continue to be thankful for the conservatory teachers who are working hard on their approaches to distance learning.

Quarantine Recommendations: Music

From Mr. Peterson: My Journal for Journalism

Karl Peterson - Staff Advisor

If I told you that I’m anxious because I don’t know what the next two weeks will look like, would you be surprised? That I don’t like staying in my house for most of the day for more than three weeks? Nowadays, saying you’re tired of staying home is the quickest phrase to reach cliche status since “Whoomp, there it is.”

How about this one: would you believe that I find myself spending the day consuming myself with activities that only produce the effect of getting me through the day? I’ve been doing the wildest things, like going for walks, talking to neighbors, driving up and down the coast (like for fun), painting the bathroom (also, like for fun).

What about when, last week, the whole family got the sniffles and a slight cough? Are you surprised that I thought maybe, just maybe, I was carrying this virus and that I was going to endanger the people in my house? I’m happy to say the sniffles and cough are mostly gone, but not the thought that I might be carrying this disease. A human weapon, touching my family and every doorknob between here and Trader Joe’s. 

Do I need to tell you that in the course of trying to teach, I’ve had to go work in the garage because there was too much going on in the house, then back to the house 90 seconds later because the internet was weak, returning to the kitchen table, only to realize that I need my calendar on my phone that I just left in the garage downstairs? 

It sounds familiar? Well, it should. Everyone I have managed to contact over the past few weeks has been having the same experience. My family, my in-laws, the friends I see 

walking in the park … before the parks closed. They’re all acting the same way. They’re all frustrated by trying to avoid the fallout from the fusion reaction of home and work life. Or, they’re trying to fill the time with any activity to absorb the shock that there is no work life for a while, and there will be no income. They have fought over household workspaces. They’ve been frustrated with high-energy kids who are equally frustrated by a lack of attention.

But, of course, there’s the fun parts. I hear about some people who are really leaning-in to the quarantine, seeking shelter behind the controller of a Nintendo Switch, or in front of a “Tiger King.” Some are getting more exercise than they ever have or are learning a hobby. Baking and knitting seem to be popular among my students and friends. 

Heck, I’ve even noticed something I was calling Corona-maradery, until my wife told me I was jinxing us by my making even the most inert virus humor. People are waving and saying hello to strangers. They’re checking in on their neighbors, friends and family. They’re picking up groceries and medicine for those who can’t.  

One way or another, we are all in this together. We are together alone.

What Have You Been Doing to Keep Yourself Busy?

Anica Sherry - Staff Writer

Three weeks ago, just as the second semester workload began to gain momentum and there was not enough time in the day, students and parents were informed via email that OCSA would be temporarily closed and that within the next week students would begin online distance learn- ing. Assignments are still being pumped out of Google Classroom, but with these new “quarantine schedules,” many students are now able to turn their mind to tasks that they perhaps couldn’t squeeze into their schedule just a few weeks earlier. All of this time has sudden- ly been gifted to us. What have we been doing with it?

As art students, we are inevitably inclined to create. Over half of the students I talked to have had excess time to specialize in their particular artistic field. Lars Milberger (VA ‘21) has participated in art trades with fellow artists and he is in the process of sewing a second dress. Idle drawing/painting has been taken up by many students as well, in bullet journals, on leather jackets, or any surface that could use an artistic pick-me- up.

Among the instrumentalists and songwriters, some have picked up new instruments. Maddie Osment (MT ‘21) has made it a personal task to learn a song a day on the piano, scheduling it into her to-do list that she has constructed for herself. Monica Johnson (MT ‘21) has rekindled her relationship with the guitar, using this time to revisit songs she used to play and music she loves now.

“I haven’t played in a while because my brother had a guitar class and was bringing it to school daily, but he kind of returned it to me, so we’ve been sharing it,” Johnson said. For her, this period is not only a bonding experience, but something that allows her to keep up with singing and doing something meaningful to her.

A couple of people have finally been able to organize their Spotify playlists, assigning playlist photos and perfecting the look of their Spotify account, as well as ex- changing tunes with friends. Rachel Tian (CW ‘21) made a collaborative playlist, at first asking a few friends to contribute. Soon, with the press of a button, the playlist was on her Instagram story, inviting her peers to help make it a public project.

Finding time to read for fun has been especially difficult during high school for many, but that has changed this week for Desiree Sturrock (IM-S ‘21) and Ree Han (FTV ‘21), who recently finished the coming-of-age novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Han, who had been meaning to read it after seeing the movie, finished it in three days. Sturrock has been rereading old books she owns and poetry.

Sturrock hasn’t had a problem keeping herself busy. She’s been using green yarn to create a moss-resembling rug, saying “ My mom and I have been knitting this rug for like, a year and a half now, for my sister before she went away to college, but we didn’t finish because it is a large rug. But now we have time.” She continued, saying she has also been caring for her plants. “I have indoor plants, big plants. I have a big one named Mingus. And Al Green is a new cactus I adopted,” she said, touring me around her miniature forest through Facetime.

In the past two weeks Sturrock and her mother have cooked a wide variety of foods, from snacks to blueberry lemonade, but she isn’t the only one who has channeled
her inner chef. Four students have recounted being in the kitchen at some point to concoct something delicious. Yasmeen Baghdadi (CMD ‘21) has baked cookies and made vegan meals while spending time with family.

Immersing yourself in nature is virtually impossible for students who get home after dark during the school year, but a fifth of the students I spoke with have been exploring the environment on walks or bike rides. During these times, we should be taking caution and distancing ourselves socially, but that doesn't mean you shouldn’t go outside to get a breath of fresh air or perhaps some sun (and no, going outside to pick fruit for Tom Nook doesn’t count).

PIERCE TRIES: Pierce Tries Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Kyle Keller - Multimedia Co-Editor

 “Hey,” wrote Pierce Lewis (IA, ‘21). “Would you be available to play Animal Crossing at 4:30 pm tomorrow, Sunday?”

A few days prior, I’d been assigned my first article since the coronavirus lockdown: a new Pierce Tries. Having grappled with the realization that I might never have another normal school day at OCSA (or any kind of school day, for that matter), I’d turned to the recently-released Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a game for the Nintendo Switch wherein the player harvests fruit, socializes with animal friends, and maintains a village, for solace. Clearly, I wasn’t the only one. The buzz leading up to the March 20th release date had been furious — everywhere I looked on social media, I saw people planning their towns, workshopping design ideas, and praying that a certain villager move in near them.

I was doing the same, albeit, in my head. I had a pretty good idea of how Animal Crossing worked, but had never actually played it myself. My island — christened “Wichita,” after the town in Kansas — would be my first-ever village experience. I was a greenhorn compared to people who had apparently been fishing ceolacanths (the rarest fish in the game, for those who don’t know) when they were in diapers.

Mr. Lewis, of course, entered New Horizons an Animal Crossing legend. Some years prior, he logged four hundred hours on Animal Crossing: New Leaf in a town called Vert (his mom told him it was French for “green”). That’s about three hundred hours longer than I’ve spent on any video game, ever. His new village (or island, because New Horizons is set on an island) was named Fiordland.

I answered in the affirmative, and we made plans. It felt strangely similar to how we’d planned out his taco and sushi escapades: we compared commitments, settled on a vague time, and ended up meeting late. But they were still unavoidably different. When I finally grabbed my Switch, plopped myself onto my bed, and logged on, my head was buzzing with the latest coronavirus news and the distinct stale feeling that comes from being indoors all day — concerns that would’ve felt unbelievable even a month prior. 

As I passed over Fiordland for the first time, I was struck by how well-planned it was. All the houses were condensed into a little neighborhood that I only caught a piece of while flying overhead; connecting the airport to the town was a sort of makeshift path, flanked by trees and large yellow-and-red banners, leading straight to Mr. Lewis’s front door.

Beneath the shadow of my passing plane, I could see Mr. Lewis’s character waving and smiling. Upon first glance, he looked strikingly similar to how he always does in real life — an open, short-sleeve, navy blue collared shirt with a white t-shirt underneath it, black pants, and sneakers — save for one vital aspect: the hair. His head was a large white dome with a braid on the tippity-top.

“LOVE THE HAIR,” I texted him.

The plane set down, I made my entrance, and we met outside the airport under a pink-and-orange sky. We were lucky to be meeting during sunset — the light filling every geographical feature and glinting on our characters’ faces gave the term “Nintendo polish” new meaning. During golden hour, New Horizons happens to be breathtakingly beautiful.

“HOWDY,” I wrote.

“hello!” responded Mr. Lewis. “love the shirt”

I was wearing an item I’d purchased with Nook Miles, a form of in-game currency. In fact, I’d been quite proud of my outfit when I set out — pink rubber boots with a matching pink hair clip, green plaid shorts, and a shirt with a big frog on the front. “gracias,” I answered. In the moments I’d taken to type it out, Mr. Lewis had switched from his braid to a haircut that looked practically identical to his real-life one: middle-parted, with the two sides leaning outwards like curtains.

The first stop was, naturally, the Lewis abode. I stepped inside and was charmed by the decor — it was a functional living room space, complete with two armchairs, a corner with a bed and bedside table, and a kitchenette. I complimented his interior decorating skills (“dude. decor is on FIRE”), thought of my own house back on Wichita (purple camo walls and rosewood floorboards, what was I thinking?), and remembered something.

“have a gift for ya,” I wrote. “housewarming”

“where?” he answered.

“ill place er outside”

As I dug the item out of my inventory, Mr. Lewis switched back to his braid. “WHOA,” I commented.

“it makes me laugh,” wrote Mr. Lewis.

“you should go for this irl”

“idk, i’ll have to think about it”

“Hehehe,” I said, both in-game and to myself. 

I took a few screenshots as Mr. Lewis examined the gift. “ooo,” he said. “i dont have a garden gnome. thanks!”

“np my man”

He followed me as I took a self-guided tour of the rest of Fiordland. To the right of his home, he had another makeshift path leading to the villagers’ neighborhood. It was — suffice it to say — adorable. Bordered by a brick fence and speckled with flower patches, the setup immediately made me doubt all my own design choices, which involved building the houses in random locations rather than coming up with a way to organize them. But I wasn’t jealous by any stretch of the imagination; rather, I was inspired. It’s always exciting to see what creations other people are coming up with in Animal Crossing — and even more exciting to steal them.

One little nook in particular grabbed my attention: left of House Lewis was a hammock on the bank of a pond. Framed by bamboo and buttressed by a small array of near-blooming flowers, it belied a feeling of calm and disconnection from the hubbub of Fiordland’s living space. Another feature I would have to replicate.

After chatting with a few of Mr. Lewis’s villagers (“i hate him,” he said of a blue mouse named Broccolo), we traced our way back to his house for a commemorative photo, made plans for him to visit my island post-haste, and said our goodbyes as the sun grew lower in the sky.

Roughly an hour later, Mr. Lewis descended upon Wichita for the first time. While he scampered around, making the occasional comment on my wall of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard albums and the little tea party I’d set up in the corner of my island, I tried to do a little reorganizing of my own and found that I couldn’t. When someone is visiting a player’s island, Animal Crossing: New Horizons forces them to pay attention to the company that’s over, rather than continue about their normal business. I was a little annoyed, but it felt like it came from the right place — almost as if the game was my mother scolding me for “ignoring our guests.”

Then, my phone buzzed: Teddi Haynes (CW, ‘20) wanted to sell some pears. She’d never met Mr. Lewis in real life, though she knew of his reputation. When she descended upon Wichita, we all greeted one another, made a quick stop at the Nook’s Cranny, then horsed around, pole vaulting into one another and whapping each other with bug nets. At one point, in one of my back rooms, we compared custom designs and tried to make ourselves look as hideous as possible.

But, as much as the two match up, in-game time is not the same as real-world time — when you’re hanging out with friends, in-game time is far shorter. After a half hour, Teddi announced that she had to hop off and do an assignment for one of her classes. Right afterwards, Mr. Lewis told me he had a paper to write for AP Lang, wished me well, and bolted for the airport. By the time I logged off, the sun had set and the dark haze of nighttime had settled over Wichita.

The next day, I hopped back on Animal Crossing at roughly nine in the morning. The flowers in my front yard had bloomed, the trees were full of cherries, and rainclouds coated the sky, foreshadowing a potential good fishing session later.

As I stepped out of my house to greet the new day, I checked the mailbox and found a letter from Mr. Lewis. It read:

“Hey Mr. Keller!

I wanted to thank you for the gift earlier and for taking time to write the Pierce Tries series. I know this won't be sufficient but I hope you enjoy my gift and smile whenever you use it

From Mr. Lewis”

Attached was an item concealed in a little white box. When I opened it, I found a braid of the same kind Mr. Lewis had worn — wearing it, my character looked just as bald and goofy-looking as his. I laughed, big and long, and realized it’d been a while since I was so casually happy.

Highlighting OCSA Artists

Senioritis: April 2020

Anya Ernst - Co-Editor-in-Chief

Let me start out by saying this was not how Senioritis was supposed to go. This was not how my senior year was supposed to go. I had it all figured out, every month I would share the ups and downs of my senior year, ending with a funny little note for my final column “Anya was too unmotivated to write the article this month due to senioritis!”. But seeing what’s happening around the world, I thought there was more to share. 

And I guess this kind of encompasses my senior year as a whole. I had an idea of how I wanted things to go and a schedule of when I would work hard, when I would relax, when I would focus on making memories and when I would work my part time job. But, nothing went as planned. And I definitely have regrets about how things this year went. I know now that I should, in the future, work on managing my time to focus on school but also not compromising my time to recharge, to spend time with friends and family, and to have fun. I wish that I listened to myself more and honored when my brain knew it was time to take a break before I did. I wish I put more of an emphasis on my mental health sooner. And I wish that I didn’t take everything so seriously. I was waiting for dancing at Prom, hanging up my college acceptance cards in the hallway, and walking across the stage at graduation as a time to say goodbye to childhood and to have a neatly packaged closing chapter to my high school experience.  I challenge all juniors to start savoring the end of high school more, because I have now learned that it can all go away so quickly whether we are ready or not. 

Frankly, I am very doubtful that we will go back to school which is pretty stressful and sad for everyone, but particularly as a senior it's been very upsetting. I would love to be wrong, and for us to go back to school in two weeks, but the way that our country’s government and most importantly citizens are so irresponsibly handling this I do not think that it’s a possibility. Which for me means no senior second semester, no last play, no senior project, no prom, no writing my college in chalk on 10th street, no senior sunset, no more 10th street fridays, no college tours or accepted student days before I commit, and most importantly no graduation. No graduation. What?!? I don’t even know how to comprehend that. Graduating high school is something I have worked my whole life for. It’s a universal experience that almost everyone shares. Graduating high school is up there with getting married, having kids. One of the most amazing and special milestones of my life I won’t get to have which is just heartbreaking, so heartbreaking I haven’t even entirely processed it. 

When Gov. Newsom’s announcement came out a few days ago, it really hit me how I wouldn’t be going back to school or getting to do all of the things I planned for my senior year of high school and possibly my freshman year of college. And it sucks. And I feel like I want to cry everytime I think about not graduating, not going to prom, not stepping foot on OCSA campus again, and probably never seeing some people that made my high school experience ever again. I didn’t get a proper goodbye with any friends, teachers, or my conservatory class. And I feel horrible about it, so horrible that when I try to watch TV or read to distract myself, little things trigger this sadness and anxiety. Watching Rory Gilmore graduate from Chilton fully made me ugly cry because I just realized....I will never get to do that. 

Everytime I get sad about these things I also feel guilty. I mean to quote Kourtney Kardashian “there are people that are dying!” and I’m crying over not getting to go to my senior prom. But at the same time, I am trying to work through and process these emotions, letting myself be sad and frustrated at these horrible events that we cannot control, and we are allowed to feel this way despite other people having it much, much worse than us. I just have to practice empathy for those around me, and try to put things in perspective as much as possible, right? I hope that’s right. Because I just feel awful all the time, and I don’t know what to do. I mean it makes sense I don’t know what to do. Nothing like this has ever happened before. Ever. And we are having to work through all of this on our own in self isolation which is making the coping even worse. No matter how quickly we resolve this, the world will be changed forever and things are going to be a lot different. This is definitely going to affect where I go to college, art and culture, and especially world economics and government. And it’s all happening in real time which is exciting on a history nerd scale, but how I wish I could be reading about this in a textbook rather than living through this anxious unknown.

Horoscopes: April 2020

Maddy Ernst - Online Editor-in-Chief

Aries:

Aries, your feelings of personal responsibilities does not seem to be defined. In order for you to understand what other people expect from you, you need to ask for clarification. Be wary of impulse purchases this month, but don’t let that stop you from treating yourself (within moderation.)

Taurus:

Privacy seems to be very important for you this month, Taurus, but you also want to put your best front forward. Also, you’ve noticed that suddenly everything around you is changing, and you’ve been a little upset about it. It’s important to understand that adaptation should be the key to this situation as changes are very hard for you to take. 

Gemini:

Gemini, this month could find some of you involved with friends and charitable activities. News could be reaching you connected to your position or status in the community, bringing information that could be very useful to you. Impulsive action to seek enjoyment on a trip could be cause of a disagreement; cooperation and refrain should be looked into. 

Cancer:

Cancer, social status and the community seem to be very much on the forefront for you this month. Pay lots of attention to your social life and the people in it. Be wary, a friend with good intentions could be misinformed. Trusting yourself and what you know before you make any decisions will be for the best.

Leo:

This month, Leo, you’ll find a more philosophical outlook into your life. As the month progresses, you’ll be looking at a deeper meaning into where you are going.  Asserting yourself during challenging circumstances will be very beneficial for all. 

Virgo:

Virgo, the spotlight this month is on your innate sense of worry. Intuition and sense of responsibility will come into play in your anxiety. There should be lots of activities connected to your personal sources, some unexpected expenses related to your line of work could come to pass. Inclination to act rashly should be curtailed and prudence be called for.

Libra:

For some of you, wedding bells could be ringing right now and others could be entering into business partnerships. Minor differences in your point of view with loved ones could be blown out of proportion. So, iron out disagreements before anything is signed and sealed. Imaginary responsibilities could be cause of worries, so try to be realistic and look at other points of view.

Scorpio:

A strong lack of communication is impairing your understanding of responsibilities, Scorpio. Issues should be faced and discussed. Changes at your home front seem to be happening in an unexpected fashion, giving you sense of having your hands tied in spite of your needs. Remembering past experience could be helpful.

Sagittarius:

Sagittarius, lots of communication between you and friends will be happening, bringing unexpected news. An experience that will be brought up to the forefront should be well learned. Your work area is bringing you pleasant circumstances and some of you might be promised financial reward, but remember that promises are only promises, so follow up.

Capricorn:

Slow changes are going to start a momentum, Capricorn, and major changes in life goals is one of the things that you‘ll see in the immediate future. Preoccupation about this change could bother you, but they will pass briefly. Insecurities about your role and responsibilities at home could be bothering you, so communication with loved one could clarify and define the situation for you.

Aquarius:

Aquarius, try to avoid confrontations as emotions could get in the way. Worries about your future goals will be bothering you, but listening to your inner feelings will guide you. Future rewards could be on the horizon if you are patient with important choices, especially about finances.

Pisces:

The spotlight this month is on your area of personal values, Pisces. You will be learning a thing or two concerning other people’s life paths that may intersect with your own. Keep your mind open to suggestions that could be very beneficial to you. Make sure to listen to the important people in your life, and take their advice to heart. They care about you!