6. Schnitzel 2025

We all have those random facts that sit in our heads and come out periodically in thought, ranging from events to certain people. Sometimes when I’m casually on social media or even in the middle of relaxing, I start to recall different events and sports while connecting the dots on how they could have possibly started a butterfly effect on the future of their respective leagues. In football, the Chicago Bears are often seen as a team on the lower level of the league. Many fans often forget that they were a field goal away from advancing to the conference championship, though. They would have had a pretty good chance in that game and could have gone all the way to play in the Super Bowl. Instead of going to the Bowl, the failed field goal kick became the iconic “Double-Doink” as the ball hit two of the posts before bouncing out of the goal.  If they would have had a reliable kicker at this time, then they would not have all this talk about being a lesser recognized team in the leag...

The logo of the MafiaScum Wiki, a wiki dedicated to online versions of the game. Source: MafiaScum Today was the largest game of mafia I have ever been a part of. 17 people! 18, if you count the Game Master. It also marks the end of a two-year hiatus I took from the game.  Throughout seventh to ninth grade, I was active on mafia forums and the MafiaScum Wiki pages (that’s Mafia Scum by the way; scum is a term used to describe any party that works against villagers in the game). I loved playing mafia online. Threads and direct messages allowed for much more privacy between mafia members, allowing for roles and setups to become far more complex than they could ever be in person. But despite the social nature of this game, I always felt disconnected from the other online players. There’s something distinct about sitting in a circle, eyeing down people that have been biting back smiles or have stayed suspiciously silent for most of the round. There’s something distinct about physical...

I believe that memories are best when they’re shared.  Of course, different people will have different understandings of the same experience—and that’s part of the beauty of making memories together.  Source: National Forest Foundation I remember during science camp in sixth grade, we went on individual hikes for a small portion of the trail; I walked past one of the most scenic views of the California wilderness and took a picture of it with my camera. I lost my camera during that trip—but I wasn’t upset about that at all. The beauty of that view is still ingrained in my brain, I’ll never forget it. What I was more disappointed by was the fact that no one got to see that view with me. I didn’t get to feel the rush of shared excitement and awe at the viridian leaves of the numerous redwood trees, at the river rushing at a steady pace just beneath the trail, nor at the way the sun shone leaves and glittered on the waters. I wanted to have someone there to see the beauty of the ...

"You ain't a kid no more. We'll never be those kids again. It's not the same, ivory's illegal. Don't you remember?" These lyrics from Ivy by Frank Ocean don't just linger with me—they settle deep inside my chest, a quiet but heavy truth as we step outside of junior year. "You ain't a kid no more." It's not a lyric—it's a reckoning. The free, endless days of youth that once seemed endless are slipping away. We're passing over a threshold, leaving behind the wildness and the wonder. "We'll never be those kids again." That's the hardest part. The innocence we took for granted, the careless errors that previously counted for nothing, are now reminders. The past is distant and lost, like "ivory's illegal"—something so valuable and frail, it can't be held, only recalled. It's not that time has changed, it's that we have. The people we used to be in those unvarnished, potential minutes are...

As this is the last blog I will ever write, I wanted to share one memory I will remember with all of the people in my class. AP Lang was a rollercoaster of a class… the amount of stress it caused me is immeasurable. However, I am so grateful that I got this experience since I think this class is the one which has the most tightly connected community. Suhas Bathini: I will not forget how terrible of a dancer you are. I am glad that the Gartic telephone allowed me to become friends with you. Ananya Bhardwaj: Your Michael Jackson impression is amazing. I will need a full length cover. Yuhaendan Bhaskaran: You are a bad mafia, letting your hands give you away.  James Chan: Your stage presence is amazing, which was evident in your POAS. I have had the pleasure of having English with you twice and getting to witness incredible performances more than twice. Devyani Choudhury: You whispering under your breath, “[A 3] is not the same to me,” will always make me giggle. Ritwik Deshpande: I a...

I love arts and crafts– painting, knitting, sewing, origami you get what I mean.  If I was giving someone a gift that meant at least one thing they received was made by me. I have made: cards, jars of stars, and crocheting stuffed animals.  I used to always make gifts no matter what, but I stopped after high school. Partially the reason for why I stopped was because I lost motivation to make them, but the real reason is because I got lazy. So recently I wanted to try to do arts and crafts again instead of being on my phone all the time. As we all know, Mother’s day was recently as well, so I decided to make pipe cleaner flowers.  In all honesty, my flowers were kind of ugly but, hey, it's the thought that counts. My mom was really happy with the flowers, but I knew my younger self would have done so much better than me. “According to a Nasa study, adults lose 96% of their creativity just by growing up.”  I realized I have lost so much creativity compared to when I wa...

  This year might have been the most memorable bout of time in my recent history; even after excluding the mind bending outwardly world events, this year was still filled with the highest highs and lowest lows of my life. This blog seems like a farewell letter, partly because this is, after the end of this year I am leaving American High to join Ohlone Connections . It seems strange how I will not be seeing the wonderful friends I made during APeng, and largely in American High. So as we close this year I ask you to think about some of the memorable parts of this year, some lenses tell a more interesting tale. One lens to view the year through, could be the “WAR AGAINST COLLEGE BOARD.” It started with a training montage where we met are lieutenant, Mrs. Smith,  and as the year progresses so did our skills. Who doesn’t remember the sleepless nights spent doing annotations, or mental connections forged through rhetorical analysis. In the middle of this epic we face off against...

Have you ever had something that is a saying or a joke that few people know about, but when you finally get a chance to use it, it causes you to immediately laugh or chuckle out loud? Those are inside jokes —a secret language shared with good friends or close family members. Inside jokes not only make a conversation such an awesome one; they cause memories to linger and create a connection in a special way. Inside jokes typically result from a funny moment, a dumb moment, or even a dumb misunderstanding. Maybe it was something crazy someone had said or something bizarre that just occurred and your crew of you all had chuckled at. Those moments get shifted to such unique quotes or lines which become close only with your crew after some time. Whenever one of those quotations comes up again, it feels like hitting the "pause" button that takes you back to that happy place. Everyone automatically remembers the context to it and feels that way again. The beauty of these jokes is th...

  Has it ever caught your attention how you can forget where you put your phone five minutes ago, but you can somehow recall every lyric to a song you haven’t heard since second grade? This feeling goes beyond nostalgia! It's actually science! As children everything we learned came in a catchy tune, making the words more likely to stick! An example of this that I hope we can all relate to is the ABCs.. you didn’t memorize the alphabet by staring at a list, you would sing it. In fact, try singing it without the tune, its harder right? That’s because melody can create a structure in each of our brains that helps lock in the information. This is also a reason commercials stay stuck in our heads and theme songs from before are so easy to remember.  S ongs have more value than just their repetition though, these songs are more than often tied to formative emotional experiences like road trips, holidays and specific teachers. Language that is linked to emotion activates many areas o...