Senior Issue 2023

B4 | Senior Issue Friday, May 26, 2023
Welcome to The Californian, you’re l
Let’s talk about the past four
years at Cal High in classic
YouTube rewind format
Wyatt Golla
News Lite Editor
As a senior at our esteemed
California High School, I can
say three things with absolute
certainty. For one, there is no
other high school that is quite
like ours. Two, the previous
four years have been one wild
ride. The third thing is that I am
very tired.
Back when I was barely
even a freshman I had so many
different ideas of what high
school would be like. Getting
shoved into a locker, studying
furiously for tests and seeing
other students spontaneously
breakout into song, the usual.
My expectations may have
been just slightly influenced by
“High School Musical”, but you
get the point.
What I had no idea of, however,
was just how hectic the next
four years would be. Though to
be fair, there is very little anyone
could have predicted about the
coming years.
My experiences, and the
experiences of all the other Ca
seniors, have been truly unique
in a way that is difficult to put
into words. I mean, how does
one summarize four whole
school years while desperately
trying to stay brief?
Well, seeing how I’m trying
to give an overview of the things
we all experienced at Cal, why
not structure it like a YouTube
Rewind, the synopsis of the content
seen on the platform during
the year? Those have always
been received well, right?
It all started in freshman year,
as such notable things so often
do. Our first introduction to the
eventful Cal campus was interesting,
to say the least. Packed
hallways, towering flights of
stairs, the things we’ve familiarized
ourselves with now. But
one thing that remained constant
is the occurrence of graffiti in
our bathrooms at the time.
Barely a semester into the
year and the school already had
a scandal. Graffiti was scrawled
on tiled walls and stalls of
varying messages and slurs.
Administrators quickly dealt
with the issue, but graffiti would
still be written in the bathrooms
through most of the year.
One of the most influential
topics of the year, however, was
an up and coming app called
TikTok. All the way back in
ye olde freshman year, TikTok
hadn’t gained the popularity in
the school as it would have in
later years. Most students didn’t
really know or care about the
app, as it was still generally
niche. Better times.
But good times don’t always
last. Especially after all of us
were hit with what may be the
most influential occurrence of
our high school tenure.
Let’s address the elephant
in the room, COVID-19. I’m
sure that we all remember that
week in early March, when
we were still wondering if Cal
was actually going to suspend
in-person learning. I remember
the last day of school on campus
that year vividly.
I was practically rejoicing at
the fact that I wouldn’t have to
finish a soliloquy poster after
reading “Romeo and Juliet” in
English. I couldn’t, for the life
of me, remember a single line
from that book.
Still can’t, sorry Mr. Barr.
But the coming quarantine
showed us that maybe celebrating
our perceived freedom
would show our hubris, as we
were all going to stay inside
for a while.
This makes for a good segue
into the next year, sophomore
year. The year without a campus,
the great indoors, quarantine
boogaloo or whatever moniker
the year has earned.
I’ll cut to the chase and say
what we’re all thinking. Quarantine
wasn’t fun. I never thought
that I could get claustrophobic
in my own room or manage to
slowly wear down the skin on
my fingers from scrolling so
much, but quarantine will do
that to you.
I’m pretty sure I contorted my
body to look like a hunchbacked
seahorse slouching as I was in
my chair at home. As if my
spine wasn’t already italicized,
quarantine only exacerbated the
issue of my abysmal posture.
Above everything else, staying
at home while going to
class online was so mundane,
repetitive and mind numbingly
boring. Of course I understood
and respected why we were in
quarantine. That didn’t make it
any easier. The teachers made
an incredible effort to keep
things diverse and interesting
while online, for which I am
immensely grateful.
But with all due respect, one
can only do so many assignments
online without getting
repetitive. I didn’t realize that
I could get bored of watching
YouTube and memes or of playing
the hit new game, “Among
Us”, but it turns out I could.
To be fair, there is only so
much one can do to keep a
classroom engaged on Zoom,
so teachers did everything that
they really could. But there
were some invigorating things
to do during the year, like online
AP tests.
Y’know what scratch, that,
the tests were about as interesting
as watching the seconds
slowly go by during the nearly
hour long student support we
had. For those who had the
mercy of not doing an AP test
online, I really envy you.
Saying that an online AP Euro
test is tedious and made me want
to slam my head into my Macbook
like a panini press would
be a bit of an understatement.
But there was one terrifically
wondrous thing about
sophomore year that made the
tedium worth it. It ended. Not
with some grand gesture or feelgood
reunion. It just ended and
many of us students were left
scratching our heads wondering
what would come next.
Well, the obvious answer to
that was the next year, but you
get the idea.
Junior year was a breath of
fresh air for most, and an inhale
of freshly eaten breakfast- scented
mask breath for others.
Returning to the Cal campus
was amazing, don’t get me
wrong here. I never thought
that I would miss exhaustedly
climbing up three flights of
stairs every day, but junior year