Viewpoints Volume XVI 2020 A nonfiction literary magazine produced annually by the students of Western Reserve Academy Hudson, OH Viewpoints Staff Table of Contents Regina Aguilar, Art Editor Elie Aoun, Nonfiction Editor Introduction to Volume XVI 1 Suraj Dakappagari, Nonfiction Editor Ellie Frato-Sweeney, Nonfiction Editor Ellie Frato-Sweeney & Suraj Dakappagari Selma Wu, Art Editor Ms. Bunt, Faculty Advisor Personal Essays and Other Viewpoints 4 Mr. Campbell, Faculty Advisor Mrs. Raymaley-Hoffman,Faculty Advisor Anonymous Elie Aoun Editorial Policy Suraj Dakappagari Students at WRA submit works of nonfiction and art for consideration for Isabella Folio the publication of Viewpoints. Submissions are electronic: viewpoints@ Ellie Frato-Sweeney wra.net. We aim to showcase the broad range of talent, thought, and opin- Elizabeth Hoffman ion here at the Academy. Josephine Houska Nadia Konovalchik Cover Vivien Marmerstein The cover was designed by Regina Aguilar and Selma Wu Miranda Namiotka Lily Nicholson Survey Naphat Permpredanun Annually, Viewpoints conducts an online survey of the WRA community– Alex Shi students, faculty, and staff. The questions range from the personal to the Ilyana Smith political and fanciful. With the Covid-19 outbreak occurring this year, the Allison Weinzierl survey also includes numerous questions about the pandemic. Results of Zachary Zelman the survey are introduced in this volume. Full results are available online at https://tinyurl.com/ydxaywv9. Senior Speeches 64 Note Julia Ashley The opinions expressed in this journal do not necessarily reflect the views Sophie Borrmann of the editors, faculty advisors, or Western Reserve Academy. The view- Suraj Dakappagari points contained herein belong exclusively to the individual authors and James Doh artists responsible for presenting them. Ellie Frato-Sweeney Noah Frato-Sweeney Clara Fu Elizabeth Hoffman Josephine Houska Andrew Huang Nadia Konovalchik Sonia Lau Miranda Namiotka Francis Ong Naphat Permpredanun Olivia Robinson Eliza Rusnak Elizabeth Siegenthaler Ilyana Smith Matthew Stefen Ana Villada Allison Weinzierl Jasmine Wheeler Chloe Zelch Zachary Zelman History Contest Winners 135 Jasmine Wheeler Introduction to Volume XVI Vivien Marmerstein Gallery 170 Regina Aguilar Kitty Deng Andrew Huang Brian Mahaffey Lucy Maule Lala Nguyen Naphat Permpredanun Ellie Polyak Selma Wu Viewpoints Survey 191 1 invaluable this year, and we’re not kidding when we say we could not Introduction by the Senior Editors have done it without them. Thanks as well to the new members of our staff: Regina Aguilar ’20, Elie Aoun ’21, and Selma Wu ’21. It was great Within this edition of Viewpoints exists a snapshot of the lives of to work with you and we know you’ll do a fantastic job next year. And of Reserve students as they were in the 2019-20 school year. Their hopes and course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t thank everyone who submitted their dreams, thoughts and feelings, come through the pages. This year, we are non-fiction pieces and/or took theViewpoints survey. Without you, this honored to include everything from senior speeches to college essays and book would be filled with blank pages and literally no one wants to read everything in between. Artwork can be found towards the end of the book, that. and in its final pages we highlight the annualViewpoints survey. When you’re done paging through this book, spend time with your This year is a little different than most. When the world shut down family and friends. You never know how much people matter in your life to stop the spread of coronavirus, we didn’t know what the future of View- until you can’t see them anymore. points would hold. We had spent so long in lunch meetings in the library Now read on. The voices of Western Reserve Academy await. talking about specific deadlines for this final month that we were sure everything would go as planned. Unfortunately, worldwide pandemics Sincerely, don’t really care about things like school publication date plans, even if it Ellie Frato-Sweeney ’20, Senior Editor is for WRA’s premier non-fiction literary magazine. When school was shut Suraj Dakappagari ’20, Senior Editor down (in-person, anyway), we didn’t know what to do. For a while, we didn’t even think about Viewpoints. We had more pressing things to worry about, like how best to get out of a synchronous class meeting, or whether or not people could stand being cooped up with our families for weeks at a time. Nevertheless, our thoughts eventually turned to Viewpoints. With the help and guidance of our extraordinary mentors in the library, we got back to work. Last year, we put this together in person, with meetings taking place in the scant free time we had during the school day and in A+. This year, we had to use RingCentral to get the final work done. Thankfully, Google Docs is ubiquitous, and we were able to access all of the submis- sions. The Viewpoints survey went out as planned (with added questions about COVID-19), and we formatted everything like we would have had we been back at Reserve. Inevitably when the 2019-20 school year is discussed, the main topic will be COVID-19. That’s fair; it certainly was a huge factor in how life played out this year. However, we hope that those who read this, particularly those who are reading this many years from now, are able to use this year’s edition of Viewpoints as a counterbalance to the accounts of the somber realities of life in quarantine. Seven out of ten months of the school year were spent on Reserve’s campus, with life largely going on as normal. The submissions to Viewpoints, which were received throughout the year, reflect the life that went on then. To close this introduction, we’d like to thank our amazing library mentors. Ms. Bunt, Ms. Raymaley-Hoffman, and Mr. Campbell were 2 3 Notice Me! Anonymous I never quite knew why I liked Gossip Girl so much. In my naive- ty, I might have claimed it was because of the fabulous designer ensembles sported by troubled socialites Serena van der Woodsen and Blair Waldorf, but more likely it was because I saw a piece of myself in the hyper-privi- leged, psychologically anguished Manhattanites. Regardless, I sunk deeper into the stiffly-upholstered ivory couch as the sound of the show’s intro shot through the living room that looked as though it had been ripped straight out of a Jonathan Adler catalog. The plotline of Serena relentlessly striving for the attention of her absent father thickened when she and her best friend, amid a feud, were trapped in an elevator together. Blair, the Personal Essays and Other Viewpoints more pragmatic of the pair, refused to let her best friend try to ignore her problems through childish debaucheries, such as partying her way through Europe over the summer. Upon confrontation, Serena divulged the real reason for her juvenile behavior. “Your dad adores you,” she lamented to Blair. “All I even remember [of my dad] is him going on trips and coming back and bringing me presents.” And that was when it all clicked for me; the uninvolved parents, the privilege, the will to do anything just to be noticed - I was Serena. I hastily grabbed the remote and paused the show. The aroma from the dogwood-scented Michael Aram candle burning on the glass-topped coffee table infiltrated the air and choked up my throat like smog. I strode out onto the ultra-modern balcony and leaned over the railing, overlooking the panoramic views of Belvedere Lagoon, sparkling under the radiant sun. The mild breeze ruffled my hair, which had been professionally cut and blown out the day before at one of the city’s most upmarket salons. Fourteen years old and by no merit of my own, I had the lifestyle so many adults toiled for and never attained. Of course, it hadn’t really set in until that moment. How would it have? Imposing luxury was the only thing I had ever known, my father amassing most of his money at the time of my birth. I knew my father worked hard. In fact, each morning when I woke around 7 AM to attend my elite private middle school, he had already left for the office. Every night well after my sister and I had consumed what was supposed to be a family dinner, the door would jingle open once again, just like clockwork. Weary from another hectic day on Wall Street, my father often dozed off upon arrival, striking up a conversation with his daughters being the last thing on his mind. Despite the exorbitant lifestyle 4 5 he provided me with, no amount of Tiffany earrings or Hermès silk scarves didn’t care. The vast opportunities across campus, academic, athletic, and could compensate for the emptiness of being the only kid in my elementa- social, distracted me completely from the firing squad waiting at home. ry school class whose parents consistently didn’t show up for the Mother’s I might have been blissfully enjoying an iced tea latte at the town coffee and Father’s Day parties- the only one who couldn’t complete the sentence shop with the company of my incredible, loving friends when Bryn would prompt; Mommy and Daddy love me because… text me anecdotes from the most recent family blowout. Dad’s blowing a Eventually, I found my way back into the house, collapsing on the fuse about MIT again, she texted once. Like even being in their recruiting same couch. The paused screencap of a puffy-eyed, crying Serena bore class isn’t enough.