New Year's Eve Traditions

New Year's Eve is the last day of the year. Some celebrate it and some don’t but, have we ever wondered what’s the reason why we celebrate it? Well according to Google, New Year's Eve is one of the largest global celebrations because it marks the last day of the year in the Gregorian calendar, December 31, before the New Year. Many people celebrate New Year's Eve to bid farewell to the year that ends and to welcome the New Year.

You may wonder what the New Year's Eve Celebration means to me. For me, this celebrates a year of your life with your family. I mostly celebrate everything I accomplished during the year and remember everything I did and did not do, that I can still accomplish next year. People have different reasons to celebrate, but spending time with my loved ones is my favorite one.

People celebrate the New Year following traditions. Some are cool, but others are really weird: From stuffing your mouth with grapes, big firework displays, wearing something pink, and ringing bells to weird ones, like walking an empty suitcase around the block, throwing furniture, smashing plates...

We all have different ideas about what new year's eve is about, but what really matters is to enjoy the last day of the year. It doesn’t really matter why and how you celebrate it, what matters Who is there with you, and that you take time to think and reflect about this year's accomplishments to start thinking about your new ones it for the future. 

Happy New year!

Avril Vélez

7th Grade

Thank you, 2021!

2021 has been a rollercoaster year, filled with emotions from all sides of the spectrum. Most of us have learned to navigate around the difficulties it brought: the emotional luggage after a pandemic that scared us all and made us feel the true power of nature and the real value of life, mixed with a sense of gratitude for those who remain and who we get to spend some more time with, but also the mourning of those who are no longer with us. The need to adapt to a new reality (no longer new, but normalized) while we missed our old life, the fear of exposing ourselves to new variants of this virus, and at the same time the eager need to forget about it just a little bit. Yup, 2021 has been just a teeny-tiny bit insane.

But for a moment, let's look at the sunshine. Let's choose the highlights over the shadows and let's celebrate we made it! definitely 2021 has been a transition year. A year where, if we chose to look closely at our blessings, we became a wiser version of our old selves.

We learned to adapt, practicing proper hygiene routines and respecting social distance, being mindful about our health, making choices accordingly. Adapt to new rules of living and working, with more flexibility, but also with more need for accountability. Some people lost their jobs to find new ones, changed their homes, their lifestyles, changed their perspective on life and decided to take a step back and slow down their rush to live and enjoy it just a bit more. We learned to value the neighbor, the friend we could not see for so long, the freedom, the need for connection...

Our kids also had to adapt to going back to school. That process after being away for so long, was different for everyone who experienced it, plus dealing with changes in their routines and schedules, adapting to the academic changes they each had in their corresponding grade levels. I think kids love school more now that they are back, and see the value in the direct contact with their teachers.

I hope these lessons remain after all is done. We still need to continue being mindful about our planet, about how we use our resources, about how we see the other person and actually look, valuing their existence and its impact in ours, paying attention to the visible, but also to the invisible. Caring about others just a little bit more.

Changes hurt, but in the end, life is not about avoiding the bruises. It's about collecting the scars to prove that we showed up.

2021. We will miss you, but I sure hope we can remember what we learned from you.

Mrs. Marial Valenzuela

Head Librarian

My first "TETEO"

You may have never heard of the word 'Teteo', unless you are Dominican.  A teteo in its most basic meaning, is a party. The word became popular around people during the Quarantine 2020 because what was usually called a teteo was done illegally, not following the Government's COVID-19 restrictions. Of course, the one I attended to was completely legal, but I did want to share the experience. 

When I was 11 years old, I went to my first teteo with my father in Santiago. It was in an open place and there was a lot of food, deserts, juices and soda. There was loud music and people sitting on different tables that were apart one from each other. To be honest, I was feeling nervous as it was my first party. The people that were there had their masks on and they only took their masks out when they were going to eat or drink.

It was nice to see people having fun and sharing after a while. This party made me remember how things used to be before the Covid came here. I danced and had fun, listened to good music and enjoyed time with my dad. I felt lucky to enjoy this moment in Santiago. It was great!

if you are ever invited to a Teteo, make sure you chose wisely. Some people's teteos break the law and the most basic safety protocols. Most people in them do not wear masks or maintain social distance. That is the reason why, the more illegal teteos we have, the more people put themselves and their families at risk to get sick from Coronavirus or any of its other variants. The more people get sick, the longer we will have to continue wearing masks. 

Having fun is great, but being reckless and impatient, and not respecting the safety protocols just because you are tired, is selfish. If people are more aware of the parties they go to, and more mindful about their actions, we just might be able to continue enjoying ourselves, without the need to put ourselves and our families at risk.

Carlos Graveley

6th Grader

Trust Issues

There are lots of things that can happen, especially when a situation that is very shocking or traumatizing happens. In some of those situations, you might get something called “Trust Issues”.

Trust issues are feelings you get when you have trouble trusting people. These people can be strangers or people in a relationship, it could be your boyfriend or girlfriend. It is normal to feel certain insecurities, especially when you are getting to know someone. These are not bad unless they become a real problem that affects your actual relationship with people.

You may ask, how do I know if I have that?  Well, if you're having troubles or insecurities about being yourself around people, you expect others to betray you all the time, you have trouble forgiving mistakes or committing, feel lonely, even have doubts, and are afraid to open up or to get close to others, those may be signs of trust issues.

If you feel like this and it's difficult for you to connect to others, I personally recommend you to talk to a friend, an adult, or a psychologist. They may help you get strategies to overcome this. If it's hard for you to talk about it, maybe you could start by writing it down, this will help you find the right words for when you are ready, share them with others.

There are ways to handle trust issues, these are some examples of things you can do:

1- You have to accept the risk of learning to trust again. In order to connect, you need to trust others inevitably

2- You can also learn how trust works. 

3- Another way is to face your fears and other negative feelings based on trust.

4- Write down your feelings and think of them in a more positive way.

5- Analyze what are you truly afraid of. Trust issues often are a reflection of your fears of being lonely or betrayed.

I just want you to know that it is okay to have these feelings. They are completely normal. Many people around us have trust issues. You are not alone! it's not easy to take the first step and trust others, trust me, but the more you do it, the more you will see how worthy it is to do so. I know many people that have been through situations and have learned to do it differently. It just takes a leap of faith.

"Have enough courage to trust one more time

and always one more time."

Maya Angelou

 

Montserrat Correa

6th Grader

The Future of Food

Today we will talk about food in the future, more specifically the year 2050. According to the United Nations, food production must grow two-thirds faster than it has in recent decades to feed a global population of 9 billion people by 2050. With more people using fewer resources, environmental impact is the name of the game. Without fail, there are many mentions on how food may look different in the future because of food technology and innovations that could be used for that very purpose.

However, you only need to take a look around you right now to see that this isn't true. People and animals alike are still very much dependent on the food that is grown and produced on a scale that is not available for everyone.

First, let's go over some of the ways in which technology has impacted our food supply. For starters, genetically modified crops have been made possible through biotechnology, as well as gene-editing techniques such as CRISPR/Cas9. This has led to a rise in pesticides and herbicide use, which in turn has contributed to the downfall of monarch butterflies and bee populations.

The biotechnology industry has expanded tremendously, to the point that there is actually a whole market devoted to it. This means that some foods such as corn, soybeans and cotton can be altered to be pest-resistant, more nutritious, or easier to grow.

Along with genetically modified crops, there are also synthetic pesticides and herbicides that are used. With the new ways to produce food, there is new equipment used as well. For example, tractors today use GPS maps to help them navigate fields better than they could in the past. Some foods use precision-guided technology, which helps in selecting which plants to harvest and when in a field to avoid crop loss.

In the future, even more tools will be developed for farming in a completely automated way. Automated machine tools have been in existence for many years now but at a slow pace so far. If these developments continue, growing food will be a process that will become cheaper and faster but, I wonder... Will it be healthier too?

By Paula Garcia
7th Grader