Op/Ed

Column: The (Plastic) Infant Invasion

May 20, 2019 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Mo Kelly

Staff Writer

It seemed like a normal day. I had just finished Algebra and was running down the stairs so I wouldn’t be late for Biochem. I’ve gotten used to the filth of the back stairwell, so nothing seems too out of the ordinary.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something unusual… a small figurine baby.

I walked into my next class, still confused, but I wasn’t the only one. A classmate asked if I had seen the babies. Apparently, they were all around the school, Hidden in lockers, stairwells, or any small crevice that they would fit in. Forget that day’s lesson plan — The babies were the main topic of conversation for the next hour and five minutes.

By the end of the school day, even my advisor knew about them. She had picked one up in the middle of one her classes, and she was also very confused.

Some of my friends pulled out multiple babies that they hoarded. Admittedly, I took one as well and am probably going to keep it for a very long time.

Soon after the initial fiasco, posters about the babies had appeared. They said that it was a game. “Find a baby. Hide a baby.” It called them “Nae-Nae babies”, which after some research, I discovered is a meme. About three days after first poster, a second poster went up declaring that more diverse babies were to be added to the bunch.

The game made sense, but I didn’t quite buy it. Why would the posters go up after the babies had already been planted? Now I was determined to solve this baby mystery.

Right off the bat, I had a suspicion on who it was. The wording of the poster was written exactly in the style of one of my friends, who has made other posters for the school. I texted him, and my speculation was correct. He told me he created the posters but did not plant the babies, just as I suspected. He thought the idea was funny and he and a friend made the posters in Dig Vid. But, he doesn’t know who hid the babies.

There is now an “SLA Baby Blog” on Instagram, documenting all of the babies that were found and where they were eventually re-hidden. Posts include pictures of founds babies and the posters.

This has all been fun to watch. But who planted the babies? A few days later, it is still a mystery to me. I’ve tried asking around, but no one else seems to know. Or perhaps they are hiding something. I don’t think I will ever find out. I think this says a lot about SLA as a whole. This school is a pretty weird place. This isn’t the only thing that has told us this. There are strange things constantly happening, and people just learn to accept it.

Although this was a creepy occurrence, it’s also definitely one of my favorite things to happen at SLA. Seeing people come together in confusion or just excitement about these odd babies shows that no matter how out of the ordinary something can be, people will find a way to interpret it and make it their own, whether it’s through Instagram, posters, or some other medium. SLA is a place where people always find a way to show their creativity, even if it’s in the form of joke posters around the school.

My Experience with SLAmbassadors

May 13, 2019 by Amelia Benamara Leave a Comment

Staff Writer

Mo Kelly

From April 7th through the 14th, 10 students from Toruń, Poland came to Philadelphia to participate in the annual SLAmbassadors exchange program. The program runs between SLA and schools in two sister cities: Toruń and Frankfurt, Germany. Early this year, I was chosen along with 9 of my classmates to be apart of the Poland program.

I got my partner match in January. Her name was Natalia. Our first contact was through Instagram, where we just talked about our basics likes/dislikes. We both had the same favorite show, and that was a great jumping off point where we could talk about that and other stuff. I thought of her as just a normal teenager and I couldnŕ wait to meet her in person.

The months leading up to when they came seemed like years. But finally, the big day came. The entire morning and afternoon was filled with me cleaning every square inch of my house and getting everything perfect for my guest.

Finally, it was time to pick them up from 30th street. I met all of the other students in the lobby and we were all so excited we couldn’t stand still. But of course, their bus was delayed from New York, so there was a lot more waiting to do. We eventually moved outside into the slightly cold air and waited for the bus to arrive. My friends and I sang songs and did a couple of dances to pass the time. But then, we saw a bus come around the corner. It said “New York to Philadelphia.” It was their bus. People got out signs they had made and we begin to cheer. The bus pulls into the spot and we watched as people slowly came out and grabbed their luggage. Nobody could see any of our people yet. The bus began to empty and still, our people weren’t there. After 5 minutes of confusion, we realized that it wasn’t their bus. Another long while of waiting.

Finally, for real this time, their bus pulled in. They walked out of the bus and instantly ran to their partner. Natalia and I finally saw each other and we gave each other a big hug. I instantly felt comfortable with her, especially after talking with her for months beforehand. For some reason, I was surprised to hear her accent. After talking to her through Instagram, I forgot that she might have an accent. It threw me off at first, but soon I got used to it.

My parents were equally as excited as I was to meet her. But, they never talked to her like I did so they had no prior impression of her. They immediately asked her tons of questions about her family, her town, and much more. Just as I did, they found themselves comfortable with Natalia after a short period of time.

The next day, our Polish students came with us to school and shadowed us for the day. I got the chance to officially meet the other students and the two chaperones. Most of them said that they were surprised on how laid back all of the teachers were, even the teachers we thought were the strictest. They told us that in Poland, they weren’t allowed to take out their phones, talk to their friends and they never sat in table groups like us. I knew that there were schools like that in Philly, but it was interesting to hear the students talk their first-hand experiences with it. It gave me and many others a new perspective.

When we weren’t with our chaperones, we would try and find the fun “Philly things” for them to experience. The week was so full of things that we did with each other; a Phillies game, Macy’s, the Art Museum, Wawa, and so much more. The polish students had so much fun spring things for the first time and we had fun watching them experience it.

My favorite moments were when the entire group of students would go out and just walk through the city. I especially enjoyed talking to some of the students I haven’t really met before. One student talked to me about clothing, makeup, and our respective styles. These moments made me realize how similar we all were to each other. Most always assume that people from different countries have different cultures and are completely different than we are. But, that’s not true. There might be some differences, but we’re really just humans at the heart.

2019 Met Gala

May 13, 2019 by Amelia Benamara Leave a Comment

Staff Writer

Lauren Nicolella

I’m a simple person, I hear Harry Styles and my attention is instantly grabbed. For months, I have been highly anticipating this moment since I missed seeing Harry’s majestic Gucci suits from his 2018 tour.

I do not know a lot about the famous designers that attend and dress celebrities, but I do love that each of them has their own approach to the themes that happen each year. This year’s theme was Camp: Notes on Fashion, which is a very theatrical and glamorous that allows individuals to express what they want in any way they want. From what I understand, Camp can be interpreted in many different ways, with extravagant colors and large body pieces that essentially capture the theme.

Many months ago it was released that Lady Gaga, Serena Williams, Anna Wintour, and Harry Styles would be the larger names co-hosting the event. With them being some of the biggest names of the night, they were the ones who I was looking forward to the most.

Needless to say, Lady Gaga blew my mind. With being the first to attend, her grand entrance set the standards for what to expect on the pink carpet for the rest of the night. Her hot pink parachute dress was revealed into three other looks, with quick prop additions to showcase her team, Haus of Gaga. The extended metal-looking eyelashes exaggerated her theatrical poses and facial expressions, giving an Effie Trinket from the Hunger Games vibe.

Harry Styles has become idolized by fashion fans because of his love for custom Gucci suits, but this was not all glitz and glam that everyone was expecting. He arrived with Alessandro Michele, who was in a stunning pink bow outfit that shimmered from the paparazzi camera flashes. Styles was in a black sheer one piece that showcased his sleeve of tattoos and a delicate pearl earring dangled from his right ear. It was more simple, but it was interesting to see his personal take on the theme since he was held at such a high standard. I personally wish it was more over the top since I had based my expectations off his looks from his tour.

The entire night I was waiting for Zendaya because every single year she has shown up in iconic outfits that make me pay more attention to her style and what she decides to do. I never would have expected her to show up dressed as a modern Cinderella, which definitely is defining the theme of Camp. When the dress started lighting up in that famous light blue, I gasped so loud that technology has advanced to make an entire dress move and expand. This was the time to be extra!

When learning about Camp, I noticed that drag queens and ball culture are the underlying elements that influenced this theme, but the queens that attended did not go all out as I expected. Their makeup was beautiful of course, but I wish the dresses were more over the top like when they’re competing on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Someone who did shock me was Ezra Miller. His face makeup was so beautifully scary, taking extra to a whole new level that perfectly embodied what it meant to be camp and deliver it in a special way.

I’m glad that I was interested in watching this year’s Met Gala because it was truly a weird one. It’s helped me see what can be done in fashion and how personal style can be taken up a notch than what people are used to seeing at an event.

Farewell, SLA

May 13, 2019 by Amelia Benamara Leave a Comment

Staff Writer

Lauren Nicolella

I can’t believe how fast high school flew by! Being a part of the Journalism class since my sophomore year has opened up my eyes to the different information and perspectives on stories around the city and within our school. It’s been a ride with many highs and lows.

I would have never thought that I’d be interested in anything writing related, especially journalism and social media related. I pushed myself a lot within these years of being in the class because with the elective being only twice a week I had to figure out how to manage time. I’m definitely still trying to improve that, as I could especially relate my struggle to all of the senior year events and assignments that were constantly thrown at me.

Being able to obtain the title of Features editor and being able to run the SLA Media social media pages has been the highlight of my journalism class experience while getting insight on what others are creating. I love being able to get closer with some of the underclassmen, as there are not many people apart of the SLA Media crew in the first place so it makes it much more personal.

I wouldn’t have been able to get this far without the help of my English and Journalism teacher, Ms. Pahomov. I enjoyed her classes so much that I asked to be her senior assistant teacher because she made my English class experience much different than others I had been apart of before. She’s taught me tips and tricks about reading and writing that I will always remember, and made me feel uncomfortable with my writing in a way that helped me improve as soon as I stepped into her class sophomore year.

I hope that once SLA moves, our legacy is passed on to those who will join the class next year and future years to come. As a whole, we have produced amazing articles this year that have made high school more interesting and eye-opening. It’s amazing of how the inside of things were able to be shared freely and someone could choose to build upon ideas, and having that freedom of exploring a new topic or section is what made us powerful as a whole.

Farewell, SLA. It’s been a great four years of growing and I’ll only continue to do that.

The First Two Years of High School

May 13, 2019 by Amelia Benamara Leave a Comment

Staff Writer

Lily Bromley

This school year is officially almost over! And when it is done, I will be halfway finished with high school. The first two years of high school are portrayed as the time when you find your place in high school, determine who your true friends are, and to overall find out who you are going to be in for the next two years. I have learned a lot over these two years and I think I can genuinely say that I have grown as a person during this time.

There is a lot of misinformation when it comes to high school and if it isn’t misinformation, then it just doesn’t apply to SLA. The idea of jocks, mean girls, bullies stealing lunch money, haven’t applied to any of my experiences in high school so far. Of course, it hasn’t all been perfect. There are mean people and bad situations just like anything else, but overall I think that high school has been a lot more positive then usually depicted.

I would like to pass on my extensive knowledge of life as an underclassman, maybe you can navigate these two years a little bit better.

In terms of portrayal, I think that movies and TV shows do freshman year best. In the first couple of weeks of my first year of high school, my classmates and I had to deal with some harsh words from the older kids. I remember walking down the hallways while students loudly exclaimed: “I Hate Freshmen!” Granted, this only lasted for a couple of weeks, but while it happened it really sucked. Of course, as a sophomore, I allowed myself a couple “I Hate Freshmen” at the beginning of the year (It’s kind of a right of passage in my opinion). My advice would be to take your time. If your confused about what band it is or what room your next class is in, move to the non-locker side of the hallway and figure it out. Most people would be happy to help you, so don’t be afraid to ask. What makes everything worse is when people stand directly in the middle of the hallway, turning in circles or yelling for their friends, so to keep the freshman-shaming to a minimum, try to avoid this.

Another big concern in Freshman year is friends. For me, the group of people that I hung out with at school drastically changed over the year. In the beginning, I think that everyone is just looking for someone friendly to talk too. Once the stream started to get to know each other better, people were able to make friends that they had things in common with. My main piece of advice is to be friendly to everyone! It’s not a good idea to start any drama in the first couple of weeks, especially since you are going to have to be around the same group of people for the rest of the year!

When it comes to sophomore year, it can seem like everyone is really set in the status quo. People have made their friendships and might be wary to meet and talk to new people. My biggest piece of advice is to continue talking to new people, it’s not uncommon for your friend groups to shift in high school, especially when you start having classes with people you may have never even had a conversation with.

My advice for anyone about to tackle their first two years of high school is to enjoy themselves. Freshmen year is about having fun and finding your footing in your new environment. Sophomore year is the first year that you feel comfortable with your place.

Overall, high school is hard and sometimes it can seem like it will never end. Being halfway there makes me feel conflicted, on one hand, I’m excited to be an upperclassman, but on the other, I’m sad to leave my underclassman years behind me.