Hello readers! Welcome to the first edition of “Big Questions for a Little Man”, a Q&A Column for Westerner World (our student newspaper). This column in particular is a weekly newstory where I will give my unwanted two cents and support for anybody who has some questions or situations they want opinions on. Make sure to tell your friends about Westerner World. For anybody reading this, you can have your chance to be featured next week by filling out the following form!
https://forms.gle/osEiAqT8yjYA3g4U7
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Our first responder, Senior Joseph Flores writes: “What’s real life gonna look like after graduation?”. Well, that’s quite a question Joseph! Considering I have a long way to go myself before graduation I don’t have the best advice to give you. I don’t have a definite answer on what life in general will look like once you graduate but I can tell you that life is whatever you want it to be. I don’t know what you are passionate about or enjoy doing but whatever it is I say do that! Life can look like whatever you want it to look like. But of course, don’t just take it from me. As a young journalist, I decided to conduct some interviews with teachers around the school. Their responses were from various different sides of the spectrum of life. Offering different insights into the things they said by not saying much. For example, I walked down to Mr. Shires first (any freshman reading this knows who he is) and he said and I quote
“Life is a dark empty forest where everything can kill you”.
While morbid in nature he later elaborated saying, “After high school you gain freedom. Sometimes it’s a blessing, but most times it’s a curse to do anything you want”. Then I took a stroll to Mr. Kocurek-Gentry’s room (one of our amazing theater directors) and he said,
“Life after graduation is going to be an awakening for a lot of students.”
He went on to say that life is just going to be hard and you will experience some things high school didn’t prepare you for. Responsibilities, jobs, relationships, etc. That doesn’t mean it can’t be good. Something that we’ve been talking about in One Act rehearsal is slowing down to enjoy and reflect on the small things in life. To appreciate simple things as sometimes life moves too fast for us to even notice the passage of time. So don’t let life get you down because the world truly is your oyster once you graduate.
Freshman John Buentello writes: “How to improve?” That’s an interesting question, ha! How to improve on what John? If you wanna improve on life then I would say just try everything at least once. If you wanna improve in school then find your way of studying and learning that makes it fun and interesting for you. If you wanna get better at sports then I’d say practice and train every minute you can! That is a great question to ask yourself though. I personally like to journal about the question every chance I get. It’s great you want advice on reflection. Reflecting on your struggles and asking yourself how to get better is the best way to maintain a healthy mindset in this crazy world.
Freshman Noah Montoya writes: “How do I play drums?” When I read this response I was so excited to answer it! I actually have been playing the drums since I was 3 and I love talking about instruments and just music in general really. While it is rather difficult to tell you rather than show you how to play drums I’ll try my best. The drums are the backbone to the band and ensure tempo and timing for all the other musicians. The simple way to think of it is the drums are like the heartbeat to an organism that is a band. To start, you’ll wanna learn what’s called a “straight beat”. Before you can get to that you must learn the parts of the drums. The first, and most well known, is the snare drum. This is the main part of the instrument you’ll spend the most time with in almost any song. Next up are the hi-hats and the cymbals. Cymbals may be used for accents, effect, or to end a song. The hi-hats are sometimes used for the same thing but it’s main purpose is to keep a steady pulse. Then you have the toms, for color and fills. And finally the bass drum, which also keeps a pulse along with the hi-hat and the snare. So, a straight beat is as follows. You wanna lay down a steady eighth note motion on the hi-hat counting to four like this: “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and”. Those are the beats of the song. Then, on beat 1 and 3 hit the bass drum and the hi-hat together. Then practice that for a bit. Then on 1 and 4 hit the snare drum. Keep doing that until you get the groove. That’s the basics of playing the drums my friend! Every single song ever written is derived from the simple and straightforward “straight beat”!
Sophomore Ian Jeffreys wrote a lot of very nice questions so this next response was very difficult to pick from, however; I chose: “Marvel or DC and why?” Now, I’m about to make some readers very mad, but I say it depends. I know, that’s not the answer you wanted, but Ian never specified movies or comics. And as a reader of comics and a watcher of the films (which DC doesn’t really have any good films lol) I’d say it depends. Modern day Marvel comics are subpar with them focusing on mostly action and fun looking pictures, while their movies (before spiderman No Way Home) are blockbusters and so much fun to watch and rewatch. DC on the other hand has comics with intriguing plot lines, awesome videogames (Injustice and Injustice 2 and the Arkham series), but their movies are dogwater. There are exceptions to this point, like the Robert Pattinson Batman and the associated Penguin TV Show are absolutely banger and I do recommend it for anybody looking for something to watch.
Senior Nicole Alexander wrote five times in a row: “Stress” The only reason I included this one at the end is for you guys. Stress is something that we all face and if you feel alone in it, just know you aren’t there are thousands of Americans and people around the world who have moments of stress or entire days of stress. The best way to handle it is to talk. At least for me, I don’t know how other people handle it but my advice is to just talk it out. Eventually, when you let it all out you’ll feel better.
Again, make sure to fill out the form for your chance to be featured in next week’s edition.