By Ramir Wearen

“To survive is to stay alive in the face of opposition” ~ a quote directly from female rapper Lauryn Hill 
This is a perfect representation of my high school experience. I believe that high school has prepared me for what's to come through the trials and tribulations. I learned that as long as you remain optimistic and willing to learn from your mistakes you could go very far in both high school and life in general.  

After deep reflection of my past failures and mistakes I learned that my deepest regret was that I hadn’t taken all possible opportunities presented to me. I figured that if I would've just simply taken advantage of the things that could’ve been beneficial to me and my journey I would’ve been far more successful. 
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My biggest takeaway from high school would be that you never know what relationships that you may create that can leverage your success in the future as far as opportunity and my biggest advice to up and comers would be to take advantage of every opportunity possible and be willing to learn from mistakes and be open to growth. 

By Gregory Tucker

Dear East High,

It was a ride. From grades 6 - 12, you have been a part of my life and now it’s time for me to get gone.
Grade 6:  I arrived on the same ship as the EPO did so my experience at East High was one that was different than those who attended before me; everything was more structured; we wore uniforms at that time; it was like a little charter school. After a while, they gave up on enforcing the uniform stuff and we had a jolly ol’ time in Canada (Montreal and Quebec to be exact).

Grade 7: I remember the first day of school vividly. The first teacher I had that year was Ms. Horn for health and you all know how middle school health class goes. Also Ms. Masala Johnson (inside joke) was mi maestra de espanol.

Grade 8: I'll never forget 8th grade. I had picked up Lacrosse and Spanish (shoutout to Sra. Colon for the help). I was naturally gifted at them both because I am him. Not only that, the art teacher at the time was not her. We had the DC trip where Mr. Fields stayed dropping them jewels like he always does (he is a man of truth).

Grade 9: I don't remember much about this year except Earth Science, drill wars in Spanish class and bothering Mrs. Gotham in World History I think the class was called.

Grade 10: booooo

Grade 11: booooo

Grade 12: It dragged on, but went by so quick.
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No matter what grade I was in, East High was able to provide me with memories that are forever cemented in my big brain. No matter where I may go, I will always remember the time that I spent here; good times and bad times. Gregory OUT.
 
Sincerely,
Gregory Tucker

By Lex Cornell
 
My legacy at East isn’t very long. I joined this high school late in my sophomore year, and two weeks later the nation went into lockdown due to the covid-19 pandemic. To be honest I don't remember anything from school during the pandemic other than I did really well in my classes and it felt perfect to have a later start in school. I personally can say East is probably the only reason I’m going to graduate this yea. Before East I’d given up on school.  Learning wasn’t interesting and school seemed like a prison. Teachers here are actively trying to help their students learn and become better people. I love that about East, this is more than just a school: it’s a safe place. This is where I’ve felt the most connected and encouraged to do my best work and be my best self but like any good school, there were bumps in the road. Now I’m off to college in the fall. Goodbye. And thank you.

By Dayshaun Clark
 
I never imagined how fast time can go by without noticing…these past 4 year have been some of the best moments without realizing until you start looking back. The only thing I will say is a must-try during high school is to play as many different sports as you can even if you really aren't good at them because you will build some of the best bonds in sports and you never know what doors can be opened throughout sports.
Since this is my last paper for high school, I will start with thanking London Booker who now works at UPrep for opening so many doors and teaching life lessons through the game of lacrosse and definitely deserve way more respect. I would like to thank Mr. Wilson for putting up with our class in Calculus, hands down the best class even though I struggled through the whole year to even get a C but we don't speak on that. I will also like to thank Ms. Tisa for always supporting me in school and during any sport I was playing, she always came through for me. I know she is going to miss me. And last but not least Mr. Vann because he always made sure we were good for college and made sure we applied for every scholarship possible.

By Ryan Barnard-Amico
 
For my legacy I want to take a look back at my high school experience and all my memories and amazing friends I made along the way. High school was a very memorable experience with many obstacles along the way both academic and physical but you find your way to overcome them with the help of others you trust. So for this article I thought I would add a few pictures from some memorable moments I had with my friends throughout my high school years. They definitely made high school much better and I am proud to call each one of them my family. I wanted to thank them for the best 4 years of my life and letting them know I will never forget all the things we've been through together.

By Cameron Northan
 
Graduation? Dang, I've been waiting for this moment for years. A time when I finally get to go out into the world on my own, but I thought it'd be some kind of big feeling of achievement. But I don't feel anything like that, it just feels like a normal week, a normal day. I feel ready though, I feel like I can survive in this world, and that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to survive and live comfortably, make memories, meet new people, and live a life I can look back on and have no regrets. There have been a lot of people who have helped me along the way to graduating. I thank them for their support even when things weren’t looking so good, and I thank them for pushing me to keep going to get the work done. I think in 20 years I’m going to look back at high school and think “I’m glad I got out early” because I don’t think I’d be able to handle 1 more year of high school. I never thought I would be the type of person to be able to graduate early though, because I was always an underachiever so graduating early was never a thought for me because it seemed like so much work. But honestly, it wasn’t, once I found out I only needed to take 2-3 extra classes to graduate in 2022 I got excited, I got so hyped about it, and I took that chance immediately. So overall, I’d say it was a pretty okay ride, but god am I glad to be done. So long and goodbye East High School!

By C’Morra Cuffie
 
Food deserts are urban areas where people don't have access to fresh and healthy foods. There are corner stores that only provide junk food and certain high priced fruits, but there aren't any nearby grocery stores. Food deserts happen when grocery stores shut down, and put grocery stores further from urban centers, and put them in areas where people have cars. The article What Are Food Deserts? says, “Access to transportation: For example, two neighbors might each live in a food desert. But while one neighbor has a car, the other relies on public transportation. The neighbor who is able to drive will likely have more options when it comes to groceries than the other person.”
 
Food deserts also may be due to having a low income. The article, Food deserts: Definition, effects and solutions states, “The USDA identified around 6,500 food deserts between 2000 and 2006. Experts estimate that around 23.5 million people in the U.S. live in low-income areas.” According to Rochester city councilman Dr. Gruber, “there are no gaps, they are motivated by their income. It doesn't fall on one person only, class lines by the profit they have. The poorer you are the more likely you are to be unhealthy.” If a single parent only has $20 to spend, their first instinct is to go to a fast food place such as McDonalds, Wendy’s, Burger King, and other fast food. Only because they don't have enough money and they don't have a nearby grocery store to stretch out the $20, so they do what they have to do to feed their children, healthily or not. Dr. Gruber said one way to improve these food deserts is for the city food policy council is a group of people in the community to figure out how to help invest in new entrepreneurs at the public market so they can have more than one day a week to build their business.
 
This is an important issue to explore because the health of our communities relies on access to fresh, healthy food options.

By Lex Cornell
 
Recently the US has noticed an increase in mental health issues and disorders, especially after the covid-19 pandemic, many youth and children are dealing with more than one mental health problem without receiving treatment, According to the CDC’s data and statistics, “ADHD, anxiety problems, behavior problems, and depression are the most commonly diagnosed mental disorders in children. Estimates forever having a diagnosis among children aged 3-17 years, in 2016-19, are ADHD 9.8% (approximately 6.0 million), Anxiety 9.4% (approximately 5.8 million), Behavior problems 8.9% (approximately 5.5 million), and Depression 4.4% (approximately 2.7 million).” 1 out of every 3 children and youth from this study is left untreated, many suffering alone and unable to get help. This leaves people wondering who is going to be able to support these children when they get out of school and take on the world themselves, and how we as community can support and help our younger generation of leaders.

In 2017 a mental health survey, in Rochester, N.Y. (13WHAM) - found that “results released in the Monroe County Youth Risk Behavior Survey show a number of teens and young adults considered committing suicide in the last year Among the findings in that survey, 14% say they considered killing themselves, while 7% reported attempting suicide.” In East High School we are seeing some of the effects of what untreated mental illness can do to our schools and communities, students are being more aggressive and violent with the staff and other peers in school. This, in turn, leads to more students developing mental illness, which can increase suicide rates. The leading cause is how the community and schools are correlated between the violence in the community and lack of support in school settings for students with undiagnosed untreated mental illness or mental disorders. We as a community should care about this issue because these students are going to go out into the community, and they could be in a situation that could be harmful to others and themselves.

By Dayshaun Clark
 
As an athlete who has personally been affected by this I will tell you that having less spending than other sports because in the city it's not really a popular sport makes it seem like they don't care and don’t treat everyone equally. Watching football, basketball and track get new things every year, camera men, live record games, free merch, while some other sports like lacrosse, golf, tennis, bowling, swimming, wrestling have to stick with the same equipment for multiple years, limited games being record, expensive merch because of the low budget that was given will definitely have some people asking questions.
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They can say that other sports aren't as popular and don’t bring in as much money to school as to why they aren't given as much .A way we can bring more attention to different sports are the morning announcements! They do it with other sports already so why not? Let's make sure that at least every home game is a live record for players so they can get exposure, up to date equipment and most importantly support from the school! This year was the first year I've seen lacrosse with new jerseys and more live games so that's a big step already because last year I was barely able to get any highlights because there wasn't enough in the lacrosse budget to do so. Unequal funding affects players and coaches in many different ways.

By Ryan Barnard-Amico
 
Senioritis is a recurring topic that usually affects a majority of students getting ready to graduate at the end of the academic school year and have lost their motivation to complete assignments. This issue could occur anywhere and can happen to anyone but mainly happens to seniors, hence the name. Lack of motivation can be very harmful if not corrected; if a student is not willing to complete school assignments that can affect their skills in a work environment. The purpose of this paper is to warn students and parents to watch out for it and get educated on the ways to either prevent it or help someone who is already experiencing it. According to a recent study, done by Omniscient, 78 percent of high school students experience senioritis all over the world. That's a lot of students being affected by this and more to follow.