Author: Valeria Ulloa-Ramirez

Junior Prom was Saturday, April 29, and it took place at the Masonic Temple from 8-11 p.m. The theme for this year’s prom was “Enchanted Garden.”

Getting into the venue was not complicated at all unlike other dances where the lines feel endless. This time is was quick as our bags were checked at the entrance where they collected our tickets. To ensure safety students were scanned with a metal detector before going up the stairs. The venue was decorated very nicely and they had a table with a lot of different desserts and cute decorations. 

Up multiple flights of stairs, you entered the dance floor through an arc filled with flowers. The venue was pretty big and it had two rooms: a room with tables to sit down at that connected to the main room where the dance floor was. 

Halfway through the dance, they crowned the winners of Junior Prom Royalty on the balcony. CJ Romero won King, and Cynthia Romo won Queen. 

The only negative thing I would say about prom was that it was extremely humid, even though they had the air conditioning on. Because there were a lot of people, it was difficult to feel the cool air. The DJ could have been better because they played some good songs, but they also played some songs that a lot of people just didn’t know or couldn’t really dance to. 

Overall, I would say that junior prom was a good time and would say it was worth it. The venue portrayed the theme of “Enchanted Garden” and was super spacious. The dance coordinators set up a photo booth, snacks, sold drinks and giving water for free. The turn out in attendance was a good. Something cool that they did was give out LED foam sticks, so when people were dancing the flashing lights created a cool effect.

I believe that students should not be getting assigned homework during their breaks, whether that is thanksgiving break, winter break or even spring break. Students who do homework for the entire rest of the school year, should be able to have that time to do whatever we enjoy doing. 

These breaks are the only time off that we get during the school year, and students shouldn’t have to stress out about having work to do. Many teachers will say “only one week more until break, you can do this,” but then give us homework on friday and say it’s due the monday we get back. How are we supposed to be able to enjoy what we call “break,” when we still get assigned work. 

I went around asking a few classmates if they got homework for their spring break and what their opinion on that was. 

Lena Flores did get spring break homework and  was not able to enjoy her break because she knew that she had work to do. She does not agree that students should be getting homework during their break. 

Francisco Mendoza also received spring break homework and thinks that students shouldn’t be getting those assignments. He also mentioned that he had homework during winter break and that it really ruined his time. 

Santiago Flores ,however, did not get assigned homework during spring break and he was able to enjoy that week he had off. 

Not only does break homework subtract from our personal quality time, but it also takes time away from outstanding work that we might have to catch up on. It takes away the relaxing part of our break because all we can think about is that we have to finish our work. 

Teachers would not like having to do work during their break because that is the only time they are given to go on trips with their family and to relax, so why are they giving us work?

A way to solve this problem would be for teachers to understand that a lot of students need this time to catch up on sleep or spend quality time with their family and friends. Others need this time for mental health breaks because they are overly stressed out. We should be getting real breaks from school, not just homework without class.

Sacramento is not a huge city. We who live here tend to frequent the same places–the same stores, parks, and restaurants. This is not necessarily a problem, but it’s always nice to try new things, because without doing so, people may be missing out on what could be their new favorite thing. There are many restaurants in Sacramento that have amazing food but aren’t super well known because everyone is used to going to the same old places. Here are some local Sacramento restaurants that I would highly recommend. 

Azul | Mexican Food and Tequila Bar: Azul serves great authentic Mexican food. They sell amazing enchiladas and allow customers to choose between green, red, or mole sauce. You can also choose to add either chicken or cheese. The street tacos are one of the most popular items. On weekends only, they serve delicious Tacos De Birria. Azul also provides numerous vegetarian friendly menu options. 

Cafe Bernardo: Cafe Bernardo serves American style food. They are loved for their amazing breakfast options. To those who have a sweet tooth, Cafe Bernardo makes a great french toast dish and their waffles are to die for. The Bernardo benedicts are another popular item. A safer but still very solid option to check out would be the avocado toast. Along with their killer breakfast and brunch foods, Bernardo also has an impressive selection of lunch and dinner options including fish, burgers, sweet potato fries, and salads. 

Paesanos: Paesanos offers delicious Italian food. Their menu includes primarily classics such as pizzas, salads, and different types of pasta. One of my favorite plates to eat at Paesanos would be the Tortellini Formaggio. They are also known for the Fettuccine Arrostiti pasta dish, so I would recommend either of those. For an appetizer, one of my favorites is the fried calamari. 

Sushi Cafe: Sushi Cafe is a yummy, cozy restaurant for Japanese cuisine. The food is high quality and even better, it is affordable. Sushi Cafe isn’t crazy expensive like many other sushi restaurants, so it is a great place to go when you have a big family or are going with a lot of people. On top of that, the service is fast, efficient, and friendly. There are a variety of interesting sushi rolls to pick from, all of which are delicious. Sushi Cafe is especially acclaimed for their “bento box,” which is a generous serving of your choice of entree with traditional items like edamame, shrimp tempura, and California rolls, on the side. For appetizers, the gyoza are yummy, and customers are always provided complimentary bowls of Miso soup. 

Sellands: Sellands is a classic healthy American food spot. The most popular burger-type item is the All American Cheeseburger, which I think is always a solid choice. Sellands’ wood-fired pizzas have almost ten different options, and they’re so good that the Sellands venue in the Golden 1 Center sells strictly their pizza. They also have really good pizza. My personal preference would be the Margarita pizza, but they have ones with more elaborate toppings as well, such as the chicken, bacon, jalapeno, and goat cheese pizza, for example. For a lighter meal, there are many delicious salads offered as appetizers or main dishes. 

I would rate every one of the restaurants mentioned above five stars. Not only do they serve quality food, but they all have nice ambience and top notch service. The best thing about checking these eateries out is that as we buy meals from them we are supporting small and local businesses and that’s something incredibly important. 

Social media has created a toxic environment that many people now experience, especially teenagers. This not only causes us to be on our phones 24/7 but also affects our social interactive skills and our mental health. Social media has created unhealthy standards that affect our ways of living. 

One way social media affects us is by creating bad habits. Influencers only post the good moments of their lives, and that is the only part that we view. We see them going on trips, hanging out with friends, buying expensive things, etc. 

This affects our mentality because we start to think that their lives are perfect and we then compare ours to theirs. We don’t appreciate what we have in front of us because we are too consumed in what others are doing with their lives. 

Influencers and celebrities only post the good and never the bad. We think, “Why isn’t my life as perfect as theirs?” Social media tricks us into thinking that an influencer’s life is always great and that they don’t have bad days. 

Social media also causes a lot of people to have issues with their body image. Influencers post unrealistic photos of their bodies and face, and the algorithms push that content.

A lot of teenagers suffer with their image because of high social media standards. Social media causes you to think that you need to look a certain way. For example, you either need to be really skinny and tall or you need to have an hourglass figure to be beautiful. The use of filters also creates these issues because they change your appearance and it makes you become insecure with yourself that you feel that you need to use a filter. 

A lot of people don’t fit those specific categories and start to hate their looks. They want to look a certain way and change something about themselves because they don’t think they’re good enough. This causes a lot of people to become depressed and be unhappy with themselves.

Social media also affects our interactive skills and how we socialize. Whenever we are bored we go on social media because what we see on it entertains us. The problem with this is that a lot of what we see on it is fake and it makes us waste a lot of time on it. Social media takes out time away from living in the moment and being with people who make us feel happy.

I see a lot of people who are hanging out with their friends, but everyone is still on their phones. They are each looking at something different. Yes, you are with your friends but no one is having true interaction. No one is actually talking about their life, but instead about what they saw on social media. 

They are distracted from these moments like doing something fun or catching up on their lives. Instead, they are wasting their time on something that they saw online which is most likely fake. 

Social media is unhealthy and creates toxic standards that then affect our mental health, our stress, our anxiety, and how we live our life. We worry too much about what we see on social media or what people say. We worry about how we portray our life on social media and what people will think of us. Social media should not be what we spend our lives worrying about.