The SamohiSaturday, May 30, 2020Santa Monica High SchoolVolume CVIII - Issue X

Photo by Michael Vigman

Senior Issue

May 30, 2020The SaMohi

Senior iSSue02

Samo Senior StatisticsBest bathrooms to cry in:

Most memorable pep rally moments:

www.meta-chart.com

Senior Regrets

• thinking the promenade was the mecca of social exchange and cultural influence• low rise jeans

• not posting Bill Clinton on my instagram story • having a sixth period ever and at all

• wearing full body white to a senior pep rally (the greeks are f**king disgusting)

• donating to grad nite...rip• not attempting a robust smoky eye in the back of Acker’s classroom during AM with my

hand-held mirror• volunteering in the textbook room for three hours for absence clearance so that “I could

graduate”

Senior Gossip ExpertStaff Writer

Fashion crime chronicles: 2019 prom-goers’ dresses robbed by ’20s

Midday on Sunday, May 17, Samo senior Hanna Skikne (’20) awoke to a relentless stream of text messages. Rather debilitated having attended both prom and after prom the night before, she was shocked and in disbelief at the contents of these texts. It seemed as if every girl from the class of 2019 had their pitchforks ablaze, all on the hunt for Skikne.

Among the many messages, a few she was willing to disclose read: “Bitch. You guys thought you could buy our exact prom dresses and look cute? Good one,” and “No-body’s perfect- you guys proved that.”

Having seen the many pictures on social media from the Class of 2020’s prom, the ‘19s were outraged to see that the current seniors all wore the same exact dresses as they wore at their prom the previous year. Thus, the angry feud between the cur-rent and previous seniors sparked.

The crux of this feud, said by many involved, can all be bogged down to one contentious photograph. It is a picture featuring 12 girls from the class of 2020, all in dresses iden-

tical to those of the ’19 seniors. But it wasn’t just the accusation of copying the dresses that angered many; it was the fact that this picture was almost identical to a picture taken last year. It featured an identical background, lighting and even order in which the girls in specific dresses were stand-ing. Isabel Lewis (’19) stated, “They have the exact dresses and took the exact same picture. It’s obvious that they copied us.” And when asked specifically about Hanna Skikne who was featured wearing the same white floral dress as her, Lewis stated, “I looked better in it anyways.” As this fury spread amongst the ’19’s, the ’20 girls swore their copying was unin-tentional and good natured. However, their claims of an honest coincidence were muddled by many conflicting stories. Noa Goldsmith (’20) stated that her and her friends had no clue they bought the same dresses as the ’19s, while Chloe Forssell (’20) said, “We meant no harm! We all liked their dresses so much, we bought them too. If they’re mad at us for liking their style, they’re the crazy ones.” It is these mixed messages that have con-tinued to provoke annoyance in the

’19s. They believe that whether it was an accident or a tribute, it was wrong.

But this squabble has extend-ed far beyond just the girls and their social media, with their parents now getting involved too. After the moth-er of Parker Lauer (’20) posted the infamous photo on Facebook cele-brating her daughter and her friends, the comments were soon filled with hateful messages from the parents of the ’19 girls. One comment came from Eliza Bernsteins’s mother (’19) who commented, “those dresses look familiar… soooo last season.”

While many bystanders of this dispute continue to find it meaning-less, those involved refuse to back down until the truth comes out. Isa-bella Hardy (’19) stated, “Regardless of what the seniors say, it is crystal clear they stole our dresses. I just want them to confess what they’ve done and apologize. We both got to have an IDENTICAL prom experi-ence and nobody was missing out on any of the fun of the classic high school tradition. They didn’t need to make the dresses identical too.”

Isabel Lewis / Contributor

Hanna Skikne / The Samohi

Chelsea SeiferCenterspread Editor

Quarantine has given us all the oppor-tunity to reflect on our high school experi-ences, whether it be our greatest moments, our worst failures or our deepest regrets. Over the past week The Samohi’s Chelsea Seifer has pondered long and hard on her own regrets from the past four years.

In an attempt to quanitify Samo’s most infamous occurences, The Samohi dis-tributed a poll to the 11 seniors on the newspaper staff along with their 27 imag-inary childhood friends. Presented below is a compilation of the responses from Samo seniors themselves.

students eaten by Gaida’s snake: 7.5

teachers who say they don’t like giving busy work but give it anyway: all

empty pods found on the floor: 142

times a teacher (you know who) has made someone cry: too many to count

minutes spent with airpods in at school: 83,728,462,472,947

times that D. has barked at a student: 147

hours slept in flex time: 3,479

Chloe ForssellEditor-in-Chief

• waiting until senior year to invest in a coffee machine

Number of:

12 girls from the class of 2019 pose during pre-prom in their very unique dresses.

12 girls from the class of 2020 pose during pre-prom in their VERY unique dresses.

May 30, 2020The Samohi

Senior Issue 03

“Lol me and my friends

went thrifting...probably

not the smartest idea.”

-Lauren Rintoul

“Didn’t think it was my last

day so I just went on my

phone during 6th period.”

-

Ian Seklawi

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“Excited for a softball tournament that was about to begin, but ended up being totally rained-out. I got soaked that day.”

-Emma Rossignol

HOTLB: What did you do on March 12, our last day of high school?

“I told people that I doubted school would close lol.” -Nathan Wetmore

Stood in a circle with 20 other people predicting when school would be cancelled...no one said it would be that day. -Jackson Gantos

“I just went to get

sushi with a friend!”

-Nathalie Franklin

“I missed that day

because I didn’t feel

well :(“

-Dunia Dunn

“My friends came over

because we sort of knew

that school would close

anyway and when

we found out we bought a

bunch of food and

celebrated.”

-Flynn D’Angelo

I helped put the finishing

touches on the Photo 2

gallery show which was

then cancelled...”

-Ira Zimmerman

“For me it was just a

completely normal day!”

-Garrett Roberts

Ilana Villa / Contributor

Michael Vigman / The Samohi

Noa Goldsmith / Contributor

Diana Hernandez / Contributor

Seniors in action!

1: (LEFT TO RIGHT) Parker Lauer (’20), Carmen Tryggvadottir (’20), Ireland Neville (’20), William Shapiro (’20) and Weston Kerekes (’20) preform at Cafe Samo. 2: A group of now-senior girls huddle at the 2018 Samo gun rally. 3: Cooper Colby (’20) poses in his greenie paint with a waterpolo ball. 4: (LEFT TO RIGHT) Ava Wasson (’20), Siri Storstein (’20) and Eleanor Win-terer (’20) sell drinks at Club Day. 5: (LEFT TO RIGHT) Gillian Morgan (’20), Marguax Maxon (’20) and Alexis Armijo (’20) perform at a Samo rally as part of the Songs team.

1

2

3 45

Michael Vigman / The Samohi

University of Texas, El Paso (1)St. Edward’s University (1)

Oklahoma State University (1)

Colorado College (1)University of Colorado, Boulder (4)Colorado State University (1)Colorado School of Mines (1)

Brigham Young University (2)Neumont College of Computer Science (1)

University of Arizona (2)Northern Arizona University (1)Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (1)

University of Washington, Seattle (2)Saint Martin’s University (1)Whitman College (1)

Willamette University (1)Reed College (2)Lewis and Clark College (1)Oregon State University (1)

The Santa Monica High School Class of 2020

Goes to College!!

Stanford University (1)University of California, Berkeley (13)University of California, Davis (12)University of California, Los Angeles (18)University of California, Irvine (6)University of California, Merced (1) University of California, Riverside (1)University of California, Santa Barbara (9)University of California, Santa Cruz (14)University of California, San Diego (6)University of Southern California (4)University of Redlands (1)CalArts (1)Otis College of Art and Design (1)Chapman University (2)Biola University (1)Loyola Marymount University (2)Pepperdine University (1)Mount Saint Mary’s University (1)Vanguard University (1) California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (9)California Polytechnic State University, Pomona (3)California State University, Bakersfield (2)California State University, Channel Islands (2)California State University, Dominguez Hills (2)California State University, Fullerton (7)California State University, Northridge (19)California State University, Long Beach (2)California State University, Los Angeles (3)California State University, San Marcos (1)

Scripps College (1)Occidental College (2)Mills College (2)Cuesta College (1)Cypress College (1)Humboldt State University (1)Sacramento State University (1)San Diego State University (2) San Francisco State University (2)Los Angeles Valley College (1)San Bernadino Valley College (1)Santa Barbara City College (1)El Camino College (1)Santa Monica College (84)Victor Valley College (1)Los Angeles Trade Technical College (1)

University of Hawai’i at Manoa (1)

*This map reflects data collected by May 25, 2020 through a school-sanctioned Naviance survey of the entire twelfth grade

Brown University (2)

Wesleyan University (1)Yale University (1)Connecticut College (1)

Johns Hopkins University (1)Goucher College (1)

Rutgers University (1)New Jersey Tech (1)

Pennsylvania State University (2)The University of the Arts, Philadelphia (1)

Middlebury College (1)

Columbia University (3)Cornell University (2)

The New School (4)

Pace University (1)

University of Alabama (1)Alabama A&M University (1) Spelman College (1)

Duke University (1)

Georgetown University (3)George Washington University (1)American University (1)

Marist College (1)

Syracuse University (1)

Haverford College (1)

University of Michigan (3)

Purdue University (1)Indiana University (2)DePauw University (1)

The University of Chicago (2)DePaul University (1)Roosevelt University (1)

Kenyon College (1)Oberlin College (2)Oberlin Conservatory (2)Cleveland Institute of Music (1)

University of Wisconsin, Madison (1)

St. Olaf College (2)Macalester College (1)

Tulane University (3)Southeastern Louisiana University (1)

Oklahoma State University (1)

The Santa Monica High School Class of 2020

Goes to College!!

INTERNATIONAL:University of St. Andrews (2)Unversidad de la Habana (1)

Concordia University (1)École Polytechnique (1)

NYU- Shanghai (1)

Miami Dade College (1)Florida State University (1)

Washington University in St. Louis (1)

Fordham University (2)

Middle Tennessee State University (1)

Parsons School of Design (1)

Barnard College (2)

The Culinary Institute of America (1)

New York University (2)

Harvard University (1)

Tufts University (3)Smith College (1)Boston University (1)

MIT (1)Amherst College (1)Boston Conservatory (2)

Wellesley College (1)

University of Massachusetts, Amherst (1)

Williams College (1)Boston College (1)

Chelsea SeiferCenter Spread Editor

*This map reflects data collected by May 25, 2020 through a school-sanctioned Naviance survey of the entire twelfth grade

May 30, 2020The SaMohi

Senior iSSue06

Day 1: Honestly, this is kinda great. I never really took in this second semester of math and now it doesn’t even matter. I can’t wait to sleep in and postmate wow. #se-niorszn

Later, Day 1: I’ve been watching Charli TikToks for three hours and now need to get off this app because I can’t do the “Savage remix ft Beyonce” dance as well as she can and it’s hurting my self esteem.

Slightly later on day 1: *hums to myself as I recklessly scroll through Depop

…..please dont give me hype, write my name in ice. Can’t argue with these laZy b*tches, I just raise my price…boss….leader...2-seater. And my momma was a savage, man, i got this shit from tina. *hits the woah

Day 2: I’m bored. I keep brewing coffee to pass the time but i’m now out of filters. I would go to the grocery store, but the amount of karen energy in the Ralphs bus is astronomical.

Day 3: My best friend cut her own bangs.

Day 4 (morning): I woke up at 7 today, made a vanilla almond milk latte and took my dog on a morning walk. LA is so nice in the morning, it’s all overly-giddy moms worried about putting on a corona-15 so they’re just light-ly jogging in visors while on facetime with the PTSA pres-ident. So quaint. Maybe this won’t be so bad, the weather’s beautiful and this podcast goes crazy.

Day 6: I’ve walked my dog three times today just to feel something. I don’t even really like animals. There is nowhere left to walk.

Day 9: I’m debating if I should post a series on main of “Things I’ve purchased on depop in the wee hours of the night during quarantine for serotonin.” My instagram do be kinda dry but tbh everyone knows what i look like in a turtleneck so idk.

Day 12: Should I take a shot?

of CoronacationDaily Log Chelsea Seifer

Centerspread Editor 2020 Senior Starter PackKimiya AframianManaging Editor

Adobe Stock

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SENIOR BINGO

You posted a bingo board at the beginning of shelter

in place thinking you “really did something”

You’ve shared eye contact with someone that

you only kinda know while on a COVID walk

Your sibling is fighting you about how “quarantine

has been harder for them”

You “got ready” to go somewhere mundane

like the grocery store or CVS

You cancelled at least one AP exam

for no other reason besides that

you just couldn’t give a f**k

No. 6

Before this, the only CA governor you

knew the name of was Aidan Blain

You have a go-to crying spot on the

Samo campus

You had to postpone

Hot Girl Summer

Consideredbecoming

class of 2025

A “starter pack” is defined by Urban Dictionary as “certain objects, characteristics, or actions that make up a particular type of person”, often used to poke fun at a stereotype. Here at The Samohi we have created a starter pack of our own, designed to depict the typical Samo senior.

Chelsea SeiferCenterspread Editor

Bingo is a popular game around the world where players attempt to cross the board (up, across or diag-onal) by filling in three squares in a row in any direc-tion. In this grid, players can read the comical senior cards and cross out the boxes that apply to them. Play-ers “win” the game if they can cross out 3 in any direc-tion. Enjoy our senior The Samohi twist!

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At the beginning of the school year, I kicked off my introductory “Letter from the Ed-itor” by quoting the French writer Voltaire who said “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” I’ll admit, it was certainly a grandiose and lofty senti-ment to quote as a then-seventeen-year-old who hadn’t served more than three weeks in i202 as chief of the journalism class. But, regardless of my vaguely self-important nature and clear naivety as to what the next nine months had in store, this idea has only grown more powerful and applica-ble as the months passed, and I feel incredibly con-fident that The Samohi as a publication was able to use its platform to give that voice to a largely

diverse collection thinkers on campus. I am proud of what we have achieved as a newspaper, success-fully delivering the unbiased and honest stories of our community with integrity to the people. But I am even more proud of the ridiculous amount of resilience (that has been crucial in the past two months) shown by my senior class.

I feel that I can speak for the majority of 2020 grads when I say I am absolutely shattered to see thirteen intense years of schooling crumble and decay in the final quarter of our final year. This was certainly not something I ever fathomed would happen. But here we are - in the midst of all of this global chaos - still striving for excellence and planning for our futures, which may not be according to plan, but are still just as bright.

I don’t know where I would be, or who I would be, if I had not been a Samo student. Some-thing about the grit and gumption that it requires to be successful at Samo is unlike any other qual-ity a young adult can aquire. Almost nothing else could make a student who is about to embark on their postgraduate journey more prepared and ready for the challenges ahead. For that, I want to say thank you. Thank you to every teacher who has broken through to me and changed the way I see the world, every peer who has made me feel accepted unconditionally and most of all thank you to D., who was the most consistent thing in my life during my four years of high school, ready like clockwork at 3:16 each afternoon to bark ag-gressively at me as I pressed my airpods deeper into my ears.

-Chloe Forssell

People love to say that high school went by in the blink of an eye. For me, the blink was long and unsteady, like there was a microscopic piece of dust under my eyelid that I tried tirelessly to remove. This simile might cause you to think that high school felt like a never-ending drag, but that would be a lie. At-tending Samo has been the most rewarding time of my (albeit short) life. Reflecting, much of my growth over the past four years has been tied to an elective I was at first unsure I would join, or later return to: journalism. As a wide-eyed but close-minded fresh-man, I did not see the class as anything but a cool experience that would hopefully improve my writ-

ing skills. It was simply a stepping stone to get me to succeed in other classes, and maybe learn more about the school I felt like a tourist in along the way. Never did I think that journalism would be the path to meeting some of my closest friends while find-ing my footing in the incredibly rich community at Samo.

Journalism was the first place where I felt like I was part of something big and important, and I had to do my part to keep the proverbial ship afloat. Though my original main passion, running, provid-ed me with lifelong friends and a sense of belonging, journalism surprised me by being a place where one person actually could not succeed without the other. I started believing I was a team player. I learned ev-ery class period about the multifaceted and diverse group of students who were always up to something exceptional. I became proud not only to represent the school, but to truly be a part of it. On the surface, Samo is nothing more than a high school near the beach built on much too steep a hill. But what makes it so exciting -- what makes you want to come back for more no matter how many times it feels unbear-able -- is the sea of students who refuse to morph into any “high school” mold and refuse to be defined by the stereotypes that pervade our culture. Journal-ism opened my eyes to the profundity of the school and its inner-workings once I allowed myself to be a part of it. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to come back for more, but Samo, with all of its twists and turns, will come with me, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

-Tupelo Sullivan

Dear readers...

As a tiny eighth grader, I was so afraid of what I would face for the next four years of my ed-ucation at Samo. I feared that I would be trampled in the hallways, towered over by scary seniors and stuffed into a locker... but it turns out that Samo lockers aren’t big enough for that anyways! Now, as a tiny senior, I can say that “I survived Samo,” and better yet, that “I will survive because of Samo.” Everything that I have learned here, from Vesper diagrams to Shakespeare’s deeper mean-ings (and most importantly, the fine art of push-ing through a sea of scrambling students in the I-house bottleneck only to be late to orchestra yet again), has prepared me for my next milestone of college and even further in life. And yes, I know it sounds cheesy for me to say that Samo has made me into the person I am today, but let’s be real, it to-

tally has. I am forever grateful to all the individuals who have intentionally and unintentionally been a part of my upbringing within the SMMUSD community, supporting me as I tackled my goals and pushing me out of my comfort zone, notably in my involvement with The Samohi.

To be honest, I didn’t join journalism be-cause I like writing; anyone who knows me can vouch that I’m a S.T.E.M. girl all the way. I’m fas-cinated by the structures of the human mind and body, not much by the structures of sentences. But freshman-Kimiya figured journalism would be the perfect opportunity to embrace her inner Jane Austen, and looking back, I think she was onto something. Journalism not only allowed me to re-fine my writing and editing abilities, but brought me to life long friends and an amazing family on campus. With late night paste-ups, fourth period work continuations - with subsequent racking up of absences- (oops, did I just out myself?)- and spontaneous lunch time distributions, we are clos-er than the Kardashians.

The journalism family is only a small clan of the greater Samo community. Samo is the epitome of *theoretical* America: a welcoming melting pot encompassing hundreds of cultures and perspectives. Samo has not only prepared us for the real world, but is a striking reflection of it. Although I will be a whopping 5.8 miles from Samo next year (Go Bruins!!), I will dearly miss the school by the sea.

I wish we all could have celebrated surviving Samo in person, but thanks to the collaboration of YouTube Live and Ian Lindsay, we will all be to-gether. Congrats class of 2020 and see you on the other side!

-Kimiya Aframian

As the 2019-20 school year comes to a close, the entire senior class is collectively pre-paring for a journey ahead full of unknowns. After the stability of four years at Samo, it can be scary to take that step into the next chapter of life. Below, five of the senior editors from The Samohi address their senior class and reflect on their high school experiences. For the letters from the additional five seniors, please go to www.thesamohi.com.

One sentence describing what I learned in high school? Everything works itself out. Absolute-ly everything.

It’s not just going with the flow and being a passive observer of your life, it’s trusting that doing your best in the present is enough and acknowl-edging that some things are just out of your control. In fact, the only thing you can control is how you react to situations.

I’m not going to pretend that I was spilling over with joy every time I entered campus over the last four years, but thinking back (while quaran-tined in my house) I realize that so many of the things I absolutely despised in the moment made

me so much better in the long run. Every time I got stuck with a less than average teacher, mixed up a deadline, got injured while playing a sport or was forced to run sprints in 90 degree weather, I kept asking myself “why is this happening to me,” but what I didn’t know was that all these irritating events were actually happening for me. Would I go through them again? No. Definitely not. But am I happy they happened? Yes. Absolutely.

This lesson is probably why I haven’t lost my sanity during this time. So much of what we thought was guaranteed to us is falling apart. So many of the ideals we had for the summer after high school are no longer possible. While it’s hard to accept that we didn’t have a classic senior year and probably won’t have a typical college experience, we’ve all gained insight about skills that will radically aid us in our futures. Personally, I’ve had more time to reflect on my life and the state of the world than I ever could have hoped for. And while I’ve realized how valuable in-person human connection is, I’ve also come to understand that you don’t need to be physically close to someone to grow a strong bond.

Regardless of what specific skills we individually learned, all of us will understand the importance of being open to change and the value of living in the present and not putting too much emphasis on the future or the past. And perhaps, when we emerge from this global pandemic, our days will be filled with a little less complaining and a little more appreciation for life.

-Anastasia Shakhidzhanova

I came to Samo wanting to major in journalism, or really, to major in Being Andy Sachs from “The Devil Wears Pra-da” and SAVING THE WORLD on a $6 freelance journalist salary. While my aspi-rations have certainly changed, my fervent, religious belief in the necessity of ethical

journalism has not. You can ask me on any given date what my day consisted of and while I may not say a calculus Taylor series, not a day goes by that I don’t con-sume news. Whether it’s a morning article in “The Atlantic” or a 21-minute episode of “Today, Explained,” to me, cognizance is as vital to my day as coffee. And that, that faith in truth and muckraking-induced rush was something I learned on The Samohi.

When I took AP Psychology, there was a day in the personality unit where Mr. Thun told me that I was a defensive pessi-mist; he (as Eleanor Hutman can attest) was completely right. The constant stream of cancellations and the loss of my 2020 “hap-py ending” made me cynical. But if there’s one thing I’ve fixated on in quarantine, it’s all the things we can do when this is over.

We are 18.We may have lost the rolling credits

section of our childhood, but as COVID-19 marks the death knell of our youth, it be-gins the “20th Century Fox,” animation of our lives. We can rewrite the muddy media we grew up on. We can become the gov-ernment worker or genius epidemiologist or the history teacher that fights for public

school kids like ours did for us. In my mind, I always pictured my last

day of high school with Paul Rudd from “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” telling the class: “Question everything! Always look out for your Franklin friends. Nev-er let scariness be a reason for not doing something, always read and have a good life.” And while I love coming-of-age, “Hel-lo Eileen-esque ‘’ movies, I want to end with a song that was integral to my high school experience- Billy Joel’s “Vienna.” (It’s basic but whatcha gonna do? At our cores, we’re all just run-of-the-mill LA teenagers).

Slow down, you’re doing fine. You can’t be everything you want to be before your time….You’re so ahead of yourself that you forgot what you need. Though you can see when you’re wrong, you know, you can’t always see when you’re right. You’re right. You’ve got your passion, you’ve got your pride, but don’t you know that only fools are satisfied? Dream on, but don’t imagine they’ll all come true. When will you realize? Vienna waits for you.

-Chelsea Seifer

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Michael Vigman / The Samohi

Michael Vigman / The Samohi

Michael Vigman / The Samohi

Michael Vigman / The Samohi

Michael Vigman / The Samohi

Sincerely,

May 30, 2020The Samohi

Senior Issue 07

Thank you to Samo and all the individuals who have made our experience these past four years so phenomenal and incredibly formative. We cannot wait to see what the future has in store for each and every 2020 graduate.