The Golden Gazette

Posts

Goodbye I Guess?

I’ve always hated goodbyes. Now it’s time to say goodbye to high school and I feel like I haven’t even fully met it yet. Right when I got adjusted and stopped feeling like a freshman that didn’t belong in the building, I went right back to square one. Junior year was the most typical “high school” year for me. I was finally fully adjusted and comfortable with all aspects of high school, I was hanging out with my friends basically every night of the week, I was going to all the football games, school dances, I was an upperclassman, and I was just overall having a good experience. I had a solid group of friends who I loved more than the world itself, and we had the absolute best times together. Then someone named Miss COVID decided to pop in and tear everything to shreds. Now I was missing out on all the activities I finally decided I wanted to partake in, I couldn’t see my friends and teachers everyday at school, I couldn’t hang out with anybody, and it was as if high school didn’t even...

What's in a Name?

I personally love my name. Actually I guess I’m content with it. My first name, Lauren, is pretty basic. I know about a hundred other Lauren’s so it’s not a super unique name, but I do have a little story behind it. My mom was a teacher so when she was thinking of baby names, if there was a name she liked but then a student she had that gave that name a negative connotation to her, that name was no longer an option. Luckily, my dad’s name is Laurence so switching her choice to Lauren was pretty easy. Now that’s not to say that I am solely named after my dad, it’s just a coincidence. Lauren was a popular name for the kids of 2003, and it just helped that it was close to my dad’s name. Now my last name is what I really like: Golden. It’s a stereotypical Jewish last name that is decently common, but that doesn’t make me love it any less. I couldn’t ask for any better of a name than the color description of first place and beauty. I personally can’t think of any negative connotation to the...

Parasocial Relationships

Something that has been around for many years but is greatly increasing in recent years is the concept of parasocial relationships. It’s truly so intriguing to me because of how common these relationships are on minor scales, but also on large scales too. The kicker is, most people don’t even realize that they themselves are partaking in a parasocial relationship. Before I go on too far, I should probably share what a parasocial relationship actually is. By definition, parasocial relationships are “one-sided relationships, where one person extends emotional energy, interest and time, and the other party, the persona, is completely unaware of the other’s existence”. These relationships most commonly involve those being in one-sided relationships with celebrities, organizations (such as sports teams,) or television stars. Now let’s rewind back to when I said that many of us have these relationships on smaller scales. You may be thinking, Lauren, what the heck this is so crazy and od...

Senior Spring Break...

Ever since freshman year, I’ve been looking forward to my “senior spring break”. It’s something that has always been talked about and is one of those staple experiences to kick off going into the last quarter of high school. However, miss COVID had other plans. Every single aspect of my senior year, and a chunk of junior year, has been thrown out the window, and in an attempt to try and bring some normalcy back, a large number of people have opted to still go on senior spring break in decently sized groups. Not being able to go anywhere due to COVID is not even what is bothering me, but those who are disregarding COVID to travel unsafely is what is bothering me. It seems like everyone I know has decided that out of all places to go, Florida is the first pick. Personally, I don’t see the appeal. At least not now. I mean, I was even supposed to go to Florida with my friends before a lot of stuff happened. COVID is terrible there, there are TOO MANY people going (especia...

A New National Anthem

A New National Anthem BY ADA LIMÓN The truth is, I’ve never cared for the National Anthem. If you think about it, it’s not a good song. Too high for most of us with “the rockets By saying it's "too high", Limón is commenting on the composition of the actual song rather than the content or meaning behind it. red glare” and then there are the bombs. (Always, always, there is war and bombs.) However she then follows that by going into the multiple negative connotations behind the song, beginning with bombs, which she comments on the prevalence of violence and normalization of it in regard to this country. Once, I sang it at homecoming and threw even the tenacious high school band off key. To break up the "darker" commentary, Limón throws in a...

A Peek Into my Year

When your world feels like it has broken into a million pieces, it seems impossible to even begin to attempt to put any of the pieces back together. This past year or so has felt like everything is shattering and that nothing is being put back together. I’m not really sure if that makes me just a really pessimistic person or just unfortunate. In the past year all three of my pets have died, I’ve gotten deferred from what my parents tell me should be my number 1 school, someone extremely close to me is suffering from some pretty scary health issues, and at some points I feel I’ve been rotting away mentally. Wow, I feel like I’m talking to my therapist right now… But anyways, the point of sharing all that is not for any sort of pity or just because I’m an over-sharer; the purpose is to establish the foundation for why I feel like there are so many cracks in my life. However, to finally bring in some positivity, as a result of trying to piece back together my shattered heart and mind, I h...