Teaching in Class and Performing on Stage
Science teacher Mr. Gillespie isn’t just a teacher, he is also a performer.
Blase Gapinski
gapinskibla42@tcapsstudent.net
it but he is also really great in class and on stage, Being able to work with him shows me he is really fun and outgoing everywhere he is,” said Smart.
Smart believes being able to work with one of her teachers on a production lets them know more about their personal lives.
“It’s really fun because he knows what I am doing so he knows how busy I am,” said Smart.
Gillespie also believes that being able to do all of these performances affects the way he teaches.
“Teaching does not affect my performance but the other performances do make me a happier person which makes me a better teacher,” said Gillespie.
Gillespie also enjoys being able to get all the love and support from his students and takes pride in them putting themselves out there in the West performances.
“It’s always really cool to see students involved in this stuff. I think it’s something we can talk about and connect with and plus if they see me on stage they love that. All my theatre kids, they all love it. They’re all excited to see me. Lots of kids love it and love to do it! But, they are doing our performance and it’s the same thing just a different stage,” said Gillespie.
“The Nutcracker” ballet is a Christmas performance that many enjoy to see during the holiday season each year.
Science teacher Patrick Gillespie was in the performance last year with his daughter, and starred in it again this year. This year Gillespie was put down for two parts instead of just one.
“My daughter is a ballet dancer and they put me on the cast list last year without asking me. They knew I would do it. They did it again this year, but this year they put me for two parts. Grandfather just like last year but Mother Ginger is a new one. This is the first time I’ve ever been in drag,” said Gillespie.
Gillespie has done shows in the past around town such as Mama Mia at the Old Town Playhouse.
“That is why they knew they could just throw me on stage and not ask me if I wanted to do it they knew I would just do it. So it just makes me have the confidence to get up there and make a fool of myself anytime, anywhere,” said Gillespie.
Students also involve themselves in these performances and also get to work alongside their teachers. Student of Gillespie, Jolie Smart, gets to see the different sides of Gillespie that many aren’t able to.
“He is different at rehearsal as he is more focused on doing
Security for the School and Christmas Spirit
John is a security guard at the high school and also a part time Santa outside of school
during the holidays.
Lily Galnares
galnareslil20@tcapsstudent.net
Every year during the holidays, security guard John Brazaski dons a Santa Claus suit and spreads the joy of the holiday season to kids in the Traverse City community.
Brazaski has been working at West since it opened in 1997. He’s been a security guard here ever since. Brazaski has always enjoyed being at school and being a security guard.
“It’s interesting because you get to meet a lot of different people, there’s a lot of diversity,” Brazaski said.
“I think that John provides a safety net for the kids here, and he has a great relationship with them,” said Sparta office secretary Jennifer Nowak, who works with Brazaski daily.
However, during the holidays, Brazaski is no ordinary security guard. Every December he acts as a community Santa, traveling to Crystal Lake Elementary and the village of Lake Anne bringing joy to countless children.
“At first, I did not think I would make a good Santa Claus, but after a couple of years doing it, I realized I make a pretty good Santa Claus,” Brazaski said.
He also puts in a lot of effort into achieving that authentic Santa look. His usual routine consists of putting on the traditional Santa clothing, putting a pillow underneath his costume or even wearing a fat suit, and wearing a fake beard. However, 2019 is the first year Brazaski has grown out his own beard, which he prefers over the fake one.
“When wearing a fake beard, no matter how many times you clean it, it gets hot, and the little ones always try to pull on it.”
Brazaski did not always plan on becoming a Santa.
“Some fella who I’ve never met before wanted me to be a Santa Claus at his house for his family.”
After that he began doing it at the Platte River Association because they needed a replacement for a Santa who previously
performed there. Soon it became an annual event in Brazaski’s life, and has been for the past 15 years.
“I enjoy doing it, and I really look forward to it every year,” He said.
Brazaski has received the gift wishes of dozens of children over the years, and there are some that he will never forget.
“Kids say the darndest things, one year I had a little boy who said that all he wanted for Christmas was his parents to get back together,” Brazaski said.
Brazaski’s favorite part about being Santa is the fact that he gets to interact with kids who still believe in Santa and make their lives a little bit jollier.
“It’s rewarding to see the things they ask for and what they want,” he said
Others at the school seem to be amused by Brazaski’s traditions. The information always brings smiles to faces, and some are even touched by it.
“I think it’s great, John loves little kids, and he loves to bring joy to them,” Nowak said.
Not everyone knows that Brazaski is Santa during the holiday season, and for students this can be a fun discovery.
“I think it’s very interesting. You know, I noticed he was growing out his beard and I wondered what it was about,” said sophomore Connor Leaf.
Brazaski serves a great reminder to the school. A reminder that the school will always be a safe place for students, and they’re will always be adults working hard to keep them safe. He also is a reminder that if they don’t behave, they may end up on the naughty list.
Staying Studious through Soccer
The influence of soccer on senior Maya Dean has expanded beyond the field.
Senior Maya Dean (in white) plays soccer in San Diego July 2019. Photo submitted by: M. Dean // Front page teaser photo: Dean signs her commitment to Bowling Green Nov. 13. Photo: T. Crowley
Quinn Wolff/Riley Ashbury
wolffqui25@tcapsstudent.net
Throughout her high school career, Senior Maya Dean has been juggling all sorts of activities. Whether it’s traveling down and back to and from Grand Rapids for soccer all in the same day or managing a small side business of selling stickers, Dean is always on the go when she’s not at school. It becomes a difficult task to grapple with excessive amounts of AP credits as well as academic requirements to uphold admissions for her commitment to Bowling Green University, where she plans to play soccer.
Dean started to play soccer when she was five years-old and from then on, her love of the sport quickly developed as something that would stick with her for the majority of her life. “Soccer has been my whole life, so it’s nothing new, it still takes up most of my time, but I love it,” Dean said.
Even though Dean is known throughout the community for her commitment to Bowling Green University, she was only known as a Titan soccer player her
Sophomore year. She made a decision her freshman year that affected her high school soccer career.
“We still had eighth graders on our team when I was a freshman,” Dean said. “Sophomore year I played because I was still on the MRL team, now everyone is in highschool, junior and senior year I was on the DA team which is year round,” Dean said. However, she still does miss playing with her freinds.
“This year I kind of regret it because it’s senior year and I haven’t been able to play with my friends in a long time, but I don’t regret it in the long run,” Dean said.
However, Dean has now begun playing on the Midwestern United FC Developmental Academy team based out of Grand Rapids. Currently, Dean’s everyday routine seems to appear as any normal high school student’s timeline, until she hits Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“I wake up, eat breakfast, go to school and then on Tuesdays and Thursdays I drive down to Grand Rapids for soccer practice that starts at 5 p.m, then drive home and get into bed at about 11:30,” Dean said. And then does it all over again the next week.
Despite being extremely busy outside of school, Dean
is able to keep up a wonderful school life. She is very successful in the classroom,
“Maya was also an excellent student. She was absent a lot while she traveled with her soccer team but always was proactive in taking care of her school responsibilities,” said English teacher Aimee Cole, who also advises the school’s National Honor Society.
Besides excelling in school, Dean is also the NHS treasurer.
“Maya is an excellent leader in NHS. She actually almost didn’t apply because she thought she might be too busy to handle the commitment, she has been at every event so far and has helped take the lead in decorating and working at the Homecoming Dance,” Cole said.
Aside from her academic and athletic responsibilities, one of Dean’s top priorities is maintaining her relationships with her friends and family members, which can sometimes prove to be a challenge.
Her boyfriend Gabe Flowers is no stranger to Dean’s busy schedule, as he has to deal with this on a daily basis. However, he is also busy during the winter season.
“My wrestling season starts when her soccer season ends, so during the winter it is very challenging to make time for each other,” Flowers said.
Although it is a challenge for them, Flowers is very happy for Dean’s success.
“It’s really good; I’m happy and proud of her.”
While it can feel harsh at times to juggle so many things at once, Dean seems to have a routine down to help her stay focused and relaxed. She is always trying to improve both in her sport and her academics.
“Nothing is certain in college, no play time is guaranteed so I’m working on getting play time,” Dean said.
She has the motivation to improve all around because of her family.
“My older brother set very high expectations so I’m trying to fill his shoes.”
Natalia Gonzalez Leads Multicultural Club with
Experience of Differing Cultures
Will Stanton
stantonwil43@tcapsstudent.net
When Senior Natalia Gonzalez moved to Traverse City from Leon, Mexico, she struggled with living in another country. It didn’t help that she moved here just a few days before her freshman year started.
“At first it was super scary, cause like I am moving to this country where I barely speak the language,” said Gonzalez, adding that teachers talked too fast for her to understand. “It’s really frustrating not knowing what’s going on, not understanding your classes, just not being able to express yourself as much as you can in your own language.”
Although Gonzalez struggled in school when she first moved, she enjoyed great support from her family.
“I mean, it’s tough. Not for me that much, because I don’t have a bad family background. My family is really sweet, and my mom really encourages us,” Gonzalez said. “We grew up in a loving family, but some people that I know don’t really have family here.”
Gonzalez, a 17-year-old senior who moved here three years ago started the multicultural club in 2017 as a way for herself and others to feel more included at West.
“I wanted to give that space to someone, helping and supporting someone emotionally. Just being their friend,” Gonzalez said. “I just felt that it would be a good idea for people that felt the same way that I did freshman year like ‘Oh you’re already leaving your country and then coming here, and you feel even worse because you don’t really connect with people.’”
Alba Colomer, a foreign exchange student from Barcelona, Spain was also having a tough time making connections with people. After she joined the club, she and Gonzalez ended up as close friends.
“She is a really nice person and she helped me a lot. If I have problems with the homework she will help me, and she makes my time here much easier,” Coromer said.
Gonzalez also found support in her English as a Second Language class.
“My English as a Second Language class was the best class for me because I felt included, and I could be myself because I know they wouldn’t judge my English or whatever.” Gonzalez said.
The teacher of that class, Heidi Gregory, supported Gonzalez and encouraged her to create the club.
“Natalia brought up the idea when she was in my English as a Second Language class and something that I had been trying to figure out how to make work like not necessarily as a club, but something to help students who immigrated, refugee students, and exchange students to help them all become a part of the West community and at the same time enrich the students lives who live here in Traverse City,” Gregory said.
Gregory has taught Gonzalez for four years and is now the advisor for the Multicultural Club.
“It’s been amazing, it’s such a joyful experience; it makes my week to see all the students come together, smiling faces, sharing cultures,” Gregory said. “It’s really inspiring, especially to see Natalia lead it. She’s got so much positive energy and motivation.”
Every Thursday, the club meets to do various activities such as teaching each other phrases from their languages, eating food from different cultures or celebrating holidays. The club also has out-of-school activities like going to Jacob’s Corn Maze, or going to the movies.
“She works her own job and spends her own money to buy food every week for the club even though I told her ‘Hey, see me, let me know what you need, I’ll bring it, we have funds for it.’ She just keeps bringing it,” Gregory said.
The club is mainly made up of students from different countries and has two American students.
“I think it’s really interesting how we get to share and compare our cultures, and it’s really fun and you get to
“I wanted to give that space to someone, helping and supporting someone emotionally.”
- N. Gonzalez
know a lot of different people, from different countries as well. I think it’s a really good experience being in that club,” Coromer said.
Gonzalez would like to see more American students join.
“We are trying to create a diverse atmosphere, but we don’t really have a lot of contributions from American students,” Gonzalez said.
Although Gonzalez has adjusted to living in America, there are still some things she misses about Mexico.
“The food, that’s a really sad part; it’s not that I have anything against American food, but yeah, I miss it,” Gonzalez said.
Besides their usual club activities, the Multicultural Club also brings in the Multicultural Symposium, an event that showcases different cultures to the school. Students talked about issues such as LGBT rights, and foreign exchange students talked about their experiences at West.
“We sent out a survey, and I believe it was 95 to 98 percent of students gave feedback that they wanted to see more of other cultures, and that it had opened their eyes to something new. And that it changed their perspective on different cultures, and they learned a lot just from seeing the symposium,” Gregory said.
Gonzalez is happy that she could create a space where students could feel supported in school.
“As a whole, I know students that wanted to leave, like exchange students that wanted to leave because they felt that they didn’t really have friends. They are not as homesick and they wanna stay. It’s helping students from other countries to feel at home, and like they have someone to rely on.”
Sophomore Katie Snowday, as Tzeitel, looks longingly at her romantic interest, Jewish tailor, Motel, played by sophomore Kedrik Merwin Nov. 21. Photo: T. Crowley
Tevye’s daughters, from front left to right, sophomore Katie Snowday as Tzeitel, junior Olivia Kane as Chava, and junior Lainey Trubiroha as Hodel, dance as they clean their home in Anattevka, Russia. Photo: T. Crowley
Sophomore Jenna Hickey, as Fruma Sarah, attemps to choke senior Jack Rusinowski, as Tevye, with her pearl necklace in Tevye’s nightmare. Photo: T. Crowley
Potential First Gentleman Returns to School
Chasten Buttigieg ‘07 revisits his high school years in the midst of a fierce presidential campaign in which he and his husband, “Mayor Pete,” have become the focus of national attention.
Eds: Story contains anti-gay slur
One of the most vivid memories that alumnus Chasten Buttigieg, class of ‘07, has of his time in high school is getting beat up in the hallway right after he left the gym. Another student threw him to the floor, dragged him down the hallway by his backpack, and called him a “faggot.”
“Nothing came of that,” Buttigieg said. “The gym teacher knew about it, other kids saw it, and that was just something you’d brush under the rug.”
Buttigieg was not openly gay in high school; “it was a given” that you could not be out 12 years ago. Still, he was bullied—if his clothes were too flamboyant, or if his lisp was too pronounced, or if there was too much swish in his walk. He sat in Civics class listening to politicians speak on LGBT issues and never felt seen or heard.
¨I felt that nobody was talking about me and nobody was fighting for me… it was clear—it was a given—people just don’t believe that I deserve equal rights in this country.”
Now, years after coming out to the people close to him and graduating high school, not only are there politicians fighting for LGBT rights and equality, but in fact Buttigieg is married to one of these politicians. His husband, Pete Buttigieg, commonly known as “Mayor Pete,” is one of the 19 Democratic candidates running for president in 2020. On Sept. 16, Buttigieg visited his alma mater and around 330 students from AP Government, Civics, and journalism-related classes attended, including students from Traverse City Central High School.
“To go from that kid, sitting in this classroom, feeling like there would never be an inclusive future for me to now being the husband of a presidential candidate on the trail is still mind-boggling to me,” Buttigieg said. “I never thought I’d see the day where I could get married, let alone my husband to be the one to run for president. Personally, I think there was a lot of deep-seated doubt about my worth and my abilities because I was LGBTQ, but we pushed past that with great friends and great allies and support systems and employers who believed in me and communities that have believed in me and a family that believes in me. I see my worth. I see my value.”
For Buttigieg, it took a long time to see his worth. He wasn’t able to bust out of the mindset that there was something wrong with himself until he left high school. When he was a student, there was no Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) nor any publicly gay teachers or students he felt he could confide in. The GSA began in 2013 and now is a group where LGBT students and allies can go to share experiences, concerns, and camaraderie.
“I was kind of iffy about it,” said sophomore Delaney Warren-Johnson, a lesbian student who joined the GSA Sept. of this year. “But once I got in there, I actually thought it was very nice… every time I leave I feel a little confident, like ‘Yeah, somebody could call me a faggot on the street, and I’d be okay with it. I would be fine. I’m strong.’ I’m just a little bit more confident in myself, so I could stick up for myself, because I’m not usually confident.”
But even though the GSA is present and available to students as a safe place to talk about LGBT issues, there have been incidents wherein students have pushed back against the GSA’s existence, especially on their spirit days. In 2015, on a spirit day in which students were meant to wear purple if they wished to show support for the GSA, members of the Student Senate wore yellow instead—the opposite of purple. This was how they showed their disapproval of the GSA and their spirit day. Members of the GSA like sophomore Charlie Slawnik don’t think this kind of behavior would be out of the question even today.
“I one hundred percent think it could happen again,” Slawnik said. “Especially because of where we live—in farmland. Last year on Spirit Day, I heard a lot of kids saying, ‘Oh, the gays all have a day all on their own, let the straights have a day on their own.’ They have 365 days of their own.”
Students have expressed distaste for the GSA in other ways as well. This school year, there was a student who tore down the GSA’s posters that were posted in the halls to spread awareness of the club’s time, location, and purpose. The student then had a discussion with staff members, after which he put GSA posters back on the wall.
“I thought that was nice,” Warren-Johnson said. “It’s changed a lot [since Buttigieg was in high school]. Everything is a lot more inclusive. “
Teacher Tak Ready, who taught Buttigieg in his junior year of high school, has also observed the changing attitudes around LGBT issues in his AP Government and Civics classes.
“It’s like night and day in terms of discrimination,” Ready said. “I can’t think of any political issue that I have seen such a change of since I started teaching. When I started teaching, you could see the same percentage of kid’s positions on abortion. It’s pretty much the same today. You have the same perecentage of pro-life kids and pro-choice kids. And you still see the same percentage on gun control, but when it comes to gay rights issues, nobody in class would talk in favor of same-sex marriage. Now, it’s the opposite. There are very few kids in class who would say they’re against same-sex marriage.”
Now same-sex marriage is legal in all fifty states, but Buttigieg says there is still more work to be done for the LGBT community on a national level. One form of progress Buttigieg would like to see is a federal Equality Act, which would add protections from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity under federal civil rights law. On Oct. 8, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case addressing whether or not these classifications should already be protected under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The decision is not expected to be announced until summer 2020, so meanwhile the question of LGBT civil rights still hangs in the balance.
“In many states in this country, it is still legal to fire people simply because of who they are and who they love,” Buttigieg said. “That is wrong. We need federal legislation to fix that. There are places where my husband and I can go in this country and be denied service simply for who we are, and that is unacceptable.”
Should Buttigieg’s husband become president, he envisions the White House administration setting a tone of respect and acceptance when it comes to issues like this.
“You can set the tone on issues from the White House,” he said. “The thing that the current president does a remarkable job of is creating an open season on the backs of any minority in this country to be made to feel that they don’t belong and his emboldenment of people to attack others for who they are.”
There are also concerns about the treatment of LGBT people on a school-wide scale.
“The only thing that’s probably stayed the same [since Buttigieg went here] is the use of the word ‘faggot,’” Warren-Johnson said. “I hear it a lot. I hear it quite a bit. I’ll go and get some lunch at the cafeteria, and I’ll be checking out, and I’ll hear when some kids are like, ‘Oh my gosh, this teacher is such a faggot.’ Hearing those kinds of words out of context or full-on in context just kind of rubs me the wrong way.”
Warren-Johnson believes that students need to be taught about the significance of anti-gay slurs. She remembers talking to another student last year who used the word “faggot” and claimed not to know what it meant when Warren-Johnson commented on it.
“I guess people are not very well-learned about this stuff,” she said. “Maybe they are, and they use it for just that reason.”
When it comes to incidents of ignorance or homophobia, Buttigieg’s advice is to deny the aggressors any influence.
“It’s kind of like they’re a siren plugged into the wall, and it’s just going off and going off and making all this loud noise. The best thing you can do to that siren is just unplug it from the wall. Deny it everything. Deny it power, and deny that it has the ability to inflict that harm upon you.”
And in order to combat this kind of ignorance, should they wish to, one thing young people can do is prepare themselves to vote for candidates they have faith in. Ready notes that though 18 to 29 year olds typically vote at the lowest rates, in next year’s election that might change, because, as Buttigieg puts it, “for everyone there’s something on the line” in 2020.
Hope Thompson
Exchange Students Share Their Struggles
Riley Walters
waltersril36@tcapsstudent.net
Students from all over the globe have had the exciting experience to travel abroad for a year and a few of them have had the opportunity to come to Traverse City. Students have flown in from Japan, Germany, Sweden as well as other European and Asian countries, but some of their experiences have not gone as they had expected.
“One of the first things I noticed was that everything is so much bigger,” Swedish exchange student Anna Sandell said when talking about landing in New York. “The buildings were bigger, the food was bigger. Everything was...bigger.”
Traverse City is not anywhere near the size of New York, but regardless, it is considered sufficiently bigger by Sweden’s standards. The schools here are much larger than the students expected they would be.
Most of the students who attend school here have been forming their current friendships since middle school, which is why exchange students can find it hard to make friends within these tight social groups.
Japanese exchange student Rei Okamoto said that “making friends and talking to them,” was one of her largest struggles, “because everyone already knows each other from last year.”
Finding friends hasn’t been the only problem among some exchange students, though. Coming from a non-English speaking country, there is always the possibility of running into a language barrier.
“Sometimes I can’t explain what I want to say, I can’t think of the word, and I can’t change the word from Japanese to English, so I need to look it up or try to tell them by gestures,” Okamoto said.
To get around this barrier, though, all exchange students are currently taking English classes.
For some, such as Sandell, they had the opportunity to learn English when they were younger. In Sweden, students take English classes from age 10, which helps in improving fluency so that when students do travel abroad, they have a good handle on the language.
Traveling not only requires some knowledge of the language spoken, but it also requires a desire to learn more about the country itself.
“I’m very interested in different cultures,” Sandell said. “And I’m very interested in seeing how a society can function even though it’s totally different from what I’m used to.”
Kimberly Rautmann, from Germany, said that she wanted to be in the program because “I was interested in another country and I wanted to experience what American high school is like and if it’s like [it is] in the movies.”
Many students, such as Trista Brunan or Lauren Beeman, also feel a tug towards getting to know other cultures. These students host exchange students from other countries, and at the end of the year, the hosts are allowed the chance to travel wherever their student was from.
“I wanted to get a feel for what it’s like to have an exchange student and the experience of their culture,” Beeman explained when asked why she wanted to host.
While hosting a foreign exchange student allows you to experience other cultures, it does influence the family they are staying with.
“Hosting a student impacted my family by helping my brother and I get along better,” Brunan said.
For both exchange students and hosts, each experience new cultures and are immersed in different lifestyles. In the end, most students do not want to leave, and in
Going Viral
As the app “TikTok” has surged in popularity, so too have students at the school.
Riley Ashbury
ashburyril74@tcapsstudent.net
Throughout the years, trends have come and gone, and the most recent trend this year is a popular app called TikTok where users lip sync different songs and share them around the world.
Sophomore Kedrik Merwin and Junior Grant Lafaive went viral on TikTok. Kedrik made a video about him sorting through different colored M&Ms, the twist being that he is colorblind. It went viral along with a few other funny videos he had created. He currently has nearly a million followers and his most liked video has over two million likes. Grant made a video about his girlfriend and their relationship and gained 663.3 thousand likes with a total of 17.9 thousand followers.
Going viral on TikTok affected Merwin in a couple different ways.
“At first going viral was just a lot. As the numbers went up, people stopped becoming people. Soon, I got too absorbed in social media.” Merwin said. “I spent my nights refreshing my TikTok and instagram accounts and watching the numbers rise. But now I think it’s become normal, and I’ve made sure to limit my time on my phone.”
Although Merwin first went viral on Tik Tok, his internet fame didn’t end there.
“It was super surprising for the following to carry over to Instagram. I don’t think much of it on Instagram though, since I’m only posting pictures on there and not videos, I don’t get caught up in it.”
Merwin’s first viral video was not anything crazy or extreme.
“Well, my first huge video was just me sorting M&M’s. I did it casually and didn’t think much of it—but within the hour I had millions of views. I think that video has around 13 million now. I almost threw up when it started happening actually because I was just so shocked and it felt so weird to think how many people listened to my voice and watched my video. My friends don’t talk about it much, that’s why I love them. It gets tiring to talk about it to everyone.”
Not all of his rise to fame has been positive, though.
“After that M&M video blew up I didn’t know how to react when people talked about it. Some people would make fun of me for being on TikTok or going viral just for sorting M&M’s, but I’ve learned to sort of nod along and go with the flow,” Merwin said.
For Lafaive, his rise to fame has barely impacted his life.
“It didn’t affect how I was in school. Not at all. The only thing that is different is that people would just mention it to me but everyone treated me the same,” Lafaive said.
Although his fame rarely affected his life at school, it did affect his relationship.
“The video was about my girlfriend and like always she was mad at me because she had been making videos for a month with no luck at going viral,” Lafaive said.
Tik Tok is here to stay and is only gaining more and more users as time goes on.
“I just made stuff I personally thought was funny, and I still do. I think I’m hilarious,” Merwin said.
From Struggling
Teenager To
Touring Author
Will Stanton
stantonwil43@tcapsstudent.net
As a teenager, Aarti Shahani attended the Brealey School, a New York City prep school, one of the most prestigious in the country. She felt that she lived in “two worlds.” Her home life, in Flushing, Queens, a borough near Manhattan, was dramatically different than the one she led at school.
She lived in a cramped apartment with her sisters, mother and father, Indian immigrants born in Casablanca, Morocco.
“I can recall, also, waking up more than once when I was a child,” said Shahani, “ and having a roach crawling on my skin.”
Shahani is a journalist and author of “Here We Are: American Dreams, American Nightmares.” She spoke at the City Opera House in downtown Traverse City about her new memoir as part of the National Writers Series Oct. 6. The event drew more than 350 people.
After her parents immigrated from India, they did “find” the American dream, but apropos of the title of Shahani’s book, the family also suffered through an American nightmare.
Besides dealing with poverty and hunger, her father was arrested for mistakenly selling electronics to the notorious Cali drug cartel. What followed was a 14-year-long legal battle, mostly led by Shahani, and although he was eventually released, he never fully recovered from the incident.
“The case destroyed Dad’s career, his reputation, his will to live. It didn’t end when the sentence was over,” Shahani said. “It spiraled into more punishments than my family or the court ever expected.”
The book recounts her journey of helping her father’s legal case, her time as an activist, and her experience as a journalist in Silicon Valley. In an interview before going on stage, Shahani told the Occidentalist that writing her memoir helped her understand the issues about growing up with a dysfunctional family.
“It really helped me grapple with a fundamental question, and that was, did we make a mistake coming to this country? And did I add to that mistake? By fighting as hard as I did to keep my father here?” Shahani said. “And by writing through it, I finally came up with an answer that helped give me a great deal of peace.”
Shahani has her own advice for aspiring young writers.
“I believe writing is similar to running in a key way, you don’t tell yourself I’m going to run a marathon today, you have to practice and you have to build up to it,” Shahani said. “Does writer’s block exist? I’m not so sure. But a reliable way to deal with it is to make yourself do a certain amount of words. Set your goal and do it.”
Shahani also talked about the concept of objectivity in writing and journalism.
“All of us humans are biased,” Shahani said. “Unfortunately, many newsroom leaders do not address their own biases, which are poisoning a lot of their own reporting.”
Even though Shahani is living what she considers the “American Dream,” she is aware that others are not always so fortunate.
“This country is a duality,” Shahani said. “The life I have is the dream. My father lived the nightmare.”
Board Gaming on the Rise
Game Club brings roleplaying games back
In the age of video games, it is hard to imagine why roleplaying fantasy games are becoming ever more popular.
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game that was first published in 1974. It is the game of all roleplaying games, and since its inception has had a cult-like following. Relying on stories that could change the outcome of the game, groups could get together to continue the same game for months, as there was no clear ending with an official “winner”. Since then, online video games, DVRs, and cell phone games have had a part in putting a near end to the roleplaying games as people turned to their digital devices for an escape.
English and Sociology teacher David Noller is ensuring that roleplaying board games are staying popular with students by advising the Game Club. A gamer himself, he likes roleplaying games because he enjoys the storytelling component that is a big part of gaming.
“I wanted to start a board game club to pass on the hobby and to get kids otherwise not involved in after school activities into something that would challenge them intellectually.” Noller said. His journey into board games has taken him to board game conventions, and he sometimes hosts board game events in the community.
Sophomore Pierce O’Brien joined the Game Club, but wasn’t sure what he’d find when he joined the club. Luckily, he found a place where other people enjoy gaming as much as he does.
“I just went in there, I wasn’t sure what to expect but when I did I finally felt like I found my people,” he said. “It was great feeling. Gaming is more fun with other people and you can get more input from them. It’s a big social thing, and I’ve definitely have made more friends.”
Jordan Lesperance got into playing board games with her family, and since, gaming has taken up a good part of her day.
“What really got me into gaming was my brother and my dad because they used to game a lot, and I thought that it would be pretty cool to get into.” Lesperance said. Lesperance and her love for reading was able to be intertwined with her love of board and video games.
“I’m on my phone 24/7, but I’d say I game for at least five hours a day,” she said. Her favorite game is Resident Evil Seven because it is a survival horror game that offers twists and turns to the plot that keep the game interesting. “Gaming is literally for everybody. You don’t have to game a lot, or you can game all day, everyday. Story wise it’s just really fun to game.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the amount of time Americans spend playing video games and board games has risen by 50 percent since 2003. With so many new games being introduced, the image of a group of nerds playing D&D in a dark basement are long gone. Today, the benefits of role playing games are clear. Students who play games think creatively as they develop storylines and characters. Students who meet for roleplaying games are developing their creative skills, are socializing more, and are learning to collaborate with others.
The Game Club meets on Thursdays after school in room B206. Contact Dave Noller for more details.
Adopting dogs from Mexico
Students on the Global Service trip work at the Corazon Canino Dog Refuge. Photos: C. Hansen
Holly Yoder
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Sole was rescued, but Obi crossed first.
Anyone who has traveled to Mexico is probably familiar with the problem of street dogs. Spanish teacher Catherine Hansen is very familiar with the problem, and each year takes 25 to 30 students to Guanajuato for language study and volunteer work. While students take classes in the day time, they spend afternoons working at Buen Pastor, an orphanage for girls, and also at the Corazon Canino dog refuge.
“It’s important for me that students learn to serve, for them to show compassion and see how others live, especially those who have less,” Hansen said.
Each year, the dogs in the streets of Guanajuato break hearts and open students’ eyes to the problems of street dogs in Mexico. With an average income just under 7,000 dollars a year, having one’s pet spayed or neutered is not a priority for many families.
“It’s a cultural difference,” Hansen said. “We are not there to judge, and certainly, the Mexican people are very loving and deserving of pets.”
A few years ago, the street dog problem broke Hansen’s heart, and she figured out how to get one over the border and into her home.
“It was tricky,” she said. “I spent at least a month contacting airlines and vets to figure out the best way to get Obi home with us,” she said. “We had been taking street dogs into our rented apartment to feed and bathe them, and to give them a warm place to sleep at night. By the time we were ready to leave, my son was very attached to one particular dog, but it was too big to fit on the plane to bring him home.”
Not willing to break a promise to her son, Hansen began looking for a smaller dog to fit in a carry-on bag, as airlines didn’t allow travelers to check dogs in the cargo section of the plane because the heat on the tarmac during the summer months can kill animals.
This last summer, trip chaperone and English teacher David Noller followed suit.
“When we’re there, it doesn’t feel like a problem,” Noller said, “It just seems like there’s a lot of dogs around that you get to pet.” After working at the dog refuge, his daughter, junior Gracie Noller, asked to bring a dog back. He considered the option, but was hesitant until he was back in Michigan and his friend, Michelle DeSemoine, called to say she had found three puppies in a dumpster near her Guanajuato home. With her pleas for help, he made a snap decision, and committed to flying to her winter home in Phoenix to pick up one of the dogs a few weeks later.
“I was in Phoenix for seven hours total and came home about a day later with a dog that had been thrown in the garbage, and now she’s our ‘Soleado’,” Noller said. His family calls her Sole for short. After multiple complications regarding flight cancellations, Soleado was safe at home and with her forever family, who call her Sole.
Gracie never imagined she would get a Mexican pup, but hoped her dad would cave in.
“I didn’t think it was going to be possible,” Gracie said. “He had said that it was a possibility, and he had already decided he was going to adopt her. Sole is adorable. She’s a really smart puppy.”