Matchett knew from a young age that she wanted to be a teacher, even if her dreams were not always supported by her parents. “Even when I was a kid, I used to play with my dolls and teach them,” she said. “But my father and my mother didn’t want me to be a teacher. My father always said: ‘Those who can’t do, teach.’” As a result, Matchett entered college without a sure career path in mind.

While she was studying abroad in Madrid, Matchett discovered her gift for teaching. “I was tutoring these two boys, and they were horrible,” Matchett said. “They were so badly behaved that I left going, ‘Oh my God. I’m the worst tutor in the whole world.’ So I thought a lot about what I could do to make it interesting for them, and I created all these little games. I came back the next week, and it was so good—they loved it. As I was walking home, I was so happy, I was floating on air. I had this realization that I wanted to do something with my life where I would be happy.”

In addition to influencing her decision to become a teacher, Matchett’s time in the Spanish-speaking world also inspired her to immerse herself in Spanish language and culture. “The food (in Argentina and Spain) is amazing and delicious,” she said. “Yesterday, I was cooking something with olive oil, and the smell brought me right back to the very first time I visited Spain. There are certain smells or certain sights that take you right to a place in the culture.”

Indeed, Matchett finds that one of the greatest benefits of learning a language is absorbing its culture. “When you really know a language, you have to know the culture as well,” she said. “You end up understanding more about yourself as a human being when you understand another culture, because when you understand another culture, you start to really think about your own culture, which makes you examine who you are and why you do things. So what I love about language is that it teaches you who you are as a human being, and it helps you be a better human being.”

Matchett’s favorite part of teaching is witnessing the moment when a student truly understands and engages with the material. “I remember looking at the face of this particular boy who had never really looked interested before,” she said. “He was looking at me, and there was this look in his eyes of, ‘I understand what you’ve taught me.’ I could see it on his face and in his eyes, and I just felt my whole body explode with happiness.”

To Matchett, the AATSP award represents the hard work she has dedicated to teaching over the years. “The award is tangible proof of what I’ve done with my life for 35 years, and the different people I’ve touched, and the difference that I’ve made for many people—not just in teaching Spanish, but in ideas they learned in my classroom that they took into their own life,” she said. “It represents an example of a person who has dedicated their life to education. It’s a way to say, ‘Yeah, it was worth it.’”

In addition to being a teacher, Matchett also considers herself a lifelong learner. She hopes to add a variety of languages to her existing repertoire of English, Spanish and Portuguese in the future. “French and Italian are easy, since I already can understand them,” she said. “I visited Germany a couple of years ago, and it was embarrassing that I couldn’t talk to people, so (I want to learn) German. I also want to learn an Asian language. I took a semester of Chinese about 26 years ago, and that was really fun. I still remember a couple things. I just made a really good friend from Taiwan who’s invited me to come stay with her, so I’d like to learn Taiwanese. I just want to go and study. There’s nothing I don’t want to learn.”

Meat production has a significant impact on the environment: According to a study conducted by the University of California, Davis, livestock are responsible for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. By replacing beef burgers with plant-based burgers, greenhouse gas emissions would decrease by 89%, water use by 87% and land use by 96%, according to the Good Food Institute. Even without a large-scale overhaul of animal meat, the individual choice to consume plant- based meat can still make a noteworthy difference in reducing agricultural expansion and environmental damage. Thus, meat alternatives are more sustainable and environmentally friendly because they require fewer resources and generate substantially lower greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition to the environmental impacts, ethical concerns surrounding meat consumption are helping plant-based meat gain traction. According to the World Animal Foundation, 99% of farm animals in the U.S. live on factory farms, which practice intensive agriculture designed to maximize production while minimizing costs. These farms raise animals in confined spaces such as cages where their movement is extremely inhibited. To keep up with the growing global demand for meat, many farms also forcefully feed or inject hormones into their livestock. For those who are uncomfortable with the ethics of modern factory farming, plant-based meat substitutes provide the taste and texture of meat without contributing to animal suffering.

Still, though plant-based meat is a more sustainable option, it is also often a more expensive one. Meat processing companies are larger and can produce higher quantities of meat at lower cost, while plant-based meat— though growing in popularity—is still a relatively niche industry that has not yet developed economies of scale. Thus, there are many who simply do not have access to sustainable meat alternatives because of their location or income. Nevertheless, for those who do have the ability to choose, plant-based meat is the more ethical, environmentally friendly choice.

For senior Mackenzie Green, who does taekwondo with her two brothers, participating in her sport is an opportunity to grow closer to her family in a unique setting. “It really increases the sibling rivalry,” she said. “My brothers always push me, and that rivalry is part of the reason why it’s so competitive. But it’s also really nice to have someone there who understands how tough something is for you or how big of an accomplishment something was.”

The rigorous nature of taekwondo has also allowed Green to foster deeper appreciation for her sports community. During a three-day test to earn her black belt, Green had to perform a variety of challenging exercises, including running time trials and reaching a certain number of pushups and situps. “We all finished that test together,” she said. “So, while it was an individual thing where you were trying to improve yourself, being in a community like that was a really powerful experience. I was able to see that everyone made improvements and (that) everyone came far.”

Taekwondo is not the only major sport in Green’s life. Soccer also holds particular significance in her family history. “My dad is from England, so we’re a very soccer-oriented family,” she said. “My parents actually met playing soccer: They did a coed soccer team together. I’ve always grown up playing soccer, watching soccer or being exposed to soccer. It’s something that everyone in my family enjoys together. It’s something that we can all talk about or just enjoy in the same room.”

Televised soccer matches are often major events in Green’s household. “If it’s a team that we really like and they’re playing in a pretty big tournament, everyone in my family goes down and sits to watch the game on TV,” she said. “Everyone makes time for that—and we’re a very busy family, so that’s kind of impressive.”

While sports are a way for Green to bond with her family, playing lacrosse and football gives junior Joshua Kim an opportunity to form new connections, particularly after feeling isolated during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Especially in freshman year, it was really hard to socialize,” he said. “Playing sports really helps you build connections with people. You have shared common ground and spend so much time together. You go through games, losses and wins together.”

Similar to Green, Kim finds the built-in community of team sports one of the most valuable aspects of playing a sport. “When you lose a game or are going through tough times, you have all your teammates there because they’re going through the same (experiences) as you,” he said. “It doesn’t feel like you’re going through anything alone.”

Relationships forged between teammates have the potential to last beyond simply playing the sport together. Kim used to play soccer in elementary school with many teammates who now attend Palo Alto High School. “I stopped playing as I entered middle school, so I never saw them because they (didn’t go) to the same school as me,” he said. “Then, as I started meeting people from Paly again, it wasn’t awkward at all with the people I used to play soccer with. We’re able to go back and have conversations. We’re not building just relationships at the moment, but we’re building stuff that lasts because we have so many shared experiences together.”

One of Kim’s most memorable moments of connection comes from watching a Sunday football game in a sports bar with his family. “There was this guy sitting alone at one of the bar tables,” he said. “He looked really lonely, so I just sat down with him. The simple fact that we were both enjoying the game helped us talk, and it was a really cool experience because I got to talk not just about sports, but life stories as well. It was really interesting because you get to know people through sports that you would never talk to otherwise.”

Kim’s experience illustrates how sports’ widespread appeal helps people transcend the barriers that may exist outside of a match. “You don’t have to know these people, be the same age, go to the same school or have similar interests,” he said. “You’re able to connect with people you don’t know at all. It’s a universal language.”

In many ways, a private college counselor is an undeniable boon to a student’s development as a scholar and leader. Under my counselor’s guidance, I joined extracurricular activities, entered competitions and explored academic opportunities that I never would have known existed otherwise. Many of my favorite high school memories—such as the time when I flew to Washington, D.C., for a Model United Nations conference or when I explored a rare collection of books with a Stanford University professor—are from experiences I only took part in because of my counselor’s advice. These activities shaped me into a more confident public speaker, effective student and assertive leader.

At the same time, private counselors are expensive. Very few families can afford to pay tens of thousands of dollars each year on top of the already steep price of college tuition. As a freshman, I could not fully comprehend just how much my family was willing and able to spend on my education. My ignorance then—my ability not to have to worry about finances—was a privilege. Over the years, I’ve learned that private counselors and all the benefits they bestow serve only those with the greatest opportunities already at their fingertips: Ironically, the same people who likely have the least need to advance socioeconomically through a college degree. I have never found myself, my family or my private counselor to be intentionally insidious, but we all perpetuate an insidious system: Private college counselors help those at the top of the socioeconomic ladder stay at the top.

That is not to say that having a private counselor or living in a prosperous neighborhood are the only contributing factors to an elite college acceptance. I took full advantage of my opportunities by studying hard and dedicating myself to activities that interested me, but my family’s financial situation and private college counselor made many of those opportunities possible for me in the first place. Private counselors are not automatic tickets of admission into a top college, but they certainly do help.

Due to their status as evident signs of wealth and privilege, private college counselors have become an open secret on campus. I’ve seen many students around me hire private counselors but rarely discuss them. If the topic ever does come up, it is often accompanied by coyness, or even shame. Talking about private counselors also makes people uncomfortable—perhaps because confronting privilege creates discomfort. Still, it is necessary to admit that having a private counselor has given me an advantage in the college admissions process, one that I earned through no merit or achievement of my own. I will not claim that I have been admitted into college solely by virtue of my own hard work when I have had a well-resourced school to prepare me, a supportive, financially stable family to cheer me on and a costly private counselor to guide me the entire time. Shame and secrecy are counterproductive: Refusing to acknowledge that private counselors undermine true meritocracy only further perpetuates the cycle of privilege in affluent, achievement-oriented communities.

It is unlikely that ambitious, wealthy families in places such as Palo Alto will ever stop hiring private college counselors as long as elite college admissions remain the competitive processes they are today. Indeed, provided that they are giving legitimate, honest guidance, most private counselors offer valuable services that prepare their students not just for college admissions but for life. It would be willfully reductive to paint families’ hiring of private counselors as innately unethical simply because the practice overwhelmingly benefits the rich. Private college counselors are not the root cause of inequality; rather, they perpetuate inequality in a system that purports to be meritocratic but still gives students a head start based on their family’s income. Simply telling families to stop consulting private counselors would be as ineffective in addressing the roots of this inequity as advising wealthier students to move school districts or score lower on the SAT. Instead, students with private counselors must begin by having more open conversations about their privilege—perhaps by sharing advice from their counselors with peers to resist the mentality of college admissions as a zero-sum game—researching the implications of this privilege and lobbying for change through petitions and other methods of systemic action. Only then can we ensure a fair college admissions system that benefits all.

One normalized aspect of athletic culture is openly discussing methods to gain or lose weight. The “ideal weight” for athletes depends on which sport they play: power-dependent sports such as softball and wrestling often favor more heavyset athletes, while speed- or performance-focused sports like sprinting and cheer idealize thinner body types.

Softball player junior Aarushi Kumar has experienced pressure to achieve an “ideal weight” from a young age. “Softball is a power sport. You need a lot of power to play properly, so people seem a lot more comfortable putting pressure on you to change your weight,” she said. “I’ve always been on the underweight side, which, genetically and biologically, is totally normal. But in softball, when you hit 10 years old, your coaches feel like it’s okay to start putting this type of pressure on you. When people keep emphasizing that you look some way, it messes with your brain a little bit, especially at that age.”

Cheerleader freshman Meagan Sutherland emphasized the unique expectations surrounding weight in cheer and dance. “If you’re performing, people are watching you, and there’s definitely pressure to look a certain way or fit a certain way into your uniform,” she said. “In cheer, there is also lots of pressure for flyers to stay thin and maintain a light body in order to be lifted into the air, or they could be switched to bases, which can be very damaging to someone’s self-esteem.”

In wrestling, athletes are often encouraged to lose a specific amount of water weight in order to “make weight,” or fit into a certain weight class. Wrestler junior Mihlaan Selvaretnam has witnessed the consequences of the culture on athletes. “It’s become part of the culture to cut weight and lose weight,” he said. “And it’s not necessarily a good thing. But since everybody does it, you kind of have to.” To make weight, depending on the amount of weight he plans to lose, Selvaretnam will typically keep meals light a week before competing and cut out nearly all water the day before.

While care for one’s eating habits is important and even beneficial under the right circumstances, Schwab’s intense focus on her pre-competition dieting routine negatively affected her relationship with food, even in the track off-season. “Because I had built in that emphasis on eating habits and food, I found myself caring too much and thinking too much every time I was eating, even if I wasn’t competing,” she said. “When I’m paying attention to everything I put in my body and making sure I have enough protein every single meal, it can get really stressful and tedious at times. It takes away from the enjoyment of eating.”

Much of the pressure to diet, work out or look a particular way comes not only from an athletic context but a social one. Sutherland recalled an incident that occurred when she was in the locker room before practice. “I have a strong memory of my friends going through every single one of the girls and talking about how their skirt fits them,” she said. “Like, ‘Oh, I wish my skirt would fit like that. Oh, hers is so much longer. She’s really skinny. She has a big butt.’ Everyone was comparing themselves to every single other person in that room.”

Water polo player junior Ron Zamir argues that select social influence can be beneficial in motivating people to stay healthy. “I feel like working out to impress someone is a dangerous mindset to have,” he said. “A lot of it comes from social media now, especially because there are a lot of people in the gym with TikTok going around. But staying healthy and working out is a good thing. As long as you stay educated on what you’re doing and you’re not blindly following what you see on social media, it can be important. It’s good to remember to not only do it for other people and to have a goal for yourself.”

One of the largest factors behind an athlete’s perception of their body is not related to their physicality at all but rather to their gender. Badminton player junior Troy Woodley, who is nonbinary, described their internal conflict between appreciating their body’s ability while disliking its appearance. “I present very masculine, and I don’t really like that,” they said. “So on one hand, I’m not super happy with my body, and I don’t know exactly how I want to look. But on the other hand, I’m able to perform well in sports, and I don’t want to lose that.”

Schwab also noticed the preference for more masculine bodies in athletics. “Especially as a female athlete, it’s harder to figure out what people even want to see in an athlete aesthetically,” she said. “I feel like on the men’s side, there’s always a specific goal of looking very muscular, which isn’t necessarily the ideal for female athletes. Sometimes I’ve been unsure if I even want to look super strong, and I’m self-conscious about bulking up a lot. It’s not necessarily a trait that is praised like it is for male athletes.”

An athlete’s race or ethnicity also contributes to how they feel about their body while playing a sport. “I play a sport that is predominantly white,” Kumar, who is South Asian, said. “There are a lot of comments about skin color, especially when you’re in the sun a lot. You hear a lot of comments like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to tan too much.’ When I tell them it’ll be okay if they wear sunscreen, they say, ‘No, it’s more of an aesthetic thing.’”

To feel more secure in their own bodies, many athletes aim to avoid social pressure, focus on performance over appearance and keep their sport in perspective.

Sutherland works to steer clear of harmful content both online and in person. “The biggest step I’ve taken to feel more confident in myself is ignoring people’s comments,” she said. “If I’m scrolling through social media and see a video about body image, tips to be thinner or how to lose weight quickly, I just scroll past it to block out anything that might make me feel insecure.”

Selvaretnam prefers to hone in on the physical advantages his body provides rather than how well it fits into a standard body type. “I’m a bit on the taller and skinnier side,” he said. “I’m not very short or stocky like the usual wrestling body type is. In the beginning, it was tougher for me to address, but once I realized that I can use my height to my advantage, it wasn’t as big of an issue for me anymore.”

Schwab reminds herself that her sport is only one part of her life. “It’s important to focus on track some of the time, but remember that I’m doing this for fun,” she said. “I’ve gotten better over the years at going with the flow and not worrying about the effects of my diet on my training because at some point, you just have to live your life. The sport isn’t everything. Separating athletics from the rest of your life allows you to keep enjoying things like eating without the sport taking over your mentality.”

As it turns out, “Midnights” is both an amalgamation of her previous albums and something completely unique. In the album, Swift transports listeners to a hazy cocktail lounge filled with heavy bass and sweet yearning. Some songs could easily fit on other albums. “Vigilante Shit” would fare just as well on Swift’s sixth studio album “Reputation.” Others, like “Midnight Rain,” are quintessential “Midnights.” After the vividly constructed fictional worlds of “Folklore” and “Evermore,” Swift’s writing has returned to autobiographical, particularly with tracks “Anti-Hero” and “Mastermind.” Her lyricism is as clever and evocative as ever: “Spider-boy, king of thieves / Weave your little webs of opacity” from “Karma” is one such gem of a line.

Swift’s new album is not without its disappointments. “Snow on the Beach (feat. Lana Del Rey),” for one, is a gross misnomer, as the track features exceedingly minimal Lana Del Rey. Nonetheless, “Midnights” is filled with polished tracks that adequately meet, if not quite exceed, Swift’s fans’ high expectations.

Even as Swift constantly shifts styles and genres, “Midnights” shows us that one thing remains consistent: Swift never fails to surprise and deliver with adaptability and brilliance. Although not her most thematically cohesive or lyrically accomplished album, “Midnights” is a solid B+ listen that provides both catchy tunes and emotional depth.

Expectations

Expectations of a grand holiday dinner feast are shown in the extravagant meal in the famous Disney film “Mickey’s Christmas Carol.” Family and friends from all over town come with presents and gifts to celebrate the holiday together. People clink their glasses, savor the food and have a merry time. The fragrant Christmas tree is adorned with beautiful ornaments, candy canes, fairy lights and a glistening gold star at the peak. Along with the grand depiction of holiday festivities in media, are also portrayals of characters falling in intense, romantic love. This is featured in major film franchises such as the “Harry Potter” film series and the romantic comedy “Holidate.” In the movie “Holidate,” a man and woman agree to be each other’s holiday date to avoid remarks on marriage from family, but ultimately end up falling in love.

Throughout the Harry Potter films, Harry and his friends form bonds of friendship as they spend time or keep in contact with each other over the holidays. Ron Weasley’s feelings for Hermione Granger are officially confirmed during the Yule Ball, a holiday celebration at Hogwarts, in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.”

Of course, one cannot forget the music. The winter playlist that many people compile yearly is often full of Christmas Carols such as “Jingle Bell Rock” by Joseph Beal and John Boothe, “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey and “Deck the Halls” by John Ceiriog Hughes. With lyrics such as “deck the halls with boughs of holly,” to “dancin’ and prancin’ in Jingle Bell Square,” all of these songs depict an atmosphere of love, beauty and joy in celebrating the holiday season. These various forms of media depict a version of the holidays that cause people to form high expectations for their own holiday season.

Popular culture often dictates that finding true happiness can be as simple as huddling around warm fireplaces, decorating Christmas trees and sipping seasonal drinks topped with whipped cream. In reality, however, holidays can often be a time of stress, loneliness, schoolwork and extracurriculars.

Reality

Finals are always scheduled the week before winter break. This year, finals week falls during Hanukkah and ends merely three days before Christmas. For students, the high-pressure academic environment in the middle of the holiday season makes it difficult to truly get into the holiday spirit. The stakes are especially high for seniors, who likely must turn in their college applications less than a week after January 1. Students also feel pressure to receive good scores on finals in order to maintain or achieve their desired semester grade. With academic stress at its peak, expectations for how the holidays should unfold only add to the pressure. Nonetheless, holiday movies and commercials depict people in a state of unblemished joy, oblivious to the stresses and pressures of everyday student life. The pressure to enjoy the holidays, ironically, makes them even less enjoyable.

A realistic holiday season for many students will likely look like this: After recovering from finals, they will stay at home, scroll through their phone and binge-watch a season or two of their favorite TV show. If they themselves are not traveling out of town, they may miss their friends who are. Students might spend more time bonding with their parents, pets and siblings. Equally likely, they will spend the entire break holed up in their room on their devices, surfing through social media to see what others are doing over the break. Seniors will anxiously try to get their college applications in order while juniors will worry about the upcoming Advanced Placement (AP) tests in the spring. Freshmen and sophomores may feel nervous about their first semester final grades, hoping for a better second semester, but lacking motivation to prepare. Of course, everyone will still feel bouts of the holiday spirit—when lighting the menorah, exchanging Christmas presents or having a small family holiday dinner, for example—but much of the time in between time-honored holiday traditions will feel, for the most part, boring. As winter break comes to an end, students may return to feeling unproductive and unaccomplished, as well as anxious about the upcoming semester. The holidays, in the end, will have passed just as any other two week vacation.

Next Steps

Students should avoid criticizing themselves for not living up to their high standards of unreasonable happiness around the holidays, nor should they assume that none of their peers feel the same way. Although constant joy may be an unachievable expectation for the holidays, true love—the everyday kind, not the all-encompassing Disney-movie variety—and genuine human connection are not. Spending time with friends and family and having moments of true social bonding can be much more fulfilling, not to mention realistic, than singing Christmas carols, decking the halls or any other cliché holiday tradition. Instead of idealizing the so-called season of joy and good tidings, students should mitigate their expectations by seeing the holiday season as it truly is: a time of self-love, compassion and giving. The holidays are a time for you to take a break, enjoy yourself and spend time doing the things you love. As the quintessential holiday movie “The Grinch” once said: “To kindness and love, the things we need most.”

The issue of casual misogyny is not exclusive to pumpkin spice lattes. When young women make up the majority of a fanbase for anything, be it UGG boots, romantic comedies or Taylor Swift’s music, that item tends to be looked down upon with derision and written off as “low culture.” The very phrase “teenage girl” is often used derogatorily, as if to be a girl in her adolescence is to be, by definition, empty-headed and shallow. It could be argued that the “Fast & Furious” and “Twilight” franchises contain equal levels of superficial entertainment value, yet one undoubtedly carries more respect in popular culture than the other solely by virtue of its target audience. “Still a better love story than ‘Twilight’” is a common ironic comment on social media, though it is unlikely that “still a more sensible plot than ‘Fast & Furious’” has ever crossed someone’s feed. While it is within human nature to push back whenever the majority of the population tends to lean one way, this phenomenon seems to affect items beloved by teenage girls more than those enjoyed by any other demographic.

The knee-jerk reaction of many to look down on so-called “basic” items is not just reflective of wider cultural misogyny. It is a shame for those who deny themselves the opportunity to enjoy something just because the majority of other people do. Pumpkin spice lattes, while admittedly not the best Starbucks has to offer, bring a sense of warmth and nostalgia to their enthusiasts with every sip. Fairy lights and scented candles make every room feel cozier, while UGG boots are optimized for comfortable wintertime wear when the temperatures get low. One will be hard-pressed to find a greater joy in life than blasting the occasional Taylor Swift song at top volume just for the fun of it. In short, though they may not appeal to everyone, these “basic” items are meant to spark joy and comfort. No one deserves to be mocked for taking pleasure in something deemed “basic” just because many other people enjoy the same thing.

Of course, not everyone is required to like “basic” things. While widespread hatred of “basic” items in popular culture often contains disrespectful and even misogynistic undertones, some people simply don’t enjoy the admittedly sugary taste of pumpkin spice lattes or the cloying, manufactured aroma of scented candles. There are even valid criticisms of “basic” items that go beyond labeling them as “overrated” or “shallow:” for example, according to “Rolling Stone,” Taylor Swift has been reported to fly her private jet more than any other celebrity this year, emitting an estimated total of over 7,000 tons of carbon dioxide so far. Such concerns are rational, even necessary, in holding those individuals and corporations with money and privilege accountable. Still, just as someone can choose to dislike Taylor Swift because of her excessive contributions to the climate crisis or simply because they don’t enjoy her pop ballad appeal, another person can be just as sensible in appreciating her music for her lyrical prowess and catchy tunes. As long as they are not actively harming or disrespecting others, people deserve to have their tastes and preferences—whatever they may be—respected, regardless of someone else’s personal opinion. This time of year especially will have students flocking to their comfort items, which often include UGG boots, fairy lights and, yes, pumpkin spice lattes. As a result, many may feel the need to hide their affinity toward such items. The next time a student walks into their local Starbucks and feels ashamed about purchasing a pumpkin spice latte, they should remember that their order is just that: a coffee order. Drinking a pumpkin spice latte does not signify shallowness or conformity; it only represents an innocuous preference that should be respected by everyone. If something sparks happiness, enjoy it without reservation: People should never feel ashamed of what they find joy in—that’s a doctrine to follow year-round.

A little background about myself: I have very weak hand-eye coordination and even weaker arm strength. For whatever reason, I chose to try out a sport where both hand-eye coordination and arm strength are very important.

The tennis coach was delighted to hear of my track experience and assigned me to lead the warm-up run before practice. The speed training drills were the one and only time I was able to display any semblance of competence during my first day. Otherwise, my hand-eye coordination was as atrocious as I’d feared. Once, instead of sending the ball forward and over, I sent it straight up into the air with my racket and legitimately whacked myself in the face with a tennis ball. Note to all aspiring tennis players: Tennis is infinitely more enjoyable when you can get the ball both over the net and inside the court, a lesson I’ve learned from accomplishing such a feat roughly one-fourth of the time.

The undisputed highlight of practice, besides coming to terms with my own ineptitude, was using the ball machine. A tennis ball machine is essentially a contraption placed on the opposite side of the court that spits balls out at regular intervals, roughly mimicking the movement of a ball hit by an opposing player. The goal is to hit as many balls as possible using different kinds of grips—semi-western or “pancake” grip for forehand and continental grip for backhand. Although my proficiency with the ball machine was questionable, I soon fell into a comfortable rhythm of running back and forth and counting the seconds between balls. There truly is no high like getting in a perfect backhand against the ball machine, which I can confidently say after having exactly one such incident to speak of. For those of you with private tennis courts and thousands of dollars to spare, I would highly recommend getting a ball machine of your own. Alas, as a person of limited means, I had to bid the ball machine—and my temporary fellow teammates—adieu on my last day of practice.

After a grueling week on the courts, these are the lessons I have selflessly gathered through my own blood, sweat and tears for anyone hoping to try tennis or any new sport. First, do not, under any circumstances, forget to bring sunscreen. I only survived my first practice unscathed thanks to the generosity of the other players. Speaking of which, rely on your teammates! I learned as much from the exceedingly kind, knowledgeable and patient players as I did from the coach himself.

Next, learn the rules before you come to practice. This seems self-explanatory, but for people like me who once saw tennis as simply ping-pong played on the ground, it is absolutely essential. That being said, after a week of tennis practice and the efforts of many long-suffering fellow players, I still do not fully comprehend the rules of tennis and I probably never will.

My final verdict: I am probably not the next Serena Williams, and using my arms in any athletic capacity is definitely more tiring than running five miles. Overall, though, I had fun and will definitely be coming back to use the ball machine in my everyday life. For anyone looking to add exercise or excitement into their lives, my greatest piece of advice would be to just try a new sport, whatever it may be. You may end up surprising yourself along the way.