Sarah Snyder graduated from Gunn in 2019 and recently began her Division I college swimming journey at Duke. Inher first season, Snyder made enormous strides, qualifying for the National Col-legiate Athletic Association (NCAA) on three relays. “Making the NCAA teammy freshman year is something I neverexpected to be able to do,” Snyder said.

Growing up, Snyder participated in multiple sports, including equestrianism and ballet, but eventually committed to swimming in eighth grade. “I joined a summer league team which my olderbrother was already on, and when he quit, I kept going,” she said. Snyder stuck with swimming because of the challenge and reward. “Seeing all of your hard work and dedication pay off to the sport that you love the most has to be the best thing about being an athlete and a swimmer,” she said.

Snyder put a lot of time into swimming throughout high school, swimming nearly 20 hours per week, but it was still a big jump to college swimming. “We have two two-hour doubles on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and a four-hour workout on Saturday,” Snyder said.

Another big change from high school to college swimming has been the mindset of the team. Snyder feels that high school swimming was very individualized. “It would make me put lots of pressure on myself to drop times because I was swimming for myself and for my own personal times,” she said. In college, however, everything is a lot more team-based. “This makes college swimming super exciting, where everyone is screaming their hearts out to watch your teammates,” she said.

Although balancing swimming and school can be difficult, Snyder has learned how to manage her time well. Snyder feels that Gunn academics have helped her succeed at Duke. “While Gunn academics are really challenging and it sucks while you’re doing it, it really does prepare you well for college,” she said. “Even at a prestigious college like Duke, it was not hard to acclimate to the academic rigor of the school.”

Although swimming in college can be difficult at times, Snyder wouldn’t trade her experience for anything. “I really don’t think I would ever want a normal college experience because I feel like I would get so bored,” she said. “Also, all NARPs [non-athletic regular people] do is school, so it would be pretty awful.”

With course selections just around the corner, some students may be struggling to choose their classes. There are many factors to consider when signing up for courses: What subjects do I want to take? How many Advanced Placement (AP) or honors classes am I taking? Is this class going to be too hard? And, of course, will I have friends in this class? However, the most important factor to consider during course selection is the teacher who is teaching the class.

Teachers can make or break a class. One bad teacher can put a damper on what would otherwise be a great se- mester. When a teacher does not explain the subject well, it can often lead to a lot of unnecessary stress, bad grades and confusion. Some teachers can also create stressful classroom environments. It is safe to say that most Gunn students already have enough stress in their lives, and getting a bad teacher can really take a toll.

Many students choose a class purely for its subject or because it is an honors or AP class and fail to consider the teacher. The drawbacks of having a bad teacher certainly outweigh that one honors class on your transcript. More often than not, AP classes are time consuming, have challenging grading systems and lead to very stressful experiences.

Students should take classes with great teachers even if they are not honors level classes, or they are not really interested in the subject. Most students are not yet sure what they want to study in college, and it is important to explore a wide variety of subjects to see what you are interested in. Teachers can turn subjects you thought you hated into great classes.

A great teacher can also make a significant impact on a student’s life. Having a class with a teacher that you feel comfortable talking to and joking around with in a stress-free environment is crucial in high school. A Review of Educational Research analysis of 46 studies showed that strong teacher-student relationships were associated with higher student academic engagement, attendance and grades, as well as fewer disruptive behaviors and suspensions and lower school dropout rates.

So, before you sign up for your classes, make sure to weigh all your options. Teachers are extremely important in the overall experience of classes. So, talk to upperclass- men about potential teachers, or at least look them up on Rate My Professor before signing up for a class.

“Survivor” is one of the longest-running reality TV shows in history, with over 40 sea-sons over the past 20 years. The show started in 2000 and took the world by storm. The premise involves splitting 20 random people into groups called tribes and having them work together to survive in the wilderness. Every few days, the tribes compete against each other in challenges for rewards or immunity. The tribe that loses the immunity challenge has to vote one person out of their tribe. In the middle of the season, all the tribes merge into one. From there on out, there are only individual immunity challenges. In the end, the survivors that made it to the merge vote for a winner.The game is not for the faint of heart. The castaways surviveon only rice and coconuts and must hike to a well to get their water. At the end of each season, the contestants usually lose 15 to 20 pounds in under 40 days. The entertainment of “Survivor” comes from watching interactions between tribemates. Each year brings new strategies and backstabbing. The show casts many different types of people, which leads to clashing personalities, intensifying the drama. Over the past 20 years, many new strategies have developed. They range from flirting to trying to sweep all the immunity challenges to one contestant even lying about his dead grandma. The game becomes more complicated every year with new twists added by producers. Recently, contestants who were voted out were given the opportunity to go to “the edge of extinction,” an island with minimal food and water. The castaways on this island were then allowed to compete in challenges to play back into the game. No two seasons are the same. This year, for the first time ever, the show is put-ting on a season with only previous winners, making for what should be the best season yet.

The Jewish community has always been an integral part of junior Julia Segal’s life. She is currently the president of the Jewnion club at Gunn and has been celebrating Hanukkah and many other Jewish holidays for as long as she can remember.

For Segal, Hanukkah is about more than just having fun and getting presents: it’s a time to bond with family and remember the hardships her ancestors had gone through. “I feel like my perception of Hanukkah has really evolved over time,” she said. “When I was little I just liked it because my parents gave me presents and I got to light candles. Now, I have learned more of the history behind it and it makes me feel a lot more connected to my religion and culture.”

Hanukkah dates back to the second century B.C. when a group of Jews in Jerusalem were being persecuted for their beliefs by Antiochus, the King of Syria. The hero Judah Macabee and others formed an army tofight King Antiochus, reclaiming the temple of Jerusalem. When they en- tered the temple, they found only a small container of oil that should have lasted one night. However, the Menorah that they lit burned through eight nights and that is why Jews everywhere light eight candles on their Menorahs.

Segal still enjoys lighting the candles, but she now has a better un- derstanding of the holiday as a whole. Hanukkah is also a time where families come together. “High school is really busy and Hanukkah is just a fun time to relax, bond with my sister and exchange gifts,” Segal said. “No matter what my family is doing for winter break, we always come together to celebrate it.”

Segal enjoys exchanging gifts with her family. When she was younger, her parents gave her a karaoke set and that later inspired her passion for singing. “Singing is such a big part of my life and I don’t know if I would have the same level of passion for it if my parents hadn’t given me that ka- raoke set,” she said. Segal likes to give special gifts to her family members to see the joy that it brings them.

Junior Hannah Schendel shares a very special bond with her dog, Monkey, a 3-year-old mini labra- doodle. Schendel and her dog spend lots of time together cuddling, taking pictures and making videos on TikTok.

Schendel first got Monkey in the spring of her eighth-grade year. “I wanted a dog for the longest time,but my mom never let us get one,” she said. “But my grandma died of cancer and we were all really sad so my mom gave in.”

Schendel loves to hang out and cuddle with Monkey but admits that her parents do most of the work. “My parents mostly take care of him because I’m really busy but I walk him when I can,” she said.

Schendel finds time to bond with her mom and her dog on some weekends when they teach Monkeyhow to read. In their most popular videos on TikTok, Monkey hits a card with his paw. The card has the same word as the song or the answer to the question she asks, and Monkey has to correctly identify each card. Many people in the comment section call Schendel out for simply holding a treat behind the sign with the correct word, but this is not the case. Schendel works very hard training Monkey by saying eachword and having him guess until he hits the correct sign. After some practice, Monkey is able to recognizethe sign by Schendel’s command. As of today, Schendel has posted 34 videos on her TikTok with four separate videos of Monkey following commands and hitting the proper signs. Her TikTok account has amassed 32.2k followers and 1 million likes.

Schendel loves her dog dearly and doesn’t know what she would do without him. “He is honestly my best friend and he never fails to brighten my day,” she said. “Sometimes when I am doing homework and he wants attention, he will scratch on the door and it always puts me in a good mood.”

She recommends that people urge their parents to get a dog. Her advice to people who want a dog is to be persistent. “Just keep bugging your parents until they say yes,” she said.