Happy New Year from The Cardinal!

As we start a new year, staff members took the time to reflect on the past year and set new resolutions for 2017.

Muna Ali ’18

While 2016 may have been a social disaster with many celebrity deaths and a gruesome election, I personally viewed it as a good year. I went paintballing, earned my driving permit, spent a LOT of quality time with family and friends and began volunteering at the hospital. Like every year it had its ups and downs but I’m proud to say I ended the year on a good note and was able to accomplish everything I had planned. This year I hope to maintain good grades, pass the APUSH test in May, and take the SAT and ACT. Accomplishing this will make me closer to achieving my goal of getting into a good four year university. My other resolutions include finding a job and interning with a lawyer all in order to gain some experience and insight into the world of law. I hope to find more time to get lost in good books and to write more. Lastly, I want to find more time for myself, I do not want to associate stress and anxiety with my last years in high school.

Dorothy Gaeta ’17

2016, what a year! Honestly I won’t say it was the best year but it wasn’t the worst. 2016 was like a “what the heck happened year?” So many things went down that year. As for some people passed away and some of our loved ones. Some of our favorite childhood TV stars, or favorite singers, and some by tragic massacre shootings. But these are the things that make us realize that we should be grateful to be alive and to not take advantage of life because one day you could be gone. 2016 taught me that things don’t always come out the way you want them to, and that I shouldn’t take things too seriously, because then I won’t be living a good life. I just need to learn to take life day by day because this life isn’t promised to anybody. It was a year of failure but not of giving up when things got rough. Because when you fail at something it just proves you did something and you need to learn from that lesson to not make the same mistake twice. I believe 2016 was the year of realize who are your true friends and the year of heartbreaks. Because without those things you wouldn’t let your body know if you are alive by feeling something for someone. So you must appreciate those people for walking out of your life. But one thing to remind yourself is to always be happy and to never hold a grudge against someone because that just makes your life negative. I don’t believe in New Year’s Resolution because I tend to break them but if I had to change something’s or challenge myself to do a bit better I would say that my first resolution would be to take people’s feelings into consideration. The 2nd one would be to give more, I’m not just talking about essentials but as in give more love to everybody I meet, and more time because nobody likes to be alone. The 3rd thing is to appreciate more things life has to offer. The 4th thing is to put important things first, to make sure I get those things done. The 5th thing is to try to stay happy everyday regardless of anything negative that comes. The 6th thing would be to stay active I’m not going to stay work out every day because I won’t but be active go walk for at least 30 minutes doing something good for my body.

Ramon Jarillo ’18

2016 was an alright year. I can say the year started off good because I went to Bryson Tiller concert late January and I also saw Chief Keef live for the first time ever.  That concert was epic. I also went to other concerts throughout the year. There were good and bad times but glad I finished this year with both of my parents alive and my family together. Now that 2017 is here, some resolutions I hope to accomplish are, start going to the gym and build muscle to get a better body for this upcoming summer. Second, I hope to get a job before junior year is over because having no money is horrible especially when your parents don’t want to give you any. Also it sucks whenever new clothes or shoes is dropping and you have no money to purchase either. Third, I hope to get my driver’s license before 2017 ends and work my way to get my own car to drive to school and around the city. Fourth, I hope to pass all my classes this year and get my credits to start off next school year and no worries of catching up with credits. Fifth, to make new friends this year, meet new people or possibly reunite with some good old friends I stopped talking to when high school started. Sixth, I want to step out my comfort zone, I want to achieve things I couldn’t achieve during 2016, and I hope to socialize more with people and stop being a quiet person. Seventh, I hope all my acne goes away and I stop being ugly. My last resolution I just hope this year is full of positivity and good vibes, hope to be happy this whole year and the upcoming years, hope nothing but success for me and my loved ones. Nothing but happiness.

Rigo Madrid ’18

Some things in 2016 that I didn’t really commit to would be trying to get straight A’s. This year I should stop being lazy so I can actually accomplish that goal so I can start doing scholarship applications. I also need to go to summer school this year because I was supposed to last year to make my grades a little better. Plus I need to try harder on getting a job because of the fact I slacked off in 2016 with applying to places.

This year I will hopefully be nicer to people when I am in public because I am a little rude according to some of my friends. A lot of my homework will be organized, because of the fact that it’s always unorganized.   With that all being said, I should be the perfect student at Hoover this year.

Annayexy Malo ’20

2016 wasn’t really my year.  A lot of different things changed in so many ways which truly was upsetting.  I lost one person that was really important and close to me but now he has left my side. I also lost family members and it was hard to let go.  I use to call friends my friends, but honestly they were just enemies which sucks. Not only friends were enemies but even my own family.  That’s why I couldn’t trust or talk to anyone anymore since I experienced who was there and who wasn’t.  I was struggling at school because my grades, I really didn’t care about them.  Soccer was a mess because of my knee and now it’s hard so I gave up.

1. I want to have good grades because I want to make my mother proud and so I can have a bright future
2. I want to start playing soccer again because I need to get over my fear.
3. I want to interact with new people because it gets boring talking to old friends.
4. I want to have motivation because last year it was different.
5. I want to try new things so I will have experience.
6. I want a better life because I had a ugly life
7. I want to start doing good in life because  I let a lot of people down

Amie Muller ’19

Personally, 2016 was the year that I stopped hanging out with many of my friends. I realized I had many of fake friends among my group. I didn’t really make any new friends, but I definitely lost some friends. My circle got tighter and smaller. It was depressing to me that I lost my best friend that I’ve been close with since seventh grade, but my other friends defended me when she was talking about me behind my back and made me realize that I was better off without her. 2016 definitely made me more petty and careful about who I waste my time on.

Emotionally, I had plenty of breakdowns where I was just stressing over everything for no reason. I was fortunate enough to have friends, family, and even counselors and teachers that have helped me get past my meltdowns and realize that I should not stress over everything as much as I did before. As I said before, I stressed over the fact that I could not balance sports and school at the same time. My friends made me realize that I need to prioritize school and that I’m a student-athlete. Student will always come first.

My resolution for this upcoming year are pretty simple. I want to make sure I have a wonderful and happy year. I plan on being more cautious on who I spend my time with. I also plan on improving my time-management and getting my priorities straight. Here’s a list of the things I plan to accomplish in 2017 and why:

• Improving my time-management skills
  • I need to learn how to manage my time so I can balance school and sports without having to stress and breakdown.
• To improve in my reading and writing skills
  • Improving my reading and writing skills will help me improve my ability to do more in AP and honor classes.
• Get stronger for sports
  • Get strong will improve ability to get better in sports
• Raising my grades up
  • Raising my grades up so that by the end of my whole high school career, I will have a GPA cumulative of 4.0 or higher to graduate in WHITE
• Creating more fun memories
  • Being more adventurous and creating more amazing memories with friends.
• SAVING MONEY
  • Need to learn how to manage my money so I won’t spend it all on food.
• BEING HAPPY
  • Who doesn’t love being happy?

Andy Ngoly ‘ 18

Resolutions 2017

2016 was such a sad and depressing year.  At the beginning everything was going fine until midyear, everyone started becoming sad and stressed with school and all the personal things going on in their lives. The beginning of 2016 started with school and from there, I’ve made so many good memories but bad ones as well. I’ve made new friendships and lost friendships as well, and I literally took so many L’s throughout the year.

Resolutions I plan to accomplish in 2017 are

1. To be happy. I know that 2016 wasn’t my year and that I started off 2017 bad, but I know I can change and make it better. I guess I should just focus on myself and not try to be the person who I was before.
2. I get my life together by starting to do my APUSH homework, get my grades up, etc.
3. Create new memories, there were many ups and downs from last year but I need to put that aside and grow up and continue to do myself.
4. I should stop stressing about myself and overthinking things, I’ve learned that I should just let things play out.
5. I need to stop procrastinating, every day I would always wait until the last minute to do things and that’s really bad on my part because I know I’m going to regret it later.
6. Improve my self-motivation. I shouldn’t really rely on others for me to accomplish things. I need to own up and do my own things my own way without anything telling me off or having to constantly begging me.
7. SAVING MONEY my freshman year, I’ve honestly spent so much money on food and other people and unnecessary things, it was a regret but I’ve learned my lesson and I should just stop, again focusing on myself and everything to make me happy.

John Nguyen ’19

In 2016 it wasn’t really my year. I had a hard time in my freshmen year; I also had many lost in the family like my grandma and uncle both in November. I also had some good things happen in 2016 like I was able to get accepted in the program called “Outside the Lens” where I’m able to show my art through graffiti and photography.
Resolutions

1. Past my sophomore year with a 3.0 or higher GPA.
2. Get accepted to the boy volleyball team.
3. Get my driver’s permit.
4. Get a part- time job.
5. Lose some weight.
6. Play more sports.
7. Eat healthy for the whole year.

Khai Nguyen ’18

2016 started off in a bad way for me but after all it was pretty good year when everything started to change and that helped me a lot. In the beginning of 2016, everyone turned their back on me; I got into a lot of trouble and talked back to my parents a lot.  Also I got into horrible issues with my friends where we almost separated and stopped hanging out, but at the end we understood and forgave each other.  I got my first job in 2016 and it was during summer, and that helped to pay for my badminton racket and clothes for the new school year and I was really happy about it. At the end of 2016, everything was fun and happy for me. I solved every problem I’d been facing. In 2017, I will work harder than 2016, to help me with my future’s goal. I will try to find a job and save up for my college institution, and somehow helps my family out. I will try harder in badminton because I know that last year I didn’t try to get better in badminton because I lost interest so it’s my third year of playing. I will try to get better grades and explore my future career of what I want to be in the future. I want to fix my behavior in 2017 because last year I wasn’t nice to a lot of people and runes my year. I’ll try to be more mature and stop being an idiot in some of my classes. I need to be more active in 2017 and stop being lazy to help me stay healthy. The last thing that I want to do is to have faith in myself because I gave up sometimes last year.

Daniela Olivarria ’17

Out of all years, I have to say 2016 is the year where I’ve grown so much. I encountered many challenges throughout the year but the difference from prior years, is that I did not let those events define who I am as a person and my future. 2016 was my year of realizing many things, especially letting all the negative energy out of my life for good. I hope that 2017 will be as good as a year 2016 was for me. My seven resolutions are; to stay true to myself, to keep knowing my worth, to allow myself to open up to new people, to go on more adventuress/travel, to use my camera more, to follow my dreams, to save up money, and to be the best me I can be for my friends and family.

Noshe Russell ’19

2016 was a horrendous year. The only good thing that came out of it was that my nephew was born. I realized that I had some of the fakest “friends” ever. When I found out that this school had the sport I wanted to play, it was too late to join. I hated 2016! Some people were going around saying that #blacklivesmatter was a damn terrorist group. Towards the end of the year when that slab of meat was elected some people (again) started getting brave with their words. They need to understand I am not my grandparents; I will defend myself. It was such a horrible year. With all the racist things going on and with the so called new president, I wouldn’t be surprised if I got into a confrontation with ignorant and uninformed people. The government doesn’t even care. 2016 can burn in the deepest darkest pits of HELL.

2017 RESOLUTIONS

1. Lose 40 pounds within the next 3-4 months from swimming. (I joined the swim team)
2. Finish my story (writers block is getting to me)
3. STAND FOR BLACK LIVES/WOMEN A HELL OF A LOT MORE THAN  I DID LAST YEAR, AND LET MY VOICE BE HEARD
4. Join the ASPCA ( American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) because I’ll be old enough to join in 23 days
5. Make time for more reading, and introduce myself to new music and books
6. Participate in more volunteer work (college is right around the corner, and If I don’t stress myself now I won’t later)
7. STOP PROCRASTINATING
8. Work on maintaining good grades, and making my attendance look squeaky clean.
9. GET A JOB
10. Last but not least, make sure everything above can fit into a schedule that works for me and being a lot more organized.

Jessica Sanchez ’19

2016 was the year I started to become more independent. Becoming more independent was a great thing because I stopped relying on people. The feeling of not being attached to someone is awesome. I met amazing people and I am thankful for that. Overall, it wasn’t the best year but it wasn’t the worse. Hopefully this year can better.

1. Stop procrastinating. I do everything at the last minute. I need to get myself in order and finished things early.
2. Sleep more. I sleep late most of the time and wake up feeling dead.
3. Be more grateful for the people in my life. I need to be more grateful because I don’t know when they’ll be gone.
4. Do charity work. I love helping people. I hope I get opportunities to help people who are going through a struggle.
5. Eat healthier!! I need to eat healthier because if I don’t am going to be dead before I even get boyfriend.
6. Do more fun things. I get bored really easily so hopefully this year I get to do more fun things.
7. Stop being so lazy. I need to become more active and stop watching Netflix all the time.
8. Stop caring about what people think of me. People will always have something to say but the only thing that matters is what I think about myself.