Five New Year’s Resolutions For Students

Written by: Noelle Hanek

New Year's is on it’s way again: a time for celebration and making goals for self improvement. These resolutions vary depending upon the person and what each individual would like to accomplish throughout the year. Here is a list of some of the top New Year's resolutions for students! 
Health and Fitness

This is a common goal for everyone. As the year goes on, it can be harder to focus on ourselves as health moves it’s way to the bottom of your priorities. These changes include exercising more, perhaps by implementing daily workout routines into your schedules, eating healthier, swapping the sweets for a healthier option, and working towards becoming more physically fit. This is an important resolution because many students are eating poorly as the school year goes on, because it can be very difficult to create time for yourself to eat the correct foods, or eat food at all! In addition, your body needs a break from sitting at the computer screen all day. It is important to stay active, and keep your body and health in mind!

Source: SurveyMonkey

Sleep!
This builds off of the previous point of the importance of health– getting adequate sleep each night! This is an especially difficult one to pull off, but when achieved, the results are undoubtedly rewarding. Sleep is crucial for everyday activities, and life in general! Without it, not only is it harming your body, but you will not perform your best in comparison to when you get a good amount of sleep per night. A good goal is to strive for at least 8-9 hours of sleep per night to power you through the week. When you get a good amount of sleep in, you feel unstoppable! Then for the days where you need to stay up for longer,  you will be thanking yourself because your body will now be able to run in “battery” mode for that amount of time because of the excess sleep you gave yourself! 

Source: Pet Central

School

As students, there is no better time than the New Year to set goals revolved around school if you have not already. Each student is different, so make a school goal that is most suitable for you. For instance, your resolution could be striving to focus more in school, ask more questions in class, read more books, or boost your grades. Or maybe you want to break your procrastination habit, by starting assignments earlier and work on a little bit each day instead of starting the night before! It is a great idea to set goals for ourselves to help us succeed in school, because working even a little harder can have significant results! 

Source: Oxbridge Academy
Get Involved
A great goal to have is to get more involved in your community! There are many ways to contribute positively to the community, such as babysitting a neighbor, participating in town events, or volunteering with an organization! Those were just to name a few, but there are tons of opportunities outside of the school walls that are just waiting for you! It is a great idea to get yourself out there and make a difference! Another great goal is to take up an activity that you are interested in trying out such as a new hobby or a sport. This can lead you to discover greater interests you have and learn more about yourself! 

Stress/Work Life Balance 

This is a big one! Students will realize how difficult it is to maintain a proper balance between school, extracurriculars, and life outside of school! Focusing primarily on one side will eventually harm you, which is not good! Stress is a major factor students face, and it seems like it will never go away. Luckily, there are ways to reduce stress by incorporating stress-free activities such as taking a walk in the park, visiting the beach, taking up meditation and yoga, and much more! The options are endless! Another great resolution can be as simple as learning to relax more, because many students, which may be you, overwork themselves to the point where it is harmful! A line has to be set for enjoying life a little! 

Source: Obino

There are endless goals out there to set for ourselves, and endless possibilities to improve ourselves, but those were just a few great ones for students! New Year's resolutions are an excellent motivator for improving ourselves as well as achieving long anticipated goals. Keep in mind however, in many instances we become disappointed in ourselves for not reaching the goals we imagined due to being caught up in our hectic lives. Do not get discouraged if this happens to you! It is never too late to work on your goals, and it does not matter when the starting point is, because the sooner you get to it, the closer you will reach those goals in the end! 

Happy New Year from the Oracle!

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What Do You Meme? A Decade in Review

Written by: Emily Opresnick

2019 was filled with many new memes ranging from Minecraft to sayings such as “Ok Boomer”. The following are some of the most viral memes from this year:

Shaggy

In January of 2019, a bunch of memes began to surface about Shaggy, one of the main characters from Scooby-Doo. These memes depicted Shaggy as an extremely powerful individual.

Credit: Reddit

Unsettled Tom Meme

Unsettled or Concerned Tom memes refer to the following image of Tom from Tom and Jerry. This meme is often used when expressing concern or shock about a subject.

Credit: YouTube

Area 51

The Storm Area 51 meme came about as a result of a facebook event scheduled for September 20th, 2019 titled, “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of US.” The event went viral and with this came lots of memes. 

Credit: The Denver Post

Me and the Boys

This meme refers to the caption, Me and the boys. It is most commonly seen with an image of the villains in the 1967 TV Series, Spider-Man. 

Credit: Memedroid

Me explaining to my mom

The Me Explaining to my Mom meme refers to two images of Quenlin Blackwell crying and e of Ms. Juicy, depicting the facial reactions of an individual trying to convince their mom of something. 

Credit: Know Your Meme

Woman Yelling at  a Cat

The woman yelling at a Cat meme refers to a screenshot of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills stars, Taylor Armstrong and Kyle Richards, next to an image of Smudge the Cat reacting to a salad. These images started as different memes, however, Twitter user @MISSINGEGIRL put the two pictures together ultimately making this viral sensation.

Credit: Reddit

Ok Boomer

This phrase ultimately gained popularity in the fall of 2019 despite being around for a long time. It is typically used in response to something someone from the Boomer generation would say. More specifically, something that pertains to generation Z culture that is not understood by other generations or individuals. 

Credit: Lit Hub

Baby Yoda

Baby Yoda is a character from the Disney+ TV series, The Mandalorian that first aired on November 12, 2019. Instantly, Baby Yoda became a viral sensation resulting in many memes as well as a song on Tik Tok.

Credit: Twitter

Keanu Reeves

Keanu Reeves went viral this year due to an anonymous Change.org petition to make him Time Magazine's Person of the Year. In addition to this, he also made an appearance at E3, Microsoft's gaming conference, to reveal Cyberpunk 2077. Many memes emerged reflecting his charitable actions as well as memes from photos from the conference and game. 

Credit: Reddit

Joker 

Following the release of The Joker movie this year, several memes with scenes from the movie appeared all over the internet. 

Credit: Reddit

Ight Imma Head Out

This meme refers to a scene from the TV show Spongebob Squarepants. In the show, Spongebob is sitting however, the meme is interpreted as Spongebob leaving the room, as it is typically used to show someone exiting from a situation. 

Credit: Reddit

PewDiePie

The “war” between Youtubers Pewdiepie and T-Series began in 2018, however, it continued throughout 2019. Pewdiepie as a search term peaked in late March as a result of the ongoing subscriber count war between the Swedish YouTuber and T- Series. 

Credit: Meme Droid

Minecraft / Revenge

There was a resurgence in the game Minecraft this year, with over 112 million people playing it every month. Ultimately, this brought many memes about the game, most notably “Creeper, aw man,” a line from CaptainSparkles parody, Revenge.  

Credit: Know Your Meme

Memes from the Decade 

Instagram user Grandayy put out a poll to determine the best memes from 2010-2018. To best recap the memes of the decade, here are the results:

2018: 

Ugandan Knuckles

This meme went viral as a result of YouTuber VirtuallyVain, using the phrase, “I know the day” in addition to the character

Credit: YouTube

2017: 

Phil Swift / Flex Tape

In 2017, YouTuber  JonTronmade a video about Flex Tape, a product by the company Flex Seal. After this, many memes and edits were made showing flex tape to fix numerous objects.

Credit: Reddit 

2016: 

We Are Number One

We are Number One is a song sung by Robbie Rotten, the villain in the TV show LazyTown. This became a meme in 2016 as a result of numerous parodies that emerged of the song. 

Credit: Pinterest

2015: 

Pepe the Frog

Pepe the Frog is one of the most well-known memes today. He was created by artist Matt Furie for his comic series, Boys Club. Since it was originally posted, numerous edits and other works were completed showing Pepe with different moods.

Credit: Tumblr

2014:

MLG

MLG refers to montage parody memes. They are parody videos with quick-paced edits and loud dubstep type music. Typically, many other memes appear in the edits. 

Credit: Reddit

2013:

Doge

Alongside Pepe, the Doge meme is also one of the most well-known memes. Doge is a term that refers to a dog, in most cases, the Doge is a Shiba Inu. With these memes, there is text in Comic Sans around the image. 

Credit: iFunny

2012: 

Illuminati Confirmed 

The Illuminati is, “a purported secret society consisting of world governments, corporations, and celebrities that play an important role in global affairs.” This meme is used to jokingly theorize the group's existence. In addition to this, most video edits of the meme contain the x-files theme song.

Credit: Reddit

2011: 

Nyan Cat

Nyan Cat was a viral YouTube video in 2011. It is an 8-bit animation of a cat with a pop-tart body flying through the air. 

Credit: Know Your Meme

2010:

Epic Sax Guy

Epic Sax Guy refers to saxophone player Stepanov, the meme refers to his performance at his group's live concert at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2010.

Credit: Know Your Meme

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German Students Sing Christmas Carols

Written by: Sarah Riley 

On Dec. 6-8, the annual German Christmas Market took place on the Lake Mohawk Boardwalk. As usual, there was a giant turnout and lots of holiday cheer. Our very own Sparta High School German students contributed to the community by gathering on Dec. 7 to sing some German Christmas carols with German teachers Frau Wessels and Herr Bendorf. 





The group sang classic carols such as “Auf dem Dach” (Up on the Rooftop) and “Rudolf mit rotem Näschen” (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer). Two soloists performed during “Stille Nacht” (Silent Night), Liam and Emma Rust.




Overall, this year’s German Christmas Market was a huge success once again, with the help of the Sparta High School German students. 

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A Spartan in Bali

Written by: Marguerite Bysshe 

Over the summer, I was lucky enough to spend an entire month in Bali, Indonesia, a little island nestled against the big island of Java, north of Australia. Bali is known for its unbeatable surf, and as a surfer myself, those waves really were heavenly. There were consistent four to six-foot swells on the west coast and daunting waves along the southern coast. Contrarily, the waves on the east coast break past miles of coral reefs and the water lapping up on the shore is warm, calm, and crystal clear. So I can confirm, Bali is a surfer’s paradise. 

In general, when I tell people I worked tirelessly for two years, both multiple jobs and in convincing my parents, to go to Indonesia of all places, most people want to know why. My main reason for visiting was to see the Green School, a sustainably-based school made entirely out of bamboo that I’ve been dreaming of attending since middle school. Seeing it was honestly the best part of the trip. The school stresses independent learning and focusing on your passions and turning them into a real job. They grow all their own food on campus. Everything is sustainable and open air. It was a dream for me to visit and one of the most amazing experiences of my life. 

The food everywhere on the island is amazing. Everything is always fresh and healthy and there are a ton of vegan options. The cafes are super chic and very Australian influenced, as much of the island is inhabited by young Australians and Europeans. It’s actually cheaper to eat out and the local cuisine is incredible. A lot of their food is rice-based, and you can get a meal of Nasi Goreng (fried noodles) for less than $2. While the airfare may be expensive, the cost of living is extremely low. 

Besides Bali, we also visited the neighboring island of Nusa Penida and stayed on a farm on the top of a mountain for three days. Best. Experience. Ever. The view is incredible from everywhere on the island and making the trek down to the beaches is so worth it. Nusa Penida isn’t very well known but it is only a short boat ride away and gives you a feel of what Bali used to be like before tourism took over. 

Overall, everyone I met throughout my month-long stay was extremely nice and welcoming and I made some friends and memories I will never forget. The island is a paradise for surfers, skaters, and thrill-seekers as there are endless things to do and see. The climate is perfect all year long and I highly recommend stopping by, the next time you decide to conquer the 20 hours of travel, of course. The sunsets, the surf, and the food alone make it worth the time and money. However, as tourism continues to grow and sadly, take over a lot of local charm and culture, there are only a few more years left to see Bali as it should be: a perfect balance between culture and adventure. 

The Jonas Brothers Are Back Home!

Written by: Sarah Riley

On Nov. 22, the Jonas Brothers returned back to their home state of New Jersey to perform live at the Prudential Center in Newark for their “Happiness Begins” Tour. New and upcoming singer Jordan McGraw and well-known Bebe Rexha performed separately as opening acts to get the crowd pumped for the rest of the amazing show ahead. 

Nick, Joe, and Kevin Jonas expressed how happy they were to be back home and to perform for it, and the crowd responded back with even more enthusiasm and excitement. They sang songs from their album titled “Happiness Begins” and some of their older but still wildly popular songs, including songs from the Disney Channel Original Movie Camp Rock. Overall, the whole evening was a great night for the performers and the crowd, and it was truly a highlight in the whole tour.  

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Revisit The Classics With Disney Plus

Written by: Emily Fitzgerald

On Nov. 12, Disney released a brand new streaming service, Disney Plus.

Source: CDN

This platform has every single Disney film and TV shows available. In addition, Disney is also creating original content that will only be available on Disney Plus. Most popular of the original shows is The Mandalorian which has gained popularity due to “Baby Yoda.”

Source: Indie Wire

Disney Plus is great for anyone that wants to revisit classics, or watch the new films. Many people have found it refreshing to go back and watch the movies. Don’t fret if you aren’t a fan of Disney movies, all of the Stars War, Marvel, Pixar, and National Geographic are available on the platform.  Disney Plus costs $6.99 per month, or $69.99 per year. Existing Verizon Wireless Unlimited customers get Disney Plus for free for one year! Happy streaming! 

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