2015 magnum opus magazine

HOUSTON CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOL ART AND WRITING MAGAZINE

magnumopus

2014-2015

odyssey

Welcome to magnum opus!The Magnum Opus magazine -- drawing its name from the Latin phrase for “great work” -- provides an outlet for students’ voices and visions, for superior artistic creations of both the visual and literary genre that reflect the spirit and quality of Houston Christian High School.

While the primary purpose of such a publication is the display of the artistic and literary works created by the student body, the production as well as the completion of the magazine serves to enrich the Houston Christian community; from art and writing editors to production staff, Magnum Opus is the product of creative collaboration between students, teachers, and departments. Magnum Opus also functions to enrich the community as a resource to share these works with the community.

The Visual Arts, English, and Marketing & Communications departments, as well as students from visual arts and English, worked together on Magnum Opus with a focus on encouraging: • Students to articulate and vocalize a Christian worldview• A collaborative approach to education (students and teachers

are co-authors in the learning process)• Students to develop real-world leadership skills (learn how to

work with peers and superiors)• Dialogue between students and the greater community

We hope you enjoy these exceptional pieces.

Senior Editorial StaffElizabeth DalBello -- Editor-in-Cheif

Rebekah Robertson Daniel MuellerKate GoodeKloé Dorsett

Writing Editorial StaffEster GravesTatum Lee

Kristen MoehlmanHayden ReevesKailey ShanksAllsion White

Art Editorial StaffShreya AggarwalMaddy FlandersRemy Garfield

Emily JackMiho Maeda

Faculty ContributorsSusan Finnell -- Layout and Design

Linda Harvard -- ArtLana Loveland -- Art

Jaclyn Rusk -- Writing

Dear Readers, You may have heard “life is a journey.”

On a literal level, this is true. You start life at one geographical location, and, in most cases, you end life at a different geographical location. However, one takes many smaller journeys to from start to finish: the journey from your house to school, the journey to and from a sports tournament, the journey through high school or college. For some, it is a journey to go the grocery store.

Life, however, is more than displacement. Life is an odyssey.

Defined in Webster’s Dictionary as “a long wandering or voyage usually marked by many changes of fortune,” or “an intellectual or spiritual wandering or quest,” life is full of ups and downs, lessons and adventures. There are experiences to be enjoyed (or endured) along the way, people to meet, and new things to learn. More accurate than “journey,” “od-yssey” encompasses the emotional and mental effects of an experience, which are foundational to the development of one’s character.

Perhaps inspired by our own experience learning how to produce this year’s edition of the magazine—working with new sponsorship, templates, and editors—I am proud to reveal “odyssey” is the theme of the 2015 edition of Magnum Opus.

Throughout the magazine, “odyssey” represents the diverse journeys of life and the inspiration individuals often derive from such experiences; each work in Magnum Opus offers a glimpse into the author or artist’s own odyssey. I hope you enjoy the works these individuals, and I hope you learn a little about your own odyssey along the way.

Elizabeth DalBello

Editor-in-Chief

The Beginning: A Letter from the Editor

“Not all who wander are lost.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien

magnum

Table of ContentsRebecca GlenisterExploring Untrod Territory ............................................4

Lana Damassi ...............................................................5

Lauren McGrathThe Eternal Chase ........................................................6

Maddy Payne ...............................................................7

Dani BaltazarThe Strength to Accept Yourself ..................................8

Caitlin Clarke ................................................................9

Elizabeth DalBelloThe Integral and Houston Christian is ........................10

Alex Gross ..................................................................11Athena Co ...................................................................11

Miller McNewSpring Comes 2015 ....................................................12Daniel MuellerPoems snag my pen ...................................................12

Danha Dehghany .......................................................13

Tatum LeeCan Volunteering Ever Truly Be Mandatory? .............14

Christian Hightower ....................................................15Maddy Payne .............................................................15

Hayden ReevesPower of Authors ........................................................16

Hudson Hopper ..........................................................17

Laura KobbsTogether Forever ........................................................18

Athena Co ...................................................................19

Richard HansenDear J.R.R. Tolkien .....................................................20

Athena Co ...................................................................21

Spencer ProctorMy Life on the Big Screen ..........................................22

Christian Lundy-Hawkins ............................................23

Rebekah RobertsonOne More Minute ........................................................24

Olivia Christiansen ......................................................25

Kyle Mullen .................................................................26AnonymousMalakas na Unos (Introduction) .................................26

Brittany McVaugh .......................................................27

Jordan RappAuthenticity .................................................................28

Maddy Payne .............................................................29

Callie JardineI Believe in Individuality ..............................................30

3

Lauren Kattapong .......................................................31

Allison GodfreyModern Day Gender Inequality ..................................32

Athena Co ...................................................................33

Will BatesThe New Principles of Parenting in Second Generation American Households .............................34

Maddy Payne .............................................................35

Daniel MuellerBedroom Window Sill .................................................36

Daniel Mueller .............................................................37

Esther GravesSturdy Foundations Make for No Limitations ..............38

A. J. Rand ...................................................................39

Philip SchwartzThe Mountains of Utah ...............................................40

Lizzie Moll ...................................................................41

Caroline HughesKissing the Sun ...........................................................42

Jayde Qualls ...............................................................43Cassidy Kelley ............................................................43

Sandra DalBelloThe Future of Space Exploration in the U.S. ..............44

Emily Jack ..................................................................45Brooke Phillips ............................................................45

Lauren McGrathUntitled .......................................................................46

Maddy Payne .............................................................47

Nikki GoldinI Believe in the Power of Puzzles ................................48

Emma Parrish .............................................................49

Cate DunneOne, Two, Three .........................................................50

Darby McKinney .........................................................51

Kolby KillionBlood-colored Panes ..................................................54

Sophie Whitewater ......................................................56

Brooke Hoepfl .............................................................58

Matt Metoyer ...............................................................59

magnum4

rebecca glenister

Exploring Untrod Territory

Sometimes I just like to stop and listen to the people rush by around me. So many of them hurry to so many deadlines and appoint-ments, and not one stops to drink anything in. This behavior occurs daily. Teenagers often progress from one thing to the next without a pause, churning out results like a well-oiled machine, using their test results or their grade-point averages as measuring sticks for success. They disre-gard learning’s splendor and have come to collectively define education as: (noun) the ability to pass about seventeen years of work and poten-tially get a decent job afterward. But I believe in learning, and I believe it never ends. I remember the sights of the first day of kindergarten: white walls, clean tables, and dusty chalkboard. The elementary school seemed so large compared to my small house, and I shared it with two hundred more children than I had ever come in contact with before. The space overwhelmed me. And the wonders never stopped. Letters, numbers, art, and music. Drawing stars and sticking glue and running through the playground swings. I became a jungle explorer, poking at slender sticks and busy bugs, thirsty to discover this strange new world’s every aspect. When I finished investigating all corners of one cave, I would double-back and choose another. My wonder knew no bounds. Once I discovered all I believed I could discover with my limited knowledge, creativity took flight. Creativity took flight like a mighty eagle with unfettered ideas fluttering under wing. It flitted between obstacle oaks and adversary aspens, but never ceased its journey. With a few years behind me now, I still have the same childlike fascination for the things around me, particularly the future. More than anything, I want to leave a legacy. I want people to remember my charac-ter, to know I can make a difference in the short time I have. I want the assurance that my name will not just be etched in stone for hundreds of years after I pass––but that I may leave something in the life of at least one other individual! Learning encourages me daily to believe that I can make a lasting contribution beyond an educational building’s walls. Learning makes me an individual as opposed to a clone, listening and absorbing the wisdom of the more enlightened. A good education provides a strong fortification to express aspirations while realizing that it is okay to not know some things. So often “smart” students satisfy themselves with the comfort-able instead of taking in the world around them. The future looms ahead like the next unilluminated cave. My hope is to light it.

magnum 5

lana damassi

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a one step.” -- Lao Tzu

magnum6

lauren mcgrath

The Eternal Chase

So close and yet so far she seems to be,though I try to follow her she escapes.The closer I get, she’s farther from me,but still I try to cross the futile gape.Not knowing unrequited love from not,not knowing if I will stand or fall down,not knowing if she will ever be caught,yet still I chase her around and around.Her soft dimpled smile gleams white in the night,while my eyes look blinding over the lands.Her gentle beams like silver hair take flight,as I desperately reach with golden hands.Though foolish, my love for her still does growforever and always, forced to follow.

“Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it

yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way.” -- Donald Miller

magnum 7

maddy payne

“Life is a journey. When we stop, things don’t go right.” -- Pope Francis

magnum8

dani baltazar

The Strength to Accept Yourself

Dear 11 year-old Dani, You’re about to go into the 6th grade. It is going to be scary. You are going to a new school, and you only know one person. This year is going to be rough. You will retreat into yourself and distance yourself from others. And you know what? That’s okay. For a while it will not seem okay, but Drew will teach you it is. Drew Essen will teach you to believe in strength and acceptance: beliefs you will value, and sometimes struggle with, for a long time. Drew is 6 years older than you, has a great sense of humor, and is charming. He loves to sing all the time, and while it may seem a little strange at first, later on it will be totally normal. He is a riot of color in your dull world. He is the one who introduces you to theatre, and in turn Barbara. Drew has a sixth sense and is able to tell when you are upset. Don’t be alarmed by it - it is rather useful when you do not feel like talking. He will do his best to help you grow in your skills, as well as in the Lord. This weird friendship will begin when you decide you want to play drums for your church youth band. Because there is already a drummer who is about to graduate, you do not get the spot. Instead, Drew, who is in charge of the band, promises you will be the drummer after the old one leaves. Eventually, the old drummer leaves and you are prepared to take over. Instead of keeping his promise, however, Drew posts on Facebook that he needs to audition drummers. You will be a little confused, due to him having promised you the spot, but after a brief conversation he will say you can play for the band, and your audition will be your first perfor-mance with the band. Just so you know, you do great, and you keep the spot. Before you know it, two years have passed by, and Drew is practically a brother to you. In 8th grade you will chose to be a part of something bigger than yourself, and you join your school’s musical. Unfortunately, this will cause you to miss some performance days with Drew. You also come to terms with the fact that you have a mental illness called depression. It is a dark time in your life. An eerie silence will cast a shadow on your life. It is as if you are drowning, and, when you look, everyone else is breathing with ease. You will decide to take a few weeks off from Drew’s band to recover. In the meantime, Drew gets another drummer to cover for you...which would have been fine, except the other drummer never leaves. You will both awkwardly show up to rehearsals that end with you leaving. Every time you try to talk to Drew about your replacement, he will run away, make excuses, or promise to talk to you later. He never does. He con-stantly lies to you and breaks his promises. One day he tells you the other drummer will be gone because he is going on vacation. You show up ex-pecting everything to be normal, but to your dismay, the other drummer is sitting there. This happens twice more before you decide that enough is enough. You lie to him about your reason for leaving, not wanting to hurt his feelings. After all, at one point you two were like family. For a while,

(continued on page 9)

magnum 9

caitlin clarke

you feel alone and more depressed than normal. You struggle to get up in the morning, and sometimes you wish you were dead. There are going to be long sleepless nights. During these nights you wonder why you weren’t good enough, what did you do wrong. It is during these times that you begin to teach yourself something extremely important; you teach yourself the art of accepting yourself. In baby steps, you start fixing yourself. You start taking your medicine, talking to your friends, and opening up little by little. Before you know it, things are as close to normal as they can be. However, keep in mind nothing is ever truly “normal.” Your family is still somewhat dysfunctional, and there will be some days where you hate yourself. On those days, look into the mirror, and tell yourself “I love you.” Please love yourself. Your self-value has nothing to do with what other people think. You are strong, kind, smart, and a good friend. Stop putting yourself down. Accept yourself for who you are, flaws and all. Once you do, life will get better; I promise. Lastly, this is going to be a bit complicated, but try to not be upset with Drew. What he did was what you needed at the time. You will walk away from those broken nights with a feeling of self-love and the strength to keep going. It’s like what Papa used to tell you all the time, “You are stronger than you think you are.”

Love,Dani, age 16

magnum10

elizabeth dalbello

Houston Christian isgrowing breathing seventeenworld in hand, a home

Houston Christian isreaching for the farthest placelike a tree of light

magnum 11

alex gross

athena co

magnum12

miller mcnew

Spring Comes 2015

Summerlaughter and crying

fireworks booming love here underneath blue sky

Tracksweat tears practice time

blocks on your mark set-gunshotsprint sweat all out

Drivingtires rotating

flying down the interstate sunset set rearview

Dreamssweet big fast alive

goals journeys prayers hopes living breathing life

Poems snag my pen

Poems snag my pen And compose their own stanzas With my lifeblood ink.

daniel mueller

magnum 13

dahna dehghany

“Spirit lead me where my tust is without boraders. Let me walk upon the waters

wherever You would call me.” -- Hillsong

magnum14

Can Volunteering Ever Truly be Mandatory?

At what point does voluntary service become mandatory ser-vice, and at what point does the mandatory go too far? These questions have been plaguing various districts and their students across the United States recently as the topic of whether or not community service should be required has become relevant. Students should not be required to complete mandatory community service hours because it taints the benefits of choosing to volunteer, adds stress to students’ already busy lives, and can cause them to perform their assigned service poorly, with no regard for the quality of the work completed. When students are forced to complete a set amount of com-munity service as an extra requirement for graduation, they become contemptuous towards volunteering and harbor hate for future service opportunities. When polled about their feelings about community ser-vice, students in the age group of 15-17 years had the “weakest... support for [mandatory] community service” with only 32% of those surveyed in favor of the requirement (Lopez). The high school aged students who are being required to volunteer have strongly negative opinions towards service. With such a weak support for community service among the high-school aged generation, students are likely to turn away from volun-teering in their adult lives, weakening the community as a whole. Forced community service for students has a “backlash effect… creating a generation of students with a bad taste” towards community service (Newquist). The negative response to mandatory community service adds another item on the long list of chores they must complete each year. Students, when leaving high school, may choose to forgo add-ing the extra burden they believe community service provides to their schedules, as they were never presented with the possibility to learn the personal benefits of true volunteering from the mandatory requirement. Students, with their large, busy schedules, are done a disservice by man-datory community service for their mental and physical health as well. High school aged students are put at risk mentally and physically by mandatory community service, as forced volunteering can add extra stress to their hectic lives as well as put them in a position to perform jobs they are not fully trained to do. Students forced to complete man-datory community service hours are given an “unfair burden” and the community service can interfere with the students “learning the basics” (Newquist). Community service hours take a great amount of time in students’ lives which could be spent on schoolwork. Added stress may cause them to stay up later in order to complete homework extra-curricular activities, and service work, leaving them tired and mentally exhausted. Community service can show students “the real world” and give them a chance to “perhaps explore a career” (Sortal). The implications of this statement are positive, but pose the risk of students trying to complete tasks they are not prepared to do during their community service hours. School is about teaching students how to work in the real(continued on page 60)

tatum lee

magnum 15

christian hightower

maddy payne

magnum16

hayden reeves

Power of Authors

People do not realize the power of the author.The pen is mightier than the sword, and with good reason.Who takes you places you’ve never been?Who helps you know people you have never met?Who shows you places you have never seen? They do.Words tell us everything we know, and authors control words.You want to know an author’s power?An author can cause you to fall to your knees and weep. An author can make you leap to your feet and celebrate for eternity.An author can make you love. An author can make you hate.An author can twist reality. An author can destroy worlds.War, peace, power, weakness, truth, lies, hate, love, right, wrong, noble, evil.Words make these and words are our toys.We shape your world and everything you know.We built it and can destroy it just as easily.So why are we ignored in public light, the creation receiving more glory than the creator?Simple, it lasts longer, and we let it.We authors control the world, so why don’t you join us?Why is reading a chore to some and a joy to others?Because you fear our power, and until you know and have felt that power, you will fear it.So fear us, condemn us, outcast us, but we will return, and we will conquerAnd re-write the world as we please.So become an author, and join us in shaping the world and writing history.

magnum 17

hudson hopper

“A man who has been through bitter ex-periences and travelled far enjoys even his

sufferings after a time.” -- Homer

magnum18

laura kobs

Together Forever

“Oh my gods stop!” “What?” “You brushed my hand again.” “So?” “Don’t you see, that is what it wants you to do!” “...What?” “The Author!” “...Care to explain a wee bit more?” “The Author has written us as the romantic love interest in this story! It is using small but very noticeable ways to get us together.” “What? Really? That sucks. No offense, but I really don’t see you in that kind of way.” “Don’t worry, the feeling is mutual. But that is not going to stop it! It will use unnecessary story development and painful forced feelings that do not follow with our characteristics in order for us to have a romantic relationship for the reader’s attention.” “That sucks!” “I know! If anything we are probably going to end up in a love tri-angle that will take attention away from the main plot and demean each character into nothing but a prize to be won instead of an individual per-son!” “Well, what do we do about it?” “Okay, calm down here. We need to have an action plan. Any ideas?” “Hmmm, here let me-WAH!” “Oof! Get. Off. Me. NOW!” “Sorry, sorry, I have no idea how I could have fallen from one step.” “I hate you, Author, so much.” And I hate you, too.

“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.”

-- John Steinbeck

magnum 19

athena co

magnum20

richard hansen

Dear J.R.R. Tolkien,

You may not believe this, but I am Bilbo. Your book truly shook me. The spark of adventure and willingness you created with Mr. Bilbo Baggins made me want to be an adventurist. To not sit in my very own little hobbit hole and pon-der what the meaning of life is, but to go out there and find it for myself. To go out and grab life by the horns and to take advantage of how beautiful life truly is. As I dove into your book, I uncovered that Mr. Bilbo Baggins is persuad-ed by the old wizard Gandalf to leave the comforts of his home and to set out on an adventure with a group of thirteen dwarves while acting as their burglar. At first, Bilbo is terrified to leave Hobbiton, but, over the course of the book, we see Bilbo grow significantly from an unconfident burglar to figuring out what adventure truly is. He learns to not hold back, but to just go for whatever it is and enjoy every second of that adventure. At the time of reading your book, I was forced out of public school into homeschooling because of a rare stomach disease I possessed. The disease, called myoclonus dyskinesia, caused me to have many daily seizures. Those two years were the darkest I have ever experienced. I couldn’t do much, but I didn’t want to do anything either. The question of the meaning of life was constantly dangling over my head like mistletoe dangling from the head of one of the thirteen dwarves at their first meeting in the Hobbit Hole. At that point in life, I was convinced everything was meaningless, but there had to have been something more than just laying around at home and the pain of constant seizures. I don’t know why I felt embarrassed to be in public, but, just like Bilbo, being at home brought me much comfort, brought me peace. After being in and out of hospitals for two years, I finally grew enough strength to attend school again. I was more than terrified though, as if I was Bilbo first venturing out onto the outskirts of Hobbiton. I did not want to be harassed like I was at my old school, nor did Bilbo want to be harassed for his adventure because Hobbits weren’t known for adventure. Over the past two years, I had close to no interaction with anybody my age. Yeah, I received a few letters and texts, but only a few came to see me, similar to Bilbo’s life before his grand ad-venture. When I started school, I didn’t talk to anyone. But, just like Bilbo’s story, I had a Gandalf-like figure. His name is Daniel, and, just like Gandalf, he walked straight into my life. Also, similar to Gandalf persuading Bilbo, Daniel persuaded me to simply hang out with him and some of his friends. Though Bilbo’s adven-ture consisted of crossing mountains, mine was as simple as making friends, to become someone who doesn’t live in the shadows questioning the meaning of life. I made quick friends with Daniel, and soon I began to realize that I was spending a lot of time with him. Now that I was spending more time with him, I got to meet lots of new people, which meant new friends, new opportunities, and, most importantly, the growing confidence within my adventure. At that mo-ment in time I was thinking as if I was Bilbo, saving the dwarves from the wood elves. Even though he didn’t really know what to do exactly, he still pulled it off. But just like Bilbo saving the dwarves, Bilbo didn’t need Gandalf. Nor did I need


magnum 21

athena co

“It’s dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door. You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no telling where you

might be swept off to.” -- J. R. R. Tolkien

magnum22

spencer proctor

My Life On The Big Screen

Audrey Hepburn once said, “Everything I learned, I learned from the movies.” Outside of the usual knowledge about life and the world our parents normally teach us, my life was shaped by the movies. I see movies, I re-watch old movies, I study the art of movies, I read about upcoming movies, and con-stantly, to a fault and annoyance of my peers, talk about movies. As far back as I can remember, I have loved watching and especially going to the movies. I love the popcorn, the seats, and the people in them and on the screen, though you never talk or communicate with either. The movie theater is a place that means a lot to me. With a reason or not, I still go because it is what my family and I do. We see everything from the blockbusters to the unheard-of indies. Films bring us together and keep us separate from the world outside by engulfing us in the joy and thrill of the movies. In my life I have seen more films than I can count. I have seen films that changed America and those that shaped it, from Jimmy Stewart in a wheel-chair to Leslie Nielsen’s distaste of the name Shirley. I take my seat to watch the singing and dancing popcorn inform me about the lobby as I eat handfuls of the stuff while simultaneously trying not to imagine what the butter actu-ally is. I walk into the theater with my popcorn and try and find the perfect seat, one near the aisle, off to the side, with nobody in front, so I can prop up my feet. Then what I look for, when they switch the reel from previews to the main feature, is my world to go dark, and it is just me and the only thing that matters, the film. The experience might seem to be a lonely experience, but for me, it is more than just myself and a screen. It is the director, all those who sat right where I am, and the emotions that Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman created in me and all the other moviegoers who will “Always have Paris.” My father started my love of movies when he took me to see the Iron Giant at a young age. This was the first movie I ever saw in theaters. From then on he fueled my love of movies by showing me all the films that he loved throughout his life. One of these is Raiders of the Lost Ark. I saw it for the first time in the early 2000’s, and I immediately fell in love with Indy and the cinema. That was the first film I loved, and since then it has remained one of my favor-ite movies of all time. It changed the way I think, feel, and act. It is a masterpiece that continues to amaze me to this day. I love the theater because I cannot get distracted. It is just me and all the other people with the shared interest of movies. Some of the most influential people to me have sat in the seats of huge dark rooms and thought about movies. People like Roger Ebert and Alfred Hitchcock, people who loved movies more than most people they met.

magnum 23

christian lundy-hawkins

“...we’ll go with you wherever you’re going,” [said Ron].“No-” said Harry quickly; he hadn’t counted on this, he had meant them to

understand that he was undertaking the most dangerous journey alone.“You said it once before,” said Hermione quickly, “that there was time to turn back

if we wanted to. We’ve had time, haven’t we? We’re with you whatever happens.”-- J. K. Rowling

magnum24

rebekah robertson

One More Minute

The low hum of the television, the whirring of a ceiling fan, a cool pillow beneath my head. These are the senses I experience when I come home from a long day at school and collapse onto the couch; I always take a nap, regardless of whether it’s three o’clock or nine. To me, there is no replacement for letting my body and brain take a break from working at a rapid pace, even if it’s only for half an hour. Naps allow me to step back from reality and let my mind turn off for a little while. I can stare at the ceiling and think over my day, my thoughts, and my feelings until I slowly but surely fall asleep. But sometimes, before I reach complete unconsciousness, I experience a special moment; I slip into some kind of limbo where I can hear everything around me, but I feel as if I’m on the very edge of sleep, a centimeter from tumbling into a world of comforting darkness, a second from being whisked away into a dream or perhaps a nightmare. This is my favorite part of taking a nap: the long minute before I actually fall asleep. In this minute, I am separate from what surrounds me, but I can hear and under-stand everything happening. Somehow, I am both absent and present. When I wake up, I recall that beautiful minute and what it means to me. It reminds me to take one minute to step back and evaluate my situation. I visualize myself as separate from my circumstances, a bystander looking through a clear, glass window. When I put myself behind this glass, I process what happens around me: I process what I read before I decide its meaning-- read, analyze, synthesize. I process what I think before I say it-- think, filter, speak. I process what I feel before I act on it-- feel, deliberate, act. Too many incidents of saying or doing the exact wrong thing at the ex-act wrong time have taught me to always step behind the glass and process my thoughts instead of shutting off my brain and simply reacting, even though the latter is much easier to do. I can decide what words are worth saying, and I can consciously choose how I will be perceived. Will I be kind? Helpful? Reckless? Apathetic? Compassionate? Cold? If I were to react, I could be any of these things, but I choose to step behind the cool, imaginary glass instead because I believe in time for processing. And naps.

magnum 25

olivia christiansen

“Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward

toward success.” -- C. S. Lewis

magnum26

kyle mullen I wandered my lonely world

wanting to know the secret of lifeinto this situation I was hurled

wanting to get away from the strifebut still I wander this lonely world,

looking for the pathwayinto the light

Malakas na Unos (Introduction)

The cool of the morning, grey with dawn’s first light, sang a peaceful lullaby as the gentle waves rocked the littered shore. No clouds veiled the growing warmth of the new day, and the only light in this little village was the ochre fade coming from the far ends of the ocean. A fishing boat, or what was left of it, sat rocking like a broken dream as each wave gently pushed it back and forth on its new stony mooring, the first prop to reveal itself from the night’s horrors. As roosters crowed this diurnal advent, there was another sound: faint, rising. It was a sad sound, a deep, sad sound, rising from the matted depths from the green slope of tattered trees and carpeted leaves above these now-peaceful waters. The sea, the giver of life and prosperity, provider of food and beauty, had roused itself in storm and exacted a strange return in its own sense of economy. All seemed lost as bare feet crept down the lair of last night’s refuge...

Anonymous

magnum 27

brittany mcvaugh

“And there will come a time, you’ll see, with no more tears. And love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears.

Get over your hill and see what you find there, With grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.”

-- Mumford and Sons

magnum28

jordan rapp

Authenticity

Throughout my life it seems there has always been a stress on the importance of truth. The understanding that absolute truth is that—the truth. This argument (that one should tell the truth, seek the truth, fight for the truth and so on) is logical; it makes sense to demand the truth. This seemingly elementary principle becomes distorted though when considering the concept of authenticity. I am not claiming that authenticity is not the truth or that one does not have to be truthful to be authentic. Rather, I am considering the reality that authenticity hardly ever correlates directly to the truth. In a philosophical sense, authenticity is intimately close to the truth; they are one in the same. To be authentic is to be genuine, to be real. The standard of what authentic should be is clear; what is not clear is how authenticity is fleshed out in real life. Authenticity is a standard that arguably everyone strives for. Nobody boasts about lying about themselves or trying to be something they aren’t. People want to live a life of truth. This makes sense; no one wants to live a life of lies, surrounded by people doing the exact same thing. It is easy to condemn somebody who is fake or two-faced, but in reality this issue is present to some degree in anybody’s life. The discrepancy between who people truly are and what they want to be can be great, a far cry from the reality of their lives. This will lead people to lie or fake who they are, to distort their identities in or-der to mask their flaws and appear more like the standard they want to be. Such inauthenticity is quickly reprimanded, but is it at its core such a bad thing? Naturally, people want to control how they are perceived and it is much easier to pretend something closer to the ideal than to admit the true gap between the two. While lying is surely not authentic, is it authentic for someone to portray his or herself or try to be who he or she is truly striving for? If someone’s current state is not what he or she wants it to be, is it not being authentic for him or her to try to change? Often times people will criticize that somebody is doing some-thing or acting a certain way just to appear in a certain light and not being authentic to his or her self. However, can a person’s state or so called label not change? Is he or she bound to one lifestyle his or her whole life? Authenticity is often judged on one individual’s perception of what is true about another individual. This thinking may not be true though if he or she cannot know the heart of the other person. While authenticity is always the truth, being authentic can shift over time to having different meanings. One example is if an individual is living in a life of sin. Over time, the person may come to recognize his or her sin and strive to change his or her ways in order to live a more righteous life. During this time, people may criticize him or her for pretending to be good or just acting a certain way, but not truly being who he or she is. While this is true in a sense, it could also be argued that the individual is being authentic to who or what his or her goals are. No one will ever be perfect. Everyone wants to improve his or her self or become a better person. What I have learned is that being authentic is important, but being true to yourself is even more important. What people may think of me at the time is not as important as who I am being and becoming. I know there are times I want to pretend I am better than I am or haven’t made the mistakes I do, but being honest and having integrity are key to living a life of success.

magnum 29

maddy payne

“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.”

-- Greg Anderson

magnum30

callie jardine

I Believe in Individuality

Individuality. The word itself intimidates me. Individuality. Individuality is having a separate existence or a distinct quality which distinguishes a person or object from all others of its kind. The preciseness and clearness of the word’s meaning makes me wonder, “Who am I supposed to become as a person in order to be different?” Being different as a leader and a person is almost as physically and mentally exhausting as running a marathon in world record time. Being myself, without a fear or care of anyone ever judging me or tearing me down due to my differences, should be seen as a positive vision worth striving for, but the problem of the world today is that being unique in a high school setting is the most socially precarious choice I could ever make. The final year of middle school loomed in front of me. Eighth grade. Through sixth and seventh grade, and now eighth grade, I would strive to fill the world’s standards. Every year I tried to be different from who I knew I truly was. The reality of the situation that I would not allow myself to accept was that I should be the person God designed me to be; however, I listened to the world around me. “Each year is a new start. A new beginning to be a new you.”The question, “Who am I supposed to be?” constantly nagged at my brain and my confidence. Should I be popular? Smart? Athletic? Year after year of middle school, I reinvented myself to fit the mold that the corrupted world pressured me to fill. By the second quarter of eighth grade, I had become pessimistic, de-pressed, and indignant. I begged my mom everyday to pull me out of school. My hatred and jealousy toward my classmates became unbearable. The root of my negativity was my absolute hatred of the person that I had become. I was no longer the carefree, life -loving girl that I had once been. The idol of jealousy had overcome and entangled me in its lies. I became obsessed with embodying the “perfect teenager.” The summer before high school, my mind became a battleground be-tween individuality and jealousy. Jealousy shrouds individuals and sways them to believe that they will never be good enough to meet the world’s standards.My greatest enemies in life have always been jealousy and fear. I am jealous of those who are not fearful. I am jealous of those who are effortlessly accepted. I fear retaining jealousy. I fear being different from others. I fear imperfection. Fear has held my individuality back because I fear the lack of peer approval. Often, people follow the crowd of popularity only because a fear of unaccepted individuality encases them. Gandhi declares, “The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but it is fear.” I thought I hated myself. I imagined that I hated people. As a result, I hated school. The true reality was that I did not hate anything; I feared becom-ing jealous of everything. Fear had crept into my identity. I was fear. My individu-ality had been suppressed by an antagonistic, destructive fear.


magnum 31

lauren kattapong

“Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost.” -- Erol Ozan

magnum32

allison godfrey

Modern Day Gender Inequality

Worldwide, gender inequality remains a constant issue throughout his-tory. Some countries have taken action to equalize men and women in the past one hundred years, while others treat women worse than ever. Sex trafficking, domestic abuse, and unequal pay are just some of the intentional discrimina-tions women face around the world on a daily basis. However, not all men are provokers of the problem; they can be the victims too. Gender equality is a problem that both men and women are facing, and this needs to be recognized. Underdeveloped countries have a distinct and more present problem of gender equality due to their lack of social advancement and modern civili-zation. Women in such countries face not only social discrimination but phys-ical abuse, such as rape. Many women in the Eastern world face the extreme inequality of sex trafficking. Over 27 million women are dragged into the sex trafficking industry across the globe (1). This is disgusting and shows the un-equal value women are given. Another discrimination women are facing in un-derdeveloped countries, especially in the Middle East, is honor killing (2). Honor killing is the action performed by the male head of an Islamic family of killing his daughter because she somehow dishonored the family. Over one thousand women last year were killed due to honor killing (2). Many of these women are actually victims of rape by family members, and this is considered “dishonor-able;” therefore they are killed. Women in these countries have an equivalent value to dirt. Their lives are worth little to nothing to the men around them, and they are shunned and killed for a cause they can not control. Gender equality is not much better in developed countries. These women face different challenges and scenarios than the women in undeveloped countries; however, the issue of gender equality still stands. Women in devel-oped countries, such as America, face constant discrimination in the workplace (3). Unequal pay and denial to promotions is a constant battle for women. Women today are paid seventy percent of what their male counterparts are paid for the same work (3). These women achieve the same, if not higher, level of education as these men and still are paid less. Another issue these women face is the inability to progress in their company. Many companies deny their female employees promotions or managerial positions due to the fact that they think women are not capable of handling the responsibility or are unable to lead as well as men. Gender equality is not specific to women; rather, it is an issue that both genders face. With many men now staying at home and taking on the role of running the house, stereotypes are constantly broken. Society, however, stran-gles these men by making them think they are inadequate because they do not carry out the “standard” role of a man. Suicide is now four times more likely to occur in men than women because of this very thought of not fitting into soci-ety (4). Men should be able to be live out any role they desire, whether that is bringing in the money or staying at home with the family. Men should not feel pressures of society telling them that being vulnerable and caring is “unmanly” or that not playing a sport is a waste of a man. They should feel accepted for their feelings and their choices, not scrutinized.


magnum 33

athena co

“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the jour-

ney, not the destination.” -- Don Williams.

magnum34

will bates

The New Principles of Parenting in Second Generation American Households

Within his personal essay “Notes of a Native Speaker,” Eric Liu reflects upon his parents’ attempt to create a normal, American life by exchanging their old cultural beliefs for a more modern, Western parenting style, which helped Liu to assimilate into American culture. Liu’s parents “traded Chinese formality for the more laissez-faire stance of this country” because of their love of Western culture and the lifestyle of freedom it promotes (Liu 2). If Liu’s parents had taken a Chinese approach to parenting, they would have hindered Liu’s assimilation into America because of the contrast between the more relaxed, open-minded Western culture, and disciplined, rigid Chinese culture. Liu’s parents wanted him to create his own way of life by picking and choos-ing the aspects of any culture with which he connected. Liu shows gratitude towards his parents for letting him decide for himself as to what extent that he would assimilate into American culture. In Liu’s own words, “We left things alone. And a torrent of change washed over me” (5). Liu is referring to his parents open-mindedness and adoption of Western culture from a society that does not always welcome change; these ideas helped Liu grow up and under-stand the meaning of assimilation in an environment where so many people fit into stereotypes. Liu credits his parents with his ability to connect with many groups of people and appreciates their support of his changing cultural values while he was finding his identity in a country as diverse as the United States. Because of his own personal experience with his parents, Liu emphasizes the way modern immigrants with a hunger for Western culture assimilate into American lifestyle, and he describes how they encourage their children to become part of the country that is so culturally diverse.

“To get through the hardest journey, we need only one step at a time, but we must

keep stepping.” -- Chinese Proverb

magnum 35

maddy payne

magnum36

daniel mueller

Bedroom Window Sill

Tonight’s the first I’ve seen of them.A judgmental glare, a stoic smirk?A snake, two frogs, a wooden stag--They guard me on their window’s perch.

What preys beyond the glass’s latch?Whose shadow lurks where I can’t see?The pane won’t budge without that snag;So fixed, it holds, in spite of me.

Old memories, old artifactsTransport Taiwan and Mexico.My grandpa’s house can take me backTo TV and Antique Roadshow.

That snake recalls a Spanish hiss,A lively town in Mexico.A careful thought for me from sis’And Katie pays a ten-peso.

The stag and frog--the softer one--They send me back to Grandpa’s homeTo comfy chairs and cousin-fun,To tears and hugs, to empty home.

That frog, a gift, from Mrs. Clipps,I conjure up my first grade class,She sends her love from Taiwan tripsWith purrs and croaks of toy-ish frogs.

Before I knew the thoughts were thereThe window budged and I fell through.

My conscience slid into the darkness, blissfullySubmerged in the dangerous flames of sleep’s intoxication.

magnum 37

“There is nothing like looking if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if

you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.” -- J. R. R. Tolkien

daniel mueller

magnum38

esther graves

Sturdy Foundations Make For No Limitations

I have lived in a lot of houses so far in my life, and each house has one obvious consistency; a big backyard in which my family could build a playhouse. Erecting a playhouse is a pretty long operation for a family of five amateure construction workers, but we’ve been slightly aided by the acquired experi-ence from numerous playhouses of the past. The whole family pitches in on the extensive process; drawing a floor plan, pouring cement into the foundation, building up walls, installing electricity, putting shingles on the roof, and drinking the fresh squeezed lemonade. We learned early on that the most important part of the building process is the foundation. If there is not a sturdy founda-tion, then the whole building will be flawed. My mom has taught me that life is just like building a playhouse: you need a sturdy foundation if you’re going to succeed. I believe in creating strong foundations, in starting off strong in every-thing I pursue, especially academically, because it is through the foundation that my mom has helped me build in myself that I have gained knowledge, focus, and confidence. When I was younger, I recieved terrible grades in school and was so discouraged by them I thought that I’d get nowhere in life because that is what people told me. I would barely pass a grade before moving on to the next one. People told me I was stupid, and I believed them because that is how my grades looked. When I became really frustrated because I couldn’t understand a concept, my mom would always take me back to the basics, telling me that I have to learn those first before I moved on. I would always dismiss her because I didn’t want to fall behind all of my peers, as I thought I would if I went back to learn what I did not understand thoroughly. My mom was right. There is no moving forwards if you don’t have any momentum. In order to start swim-ming, you have to get into the pool. My mom may not have been the one who helped re-teach me all the concepts I missed in school, but she was the one who taught me that I had potential to build a skyscraper as long as I had the patience to give it a sturdy foundation. Here I am today, in high school doing what I can with the confidence I have in my educational foundation inspired by my mom. It is accurate to repeat what Drake famously declared, “Started from the bottom now we’re here.” I am nowhere near done with school or plateaued in my eagerness to learn, but I’m building upwards on a sturdy structure and am savoring each story I reach with confidence that can’t be taken from my grasp. If I am going to do something, I might as well do it right because oth-erwise I am going to have to go back and redo it the correct way eventually. If I don’t start out well, my building will either crash or not reach the height of its potential. That being said, just because I started off strong doesn’t mean I will end strong; it just opens up an opportunity to succeed. David Brinkley once said, “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” When other people told me I wouldn’t go any-where or that I am stupid, my mom told me I could. It took a lot of work, like the playhouses, but now that I have built my foundation I can grow a tower of myself in confidence, so that it cannot fall down.


magnum 39

a.j. rand Having a strong foundation is important not just

academically but in relationships as well. I’ve met some strangers in times of need that I have trusted to do something and have been true and others who have cheated me. Trust is a form of foundation. My mom encourages me to pursue that foundation with everyone I meet on my part and for me to seek that foundation from them. Every facet of character comes from somewhere, a sturdy foundation. I’m thankful that my mom helped me build a strong foundation for my life and showed me how to build one in other people’s life. Because of my mom believing in me and the playhouses I built as a child, I believe in sturdy foundations that can be built upon to reach success.

magnum40

philip schwartz

The Mountains of Utah

The mountains, shining like fire, reflect the sun’s light off the snow. The subtle mix of nature and artificial creations of men give an entire new spectrum of beauty that one could not imagine otherwise. Even the ski lifts seem natural and beautiful as they glide from the valley of the mountain to the summit. The silence of nature is eminent throughout the land, almost as if to direct people’s focus to the beauty in front of them. At this place, one can see how he fits into God’s creation; he sees that true beauty ultimately comes from God. Albert Einstein once said, “Try not to become a man of success, but rath-er try to become a man of value.” From this place I have learned my value as a person derives itself from God, and it does not depend on anything I say or do but on God who created me uniquely and individually. On the side of a mountain lies a wooden lodge warm from a crackling fire. In it, the aromas of hot chocolate and soup fill the room. The silence of nature is broken by the small chatter of skiers and other people who are es-caping the harsh conditions outside. At the entrance is a pile of snow melting in the light of the window. The look of relief is a universal expression on the faces of all who enter. The middle of the lodge is empty as fathers, mothers, and children sit near the windows to enjoy the beauty of God’s creation. They look out at a vast expanse of mountains, trees, snow, sun, and more. As they continue their gaze, they look into the parts of each of these creations: the blowing leaves, the quivering bark, and the moving animals and critters along them. From this view one can see how small he is. From here I have learned of a great truth relating to what it means to be a creation of God. Every creature has a beauty about it, an inexplicable sense of value and worth. Even though one seems small in the immeasurable gravity of things around him, he can still know that God took an active part in shaping his life as an individual. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon writes, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Looking out at God’s creation, I know that no one will ever be able to comprehend all that God has done. However, as a creation, I know my value comes from the creator of mountains, trees, clouds, valleys and so much more. If God created everything in existence, the billions of stars (the sizes of which are beyond comprehension), and loves me more than each of them, then my value as a creation even exceeds the beauty before my eyes in the mountains of Utah.

magnum 41

lizzie moll

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”

-- St. Augustine

magnum42

caroline hughes

Kissing the Sun

There is a certain moment in life that comes every once in a while, but often is not recognized by many. It is a moment of total serendipity. The grand finale, the last “hurrah” of what has seemed to be an almost perfect day. Sometimes this finale may not be as grand as others, but it will still be beautiful, to say the least. In this moment, complete happiness and peace consumes the body and warms the heart, as all other thoughts and worries decide to take a break. Every once in a while, one of these moments will bring out the true meaning and understanding of what is so commonly referred to as life. This moment begins with an ending. Friends and family coming together to clean up what is left of what was the most delicious feast ever tasted. I stand on the rocky shores overlooking the waters. Clouds begin to cover the crystal clear lake like a blanket, and a cool breeze blows away the sizzling heat of a long summers day. The trees begin to see their reflection in the still water as the sky changes colors from blue to orange, to red, to yellow. The sun says its final goodbyes as it sinks into the tall pine trees in the distance. I begin to think the sun does not want to leave as it peaks out of the deep blue clouds, as if saying, “hold on, I am not finished yet.” In this moment, the world stops, and I am left alone. I am not lonely. I am simply by myself in peaceful serenity. Time has been frozen, and silence has fallen over me. Even my thoughts have been hushed. No longer can I judge my past or contemplate my future. I am stuck in the now. The sun stretches out its golden red beams across the waters towards my arms, and I reach in desperation to hold its hands as the last gust of warm air kisses my cheek. I watch the dazzling sun in its last few seconds, mesmer-ized, before it finally disappears. Somehow, in this moment, I have fallen in love with the sky. It is almost as if I had just seen a glimpse of heaven. I gazed over the majestic setting before me and heard something whisper into my ear, so softly, and say, “That is happiness.” I suddenly realized that was the key. Life is not about friends, family, simple possessions, or even temporary feelings. Being happy is why life is so incredible, what makes life worth living. Happiness cannot be confined to the simple meaning of one word. It is something so much greater. It is a beautiful ending, a long conversation with a great friend, or even a kiss from the sun overlooking still waters.

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters in the end.”

-- Ursula Le Guin

magnum 43

jayde qualls

cassidy kelley

magnum44

sandra dalbello

The Future of Space Exploration in the United States

Currently, the direction of the United State’s space industry has never been as uncertain or had as much potential. With the possibility of renewed interest in the public sector, as well as the growth of private companies whose interest range from reaching Mars to making space tourism a reality, the future of the United States space industry has never looked as bright as it seeks to restore and reclaim its former glory. In the United States, the space program has traditionally been funded and managed by the government, a commonality between the majority of space programs across the globe. However, while the vast majority of space explora-tion across the world is still managed by government agencies, a fundamental shift has occurred in the U.S., and the industry is becoming increasingly privat-ized (Chang, 2014). The privatization of the U.S. space industry began in 2010 when NASA announced a competition to carry astronauts and cargo into space (Chang, 2014). Shortly after, in 2011, the space shuttle was retired, and as a result, the United States’ ability to send astronauts into space has been solely reliant on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft for transportation to the Inter-national Space Station (Chang, 2014). Given the 70 million dollar price tag per seat on the Soyuz craft, clearly, dependence on the Russian program is not a feasible or desirable plan for the long-term future of NASA (Chang, 2014). Since 2010, NASA has announced the winners of its competition for the next crew transportation vehicle, which could take off as soon as 2017 (Chang, 2014). Both Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) received grants from the United States government to fund their projects (Chang, 2014). Boeing received a 4.2 billion dollar contract for its CST-100 capsule, which would be launched on an Atlas V rocket and posses the capac-ity to carry up to five people (Chang, 2014). Similarly, SpaceX received a 2.6 billion dollar contract to build its Dragon 2 capsule, which is a newer version of the capsule it built for an earlier government project to carry cargo to the International Space Station, and it will be launched on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket (Chang, 2014). The majority of the grants awarded to each company will be used to meet performance and safety standards provided by NASA (Chang, 2014). Additionally, each company will conduct a test flight to the International Space Station, and each crew will have at least one NASA astronaut (Chang, 2014). Once certified, NASA has promised each between two and six mis-sions (Chang, 2014). Starting in 2017, NASA expects and aims to make two flights per year, so the contracts could be up as early as 2018 and as late as 2023 (Chang, 2014). Each flight would take four astronauts to the International Space Station, allowing the crew to grow from six to seven, enabling the crew to conduct twice as many scientific experiments (Chang, 2014).


“The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what’s in between, and they took

great pleasure in doing just that.” -- Norton Juster

magnum 45

emily jack

brooke phillips

magnum46

lauren mcgrath

Untitled

I’m not supposed to talk about them, the people on the roof. All that Mother

ever tells me is to leave them alone and stay out of their way. But they’re just

too weird for any kid, ‘specially one with my self-control, to ignore completely.

My gran always said I had the nosiness of a cat and one day it would get me in

trouble, but I just couldn’t get my mind off the people upstairs. To start, they

live in a silver trailer just above the top floor, I know that ‘cause I live on the

top floor, and, if I lean out my window, looking up, I can see the very end of

their shiny silver trailer. Next they seem to have some sort of pet that I’ve

never seen but hear at night. Sometimes it keeps me up with awful screeches

until a neighbor or two open windows to yell and shake their fist, thinkin it’s

a street cat. I know better ‘cause I know about the people on the roof. I don’t

know what they do up on my roof. No one will tell me. Maybe they don’t know,

or, maybe, they don’t want to know.

“We changed again, and yet again, and it was now too late and too far to go back, and I went on. And the mists had all sol-

emnly risen now, and the world lay spread before me.” -- Charles Dickens

magnum 47

maddy payne

“I raised my head. The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast

sky--seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.” -- Joseph Conrad

magnum48

nikki goldin

I Believe in the Power of Puzzles

The feel of the plastic is smooth as I run my finger along the top and sides. The jagged red and brown mountains stand firm in their places as if to say, “I am who I am, and no matter how hard you try, you can’t change me.” The pepper green grass glows in the bright summer sun, and the water is so crystal clear it reflects a seemingly perfect picture of the idiomatic mountains, entan-gled trees, and the baby blue sky above it. It is perfect. My fingernail finds the slight gap between the top and the bottom of the box, and my finger lingers for a moment. As I swiftly slice my nail through the plastic, a quiet ripping noise travels through my ears and fills my brain. Now in a jumbled mess, I throw the once perfect plastic in the garbage. I lift the lid, and I take a quick breath. Stress, nerves, fear, and excitement blow through me as I dump out the box. Finally, I begin the puzzle. Puzzles come in different sizes, shapes, colors, and even textures, especially the pieces. They can be easy, medium, or difficult. I work and work and work on a puzzle until I get a feeling of accomplishment and relief. In other words, until I finish the puzzle. Puzzles are just like people. You have your own puzzle, and nobody else can figure it out for you. When you are born, your plastic is ripped off and your box emptied. You are handed a giant heap of jumbled, colorful, confusing pieces you have to put together. As you grow older, people around you help to put the edge pieces together. Once your edge (foundation) is complete, you begin to put together the dark and light pieces, just like you go through good and bad times. Some-times you lose pieces when you miss opportunities, when relationships go wrong, or when you lose a loved one. Often times, it isn’t even your fault the piece is lost. You might choose a piece that looks as if it could go somewhere on your puzzle, but it will not fit. In other words, there are many different paths you can take. For me, a major piece I chose was my high school, Houston Christian High School. I have grown up in a Jewish home. My mom and dad help my brothers and I to sing our blessings, or bracha, before every meal. Every hol-iday, we have our twenty plus family sit down to a dinner together and cele-brate. We enjoy all the family bar/bat mitzvahs, baby namings, and brit milah. My religion had always been something I had kept to myself and my family. It was a hidden corner of my life that I treated as a fantasy land. In my mind, I could be with God, and everything was perfect. That is, until I came to high school. Enthusiastic worshipper, Coffey Anderson came and kicked off the first chapel of the year. It was exciting and terrifying. I nervously stood in the back of the chapel and rubbed my fingers together. As the lyrics to the songs glowed on the screen in front of me, I be-gan to see worshipers slowly raise their hands in the air. I had no idea what to think. Seeing and being around people that are so open about their religion was scary to me, especially when I hold a different belief. It took me a few months of school before I began to tell my friends. When my friends understood, most of them accepted who I was, but I did have a few friends who second guessed our friendship because of my religion.


“Who in the world am I? Ah, that is the great puzzle.” -- Lewis Carroll

magnum 49

emma parrish

magnum50

cate dunne

One, Two, Three

It was time to say goodbye. Leo lay on the table, his chest rising and falling slowly. Too slowly. His eyes were struggling to stay open, and his strength had departed. I strove to keep my tears back as I gently laid my hand on his shoulder. Leo’s heavy eyes met mine. We locked gazes for a few long seconds. It killed me to think that in a few minutes, those beautiful eyes would be closed forever. I calmly bent down and began to lightly scratch behind his limp ear. His tense body relaxed, and he let out a sob. Tears filled my eyes. The doctor spoke quietly. “It will only take three seconds for the medicine to work. He won’t feel a thing.” I inhaled. Leo’s gaze hadn’t left mine. He let out a mellow whim-per. Three seconds. The doctor placed the needle to his skin. I exhaled. Three seconds. Leo laid his head back down on the table, and his eyes stared ahead. The world seemed to blur. I buried my face next to his and began to speak to him. His eyes closed, and I heard myself whisper, “One. Two. Three.”

“The end is the beginning, and yet you go on.” -- Samuel Beckett

magnum 51

darby mckinney

magnum52

david guefen

morning grayday after daywise silencestruck her sharplyas she walked to find different lovebecause she herselfwas different.

magnum 53

work in progress

magnum54

kolby killion

Blood-colored panes

Emotion echoes, muffled in the masquerade.A life lost by lies,Having dreams ruddier than the light.

Sensation touched, told the truth;Death to decorum, drapery, disgust!The beat commenced cannot be ceased;The sounding music revelled.

magnum 55

work in progress

magnum56

sophie whitewater

Within me is not love,No I have reasons to actuate me.Myself unworthy of fascinating eyes,I never told my Love.I return,And I confess.

magnum 57

works of art

magnum58

brooke hoepfl

There was harmony.As if it stopped poverty and pain.There was a strange feature to it.I saw human hands filled with fire.With strong love,it shook missing strains of warmthinto the crowd.

magnum 59

matt metoyer

“Peace is a journey of a thousand miles, and it must be taken

one step at a time.” -- Lyndon B. Johnson

The Wrath of the Lord’s Resistance Army Destroys Uganda Day by Day

People are sometimes oblivious to how blessed we are as Americans to live in a well organized and developed country. Citizens of Uganda do not have the same blessing in their country. According to the U.S Department of State, “Uganda is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subject-ed to forced labor and sex trafficking” (U.S. Department of State 1). Moreover, one of the main types of forced labor in Uganda is child soldiers. Uganda faces a civil war right now, and actions by Uganda’s government to stop forced child labor/ child soldiers remains very poor. Poverty plays a key role in kids’ vulnera-bility. Abduction of children in Uganda is life damaging, and the government needs better solutions to address the issue, or retaliate against the main source of all the terror, which is the Lord’s Resistance Army. For the past few decades, Uganda has been marred by civil war. War is to blame for child soldiers. A key factor in Uganda’s war is the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) (Yarbrough 536). Yarbrough enlightens readers on what the LRA is all about, stating, “The LRA is a non state militia rooted in a wave of spiritual, political movements that swept through Northern Uganda in the 1980’s” (Yarbrough 536). The LRA is almost impossible to stop because of the chaotic actions of the leader, Joseph Kony. Yarbrough states that “Joseph Kony, claims to be possessed by spirits that dictate his actions. He is known for his unspeakable brutal tactics making him almost as notorious as his movement” (Yarbrough 537). One of Kony’s tactics in Uganda’s war is the recruitment of child soldiers in Uganda. He uses these chil-dren to fight his war, a common practice in poverty stricken countries. Michael Wessells shares key points in his book Child Soldiers: From Violence to Protec-tion. He states, “ More often the adults who start and guide the war, or the local commanders who implement it use children as soldiers, because it is convenient and cheap” (Wessells 2). The cheap convenience of children for Kony plays a strong role in their abduction, another reason why child soldiers are so common in poverty stricken countries. Uganda’s government is negligent in the prevention of recruiting child soldiers. Over the last decade, Uganda’s civil war created a need for soldiers, and armies have lured kids into the action, particularly in the Lord’s Resistance Army. According to the U.S Department of State, “Uganda is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor...” ( U.S. Department of State 1). An army of child soldiers is based on heavy violence. The government has tried to enact reforms, but has been ineffective. In an article about the “fate of child soldiers in the Lord’s Resistance Army,” Yarbrough states, “In the two decades since the beginning of the LRA, the government of Uganda has applied several legal, political, and martial tactics in an attempt to bring peace to a country whose history had been plagued by violence. None of these tac-tics, however, has been as successful in terms of ending hostilities and removing combatants from the field as a nationwide amnesty” (Yarbrough 536). The lack of success in limiting child soldiers is causing chaos in Uganda, giving the LRA even more of an advantage to manipulate kids. Ugandan government is clearly negligent regarding the prevention of child soldiers, and it does little to deter their enroll-ment. With UN assistance, the amnesty act in 2000 provided that all “soldiers” with combat could be absolved of their crimes, if they give themselves up. In the article “Amnesty or Accountability,” Yarbrough proclaims, “However, instead of crafting an amnesty provision that would satisfy both of these needs, Uganda reinstated the same ‘blanket’ amnesty, or all-inclusive pardon, found in Amnesty Act of Uganda” (Yarbrough 531). The previous statement basically states that war criminals may get away with war crimes as long as when they are finally caught, they turn themselves over. Then, they may be released with a light or no penalty at all.


magnum60

(continued from page 18)

Daniel’s help anymore. In the end, when Bilbo returns home from his journey, he has a complete realization of what ad-venture really is. And, as if I was Bilbo, I too have a complete realization of what adventure is now, because, to be honest, I cannot stand just lying around at home. I want to explore the world.

Ultimately, through the opportunity Daniel gave me, I realized part of the meaning of life is relationships and what you share with those people. Another part of the meaning of life is ad-venture, and you have inspired me to enjoy every second of life’s great adventure. Why? Because I am Bilbo Baggins, and Adventure is my middle name.

Sincerely,Richard Hansen


Scrolling through social media sites like Instagram and Facebook only fed my consuming jealousy of others. Crying out to God one night, I shouted, “Why am I not like them? Why did you not make me like everyone at my school?” God always comes into my life through my trials and tribulations. Throughout my freshman year of high school, God began to reveal to me that I am His perfect workman-ship and that He created me for a reason. He showed me that I am beautiful and valuable. I believe that individuality is not found in this dark, confused world, but found in the one and only perfect, almighty God. The question is, “Am I willing to be different from the world in order to be the perfect type of individuality in God’s eyes?” The answer that I have searched for over the past four years is, “Yes.” The price of individuality is worth the loss of social status and reputation. I believe that stepping out of the crowd and being a leader is worth the risk at hand. Everyone has been given a divergent perspective of the world due to different experiences. On the contrary, the world’s perspective of the “perfect” teenager is unattainable by anyone because the world has taken out the characteris-tic of individuality in its model. I believe that God gives us trials for a reason. I be-lieve that these trials lead to discovery. I believe that discov-ery leads to dreams. I believe that dreams lead to reality. I believe that reality leads to individuality.


world, not forcing them to enter it early, which could cre-ate physical problems as well as adding even more stress-ful situations metally. Students need time to relax, hang out with friends, and discover their true passions in high school, as opposed to becoming even more frazzled with the numerous hours of forced volunteering. Community service is about volunteers helping their cities and schools become a better place, which can be unprogressive if the forced volunteers have no desire to complete their duties well or with passion. Students in a political cartoon concerning mandatory community ser-vice are shown slumping over in desks, with bored looks and glassy eyes (Hogshet). From visual cues it is clear the political cartoon displays the dangers of students being forced to work for community service hours: they be-come uncaring, undedicated, and will not do their assigned jobs well. Having workers who do not care about the out-come of their volunteer work are likely not to complete it thoroughly, which could leave the city at a disadvantage from the poor quality of the aid provided. Students also may “consider [community service] as just homework for school” (Sparks). A homework-based mentality stems from mandatory service as it creates a lax attitude among students towards the outcome of the work as long as they receive the credit towards the hours they are required to complete. Unlike school, community service is not graded, meaning students can slack in their volunteer work while still receiving credit, harming the organizations the school was aiming for them to help. The student’s apathetic attitude towards service could lead to other volunteers making up for the sloppy work or end up taking more time for the organization to fix problems the students were supposed to help solve. Schools who require their students to complete mandatory community service create resentment among teenagers for volunteering and foster a generation of young adults who despise the prospect of aiding their community due to the extra burden of it in their youth. Students are placed with yet another responsibility in their overloaded lives that they are expected to juggle while still managing other aspects such as homework, sports, and hobbies. Community service, while great at teaching leadership, civic duty, and creating a spark for helping others, only works when a student seeks out those les-sons personally. Because of these reasons, volunteer work as com-munity service in schools will never be able to retain its prestige and positive effects unless it remains exactly as its name implies: voluntary

magnum 61


Many developed countries such as the United States and United Kingdom, and many more in the United Nations, acknowledged the U.N.’s suggestions on how to equalize gender worldwide. The U.N. recognizes the issue and with the speech of U.N. women’s representor, Emma Watson, gender equality is now a more vocal and preva-lent issue across the world (5). Last October, Watson took a brave stance and proclaimed to the men of the U.N. that gender equality is their issue too! She challenged the U.N. to create a tangible solution to the problem of gender equality and recognize the power behind a gender equal world. A world where women can achieve the same goals as men despite their gender. Where men don’t feel afraid to be vulnerable and have to hide their feelings due to fear of being scrutinized and called “unmanly.” This is the world Watson and the U.N. aim to achieve; they now need the people of the world to be as passionate about it as they are. As a woman entering a field predominantly taken on by men (Mechanical Engineering), I agree with the U.N. and believe that the issue of gender equality needs ad-dressing immediately. At the current rate in which equality is improving, women and men will be equal in about 75 years (5). With active and palpable change, recognizing the problem, and taking action to stop the problem, we can accelerate the rate of improvement for women around the world.


Since the flight is only taking four people, Boe-ing hopes NASA will allow them to sell the fifth seat on the CST-100 to space tourists (Chang, 2014). Also, it is important to note that Boeing and SpaceX are not the only two companies with promising futures in the industry. Other companies with potential include the Sierra Nevada Corporation, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin company which is aiming to lower the cost of aerospace technology, Rich-ards Branson’s space tourism company Virgin Galactic, and Las Vegas based Bigelow Airspace, which plans to launch a private space station (Chang, 2014; Mouawad, 2014).


Some people may suggest that further space ex-ploration, missions to the International Space Station, and space tourism are pointless; therefore, so is funding any of those projects (n.a., n.d.). However, that is not the case. In fact, work in space has led to a number of technological advancements including satellite television, GPS navigation, scratch resistant lenses, modern insulation, cordless tools, water purification systems, satellite weather reporting, and

CAT scans (Zidbits Media, 2010). Clearly, space exploration is not pointless because of the countless developments that have come from it, and since it is not pointless, I think it is also safe to conclude that it is not a waste of money. Looking to the future, I think we should continue to explore space. After years of a declining space program that has lost sight of its goals, the United States is finally looking to lead the way once again, and personally, I am excited to see the innovative technology that will follow. As Ted Cruz puts it, ““Our space program marks the fron-tier of future technologies for defense, communications, transportation and more”” (Walker, 2015). Furthermore, I think space tourism has significant implications to the future of the aerospace industry because it will offer a unique opportunity for people to see space and the world from a different perspective, and while it is likely to initially be available only to a very small group of people, we can only hope that a glimpse of space will inspire those lucky enough to see it to invest in developing aerospace tech-nologies, ultimately putting space within reach of every-one’s fingertips in the future.


This moment where I realized some friends wouldn’t pursue a friendship due to my religion puzzled me. I wanted to lock myself in a closet and cry because just as I had finally felt as if I had found real friends, I lost them. Nowhere in my mind could I understand why my religion would make a difference, but I soon realized many people don’t even understand what being Jewish means. Being friends with me would be an unknown and scary territory for many people. This puzzle piece I chose to fit into my life has changed me. What I thought was only one piece, became a group of pieces. A group of pieces filled with new and old relationships, new experiences, new understandings, and most importantly a new perspective. A puzzle by definition can be a problem designed to test ingenuity or knowledge. Our lives are made up of these tests. Tests in our faith, in our strength, and in our patience. Sometimes, the ultimate test is to see if you can still keep searching for a piece, even when all hope is lost. I have always found finishing a puzzle with a missing piece to be incredibly frustrating. Now I realize, I’m not missing a piece, I just haven’t found it.

magnum62


The indicated law is relevant because it gives kids the illusion that becoming a war criminal is not as bad as it seems. The “blanket” amnesty is a strong reason why the child abduction of soldiers has not stopped. Uganda clearly needs to abolish the LRA for good. Having these children taken away and forced in a life of war is dreadful. The effect of of abduction at such a young age remains traumatizing. Children who are either abducted, forced, or sold into the life of a soldier are experiencing things that no human, especially a child should ever have to experi-ence. Kids are forced to kill people, even their own families under certain circumstances. Other kids face war with no training, as well as having to witness death for the first time on a battlefield; these conditions are difficult (Derluyn et al 861). What is the government doing about this issue? Looking at the facts from “Amnesty or Accountability,” one reads “ From 1986 to 2006, it is estimated that 54,000 to 75,000 people were abducted by the LRA” (Yarbrough 539). It would seem that the government has done almost nothing to act on the issue concerning child soldiers, again demonstrating negligence. Kony is the leader of the LRA. The solution Uganda needs is eliminating the issue where it starts, and that is the LRA. Uganda should use a legitimate army force to go in and terminate the LRA. Sometimes a country must fight fire with fire with lives at stake. Fixing the poverty in Uganda could reduce the number of child soldiers in the war. These are just some solutions the government should consider if the people ever want war in Uganda to end.

notes and sketches

--Front cover art: Caitlin Clarke, Olivia Christiansen, Brooke Phillips, Alex Gross--Back cover art: Maddy Payne, Mitchell Epstein, Emma Parrish

magnum 63

From the Editors:

First of all, thank you for picking up a copy of Magnum Opus 2015. In its fifth year of publication, this magazine would not have been possible without the help of many, including (but not limited to) our editors, Mrs. Finnell, the Art Department, the English Department, and the student body for their submissions.

We are excited about the 2014-2015 edition of Magnum Opus and its theme, “odyssey.” Life is comprised of many journeys, and the student body’s art and literary works represent a few of the journeys one may encounter. While each journey may vary in time and experience, they are all intrinsically connected in the ultimate odyssey of life; we hope to emphasize the unity between each selected work with quotes submitted from the HC faculty, staff, and students.

It is our goal to present an impactful and profound product, which strengthens the HC community by sharing the work of peers with each other.

Thank you for reading!

Sincerely,

The Magnum Opus 2014-2015 Editors and Production Team

Please note:

All of the artistic and literary pieces that appear in the Magnum Opus magazine are the work of HC students. The quotes corresponding with each student’s work are the property of external authors and were pulled from outside sources. We have taken measures to ensure each author is recognized for his or her contribution. The Magnum Opus magazine is produced with educational intentions and is not for profit.

Quote Sources:

The Fellowship of the Ring, J. R. R. Tolkien; St. Augustine; Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu; The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula Le Guin; The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster; Travels with Charley: In Search of America, John Steinbeck; Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller; Endgame, Samuel Beckett; Erol Ozan; Lyndon B. Johnson; The Hobbitt, J. R. R. Tolkien; Don Williams; Pope Francis; Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad; Great Expectations, Charles Dickens; The Life of Samuel Johnson, James Boswell; Chinese Proverb; The Odyssey, Homer; Greg Anderson; “Oceans,” Hillsong; Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J. K. Rowling; Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll; “After the Storm,” Mumford and Sons; C. S. Lewis

resoultions and final notes

magnumopus

www.houstonchristian.org

odyssey

2015 magnum opus magazine

Documents