emoney, 9th - Oakland, CA
Darkness lurks and like light it beams
I learned that one day while I was at a stream
All that meets the eye isn’t as it seems

He said good day and I said okay
I think I kind of like him but
Darkness lurks and like light it beams

His looks were stunning
Like he’d been sunning but
All that meets the eye isn’t as it seems

When I told my friends
They laughed coldly and said
Darkness lurks and like light it beams

Oh how I longed for his love but
He broke me to pieces and left me alone
All that meets the eye isn’t as it seems

How I wish I’d have listened
When it was once told
Darkness lurks and like light it beams
All that meets the eye isn’t as it seems

A, 8th- Oakland, CA
Remember just a couple of weeks ago where you might’ve been actually happy. When you could interact with people socially, and literally be alive.  When you looked forward to seeing your friends because you knew you would be happy and have fun with them. Fun. You’d have fun. You’d laugh with your friends in person, and see them smile with you. You’d be able to feel so good knowing that you were around people that cared about you, and you cared about them. But, now you’re alone. Probably stuck in your room, craving the feeling you had with others. Fun.

You can’t rely on other social people to be entertained by, so you’re stuck on a screen all day. And honestly, it’s the only thing keeping you sane. Or maybe, it what’s driving you insane, too. I don’t know really, maybe both. But in reality, it the only thing you can and will do.  The only thing that’s bringing you “fun”, or an idea of it. And remember that feeling where you knew you’d be happy? You’d go to sleep and then wake up everyday knowing that you’d see who you made you possibly happy, or maybe someone who made you excited. Either way, maybe you’d look forward to it. At the same time, you’d know what to expect. You’d see them. But now, we’re only playing one game, the waiting game.

We can only wait every moment of every day to see what will happen next. It’s so frustrating to not know what will happen next, unlike before. We knew, or we thought we knew, what would happen the next day. Up until these past couple of weeks, you were able to be with others. Now, you can only imagine it. Crave it. Maybe you’re imagining plans you had with your favorite people. Of course, now, you can only imagine what it would be like. Maybe they were canceled. All you can do, all everyone can do is wait. Wait for fun to come back, or whatever fun was, anyways.

Aditi, 11th - San Ramon, CA
What’s in a name
besides history and turmeric powder,
bloodline and hibiscus roots,
and truth playing atop a mango bough?

Jhumpa is no Nilanjana,
but nicknames chime sweeter than cumin-spiced
syllables for strangers to cough
through (better for business too).

Yet when my father stumbles on
the sticky branches of homographs and idioms,
no one bends their trunks of pompous language
to make room for him to pass through.

So thank God my father slashed the mango pulp
of his surname
in half and grafted it to my newborn roots. Short
enough to escape crooked tongues, though

the yellow smear of a bitter-flavored accent lingers
to remind me: had I not been born in the land of the
free,
these lines would have rhymed enough,

and this name would be mine.

"WHILE PEOPLE MAY BELIEVE THAT SOCIAL MEDIA HELPS TURTLES, IT ACTUALLY  IN NO WAY DOES"
Lord_JABARR, 6th - Oakland, CA
For a long time now, sea turtles have been an endangered species. Sadly, one of if not the most problematic reason for the sea turtle’s collective demise is human beings. I doubt there is anyone who is clueless about the plummeting sea turtle population. Sea turtles are dying, and it's our fault. Whether it’s because of how much we dump our plastic into their homes, or even the people who wait every year for the turtles to come back to their home beach to lay their young, then they kill the adults and take the eggs. On social media, there are people who spread awareness and think they are helping to save these cuties, but at the same time there are people who do the action of saving turtles. Thousands of turtles are killed by pollution every year. What are the people on social media doing to stop this? Take Seaworld Orlando for example they help in many ways!

Sea turtles are a special kind of animal, and a special one that’s worth rescuing. There are people who care deeply about the well-being of all sea turtles, like the employees of Seaworld Orlando. At Seaworld, they take in sick and/or injured . People call there in order to get the turtles into Seaworld it’s kind of like 9-1-1 for sea turtles. Sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and suffocate themselves.

#Save The Turtles is trending, but just saying something doesn’t always mean you are actively helping that cause. While people like the employees of Seaworld Orlando are helping the turtles pulling those plastic straws out of their noses, but like Seaworld, social media in some ways helps spread the word of the turtles current situation. Still there are jokes made about turtles and their deaths to straws even though their situation isn’t something to joke about.

Seaworld Orlando isn’t as known while #Save The Turtles is trending, but which of these things are helping the turtles? Seaworld is pretty much healing turtles and making them suitable to go back in the ocean even after their injury. While social media is super popular, everyone has some account, but they really don’t do much. So which one is better? Something that helps turtles by healing their injuries, or something that shows people just talking about saving the turtles--not actually doing it. Still  people continue making fun of them for death by plastic straws? I don't think that this should be something that is admired.