Author: Chloe Shin

Everyone dreads the thought of finals and how exhausting they can be. People panic and they eventually get close to giving up, especially with summer so close. Instead of stressing yourself out, there are so many ways to prepare for this hated week. Six or seven classes may seem too much for you to handle and to study for, but trust yourself and trust the process.

One way to prepare for finals week is to be organized. Keeping a planner or a calendar can be really helpful for these kinds of things. Keeping track of assignments and topics to study for keeps you on top of everything. In your planner, it is best to divide up each subject and study a little bit everyday. Doing this not only makes you more productive, but it also helps you obtain bits of pieces of information so it is easier to remember. Always plan ahead of time: that is the key component. Do not do everything in a short amount of time, which is stressful and not as effective.

Also, ask your mentors, peers, and teachers for help. They can provide you so much information that you may not have known about. Ask how to study and what to study for; they are teachers for a reason so they are there to help you. Ask for review sheets, study guides, and extra worksheets on topics you have a hard time understanding. These are some ways to keep yourself busy for finals week, but also not too stressful. Finals week can be a huge burden on your life and schedule, but you can definitely turn that around with a healthy outlook by organizing and planning beforehand.

Prom is just around the corner! The sparkly dresses, the black suits, and the best night of your high school life is coming up so soon. Here are some tips to prep for this special night, and to prepare for the best look that you can present.

One thing that you need to prep for sure is your face. To look picture perfect, you want to have a dewy complexion for this night. Some things that you can do is get a facial massage, use some hydrating face masks, and drink a lot of water to balance the color of your complexion.

Another thing that you can prep is your hair. Not only do you want a beautiful face, you also want to have beautiful hair. You can make an appointment at a hair salon for the prom day, or you can also invite some friends over to help you curl your hair.

One last thing that you can prepare for prom are your nails. Who doesn’t want colored nails or acrylics? Try to make an appointment the week before prom or a few days to get the manicure or gel. Of course you don’t need all of this to look great, but these are some prep advice to help you have some ideas to give yourself a boost for this night.

Dreamworks Animation surprises and captivates us once again with the last movie to end the series of How To Train Your Dragon. Director Dean DeBlois does an amazing job with the plot and focusing a little bit more on Toothless. Not only does Toothless learns how to flirt and find a white sparkly beauty, he starts to learn how to be more independent without Hiccup. As the whole village tries to find the new hidden world that they only knew as a myth, they come across an enemy that tries to take Toothless’ lover, the white Light Fury, and the enemy tries to take all the dragons of the hidden world before Hiccup’s village does. This new film is charismatic and shows the deep emotions between Toothless and Hiccup’s relationship. The journey that they both go through and the hard lessons that they both learn is not heartbreaking, but sadly the truth. As Astrid tries to be the best partner as she can and the cute moments that make people swoon is adorable. This third movie makes the connections between Hiccup’s family, Astrid, the village, and the dragons. DeBlois grabs people by their hearts and makes everyone smile by the end.

Danielle Bregoli, a.k.a Bhad Bhabie, internet sensation and Dr. Phil client, strikes again to make herself even more famous than she already is. Bregoli has come out with many single hits, competing against the best of the best, Nicki Minaj and Cardi B. This year, Bregoli decided to tweak her life a little bit by starting her own life series called Bringing Up Bhabie. As she is adjusting to her fame, she gives a message to her fans that she is ready to leave her haters behind. Bregoli has had a hard time at home, constantly bickering with her mother, Barbara Bregoli. Bhad Bhabie is ready to reveal what really goes down at home and in her real life. Aside from all the laughs, the music videos, and the red carpets, Danielle shows her true colors through this Snapchat series. Even though Bregoli is portrayed as a tough and stubborn woman who is ready to take a show, sometimes, she breaks down and she can’t keep a tough front forever. Her bodyguard, Frank, shows how much of a father figure he is in this series and how he is able to control Bregoli’s emotions. Bringing Up Bhabie is a mini life show series that reveals what really happens behind the scenes.

America’s Got Talent Champions has finally revealed its grand finale champion of the year: Shin Lim. Lim has come a long way from the nerves of entering the stage in front of thousands of people to performing in every sold out show around the United States.

Shin Lim is a card magician who inspires many people to chase their dreams and shows that it doesn’t hurt to reveal your talent to a bigger crowd. This Canadian-America started off by watching Youtube and derived the skill of manipulating cards with his hands and doing close-up magic tricks. An Asian-American winning AGT season 13 was already huge, so winning AGT Champions made a bigger platform, not only for him, but for Asian-Americans all over the U.S. It is not just big majority groups like whites who can make the big hot shot, but so can minorities like Asian and African-Americans. Shin Lim set an example for all the Asians out there, saying that their dreams are valid and they can make it through hard work and determination.

by Chloe Shin

Look out for the creepy and captivating movie that just hit the seats! The Possession of Hannah Grace is the new hot movie that twists your stomach into knots and has you shivering and rubbing your arms in fear. Shay Mitchell stars as the main character, Megan Reed, who goes through the unknown in her life and fights her fears through a human creature. This creature is known as Hannah Grace, played by Kirby Johnson,  who “dies” from an exorcism performed by two priests and after her death, goes through a revival into a demon life. This movie doesn’t just portray the death and the rebirth of Hannah Grace and how Satan lived inside of her, but how Megan rises up from her trauma and her darkness and gets rid of it through this demon.

Megan Reed is a strong woman who was once a police officer and now works in the medical field as a morgue doctor. When she was an officer, she had the ability to fight anyone, keep her guard up, and being the citizen that she can be for the people, until one night when a stranger was turned against her and when he turned around, he shot her fellow officer friend. Megan couldn’t breathe, and she couldn’t get a hold of herself. Her trauma had been digging deep inside of her as she would occasionally have flashbacks of that one night. Her trauma got to her head and she couldn’t handle being a police officer anymore for her own sake. That is when she found a job in the morgue of the hospital. At first, she was okay with working with dead bodies because she believes that when people die, they die and nothing else happens, so she didn’t think much of her new job. Megan volunteered to work the night shift and she had a couple of people that she could talk to throughout the night if she got a little lonely. But after it really became dark, things started to get a little weird at the night shift when a body of Hannah Grace appears in her workspace.

Megan starts to get a little paranoid when she feels and sees the corpse breathe. Objects start to shake and fall everywhere the more she pushed the corpse back into place, and she notices that Hannah’s eyes were crystal, ice blue. Megan did not really understand at first why her work place was starting to feel funky, but she certainly did not think it was because of a dead body. Megan starts to realize that she starts to see random things, flashbacks of that one night, and she starts to feel a weird presence. Her journey throughout the night shows how she deals with pressure, stress, and most importantly, her trauma in one day. In this movie, Megan proves that a woman as strong as her can get through any circumstances no matter what the situation is. Although trauma is a horrible memory to deal with, Megan decides to rise up from pain and to fight her worst enemy. Even though a dead body coming back alive does not relate to a stranger shooting a friend, that night reveals itself to Megan as a  challenge to her mental self and her physical strength. Her journey through this incident has gotten the best of her as she struggles to breathe and hold herself together, but through some time and through some courage, she was able to accept her past and face it.

Shay Mitchell demonstrates beautiful acting skills through her emotions of fear and pursuit. Mitchell shows her character off as a strong, powerful, and a breakthrough woman as well. We cannot forget the actress that killed it all though, Kirby Johnson, plays the young teenager possessed by the demon and tries to haunt Megan Reed (Shay Mitchell). Diederik Van Rooijen, the director of this movie, does an amazing job of portraying the weaknesses and strengths of a human being especially in this horror type of situation. Rooijen also does a terrific job of displaying how mental health can really affect your life choices, your everyday life, and how you work. Sometimes in life, people go through unexpected obstacles. These obstacles are supposed to challenge you, stress you out, and test your ability to handle them in the right way. Megan Reed was the perfect example of how your weaknesses and your strengths can really come out during the right times. The Possession of Hannah Grace was a horror movie not just for the scare, but to convey the message to the world that through the toughest times and through the moments that aren’t expected to show up at your door,  it may take some time to fight the opponent or build up that one last layer of skin to protect yourself from it. Diederik Van Rooijen showed that by the end of the day, everyone is capable of facing their own demons.