By Megan Castellano / Micah Sakita, Student Journalists –

(Richmond, California) –

May 22, 2025 – 11:40 pm

As I sit here in my room all cozied up with my headphones, I’m beginning to understand what it means to be a senior. Every year, I’ve watched my senior friends cry about leaving high school and reminiscing about their last events, moments and classes. I always hugged them to show comfort, but I never truly understood what they were going through. Today is May 22, 2025. That means nine days until graduation and five days left of high school. It flew by in the blink of an eye and I am sad it’s almost over. My senioritis is sort of coming to an end because I want to graduate, but I am also going to miss high school. From the laughter that echoes in the halls to the shouts cries of teens having fun at dances. High school was truly a roller coaster for me, and as Mr.Farr says, we each have our seasons. 

My journey through high school is not what I expected, but it was great in its own way. I remember being in 8th grade, I watched High School Musical and I loved the idea of highschool; I couldn’t wait to get there. I wanted a romance, I hoped to be a great student, and I wanted to be cool. This all basically happened, but it unfolded in its own way. The thing I was most afraid of was making new friends. My social skills were diminished from COVID and both my best friends were attending different high schools. Eventually, I grew out of my awkward stage, after I joined the tennis team, AAPI, Chess club, went to dances, I kind of grew out of my shell. By the middle of my sophomore year, I feel like I truly began to find myself. I had finally gotten the hang of balancing high school, and I was a happy person. My time as a junior was all about becoming more independent, working harder, and living in the moment. My seniors welcomed me into their family and I hoped that that year would never end. Of course I was unrealistic, but I think the most painful part about them graduating was realizing that it was my turn next. 

As the cameras clicked, the tears flowed. The red and black gowns overwhelmed the parking lot full of love. I didn’t think about it at the time, but deep down I began to realize that I was really growing up (now this thought didn’t hit me until 18 days ago). Currently, I’m looking across my room and I see all my four years on the wall (well, some of it at least). My red gown paired with my two stoles and cap, it all seems so surreal. I can’t believe I’m finally here. 

Well, you may be wondering, why am I writing all of this? My fellow reader, I’m writing this to tell you my story, of course that’s a cliche line, but every story has something you can learn. 

May 23, 2025 – 12:15 AM

You may be wondering, why am I writing this at 12 am, but the truth is, I don’t know. I just felt like it and I have some free time so I might as well get this article done. Honestly, I have always loved to write, but I never really pursued it farther than writing my own poems or short stories in English class. How did I become a part of this club though? From what I can remember, (our lovely editor-in-chief) Gianna Rios, got me involved. I believe it was at the club fair and I signed up to join. I wasn’t sure if I was really going to do it, but I signed up anyway. When we had our first meeting, I signed up to be an editor because I was too busy to write. My first article that I worked on was “Football: Salesian Pride vs Oakland Tech Bulldogs” in September. Upon receiving the article, I also realized I wanted to be a writer as well. Since my boyfriend, Will, was on the football team, I decided I could be a sports editor, then write about other things later. At that time, I didn’t know much about how football worked aside from a touchdown being seven points. When Micah and Matt wrote the article I mainly just looked for grammatical errors, and let’s just say, we made a good team. As time went on, the three of us formed a system. Micah wrote the article, Matt interviewed, and I attained photos and edited. It was a great system and we then created the athletic department column. It was a great adventure, and I am glad to have worked with great writers and people. 

May 27, 2025 – 10:06 pm

Well, if you read my entire section so far, thanks. My time at Salesian has been a great one and I can’t wait to see where college takes me in the fall. I’ll be attending UCLA (with a major in Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics), and I’m so excited for this adventure. I hope to join the Daily Bruin when I arrive, so if you ever see my name as an author of an article, thank Ms.Okada and Gianna for reviving my love of writing. I am thankful that I got to be in this club and use my voice as a journalist. Thank you to Gianna for creating this club and letting student’s voices be heard. After knowing you since you were a child, I am so proud to see how much you’ve grown. Thank you to Ms.Okada for moderating the club and making it an enjoyable experience. My biggest piece of advice to those of you in high school is to always be kind because you never know what someone is going through, and embrace high school while you can. You are only young once and the choices you make today impact who you are tomorrow. The length of your life does not determine the impact of your life, your choices do. 

Incoming senior: Micah Sakita

Where did my Junior Year go? It feels like two hours ago, arriving here for day one of not only my Junior year of high school, but also (not just Salesian in its own right) an entire private school in total. I’ve been a public school kid my whole life. I started at Kensington Elementary School from Kindergarten to 6th grade, then I went on to Korematsu Middle School (KMS). Next up was El Cerrito during COVID, and then high school rolled around. Honestly, I REALLY thought I was going to graduate from ECHS. When I was an eighth grader at KMS (No, it doesn’t mean kill myself), I did not think I was ever going to change schools at all. I had it all mapped out with my best friend Charlie Pryor. Same Elementary School, middle school, high school, and maybe even Graduate together. If we got lucky, we planned to go to the same college together. 

That changed drastically.

These days, I don’t talk to Charlie all that much. We’re not at the same high school anymore, and we’re definitely not going to go to the same college (he’s a much better student than I am, that’s for sure). That time flew. I still remember day one at Korematsu. I remember Day One of high school baseball. I remember day one of travel baseball. I remember day one of Bay Area Vikings baseball.

All that flew by so fast. 

My time with the Vikings? Hella fun.

Korematsu? Couldn’t have asked for better Middle School Baseball teammates. Just really wish we did get it down against King. 

ECHS? Hella fun. Two years of pure chaos. Freshman year? Our frosh team sucked. Did it stop us from having fun?

No, not really.

And all that stuff led me here. If you don’t know me, uh, that’s ok. But all you need to know is that this was my first year here. I spent two years at El Cerrito, I thought I was going to graduate from El Cerrito (Boy, was I wrong), and now I’m here, class of ‘26, about to be a senior, and going through the process of getting into college. Heck yeah. 

But, as much as I’ve appreciated being here, I also need to reflect on my time at EC, because that time did help me get here. My teammates and friends helped keep me sane during all the chaos that was El Cerrito High. 

Most days were completely normal, but threats were like any regular greeting. Bomb threat? Whatever. Gun threat? Yawn. Fights in the hallways? Boring. 

Yeah, El Cerrito was nuts. I won’t deny it.

But there were good people there, too. Sean, Caden, Reg, KB, Solly, Connor, Ablosangeles (Abraham), and a ton of others. 

Honestly, it was hard to avoid the chaos when you saw a fight every other week, people vaping in the bathrooms, and heard the front office people coming onto the intercom saying that we’ve received a threat. So much so that whenever I saw a fight, I chose to ignore it, because fights were getting boring.

Regardless, the people and teachers were great. I did well in my two years there, finishing with a high GPA both years. But I wanted out (as did my parents), because that school was falling off a cliff. They don’t even have natural power right now, they’re using generators.

To make a change, I contacted Ms. K, and Coach Joe. Within a week of applying, I got accepted. I came in to do my tour, and, after going around the campus with Ms. Mangle, we found our way to Ms. K’s office.

That’s when my mom and I learned about Kento, and I immediately wanted to bring him in; I’m glad I did. Kento’s great. A guy I can talk to in Japanese, because it needs work.

But even as I have yet to finish my first year here, I can already say it’s been a blast. I ran my first cross-country races this year with Elias, Dean, Logan, and Leonard. We were always the smallest team, and that is why we were so close during the year. In the spring, baseball proved to be a tough year. Two broken noses (Me and Joe T.), broken tooth (Jayden W.), and we went 2-20. This had to be the most fun, bad team I’ve been a part of. 

When the Vikings sucked, we sucked. And we weren’t having fun. Yes, we argue a lot here on this Salesian team, but half of our arguments were just joking around. With the Vikings, we got into full-blown, mad as ****, no filter, just straight-up drilling each other’s arguments. There were times when it was right on the border of hating each other. When we sucked, we got mad at each other. And not funny fake-mad, like, full on, I-want-to-punch-you-so-hard-in-the-face-right-now mad.

That’s not what it is here. Sure. We sucked. You can’t pretend a 2-20 record never happened. 

But it was still fun.

Next year? It’ll be even better. As I head into my last summer as a high-school kid, I need to reflect on my writing.

At El Cerrito, I kept to myself. The idea of submitting to EC’s lit mag never came across my mind. Joining the newspaper staff never crossed my mind (at least, not until Gianna Rios told Creative Writing what she was doing). My first thought? Absolutely. I put my name on the list and started pretty quickly. Did a lot of sports this year. Tennis. Basketball. Soccer. Volleyball. Wrote one about baseball before the season started. Wrote one about sports as a whole here.  Even started to grow more as an all-around writer as well. Wrote one about Linkin Park and my view on their rebirth. Edited the AAAK article. Edited the AAPI article. I started to do a lot more. And I mean, a lot more.

But it wouldn’t be here if that fourth-grade me wrote what was probably the worst thing I’ve ever read. I remember looking at it when I was in middle school and being like. “Wow. I sucked at this when I was at Kensington,” But I fixed it. And kept writing. So much so, that in ninth grade, it got to the point where one of my friends threatened to refer me to a therapist with how much I wrote. I’m excited for next year. I know it’s going to be a fun year, with new people, new teammates, new teachers, (as well as some I had this year), and, can’t forget, new challenges.

Underclassmen? Read and remember this…

Signing off, 

Junior Micah Sakita, Varsity baseball’s Starting pitcher and catcher, Athletic Department Editor & Writer, All-around Red & Black Writer & Editor, and next year’s co-editor in chief of The Tabard.

Photo Credit: Gianna Rios