You sit on a train, the gentle rumble almost lulling you to sleep. A few seats away, an anthropomorphic cat with big eyes and a sweater vest asks you for the date and time and introduces himself as Rover. You soon come to establish your own name, learn about the town you’re traveling to and become aware of your own animated appearance. Are you dreaming? No, you are playing “Animal Crossing: New Leaf,” an addicting game from a Nintendo franchise that has been around since 2001. 

Over the last 20 years, fans of the cutesy, calming and collectively charming games have been starved for content. The Nintendo eShop Animal Crossing Plaza was discontinued in 2014, and Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival was disliked by fans when it came out in 2015. The 2017 Pocket Camp game was limited to mobile devices but became wildly successful. In fact, one of the game’s lovable animal characters, Isabelle, even became a playable Super Smash Bros character in 2018. Now, in 2020, Nintendo fans are waiting excitedly for the next chapter in “Animal Crossing.” 

Animal Crossing is an open-ended social simulation game. Since its initial release in 2001 (known as Dobutsu No Mori in Japan), it has developed a global cult following. On March 20, Nintendo released the next installment: “New Horizons.” In the game, Tom Nook, a raccoon who you owe a crippling amount of debt to, and his company Nook Inc. are offering players a Deserted Island Getaway Package, where they can transform their own untouched island into a home. 

In previous games, players were able to affect changes slowly in their towns. In 2012’s “New Leaf,” they acted as the community’s mayor, which allowed them to initiate public works projects like constructing new buildings, installing landmarks and enacting town ordinances. In “New Horizons,” players are able to engage even more with the game and go several steps further.

In “New Horizons,” you start on a deserted island, with only Tom Nook and his “nooklings” there to help you. You set up your tent wherever you’d like, and build your residence from the ground up. Starting from essentially nothing, this game allows players to build their own island town in their own way. “New Horizons” introduces crafting, in which items like twigs, rocks and clay can be taken from the environment and fashioned into tools like shovels, nets or even vaulting poles. Materials can also be made into customizable furniture, a feature similar to previous games. 

The game gives you a special Nook Phone filled with apps. One such app, Nook Miles, is an in-game reward system designed to inspire more gameplay by giving out miles that can be used to help pay off debt. There are also apps that allow for social interactions like calling other players and inviting them to play on your island. Others allow you to access recipes for crafting new tools and furniture.

Additionally, “New Horizons” allows you to engage with other players in a brand new way. You can play up to four characters on one Switch at the same time in “party play,” with a leader system that allows players to help each other out and explore and create together. Up to eight players can visit one island at a time, and eight are allowed to inhabit one island on one Switch. 

The amount of freedom offered in “New Horizons” is easily the most appealing part of the game. Not only can you decide where you and other villagers place your homes, but you can also make choices to upgrade into fully functioning towns with shops.

One of the most notable upgrades in the game itself are the high-quality graphics. The soft, almost dreamy look has improved greatly from the now-aging, pixelated nightmare that is “New Leaf.” There’s a new attention to detail that people cannot help but notice, especially in the fluid and detailed movement of everything from fish to leaves to glistening water.

The biggest complaint people have had about this game is the lack of cloud-saving capability. One game can only ever live on your one Switch. You cannot back your game up, and you can only have one island per Switch. This has drawn some criticism from fans, who believe that the only reason to block backups is to prevent cheating. This might make more sense for other games, but many fans of “Animal Crossing” are not competitive. Rather, “Animal Crossing” is a game that encourages community-based collaborations and necessitates backup capabilities. People spend hundreds, sometimes even thousands of hours on this game and want their work to be saved. Nintendo has said that they will have a way to recover the lost data if a Switch is lost, damaged or stolen. While this is reassuring, these restrictions are still frustrating for many simply because of how unnecessary they feel.

It seems like “New Horizons” will go down as “Animal Crossing’s” best installment for those who have been begging for total freedom in the game. It’s beautifully designed, it provides rewards and incentives to motivate play and many of its lovable character personalities and design aspects remain true to previous games.

As a student, the best times during the school year are vacations! You get to relax, sleep, cut off from daily homework or have some fun outside. Sometimes you are stuck with vacation homework and often try to cram it in order to finish before the break. Maybe you think of your teacher and how they’re probably grading school work. Hmm… your teacher… what could they be doing during vacation?

Some teachers across the nation are not always relaxing or having fun during vacation. Kind of sad, right? While you’re enjoying your time off, some teachers may be working an extra job just to buy supplies for their classrooms. Amira Abdakhallaq, an alegbra teacher at John D. O’Bryant, usually shops at Dollar Tree or Walmart for school supplies. Her budget used to be $200, though now it’s reduced to $100.

According to a Department of Education survey, 94% of American public school teachers reported paying for school supplies out of their own pocket in the 2014-15 school year. Those teachers spent an average of $479. Reports also show that teachers of younger students such as in daycare, preschool or kindergarten have to pay more than teachers of older students do, because of things like diapers and toys.

And that’s not just it. Broken school supplies affect teachers too, even schools. For instance, broken computers. Though most school computers are funded, according to The Save Project, the cost estimate of one computer is about $200, and that doesn’t include other things like chargers. So imagine the cost to repair multiple of them!

Danielle Traniello, a physical education teacher at John D. O’Bryant, explained that the birdies students use are a consumable, meaning that they are easily ruined and need to be replaced often. And a combination of badminton rackets and pickle balls cost $240! In the context of school supplies, she states that physical education supplies are usually down the chain due to the demand of gym supplies and equipment, yet they can get ruined easily.

Some may think, Why can’t the school pay for the supplies? According to school districts like Boston Public Schools, the districts have made “research-backed investments” on things like “…teacher salaries, maintaining our teachers’ salaries so that they are the highest paid professionals in Massachusetts and among the highest paid across the country.” They also state, “We look at the expected number of students who will attend the school next year and the needs of those students — for instance if they are in a special education classroom — and allocate dollars accordingly.” We can assume from this that though school districts like BPS don’t directly pay for school supplies, they intend to pay teachers enough to afford those school supplies. Based on this, Massachusetts teachers are paid at least enough to provide school supplies for their classes.

Now, I’m not saying you need to feel compassion for your teacher, though they do deserve it. You may not like a teacher, or see them always in a bad mood, but the best way to help them out is to donate supplies. You don’t have to spend money for new supplies, but you can gather unused items such as crayons, markers or pencils in your house. This way, you’re not only helping the teacher, or your classmates, but you’re helping yourself have a better learning experience at school as well. 

“As I looked in the mirror, my mother placed her hands on my shoulders with disgust filled eyes,” student Dani Adams recalled. “She sighed before saying, ‘We will just have to fix your face later,’ then left the bathroom. 

Adams stood there crying, telling herself that she wasn’t enough. She thought it was true because her own mother didn’t think she was good enough, then who would?

It hurt me to hear this story not only because one of the most beautiful, sweet, caring young ladies I had ever met had such low self-esteem, but also because the woman who told her she “wasn’t good enough” was also the one she called “mom.” That made my blood boil. People like my classmate’s mother have set beauty standards for the younger generations that force us to create and uphold a certain image that is “perfect.” Anything less than perfect is not accepted. So what is “perfect?” 

Perfect is something or someone having all the required/desirable qualities, elements, or characteristics. This definition can change based on the country you’re in, and the mindsets of the people surrounding you. Here in America, the definition of “perfect” has more to do with looks than anything else. Throughout history, a majority of the people that live here fancy skinny women, or buff and muscular men that have money. Of course, they also have to be white or at least light-skinned. Their faces have to look a certain way, no double chins allowed, only straight white teeth, and women can’t wear anything above a size six. 

I spoke with Denise Tench, a woman from my church, about the beauty standards and trends that were relevant when she was in her teens. “Every female was trying all types of diets, waist trainers, fasting and other weight-loss methods to get the glass Coke bottle or hourglass figure,” she explained.

We aren't taught to love the jelly rolls or different pigmentations of the skin. We aren't exposed to the beauty of melanin, all of the different eye colors, the many imperfections of the face that make us beautiful. 

We are taught things like “being fat is bad because it causes so many health problems,” but that's not completely true. I myself am fat, and I have no major health issues besides being fat. Why does the fact that I'm a little bit bigger than other people have to be a problem? It doesn't have to be. Appearances are nothing compared to what's on the inside. And yeah, it's a cliche, but your beauty truly does shine from within. 

This is partially our fault for enforcing these ridiculous standards on others constantly. Not only are some of us still trying to squeeze into those old jeans that we know are way too tight, but we’re also just starting to tell others how the way that they look doesn't matter. Sadly, it was too late for our generation. We have already been exposed to the pressures of society, and the idea of making ourselves as “perfect” as possible, just so we can make it through their day without much judgment.

“Everyone is beautiful, period,” said Vivian Snow, a 16-year-old student at Dearborn STEM Academy. “There is no ‘beautiful in your own way,’ nor is there any such thing as ‘perfect.’” Snow was labeled the “ugly” child at school and bullied on a daily basis, but that didn't stop her from keeping a smile on her face. While she accepted a boyfriend who only liked her for her body when she was younger, her perspective has changed. 

“I was only twelve when I started dating him,” Snow said. “I was young and dumb, but I truly thought that that was love. Now whenever I think about that relationship, I think of all of the people like me who were in a toxic relationship because they were afraid that nobody else would love them. Us ‘ugly’ people don't get much of a choice anyway, or at least that's what people make you think.”

Snow is right, us “ugly” people are made to think that we have to stick with anyone who shows any interest in us, even if they're literally one of the worst people on the planet. That's why so many of us try our best to become something that everyone wants, but not what you want for yourself.

We as the people of the world — and specifically the younger generations, since the future is in our hands — should start to end this cycle of overrated, and fairly boring beauty standards. It's time for a change, don't you think? Let us make 2020 the first year of full acceptance of all people, regardless of what they look like. Let's try to agree that everyone is beautiful (and if you want to add the “in their own way” thing, then do that) and just start being real to ourselves.