![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasn't been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but I've had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. There's so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesn't exist, you can build it yourself," Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“Animation just clicked in a way. I had been interested in art, but that felt different. [Animation] felt like it had something behind it, whereas previous things felt surface level. I wasn't making that crazy of things, but just the process of doing it was much more enjoyable," Carter Chadwick ('22) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screen-Shot-2022-08-16-at-9.44.08-AM-900x598.png)
![“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and it's played such a major role in who I've become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something I'm [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala ('21) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-25-at-9.50.05-AM-900x594.png)
![“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AnnaGert_JinTuan_HoHPhotoEdited-600x900.jpeg)
![“I'm not nearly there yet, but [my confidence has] definitely been getting better since I was pretty shy and timid coming into Harker my freshman year. I know that there's a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyone's so driven and that has really pushed me to kind of try to find my own place in high school and be more confident,” Alyssa Huang (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AlyssaHuang_EmilyChen_HoHPhoto-900x749.jpeg)
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![“I think getting up in the morning and having a sense of purpose [is exciting]. I think without a certain amount of drive, life is kind of obsolete and mundane, and I think having that every single day is what makes each day unique and kind of makes life exciting,” Neymika Jain (12) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-4.54.16-PM.png)
ASB decorates campus for the holidays
Students walk through the Main, decorated with Christmas lights by ASB over break. A large Christmas tree will be put up in the quad later this week.
Christmas lights strung along the walls of Main Hall and Manzanita welcome students back to school on Mon, Dec. 2 from the week-long Thanksgiving break.
Members of the Associated Student Body (ASB) and class councils decorated the campus for three and a half hours on their last day of break to prepare for the holiday season. They only adorned Main Hall and Manzanita with christmas lights since other buildings’ walls do not have appropriate hooks that allow for such decorations.
“December is a big month for everyone,” senior class Vice President Dora Tzeng said. “It’s the end of the year and finals are coming up and decorating the campus hopefully alleviates stress for students.”
According to ASB President Arjun Goyal (12), ornamenting the campus is a tradition he was introduced to as a freshman. In addition to christmas lights, ASB decorated two trees in the front loading zone with ornaments and will be bringing its own large christmas tree to place in the quad. Students will be able to create their own ornaments during lunch this week to put up on that tree.
“I’m really glad we expanded the amount of holiday spirit we could bring to campus,” Arjun said.
Many problems arose while members of ASB and class councils were decorating the lights. They realized afterwards that the lights they initially strung together could not be lit up all at once. Although redoing the lights was a painstaking process, freshmen class treasurer David Zhu believes it was all worth it.
“My friends marveled at all the colorful lights in Main, and I was proud to be part of the small committee that took part in actually putting up the lights,” he said.
Decorating for Spirit Coordinator Edward Sheu (9) meant more than just embellishing the campus for students.
“It really makes you think for a bit on how hard it is for the maintenance guys,” he said. “I mean we were just putting up some lights and we had a bit of trouble. Imagine what they have to do.”
In the future, Edward wishes to expand this project to the student body as a collaborative, bonding event for everyone.
ASB and all class councils plan to organize additional events for the students, including distribution of candy grams and roses during the upcoming holidays.
Mercedes Chien is the design editor for The Winged Post. This is her fourth year in the program and previous positions she's held include Photography and...