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The Student Voice of Forest Hills Central

The Central Trend

The Student Voice of Forest Hills Central

The Central Trend

The Student Voice of Forest Hills Central

The Central Trend

Saniya Mishra

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager

Saniya Mishra is a senior, writing for her third and final year on staff, busied by her many passions. She is an artist who cares deeply about the world. But there's one love she especially enjoys, loses herself in completely, only to resurface with a newfound perspective and a couple hundred words vomited on a Google Doc. Ever since third grade, she's fallen head over heels for writing. It is her escape. It is her adventure. It is her everything.

Favorite writers: Ruta Sepetys, Amanda Gorman

Favorite books: 1984 by George Orwell, Salt to the Sea Ruta Sepetys, I'll Give You The Sun Jandy Nelson, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Favorite colors: maroon, emerald, navy blue, lavender

Favorite songs: "hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me" by Lana Del Rey, "Can I Call You Tonight?"  by Dayglow, and "Growing Sideways" by Noah Kahan

All content by Saniya Mishra
A collage of the people and memories I've grown close with throughout high school

The truth is final

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager May 2, 2024

If every word you read has meaning, then every word that I write that you read has meaning.  Maybe it’s because you’ve read it that it has meaning. Or maybe it’s that I wrote it for you, for...

The truth is in people

The truth is in people

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager April 26, 2024

There’s a boy, about three feet tall, in a dusty, green shirt a size too big, and gray shorts a size too small. His light-up shoes bling with each step as he scampers away from his mother, busy chatting...

The truth is a nightmare

The truth is a nightmare

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager April 24, 2024

I stare awake at the ceiling. The crinkled paint seems to shift in the dark, and I think I hear them crawling, too. It sounds like a swarm of bees alive with a furor unmatched by any.  I lay catatonically...

A pile of handwritten notes, heartwarming just from their thought.

The truth is in a handwritten note

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager April 16, 2024

Send me a handwritten note, please.  It matters not how you wrote, but just that you did. Write out each looping letter with your own coarse and fumbling fingers. Let the words bend into each other....

The cover of Lizzy McAlpine's most recent album, Older, features the singer herself

Lizzy McAlpine’s new album is a must listen for indie pop and folk lovers

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager April 15, 2024

After listening to and loving “Pancakes for Dinner” by Lizzy McAlpine, I’ve been on the lookout for more music from her.  With her popularity growing since her debut album in 2020, Lizzy McAlpine...

An early morning during a changing of seasons

The truth is necessary

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager April 10, 2024

I will tell you the truth, the simple and undeceiving truth.  For once I won’t hide behind the persona of the sapling or tangle myself too deep in a mess of convoluted, pretty words. This time I’ll...

The cover of her most recent album, Deeper Well, features the singer herself, Kacey Musgraves.

Deeper Well by Kacey Musgraves is “Too Good to be True”

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager March 25, 2024

Having recently gotten into Noah Kahan because of Stick Season, I found Kacey Musgraves through the collaboration on “She Calls Me Back.” As a new lover of folk, I decided to give her her newest album,...

Musings of a pessimistic idealist: the sapling lost its colors

Musings of a pessimistic idealist: the sapling lost its colors

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager March 19, 2024

When did the sapling lose its colors? When did it stop growing so fast, in so many directions, braving the sky and the whole world around it? When did it start to fold in on itself and hide away? Did...

Elouise Nuo spent several years in competitive dance with the Abby Lee Dance Company.

Growing up, Elouise Nuo tapped into the world of dance with ALDC

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager March 12, 2024

Growing up, senior Elouise Nuo danced for none other than the Abby Lee Dance Company (ALDC) while the company’s second team performed on the well-known show, Dance Moms.  Elouise had watched the...

The FDA recently approved two gene-based therapies for those with sickle-cell disease.

Genome-editing is becoming a reality with recent advances, but what does this mean?

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager March 8, 2024

Recently, there have been new advances to support those with a relatively common disease—sickle cell disease.  According to the CDC, “[sickle cell disease (SCD)] occurs among about 1 out of every...

Meet me where the River bends

Musings of a pessimistic idealist: where the River bends

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager March 5, 2024

Meet me where the River bends. Let’s walk along its winding path and not talk or think about anything. There is just the River and us, and we go as the River goes. The River can do the talking and...

The Science Olympiad team smiles at a recent competition this past Saturday.

The young Science Olympiad team prepares with upperclassmen mentors for the regional competition

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager February 27, 2024

For his Science Olympiad event, junior Aiden Platt was tasked with building a catapult that could launch a ball eight meters. Instead, his design could only launch the ball a few inches.  Suddenly,...

This bright, colorful cover is for Declan McKenna's new album, What Happened to the Beach?

Declan McKenna’s newest album is sweetly nostalgic of summer

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager February 23, 2024

If you’re like me, you also found Declan McKenna from “Brazil.” The bouncy guitar hook reeled me in, and I was caught in the catchy melody, playing it on repeat as the perfect summer hit. Naturally,...

A sunny day making it hard to see what's really there, blinding any sapling that wants to know but cannot.

Musings of pessimistic idealist: don’t tell the sapling

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager February 20, 2024

Don’t tell the sapling.  The sapling cannot know.  We may whisper it in the dead of night when the poor thing sleeps. We may pass it on in hushed breaths in the loud life of daybreak. We may...

Senior Alex Moeller has a passion for both the stock market and for medicine.

Alex Moeller is invested in both the stock market and the future of medicine

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager February 13, 2024

When senior Alex Moeller was volunteering in the Blodgett Hospital’s neuroscience sector, he met a family receiving news that the patient wasn’t going to be discharged for a while. There was football...

This collage shows the light, pinkish color palette and various other attributes of the popular coquette aesthetic.

Coquette bows and trends are spiraling in many different directions

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager February 9, 2024

Social media and modern slang and ponytails and braids and pretty much everything now has all been taken over by a small accessory—the bow.  Specifically, these bows are a major symbol of the new...

Musings of a pessimistic idealist: it was a good thing when it rained

Musings of a pessimistic idealist: it was a good thing when it rained

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager February 5, 2024

It was a good thing when it rained, wasn’t it?  The flowers would drink in the replenishing, sweet taste of the long sought-after, falling drops. The clouds would relieve themselves of the budding...

This photograph shows a vestigial-wing, red-eyed, male fruit fly under a microscope, one of the various strains of fruit fly FHC's AP Biology students are studying.

Time flies as the AP Biology class takes on an engaging genetics lab

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager January 31, 2024

Buzzing around the halls of FHC are small mutant fruit flies bred by the AP Biology class.  This is the product of a genetics lab the students are running. They started with purebred flies with various...

Style your short hair with these top looks

Style your short hair with these top looks

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager January 26, 2024

To redefine 2024 as a year entirely different from the last, I decided to go for a chop—losing six inches of my hair.  Now, I have hair that comes just short of my shoulders. With this drastic change...

Musings of a pessimistic idealist: the weeping willows

Musings of a pessimistic idealist: the weeping willows

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager January 24, 2024

The sapling wept. The trees that stood around it grew with it as it grew with them, started to inch away. What once seemed to be centuries-deep roots unearthed themselves  and crawled before the sapling’s...

Senior Zachary Reiffer finds ways to challenge himself through sports and science.

From crew to quantum physics, Zachary Reiffer loves challenges

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager January 18, 2024

Last year, senior Zachary Reiffer found himself partially paralyzed.  It happened after some weight lifting and crew training took a toll on his spine and pinched his nerves, leaving him unable to...

Musings of a pessimistic idealist: for yet another year

Musings of a pessimistic idealist: for yet another year

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager January 17, 2024

If I were to trace some words onto paper to curl up into a wrinkly taquito to tuck into the plastic water bottle decked out in a mosaic of colored tissue paper that I have called my personal time capsule...

Senior Lily Bouma spends time with kids at a summer camp where she volunteers with senior Katie Cushman.

American Sign Language students at FHC are building communities as they break down communication barriers

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager December 13, 2023

Senior Molly O’Meara has always wanted to be able to communicate with her nonverbal younger cousin Louis. And so, she took American Sign Language (ASL) classes in high school to do just that. Molly...

This is the cover image of The Kid LAROI's new album, THE FIRST TIME.

The Kid LAROI’s new album, THE FIRST TIME, exceeded my expectations

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager December 11, 2023

My Top Spotify Wrapped song is “Romantic Homicide” by d4vd. So yes, my favorite songs tend to be the slower, sadder, and more emotional songs.  Naturally, I’m biased toward those types of songs,...

A chair sits alone, not bruised nor buried, not touched but not loved.

Musings of a pessimistic idealist: the chair untouched or the chair unloved

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager December 6, 2023

The chair tips slowly, with a wailing creak, as it leans backward, scraping the dull wood floor, bruised and buried by the noises from above, browned and blackened from the rusting of what was, torn and...

The pictured speed bump was one of four recently added just outside FHC's student parking lot.

FHC’s new speed bumps have their highs and lows

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager November 29, 2023

From sending out public service announcements through FX to giving consequences to those seen speeding on camera, principal Steve Passinault has tried several methods to deter students from speeding through...

The cover of AJR's fifth album, Maybe Man, features the band's three brothers.

AJR’s new music style is taking a fall with the release of Maybe Man

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager November 27, 2023

For the summer after seventh grade, the only music I listened to was The Click by AJR. The album, which is AJR’s sophomore album, is still on my top 10 favorites list, and for years, the trio of New...

TCT's The Countless Thanks 2023: Saniya Mishra

TCT’s The Countless Thanks 2023: Saniya Mishra

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager November 22, 2023

Sixth hour couch neighbors - Addy, Eva H., Sof You guys are absolutely crazy sometimes, but really, really funny and fun. I always crack up when you guys call Eva a peanut allergy witch and present...

Here, a memory unfolds, hidden by my missing words: a story incomplete, bleeding from behind a muted cover.

Musings of a pessimistic idealist: the art of not telling you pt. 2

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager November 15, 2023

I’m in a curious relationship with one color, the one of nature, not of her raw truth, barren and cold. Instead, I’m speaking of the deep, mystic beauty.  It’s deceiving. It appears enticing...

Junior Zach Ruffer, movie soundtracks enthusiast, poses for a selfie.

To Zach Ruffer, soundtracks are un-beat-able

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager November 8, 2023

For six straight Halloweens, junior Zach Ruffer dressed as Superman.  Zach grew up watching the Superman movies often. While he did find the hero and plot entertaining, another element stuck with him—the...

The cover image of the new, final Beatles song displays its title, Now and Then.

The final Beatles song—“Now and Then”—is the perfect tribute and grand finale

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager November 6, 2023

After playing hundreds of shows in Hamburg, West Germany and the release of their first hit single “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” the Beatles became a phenomenon. Arguably, they are the biggest boy...

Musings of a pessimistic idealist: Halloween edition: she once was the sinking sun

Musings of a pessimistic idealist: Halloween edition: she once was the sinking sun

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager November 1, 2023

Her neck cracks—well, I’d say it rather crunches.  Crinkles, almost. She side-stepped with a bit too much gusto and her bones locked, crooked, and off. She is a strange creature, one that...

A group of students in the Green Empire pose with their battle shields.

The Age of Empires project teaches skills and lessons beyond ancient history

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager October 27, 2023

When history teacher Brad Anderson started teaching world history about 15 years ago, a student asked what it would be like to fight in a phalanx.  The next day, Anderson brought cardboard to school,...

Kevin McCarthy failed to unify the House Republicans, and now, Jim Jordan is failing to do the same as well.

The Republican party is divided, lacking unifying leadership

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager October 18, 2023

Recently, the United States almost faced a government shutdown. The issue of determining a budget for the upcoming fiscal year remained without resolution close to the nearing deadline, which would...

My freshly-painted senior jeans lie on the leaf-covered ground, a symbol of a start or an end I do not know.

Musings of a pessimistic idealist: change is her one constant

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager October 18, 2023

The stars’ thin glow stales with the waning reflection of the weary moon, retreating without shame nor honor, simply as part of a passing of time she had no will against.  In the hesitant light leaking...

Joel Burns is FHC's new band director, and he's very excited for the coming year.

FHC’s new band director Joel Burns starts off the school year on a good note

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager October 13, 2023

Breaking news: Band Director Joel Burns is adopting another cat.  Currently, he has three others, one of whom is named Sweetie, whom he’s had for eighteen years since he was in kindergarten. He prides...

Chris Christie points right at the camera as he calls out Donald Trump for not participating in the Republican primary debates.

Political candidates need to stop “ducking” and start defending their record

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager October 9, 2023

The media continues to be responsible for sparking excessively polarizing opinions, and rightfully so.  Because the media gets a majority of their profit from the clickbait they create, leading to...

Here, a memory unfolds, hidden by my missing words: a story incomplete, bleeding from behind a muted cover.

Musings of a pessimistic idealist: the art of not telling you

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager October 4, 2023

I am in love with the color of a dark wine. The passionate hue—it’s elegant and reformed with an edge of cruelty and cunning malevolence that swims in circles, like eagles around a helpless prey....

For iPhone 15's and newer products, the charging port is the USB-C.

Apple cords—not apple cores—are ending up in landfills now

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager September 27, 2023

Recently, Apple announced a huge switch. Their new products will no longer use the Lightning charger and instead use the popular USB-C. In October 2022, the European Union released a mandate for...

Improv Central 2023 Q&A’s

Arpita Das, Publicity Editor September 26, 2023

Vivek Ramaswamy attempts to secure a spot in the presidential race during the Republican primary debate.

Ramaswamy’s bold moves have failed him

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager September 25, 2023

Vivek Ramaswamy went into the Republican debate with a bold presence. Nevertheless, he failed to win many more votes.  The most striking thing he said that night was calling out the “climate change...

These flowers wilt, dried out in the dark, like my old drafts of writing I discard.

Musings of a pessimistic idealist: the flowers hate me

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager September 20, 2023

The flowers hate me. I have drunk every riverbed dry.  I have skinned every tree of her leaves.  I have whispered the wind’s secrets to the open fields, and now, the crickets are rabid with...

Kayla Quach smiles for a .5 selfie at an antique warehouse.

Kayla Quach has spread her wings and taken flight as a social butterfly

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager September 13, 2023

10 Things I Hate About You is junior Kayla Quach’s favorite rom-com. To her, it encapsulates the high school relationship experience in a sweet way. In her free time, Kayla can be found watching rom-coms...

The album cover of Bewitched features the artist herself, Laufey, in a glowing appearance.

Laufey’s new album Bewitched is bewitching in itself

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager September 11, 2023

Every morning, I wake up to jazzy ‘50s love songs of the likes of “It’s Been a Long, Long Time” by Kitty Kallen. It started when I watched the musical Birdie featuring songs reminiscent of Frank...

The pessimistic idealist watches the Niagara Falls lights, a sort of silver lining in the dark of the night.

Musings of a pessimistic idealist: She is captive to her wants

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager September 6, 2023

She has drowned in the thunder. Not the rain. The thunder. The power of a thousand steel platforms clapped down on the bare, unexpecting terrain of her fragile resolve. It has beat her will, booming...

Ms. Pessimistic Idealist laughs as the sunlight scatters across the flowers.

Musings of a pessimistic idealist: it’s the start of the end

Saniya Mishra, Copy-Editing Manager August 30, 2023

It’s supposed to be about the journey, not the destination. Yet, it feels like I’ve reached the end. This is my finale. The last season has just begun, but I can already see the credits rolling. It’s...

A hazy, uncertain, slightly bright, but very apprehensive outlook on the year to come

Here’s to the not last one

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor June 2, 2023

This is the last one. I can’t find original words to describe this experience.  Nor can I find original words to describe my inability to describe this experience. Both experiences remain un-unique...

VonEhr and his AP Chemistry class pose in front of the periodic table with Albert Einstein while decked out in lab safety gear.

David VonEhr leaves a lasting legacy of passion and compassion

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor June 1, 2023

Chemistry teachers David VonEhr and Russell Chudy are proud survivors of the Swine Flu epidemic. They endured a time when the halls were emptier than they are now without the seniors. It was a time...

Until we meet again, my little weed

Until we meet again, my little weed

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor May 30, 2023

I met a little weed on the side of the road yesterday.  I was walking home from the bus stop, and there it stood like a lighthouse in the immaculate sea of green on my neighbor’s lawn. A rebellious...

A field of tulips bloom under the quiet sky on a small hill that imagined while writing this column.

There is comfort in our apparent silence

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor May 23, 2023

For some inexplicable reason, the music of our friendship is a bland monotone bleeding of silence to the surrounding, ever-crescendoing crash of sounds. We sit upon the bare afternoon as the hours roll...

The AP Chemistry class is currently learning organic chemistry now that the AP exam is done.

With AP exams done, here’s what students are up to

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor May 18, 2023

With the seniors gone, freshman Frey Wu is missing a key part of his usual AP Physics C: Mechanics class: his friend senior Sammy Yin, who is his pillow. “I very much miss the seniors,” Frey said....

The wide expanse of water and sky reveals yet more light beyond.

Don’t give me the world; I want the whole universe

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor May 12, 2023

Could I not merely drink up the sky as it burns into a dusty amber? A sure luminous expanse remains. Nothing to be seen beyond all that I have taken. Perhaps I had consumed far more than the stability...

Lauren Brace is a reader and writer. She looks forward to continuing both passions in college and a career.

Lauren Brace lives whole-heartedly in the world of words

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor May 4, 2023

One of the first stories that senior Lauren Brace wrote featured the adventure of a block of cheese. From there, her love for writing—and words in general—grew.  Currently, senior Lauren Brace...

My shadow in the sand on a hot, dry day: a day in which I felt like doing absolutely nothing

The Nothing wilted away in its forever idle state

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor May 2, 2023

It was the laziest Nothing I had ever seen. It had sat at its wood stool so long that the poor thing wilted under the grand weight of the Nothing’s sedentary resolve. It shriveled before my eyes—its...

A bridge that I stood on for several moments before deciding to venture on

[Photo] There is a brief moment

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor April 17, 2023

A bridge that I stood on for several moments before deciding to venture on

A photo I took over the sun the day I turned 17

The sun only sings for a few

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor April 17, 2023

The sun only sings for a few. She'll whisper gently in their ears, and even the most vacant hearts will warm. For them, bliss cascades upon them faster than the rain, and childish abandon quickstarts...

I live in the in-between

I live in the in-between

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor March 24, 2023

I am detached, in the in-between. Floating so ever carelessly. I have no tangible obligations, for there isn’t anything tangible in this vastness space of the in-between, full of everything and nothing....

Will Hoffmann plays guitar for Chatter, the band he leads.

Will Hoffmann leads the young pop-rock band Chatter

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor March 22, 2023

After seeing rock videos online when he was younger, junior Will Hoffmann knew he wanted to learn the guitar. Soon after, he started lessons at the Academy of Music, which he did for four years, starting...

The AI art program Obvious created this artwork which sold for $430,000 at an auction.

Believe it or not, AI art is a good thing

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor March 20, 2023

From voice recognition to self-driving cars to chatbots, artificial intelligence has grown at an exponential rate. And now, the concern is that it’s overstepping in the field of art, too. Many point...

A picture of a darkening night with a glimpse of the light ahead

She is terrified of the new moon

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor March 13, 2023

There’s a new moon coming, and she’s terrified of its light. She wants to stay in the shadows, the warmth of the night. It’s soft and calming, tired yet endearing. Its lethargic sways, steady and...

A picture taken of a memorial created after a school shooting

Let’s not wait for another shooting to start implementing school safety measures

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor March 13, 2023

My 10-year-old cousin is very talkative, and she loves singing and acting. She’s a very happy kid, and she’s very young. A couple of weeks ago, at the middle school she will go to next year, a student...

FHC's art show was lively and full of incredible student art pieces.

FHC’s art show is loud and proud

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor March 8, 2023

In senior Jenan Hammad’s mixed media art, there’s a scene depicting her and her friends, some crafted traditionally and some printed from digital drawings, signifying their now-online relationship. It’s...

Me, eating icecream on a sunny summer day when I was little

She wants to live forever young

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor February 24, 2023

She is the glimpse of apricity, the awakening into a world alight with every bliss imaginable. She chases each shimmering notion through the fields. Her little braided pigtails rebelliously stray into...

John Horky is fascinated by the analytical process of breaking down the "why's" behind happenings in the world and his life.

John Horky’s analytical mindset has shaped his perspective on life

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor February 22, 2023

Senior John Horky watched a two-hour video on the ranking of Disney movies, fascinated by the analysis. In the video, the YouTuber broke down the aspects of the characters, delving into the details...

This is the strawberry-banana smoothie I tried to drink out of the pictured paper straw

Paper straws are a failed solution, but a new model could be the answer

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor February 20, 2023

After enjoying a few sips of my strawberry banana smoothie, all I could taste was the unpleasant flakey paper of the straw. It had not only bent but had also folded in on itself, blocking any drink...

From left to right, DeLaina, Mrrudhula, Ella, and Rylie working on their ceiling tiles

Senior tile painting is something to look up to, literally

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor February 16, 2023

Across four ceiling tiles, seniors Grant Griffioen, Julian Hayes, Liam Manders, and Michael Boughton painted a guy holding a massive orange, peeling it, and looking pleased as if ready to eat it.  Michael...

A picture of the clock on my nightstand, the very clock on which I watch Time go by

Time doesn’t listen

Saniya Mishra, Copy Editor February 10, 2023

Time didn’t listen to me.  Despite all that it had seen, it watched my plans fall to ruin. The magnificent towers of happenings that I wanted to live in. Scattered to dust, my hopes are hushed...

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