In the ‘80s and ‘90s it was common to hear teenagers and young adults use words like gnarly, tubular, and rad. Now we use words like finna, highkey, and Karen. Every generation develops their own slang but with the help of the internet young generations have now created almost an entire language, impossible to learn except through immersion. An adult listening in on a conversation between teens and young adults might sometimes miss phrases or words. Are these kids really speaking proper English? Yes they are!

Language, specifically spoken word, is an ever changing thing. Words have specific meanings because of the way we use them colloquially. If we all collectively use them in a different context and it is understood, then it can be adopted as correct. Nowadays when a new word or phrase is introduced it can spread incredibly fast, often globally, because of social media and the internet. It evolves so quickly and distinctly within age groups that I am not familiar with new slang used by high school aged kids, just a few years younger than myself. We have assigned new meaning to common words like chill, same, flex, cap, salty, extra, drip, and tea and have come up with completely new words like swole, finna, highkey, lowkey, simp, yeet, TL;DR, etc. 

Concorde: the Crown of the ’60s Jet Age, Welcomed in the ’70s

When you think of the jet age, the rich flying in wonderful cosy seats, glamourous fashion, traveling to new destinations with bright smiling posters all around. This was an age when the world truly started to open up. The plane that opened up the jet age without a doubt has to be Boeing’s 707. But if I had to choose an aircraft that was the queen of this lifestyle, a definition of the Jet age at its best?

That honour goes to Concorde.

Few aircraft have been able to capture the Imagination of the public like Concorde. An aircraft associated with the rich, the famous, and nobility. To fly on Concorde was an experience, not just another day of travel. Concorde meant one could have breakfast in London, lunch in New York and dinner in Paris. It was technology and art that came together to create a masterclass, no, its own class of lifestyle. 

Created in 1965 as a joint venture between the British and the French aerospace giants BAC and Sud Aviation (later known as BAE and Airbus respectively). Aircraft had moved from propellers to jets; supersonic seemed like the next logical step. Airlines were falling over themselves to get in orders ahead of others to get into the race for supersonic dominance. 

The Concorde first flew on March 2nd, 1969 to an awe inspired crowd in Toulouse France. It would make its first commercial flight on January 21st, 1976.

It was incredible the collaboration between the British and French aviation giants that before had been bitter rivals. However with the threat looming of the American aircraft manufacturers building their own supersonic aircraft backed by the promise of nearly 10 billion dollars of government funding was enough for the British and French engineers to put aside their national differences to unify and create the winner in the supersonic market.

Concorde was an aircraft ahead of its time with the most advanced supersonic engines ever put on an airplane. A famous example of just how far ahead it was from the rest of the competition was a story where Concorde on one of its first flights across the Atlantic with British Airways was met up by an RAF Tornado fighter patrol. The fighter pilot challenged Concorde to a race to see who could get to New York first. Concorde accelerated to Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound) and the Tornado pilot did the same. After only 20 minutes the fighter pilot messaged Concorde saying they could not sustain this speed for long without using up their entire fuel reserves. The Concorde pilot replied that they would be maintaining this cruise speed for another 2 1/2 hours en route while he casually on the microphone sipped champagne.

Concorde was in essence the limit of physics, wrapped in gorgeous art with a lifestyle on board of the bon vivant at their peak.

Unfortunately, Concorde did not last, and that was for three main reasons. 

The first was the cost of fuel; flying supersonic is incredibly expensive and the fuel burned on a single flight was near that of a Jumbo jet, an aircraft far larger than it. The second concern was damage to the ozone layer as the aircraft was flying at the edge of the troposphere. Environmental groups were very insistent that the aircraft would add to the publicly known hole in the ozone layer.

And lastly, tragically,  the two hit combo of the only Concorde crash in 2000 when an Air France Concorde struck a loose part of metal on the runway dropped from a Continental DC-10 that had taken off just before it and exploded its tyres igniting the fuel tank in the wing with the rupture and crashing shortly after killing all on board. Not long after was 9/11 in which aircraft were grounded and many airlines went under struggling to survive. And two years later in 2003, it was finally, heartbreakingly retired from service. 

It was still a scary experience when we got to the veterinarian. Because of the coronavirus, there are extremely strict rules such as waiting outside the studio and not being allowed to enter the room with our own dog. Nalu has never liked going to the veterinarian, whenever we go we have to put a muzzle on and have two people hold him down so that the veterinarian can check him. For the first time in our life, we had to give the dog to them and hope for the best. Unfortunately, they did not know what could have caused the problem. The veterinarian said it could have been a type of colic.

This eye-opening experience made me realize how important Nalu has become to me. When this event happened I was frightened that I was going to lose him forever. Seeing my dog not being able to breathe and myself not being able to do anything sent me into shock. I reflected on this entire event and it made me realize how many things we take for granted each day. It is easy for us to become self-absorbed and forget about what we truly admire, love, and appreciate. Nalu has been part of my life ever since I was nine years old, he truly scared me the other day especially because I never witnessed something like this before. It was as if he were trying to ask me for help and wanted me to do something but I couldn’t do anything at all. People have always told me that the loss of a dog is like the loss of a person. I never understood what that truly meant until this incident occurred, when just the thought of losing him created a sense of emptiness inside myself.

Overall, as scary as this experience was, reflecting on the aftermath of the event taught me a valuable lesson. Taking everything day by day and acknowledging who and what has an important role in your life will make you feel better when an experience like this occurs.

Powerpuff Girls Cap

Quarantine has given me a lot of free time on my hands, so to stay sane I have turned towards books and art for the first time since high school. When I graduated high school I bought a pair of white Converse sneakers to customize. I gave one shoe to my best friends and the other to my art teacher and told them all to paint whatever they wanted to, no restrictions. My teacher, who taught me from ages 8 to 18, painted the Powerpuff Girls along one whole side. This had been a running joke for a long time and now at Webster the joke has resurfaced because of my roommate. So, when I painted the Powerpuff Girls on this hat, I wanted it to be cute and goofy, but it also has personal meaning to me.