“Half of the day she just wasn’t talking and in the second half, she just wouldn’t shut up.”
With an outburst of laughter, this is what senior Roniya Salinas recalled to me about her first date at the aquarium with her girlfriend, senior Makayla Wang.
Salinas and Wang have been dating for around two years, ever since the summer after their sophomore year. Despite their parents’ unsure opinions of their relationship, their relationship has continued to persist.
“Before we even started dating, my dad sat me down and talked to me. He [said], ‘By the way, don’t date this girl. You know who you are, don’t ruin it,’” Salinas said.
“Because there’s some things that you want to share with your parents because you’d want to share something exciting with your parents, but then—for [Roniya] of course—you don’t know how they would react,” Wang said.
Wang transferred to Walnut in her sophomore year and was confronted by a new environment. However, Salinas knew Wang through their families being friends and welcomed Wang into her friend group. Eventually, track season began, and they both connected from being on the same team.
“We both did track in the spring semester of sophomore year and got really close,” Salinas said. “We spent all of our practices together, [we] went home together because her mom would take me home,” Salinas said.
“[Roniya] started doing track events, and then I would watch her do them. Every time she would set a personal record, I would run up to her and hug her and we would start jumping around,” Wang said “She has her track events, and I only do field events, so we’re like two different sides.”
Throughout their junior and senior years, Wang and Salinas have continually supported each other through their responsibilities.
Wang said, “I mean, she’s the one with the heavier workload, because she’s in IB and all, but I feel like balancing is pretty easy, because–”
“—If I need to do something she’ll either do her own thing or she’ll be there with me. If I’m staying up late to do homework, we will be on call together. I don’t really worry about it affecting me because I still always have time for her,” Salinas said.
In the end, the two have worked together to balance their relationship throughout high school through parental influences, academic pressures and external responsibilities.
“When I’m worried or when I’m stressed, she’ll always reassure me and, obviously, we know that anything [anyone] says won’t be able to break our relationship apart because at the end of the day it’s me and it’s who I love, right?” Salinas said.
![A peek inside | Senior Teri Williams holds and reads the physical copy of her book. “It was exciting [to receive the book]; I had gotten two copies back home. The cover was perfect and there were slight changes I wanted to make, but my heart dropped when I saw it. Everything was the way I wanted it to be [and] I got that feeling of accomplishment,” Williams said.](https://whshoofprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/online-1200x486.png)
![Sophomore Atul Prabhu wears and holds up his grey zip-up hoodie. “[LUSH] is in big bold letters because action can only take place if the idea itself is heard. The back [reflects how people make decisions at the expense of nature. The spider shows how if we do not [take action], [our world] will forever stay an unreachable cobweb.”](https://whshoofprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ftre_teaser.png)
