By Jackson Weber
Staff Reporter
Junior Lily Dezfulian loves to show her artistic side here at The Sentry, but beyond the walls of our school, she is so much more. Dezfulian simply has a passion for life—whether it’s learning new subjects or trying new activities, she is in for the ride.
“At the beginning of the summer I was like, I wish I could rock climb with somebody. And then I realized I could and so I dragged her to take me to rock climbing like ten different times.” said Dezfulian
Even if it requires ducking some red tape.
“We’re definitely cheating the system, because she [Dezfulian’s friend] only has six passes [to go rock climbing] for the year and I’ve been there more than six times. But yeah, it’s really fun,” Dezfulian said.
Dezfulian loves to keep busy, and one of the many ways she does so is through ultimate frisbee. Not only is Dezfulian on the Yorktown ultimate team, she also plays for YULA, the Youth Ultimate League of Arlington.
“All the sports I play, I do it for fun,” Dezfulian said.
In her free time, Dezfulian also enjoys heading down to her local community center and joining a pickup game of volleyball. She loves the atmosphere during these games, where people ranging from 13 to 75 years old all come together to have a good time.
“It is just a really fun experience to go to sport where everyone’s trying,” Dezfulian said
Beyond this, Dezfulian has a passion for the arts. She is a talented self-taught artist, leading her to hone her skills by taking art for the past three years. She is most at home using pencil and pen however, her preferred medium is painting where she skillfully casts paint onto her canvas realizing her design. One of Dezfulian’s favorite things to create are handmade gifts for her friends and family.
Additionally, Dezfulian enjoys kicking it back and enjoying a good show. Whether it’s her favorite show, Fleabag, all thirteen seasons of Doctor Who, or any other show on her extensive “to watch” list, Dezfulian is no stranger to some good old fashion binge watching.
“I did watch all of Grey’s Anatomy over like three months in sixth grade,” Dezfulian said
A big part of writing journalism is going out into the world and getting to learn about new things, which is why Dezfulian loves investigative journalism the most. She loves how she can start an article with one opinion on the topic and emerge afterwards with a completely new one. Of course, she always keeps her articles unbiased.
When asked what advice she had for people trying to get into journalism, Dezfulian explained that you should try to discover things for yourself and to write about things you want to learn about.
“Obviously, there’s the fact that you’re writing to tell people what’s happening, and inform people, but the way I see it more and more is that you’re informing yourself,” Dezfulian said
That’s Dezfulian—whether she is playing a sport, practicing her art or writing for The Sentry, she is always doing something to live her life to the fullest. It’s for this amazing outlook on life that makes Dezfulian a piece of The Sentry puzzle.
By Lily Dezfulian
Staff Reporter
Everyone has a quirk to their handwriting. It just so happens that sophomore Jackson Weber’s quirk makes his handwriting look like a ransom note cut out of a magazine. Sizes vary from letter to letter, with random capitals sprinkled here and there. Perhaps this is why he turned his focus to our school newspaper, where he can transform his creative ideas into digital prose.
“Everything I write is readable, but…it’s not great. I also can’t spell,” Weber said.
There are other peculiarities to Weber. Despite his deep love for classic rock, he plays an instrument, the ukulele, that is unsuitable for rock songs.
“[Rock on the ukulele] sounds terrible. The only songs you play on a ukulele are songs made for a ukulele,” Weber said.
His favorite rock band is Train. He has been a fan since he went to one of their concerts in 2017. The band holds a special place in Weber’s heart and on his wall. A Train poster is the only wall decor Weber has in his room, besides a lone blue stripe that circles the four walls.
This lack of decor is not a fault of his. There are simply other, more important walls that are on Weber’s mind. A little over a year ago, he started the grueling and intense sport of rock climbing. He climbs on the Movement Crystal City advanced team, where he met The Sentry’s head editor Elijah Dale. It must have been fate—or potentially some coercion—that Weber wound up as a writer for The Sentry, because Dale is not the only connection he has. Weber is also on the Robotics team with Sentry IT specialist Josh Bodenstein.
Weber’s extracurriculars don’t stop there. He has played soccer since third grade and is on a recreational team with his friends, purely for fun. When he isn’t playing soccer or stuck to a wall like Spiderman, you can find Weber in front of his TV.
“Do you count binging netflix shows as a hobby? I’m a sucker for a good medical show,” Weber said.
He has finished an impressive number of medical dramas, including House, Chicago Med and New Amsterdam. However, there is one show Weber won’t go near: Grey’s Anatomy.
“It’s not a medical show; it’s just a drama,” Weber said.
He’s on that couch for the science, so it’s no surprise his favorite school subjects are all math or science related. He thoroughly enjoys solving puzzles, which, in his eyes, is all STEM really is. His desire to contribute to The Sentry seems to be a continuation of this hobby; journalism is trying to find all the pieces of a puzzle to tell a story.
Weber has dabbled in storytelling since he was a child. In elementary school, he created a whole storyline around a Beanie Baby husky named Slush. Slush was married to another Beanie Baby, and eventually had a child who incidentally had the same looks and name as the father, due to the fact that they were duplicate toys. The saga lasted over a year before coming to a close.
“They got a divorce, a very messy divorce,” Weber said.
He did not write this story down, but since it was completed Weber has put to paper many other stories. The piece he was most passionate about writing is about the eight summers he has spent at a Jewish sleepaway camp, Camp Eerie, up in Thurmont, Maryland. It was filled with different memories and snapshots of his time there with friends. When it comes to friends, Weber is looking for similarities. People with similar interests, and people he can talk to. In his eyes, a good conversation is the least a friend can provide.
“Nothing’s worse than trying to hold up a conversation all by yourself. It drives me insane,” Weber said.
Luckily for Weber, The Sentry’s classroom is filled with nonstop chatter. With his curiosity, his words and the digital—as opposed to handwritten—medium, Weber has a bright future in this class.
