When most people think of Canyon Hills High School, they think of the outstanding performance of the Field Hockey team, Badminton team, our last Football season, and more. Despite these great accomplishments, the school still picks up a poor reputation and it overshadows the aforementioned accolades the students have obtained. One of the communities that are overshadowed by this reputation is the students who do a lot of great things outside of school.
As a student here, I’ve met a diverse array of people at the school. This includes dancers, musicians, artists, nurse interns, educational interns, and more. The creative abilities of my peers is something that I feel really lucky to be around, as well as be in a school that nurtures such amazing abilities from its students. One of the most well known for his work on websites such as Youtube, Twitch, and Instagram is Senior Hazem Said.
Said has been making videos on Youtube under the name ‘Haizum’ since June of 2021 and about the same amount of time on Twitch. His content ranges from clip montages of games he plays with his friends, shows/ series that he’s come up with, and more. Students around the school regard his channel as one of genuine talent.
“One project that I really liked that I feel like did really well is my video ‘Music is Dead’ besides that I don’t actually like most of my videos” Said says “I really like the layout and editing of my videos though, they’ve obviously progressed over time with the more I post.”
Said credits the beginning of his content creation to a childhood dream that I think many of us can relate to; being a famous Youtuber.
“I feel like everyone wants to be a Youtuber and play games for fun and hopefully make money off of it” Said continues “Also the creative factor, it’s a good outlet to expand on how I feel about things and create whenever I want.”
He also credits this passion partially to his brother, Hatem Said, who has a pretty successful podcast of his own called ‘Gotta Hate’em Podcast’. What a creative family.
“[My brother having a podcast] at first created competition and a competitive urge to do better alongside him ” Said Praised
Hazem plans to make more video essay type videos on his Youtube once the free time to do so comes to him, so if you’re interested in supporting a young artist check out his channel on Youtube @Haizum.
Another artist that’s well known around the school is Senior David Lorenzo, known as Pluto Mane on streaming services/ social media. Lorenzo makes promotional videos for his songs that feature fellow students at the school which I think gives him a lot of traction, alongside his clear talent and passion for music creation.
Lorenzo started making beats when he was 13 on a program called BandLab but knew how to play guitar since he was about 11, which fueled his love for music and music production. What propelled this passion was his love for Bedroom Pop when he was younger.
“I wanted to make something that was cool and sounded like the stuff I was listening to. It also didn’t help that I wanted to impress my friends” Lorenzo reminisced.
It didn’t start steady, though, as he started out on BandLab with an Android to his own displeasure.
“Since I couldn’t afford an iPhone at the time, I was making music on an Android. Later on I would start making beats on my school’s 2011 macbook.” “Once I realized I wanted to do this more I saved up for my own personal macbook and begged my mom to buy a mini akai keyboard. I got Logic and have used it ever since”
This passion was fueled also by his love for listening to music, he listed a handful of artists that have inspired him over the years.
“I’ve always been really into music, with Kanye West and Kid Cudi being my biggest inspirations for rappers, most especially Kid Cudi” Lorenzo started “I also delve more into Mac Miller, smino, Lauryn Hill, Nirvana, fleetwood Mac, Weezer and more”
As of the time I’m writing this, Lorenzo’s most recent release is an eight track EP that’s available on all platforms under the name PlutoMane, his aforementioned promotional videos are pretty funny too so check him out on Instagram @donttripfoo619.
Going back to content creation, Eduardo Morales Najera or nmeeggy on social media is another notorious creator on campus, though his upload schedule is sparse, when he does upload it doesn’t disappoint.
Morales Najera started making videos when he was 16 and much like Said, started out with a passion from a young age.
“I feel like almost everyone had an idea of becoming a content creator at some point and that’s definitely something that drove me to giving it [content creation] a shot” Morales says “At the time I had others that were into the same sphere of making content which also gave me more of a push”
Being around fellow content creators is something that Morales praises as it gave him a lot of inspiration and healthy competition.
“It’s nice to have people around you with the same hobbies that inevitable makes yourself want to improve more in the craft” Morales says ”When learning how to make videos it was all about having a vision and making it into a reality which would have been really hard for me without my friends or video tutorials.”
Eduardo, like previously stated, uploads pretty infrequently. He currently only has one video up but he streams on Twitch much more often. I tried not to get too opinionated in this article but this video of his ‘The 2023 R6 Experience’ was genuinely one of the funniest videos I’ve ever seen.
Now I don’t know if I’m biased because these guys are my good friends, but the art that they make and spend time producing is something worth supporting. ‘Music is Dead’ is one of the best video essay’s I’ve ever seen, and Hazem made it as a school project. David’s song ‘Good Vibes Only’ from his 2 year old album ‘We All Fall’ still gets stuck in my head. These people are so genuinely talented, so many people on this campus are. The kids in orchestra, band, choir, graphic design, photography, the list goes on. I’ve included the online alias’ of all of these people’s names in the article. I encourage you to check them out and see what they have to offer, you will not be disappointed.
