Almost all San Luis Obispo High School students experience a change from freshman to senior year, whether it be taste in music, fashion sense, or friend group. One person who made a drastic change within these high school years is senior Noah Galpert. Students often spot him on campus with his bright purple hair and bomber jacket while humming his lungs away, but what most people don’t know about him is that he wasn’t always like this; he used to be more shy and conservative when it came to his fashion sense and hair style. This transition is thanks to a genre of music call K-Pop (Korean pop music). K-Pop has been on the front line of news coverage in the last few months, but no one seems to be taken by its culture as much as Galpert.

  “I discovered K-Pop last year in the AP Calculus seminar when [former students] Noe Davis and Isaiah Kim forced me to watch it. Although cringing was my first reaction, the choreography caught my attention, and I’ve been hooked ever since,” said Galpert.

  Furthermore, music has been a huge part of his life since he was a kid, which also lead him to joining band.

  “I was hesitant to join band in high school, but my idol, Thomas Green, pushed me to join, and I’m glad that I did. Plus, music is super relaxing and nice to have in life. When I need to focus I just listen to K-Pop since I don’t understand the lyrics,” said Galpert. “As for transitioning into dressing like a K-Pop idol, it’s purely because I thought it would be fun and my friends said it would make a good meme, so here we are. I’m kinda stuck with this look for a while.”

  As demonstrated by Galpert, using our time in high school to experiment with new things and cultures is perfect, whether it be hair style, music, or anything really, as long as you move through these years with joy.