By: Kai Payne

If you haven’t taken a look at the IA Calendar we have roughly 3 weeks left of school here in the 2025 to 2026 school year. Throughout this whole year trends have came and gone, movies released, and flopped, days ticked on. But how do these days trends that stick in our mind affect us?

In August to December of 2025 we had several trends the most notable ones of those being quote. “Main Character” / Emotional Story Telling Videos, Workplace / School Humor , Before After transformations, “Fall-Core”, “This is so me”, looping jokes, and audio based memes (looping audios or tone shifts).

In January to April of 2026 we had a few moments, for example the Game Awards. Of which as a treat to YOU dear reader the Trend of The Year goes to… a show developed by an independent animation studio, with a total of 8 reoccurring characters, an emotional and funny rollercoaster, loss of friends and lovers, all in a circus…. The Trend of the Year goes to: “The Amazing Digital Circus”. Yeah no I don’t even know what that is ANYWAYS moving on dear reader. Trends from January to April of 2026 include but aren’t limited to “I just hit the jackpot”, “Cry for me”, Confession Style Videos, “Probably need a hug” emotional trends, Corporation memes, “Older Sibling Energy”. Content this year seems to have shifted to a more humor, overstimulating, or behind the scenes type content compared to last years AI fest.

With all of this in mind how do you think dear reader this has molded your life this whole school year? Did it make you more confident? More brave? Smarter? Well one thing is for sure. There is one trend lately from the movies. That has caused everyone to fall into love with a genre I’m naming “Sacrificed for Hope”. There are two movies that released that follow this genre that destroyed all charts and are fans hope for an Oscar. The Genre “Sacrificed for Hope” follows a simple plot. The main character is sacrificed by another character for “the greater good” to save the rest of humanity. In the end after completing their task they choose to make the ultimate sacrifice and throw away their chance of going home for “the greater good” and to give everyone else hope to continue. Those two movies are Project Hail Mary, and Iron Lung.

Throughout all of these movie releases, trends, and other facts it is safe to say it has shaped what we of a Generation or dare I say as a school interpret life and what we come around to enjoy as a community. Lets see what trends for 2026 to 2027 shape our classrooms to be.