Carly, May 2020
I don’t think any of us knew that a random Thursday in March would be our last day of junior year. I was taking a Math test when Ms. Mizoguchi came onto the loudspeaker and announced that students should be prepared for a “long break.” Everyone looked up and glanced around, some of us confused by her words, but most of us making frowns to show our confusion from the test. To me, the word “pause” sounded more like vacation, so when Ms. Mizoguchi hung up the phone and we returned to our tests, I was preparing myself for some well-deserved time off until I was back in that classroom again.
My classmates and I never received our grades for that test. In fact, none of us even returned to that classroom again, or even came back to school. After we left that Thursday, the CoronaVirus Pandemic got so bad that all schools eventually became suspended for the summer. Restaurants, hairdressers, retail stores, and even athletic fields all closed, and exactly for how long, I don’t think anybody knew, or even knows now. Looking back on these last few months, I’ve definitely grown more patient. While people say the hardest aspect of quarantine is boredom, I think the amount of patience required to live in this “new normal” is actually the most challenging part. Everywhere you go there's a line: at the grocery store, to pick up take-out, to pick-up clothes, to get tested for the virus, etc. Even if you’re not out, you’re at home waiting for something to change, something to be over, or simply for something to do. While I don’t miss being stressed out by school or sports, I do miss how fast things used to be. Now, I can’t leave the house without my mask, a bottle of hand sanitizer, and the required six feet around me wherever I end up.
The other day, my friend and I went biking around town-something we’d never do around this time of year. Being outside is definitely something I want to carry into the future with me. Had this pandemic not occurred, I would have been inside a classroom for six hours a day just to go back inside my house for the rest of the night. We ended up biking around the high school, and we saw the new turf and athletic facilities. Not being able to use the new fields this year is definitely hard, but I think what was hardest for us was seeing the empty academic building and the Commons. Literally months ago we were walking in-between buildings, annoyed by English papers and talking about our weekend plans; this empty high school was a super grim sight.
Looking back now, I think I’ve learned a lot about change. When our lives are normal, we talk a lot about wanting to do things that we never get around to doing. With this pandemic going on, it’s easy to see how much change can actually happen when the entire world is willing to devote themselves. I honestly can’t wait until my life is back to normal, but I think social distancing is important until we get there!
Carly, June 2020
2020 has exposed the weaknesses of America. In these last six months, I’ve experienced a pandemic, a movement resulting in riots which set fire to the streets, and most influential of all, an extremely polarized United States. While I’d like to say that these current events are problems America has never encountered before, the parallels alongside history and current day are telling. It’s our solutions, or lack thereof, to these events that make a riot per se, feel remarkably different.
In our world today, everything is uncertain. When we’ll get a vaccine, not clear. When we’ll go back to school, all we can do is hope, and when the United States will recover from our struggles, I don’t think anyone has an answer to that at the moment. Therefore, in these times of anxiety and change, people are desperate for a leader. Like FDR was in World War II, or like Lincoln was during the Civil War, America needs a person who is genuine and honors the matters at hand. This quality goes beyond the common feeling of “picking a side.” During the Civil War, Lincoln was dealing with a country literally torn at the seam. While our current America isn’t disputing land, we are disputing over an identical social issue to that of the 1860’s: the oppression of black people. Keep in mind, Lincoln wasn’t a man to go around promoting abolition; however, he was a fantastic neutralizer. As FDR was in his Fireside Chats, Lincoln was genuine and self-aware. Our problems today are similar; black men are being targeted, and our system is corrupt. Especially with the presence of social media in society, our country today is struggling for that binding figure. In terms of the CoronaVirus, we see similar trends evoked by the cruelty of Hurricane Katrina. In the aftermath of that 2005 devastation, poorer communities, which were primarily black, were the last groups to receive aid from the storm. During this pandemic, having access to a health test, or even a job, is especially hard for these same lower class residents. In addition to changing the disproportionate diversity of these communities, America should work on the fact that we still even have these types of communities at all. Is a lack of resources for these groups still all that surprising if we’re copying our past and keep putting them last?
I saw a quote on a protester’s sign the other day, and it read “racism is so American that when you protest it, people think you are protesting America.” Like it was very American of us to want to interfere in Vietnam, it’s very American of us to not admit there’s a problem in our society. I think we should be proud of our country, not prideful. When we have too much pride, we begin to lose sight of our honesty and the aspects that make us truly “American.” I just think we need to relearn, as a country, how to better personify our values in keeping justice for all.
I don’t think any of us knew that a random Thursday in March would be our last day of junior year. I was taking a Math test when Ms. Mizoguchi came onto the loudspeaker and announced that students should be prepared for a “long break.” Everyone looked up and glanced around, some of us confused by her words, but most of us making frowns to show our confusion from the test. To me, the word “pause” sounded more like vacation, so when Ms. Mizoguchi hung up the phone and we returned to our tests, I was preparing myself for some well-deserved time off until I was back in that classroom again.
My classmates and I never received our grades for that test. In fact, none of us even returned to that classroom again, or even came back to school. After we left that Thursday, the CoronaVirus Pandemic got so bad that all schools eventually became suspended for the summer. Restaurants, hairdressers, retail stores, and even athletic fields all closed, and exactly for how long, I don’t think anybody knew, or even knows now. Looking back on these last few months, I’ve definitely grown more patient. While people say the hardest aspect of quarantine is boredom, I think the amount of patience required to live in this “new normal” is actually the most challenging part. Everywhere you go there's a line: at the grocery store, to pick up take-out, to pick-up clothes, to get tested for the virus, etc. Even if you’re not out, you’re at home waiting for something to change, something to be over, or simply for something to do. While I don’t miss being stressed out by school or sports, I do miss how fast things used to be. Now, I can’t leave the house without my mask, a bottle of hand sanitizer, and the required six feet around me wherever I end up.
The other day, my friend and I went biking around town-something we’d never do around this time of year. Being outside is definitely something I want to carry into the future with me. Had this pandemic not occurred, I would have been inside a classroom for six hours a day just to go back inside my house for the rest of the night. We ended up biking around the high school, and we saw the new turf and athletic facilities. Not being able to use the new fields this year is definitely hard, but I think what was hardest for us was seeing the empty academic building and the Commons. Literally months ago we were walking in-between buildings, annoyed by English papers and talking about our weekend plans; this empty high school was a super grim sight.
Looking back now, I think I’ve learned a lot about change. When our lives are normal, we talk a lot about wanting to do things that we never get around to doing. With this pandemic going on, it’s easy to see how much change can actually happen when the entire world is willing to devote themselves. I honestly can’t wait until my life is back to normal, but I think social distancing is important until we get there!
Carly, June 2020
2020 has exposed the weaknesses of America. In these last six months, I’ve experienced a pandemic, a movement resulting in riots which set fire to the streets, and most influential of all, an extremely polarized United States. While I’d like to say that these current events are problems America has never encountered before, the parallels alongside history and current day are telling. It’s our solutions, or lack thereof, to these events that make a riot per se, feel remarkably different.
In our world today, everything is uncertain. When we’ll get a vaccine, not clear. When we’ll go back to school, all we can do is hope, and when the United States will recover from our struggles, I don’t think anyone has an answer to that at the moment. Therefore, in these times of anxiety and change, people are desperate for a leader. Like FDR was in World War II, or like Lincoln was during the Civil War, America needs a person who is genuine and honors the matters at hand. This quality goes beyond the common feeling of “picking a side.” During the Civil War, Lincoln was dealing with a country literally torn at the seam. While our current America isn’t disputing land, we are disputing over an identical social issue to that of the 1860’s: the oppression of black people. Keep in mind, Lincoln wasn’t a man to go around promoting abolition; however, he was a fantastic neutralizer. As FDR was in his Fireside Chats, Lincoln was genuine and self-aware. Our problems today are similar; black men are being targeted, and our system is corrupt. Especially with the presence of social media in society, our country today is struggling for that binding figure. In terms of the CoronaVirus, we see similar trends evoked by the cruelty of Hurricane Katrina. In the aftermath of that 2005 devastation, poorer communities, which were primarily black, were the last groups to receive aid from the storm. During this pandemic, having access to a health test, or even a job, is especially hard for these same lower class residents. In addition to changing the disproportionate diversity of these communities, America should work on the fact that we still even have these types of communities at all. Is a lack of resources for these groups still all that surprising if we’re copying our past and keep putting them last?
I saw a quote on a protester’s sign the other day, and it read “racism is so American that when you protest it, people think you are protesting America.” Like it was very American of us to want to interfere in Vietnam, it’s very American of us to not admit there’s a problem in our society. I think we should be proud of our country, not prideful. When we have too much pride, we begin to lose sight of our honesty and the aspects that make us truly “American.” I just think we need to relearn, as a country, how to better personify our values in keeping justice for all.