Katie O', May 2020
For me, the past few months have changed my perspective on everything. I never once imagined a world where I would not be going to school every day, seeing my friends, my family, going to the mall, the movies, the grocery store without a mask, or out to dinner. I took those everyday things for granted because it's not something anyone would imagine would be taken away. Quarantine hasn’t been completely horrible for me either. These past few months have given me more time to exercise, spend with my family, go outside, and not stress over the school. The only person I’m allowed to hang out with is my boyfriend so I’ve gotten to spend a lot more time with him. We’ve been watching lots of movies and shows together during this pandemic. My favorite movies being The Hangover series, and for shows, The Walking Dead and of course, The Office. We still can order and pick up food too. I’ve been buying too much Dunkin’ and way too much Chick-Fil-A during Corona. Seeing my friends though has been difficult. We cant have sleepovers and go out to eat anymore so we’ve had to improvise. We’ve had social distancing picnics together, but that’s pretty much all we’ve been able to do. It’s crazy to imagine my life 4 months ago. I was on a trip to Asia flying on multiple flights when the virus was first outbreak in China. I wasn’t concerned at all and I never would’ve imagined that the virus would affect the whole world in the ways it did. I’m very glad I did go on that trip though, as it is probably the last I’ll be going on one for a while due to the virus. As for the future, I’m not sure what to expect. My biggest concern is whether we will go back to school in the fall or not and if it will be different than it was before. I just hope things get better soon.
Katie, June 2020
This past week I have taken a lot of time to process everything that has been going in our country. I feel as though everything I have learned about the civil rights era is repeating itself. Our country's racist past is happening again and I am fed up with it. Black people are nowhere near equal and it seems as though all the progress we have made has been set back completely. The BLM project we did focused a lot on police brutality. We learned about so many different incidents that kept occurring and I think people are finally over it. The problem is our current and possibly the next president does not seem to care and we need him to help create change too. Instead, he chose to sit in his bunker and turn all the lights off in the white house when D.C and the rest of our country was falling apart. The timing of this is so horrific too. We are in a global pandemic and protesting for equality is dangerous to everyone’s health. The issue is so serious that people are risking the chance of COVID to help protest. I think some of the protests are getting out of hand, however. The looting makes no sense to me because people are damaging innocent businesses and some of which are owned by black people. I also don't think we should be punishing all police officers or defunding the police. We need a strong police force to keep us safe because the majority of officers are good and they don't deserve to be called racist and get rocks thrown at them in protests. I think the system is very messed up and that police officers with multiple complaints need to be fired to protect all lives. Right now, more than ever, it is so important we try to make a change so our country does not go back to being racist again. We need to donate, spread awareness, protest and come together as a country.
For me, the past few months have changed my perspective on everything. I never once imagined a world where I would not be going to school every day, seeing my friends, my family, going to the mall, the movies, the grocery store without a mask, or out to dinner. I took those everyday things for granted because it's not something anyone would imagine would be taken away. Quarantine hasn’t been completely horrible for me either. These past few months have given me more time to exercise, spend with my family, go outside, and not stress over the school. The only person I’m allowed to hang out with is my boyfriend so I’ve gotten to spend a lot more time with him. We’ve been watching lots of movies and shows together during this pandemic. My favorite movies being The Hangover series, and for shows, The Walking Dead and of course, The Office. We still can order and pick up food too. I’ve been buying too much Dunkin’ and way too much Chick-Fil-A during Corona. Seeing my friends though has been difficult. We cant have sleepovers and go out to eat anymore so we’ve had to improvise. We’ve had social distancing picnics together, but that’s pretty much all we’ve been able to do. It’s crazy to imagine my life 4 months ago. I was on a trip to Asia flying on multiple flights when the virus was first outbreak in China. I wasn’t concerned at all and I never would’ve imagined that the virus would affect the whole world in the ways it did. I’m very glad I did go on that trip though, as it is probably the last I’ll be going on one for a while due to the virus. As for the future, I’m not sure what to expect. My biggest concern is whether we will go back to school in the fall or not and if it will be different than it was before. I just hope things get better soon.
Katie, June 2020
This past week I have taken a lot of time to process everything that has been going in our country. I feel as though everything I have learned about the civil rights era is repeating itself. Our country's racist past is happening again and I am fed up with it. Black people are nowhere near equal and it seems as though all the progress we have made has been set back completely. The BLM project we did focused a lot on police brutality. We learned about so many different incidents that kept occurring and I think people are finally over it. The problem is our current and possibly the next president does not seem to care and we need him to help create change too. Instead, he chose to sit in his bunker and turn all the lights off in the white house when D.C and the rest of our country was falling apart. The timing of this is so horrific too. We are in a global pandemic and protesting for equality is dangerous to everyone’s health. The issue is so serious that people are risking the chance of COVID to help protest. I think some of the protests are getting out of hand, however. The looting makes no sense to me because people are damaging innocent businesses and some of which are owned by black people. I also don't think we should be punishing all police officers or defunding the police. We need a strong police force to keep us safe because the majority of officers are good and they don't deserve to be called racist and get rocks thrown at them in protests. I think the system is very messed up and that police officers with multiple complaints need to be fired to protect all lives. Right now, more than ever, it is so important we try to make a change so our country does not go back to being racist again. We need to donate, spread awareness, protest and come together as a country.