Category: Usual Blogs

what did i learn over quarantine? that’s a question that i will most likely have to answer in almost every class on the first day of school. when considering what i learned “nothing,” was my first thought. i learned how to sit at home, maybe? or perhaps i could say i learned how to properly wear a mask? but even if it’s not something like playing an entire new instrument or learning to sew, we all did learn something over quarantine. it’s hard not to learn anything after spending five months (or more; quarantine could hardly be considered over yet) at home, alone. i learned about myself, realized my privilege, and learned about friendship.

since i spent a lot of time with myself these past few months, i’ve learned more about myself. i learned that i have a lot to say. i learned that i’m actually kind of funny. i learned that there’s a lot that makes me angry, and it’s okay to feel that way. and i learned that maybe i’m not that bad of a person. we all put on metaphorical masks everyday when we go out. for school, even if i did try to “be myself,” i always did act different than how i felt. now, i let myself feel emotions. when i was sad at school, i would hide it and sometimes even be extra cheerful to compensate. but now, i have nobody to perform for. so when i’m sad, i lay in bed and i watch my favorite show and i do whatever i feel up to. now that i’m not forced to be quiet in school for six hours or forced to be loud for two hours to entertain my friends, i find myself less drained. i do have days where i’m sad, but i feel like it isn’t as often as it was in school. the lack of forced interaction with others has helped me learn about what kind of a person i am, and has probably helped my mental health.

despite the many flaws school as a whole has, i learned that it is a privilege. the fact that we get to go to this place every day, have opportunities to learn and make friends and have teachers who answer your questions. i realized that i took so many things for granted. when we went on vacation every summer, i never took time to think about how lucky i was to be there. even going to concerts, while i was obviously extremely grateful, i still feel as if i wasn’t grateful enough. going out in general was a privilege and i didn’t appreciate it as much as i should’ve.

finally, i learned about friendship. not all friendships are perfect or meant to last forever. not all friendships fit as well as you might think they do. after facetiming my best friend everyday, i’ve realized that with some people, you really do click. even if we’re quarantined, and there’s not much to really talk about, somehow she and i can never stop talking. but i’ve also learned that some people are just school friends, and that’s all they may ever be. when there’s no school to talk about, conversation falls flat. you’re only friends because you’ve been friends for a long time, and suddenly, once everyone’s at home and their masks are lifted, you realize you don’t share as many interests as you thought. that doesn’t mean certain friends aren’t worth having, though; just that some are long-term and some aren’t. 

so, even if i didn’t take up five new hobbies like some teachers seem to expect me to, i did learn over quarantine. and honestly, i think what i learned is a lot more important than a new hobby could ever be. covid-19 is obviously terrible and i really hope doctors find a vaccine and cure soon, but i’m glad it at least gave me a chance to look at myself, my privilege, and my friends.

Recently, the long awaited Artemis Fowl movie was released on Disney+. As a huge fan of the book series, I’ve been looking for news about this movie since I was nine. You can imagine my devastation when I found out that it was supposed to come out in 2008, but never did. I assumed the movie was never going to come out until I stumbled across a casting call in 2017. The casting call said, “Artemis is warm-hearted and has a great sense of humor, he has fun in whatever situation he is in and loves life.” If you have read the Artemis Fowl books, you would know that that is pretty much the exact opposite of Artemis’s character. I decided then that the movie was going to be terrible.

The released cast list only further solidified my low expectations of the movie. e. Why was Holly so young? Why was Commander Root a woman? (I understand the need for diversity, but Root being a man and Holly being the only woman was valuable to the plot.) 

When the trailer came out, I thought it couldn’t get any worse.

It had gotten worst. 

My expectations for this movie were on the ground, but this movie somehow went lower than that. 

I could name maybe one scene that was actually in the book – and even that scene changed things. There was nothing at all about this movie that made it Artemis Fowl. Its plot is completely different from the book. In fact, even the selling point of the book – Artemis being a villain – isn’t included in the movie. While they do attempt to make him a villain, it was poorly executed due to the complete lack of evil in his character. Artemis claims to be a criminal mastermind, but he doesn’t really do anything that could be considered criminal. The bad things he does are justified, and he doesn’t even go through with them. Taking away this part of his character takes away his entire character. I think the only similarity between the book and movie I could name plotwise is the characters’ names. At this point, they might as well have made an entirely new movie.

This movie also unnecessarily changes things. Throughout the entire book, everyone addresses Artemis’s butler as Butler. We don’t even find out his name until the third book, because he is not allowed to tell anyone his name unless he’s about to die. However, in the movie, the narrator says to only call Butler by his real name, Domovoi, or Dom, but never by Butler. This change literally makes no sense, as it makes no difference in the movie at all, and even takes away from the plot of a possible third movie. They could’ve just kept Butler’s name how it is in the books and this movie would’ve remained the same. Speaking of Butler, his sister in the books, Juliet, is suddenly his niece in the movie? This is another change that has no impact. It’s like the writers, McPherson and McColl, read the Artemis Fowl book, and decided they would change as much as they could. 

Not only was this movie completely inaccurate, but it wasn’t even good as a standalone movie. For example, the Aculos, the item Artemis and Butler spend the movie chasing after, is hardly explained. As the viewers don’t know what an Aculos is, they can not grow invested in the plot. I’m still not sure what the Aculos was supposed to be. It’s really just a pointless object used to move the story along. It feels like Disney thought the plot was too dark, so decided to give it a flat, uninteresting plot with flat, uninteresting characters instead. 

Regarding characters, we know very little about them by the end of the movie . There’s no character development, and the movie fails to teach us about the characters through their relationships with each other. Holly and Artemis’s relationship has no development; it goes directly from enemies to friends forever. Artemis and Butler’s relationship isn’t touched on, either. None of the characters had a chance to showcase their personalities or have relationships because this movie is so poorly  paced. It could be called fast-paced, but in the way that makes you feel like you went to the bathroom in the middle of a scene and are trying to understand what you missed constantly. There were so many points in the movie where my family was asking each other what was going on, because the movie is so confusing.

I didn’t like a single thing about this movie. Maybe I’m being too harsh, but for something I was waiting for for so long, it was a huge disappointment. It’s not representative of the book at all and just isn’t a good movie. However, I did like one scene, so maybe I’ll give it a one out of ten.

when quarantine first started and everyone was doing things to their hair, i decided i wanted bangs. well, i had already wanted them. but, i hadn’t had a chance to go to a hairstylist and i decided this was the perfect time to do it myself. 

there was only one thing stopping me from taking my pair of white metal scissors to the front strands of my hair: my mom. i begged and begged, repeatedly mentioning this was the perfect time. she said no. after that, i asked with increased frequency that month, and she declared that if i did it, she would take my phone away.

i had completely given up. i spent hours of my time watching videos of people messing up their hair, and i wished i could do the same. since i couldn’t, i just settled for dying my hair teal. 

as the months went by, i pushed my desire to cut my hair to the back of my mind. i still wanted bangs, but not as much as before. i stopped thinking about it. 

but then, one random day in july that was just like any other i began to wish for bangs again. hesitantly, i tiptoed down the stairs, on my way to talk to my mother, bracing myself for a no. i didn’t feel like getting my phone taken away anytime soon. i was shocked when she said yes. 

my mom’s list of conditions included

1: I had to cut my hair after eid, because she was pretty sure it would look bad in pictures.

and with that vote of confidence, i eagerly awaited the day after eid.

so from that day on, i adopted a new routine, where every single night i would spend hours watching videos of girls cutting bangs. examining those videos, i would practice sectioning my hair for bangs. at times, it felt kind of obsessive, but i was really excited.

as the day i would chop my hair off approached, i started to feel a bit more nervous. what if it turned out terrible? what if i had to attend my google meet classes with my newly botched hair? i casually asked my mom a second time if i could cut bangs, just to make sure she hadn’t changed her mind, and she continued to agree. i was kind of bewildered when i noticed that despite being totally against it before, my mom seemed kind of excited, or at least supportive for what i was about to do for my hair. ultimately, after probably a few seconds of consideration, i didn’t back out.

fun fact: cutting my own hair is something that’s on my bucket list. more specifically, cutting bangs. my mom actually wanted to do it, but i refused. not only was it something i had to cross off my list, but i felt like she wouldn’t do it exactly how i want it.

finally, on the night after eid, after watching probably every bang-cutting video to exist on the internet, i was ready.

i washed my hair, blow-dried the part i planned to cut, and picked up the scissors. my hands were shaking – with fear or excitement, i wasn’t sure. maybe a bit of both.

i decided to let my sister and cousin watch me. 

but then they kept screaming and being annoying, so i kicked them out.

finally, i forwarded through one last tutorial of how to cut bangs, before i turned on my phone camera to film myself cutting my hair.

then, i cut it.

my hair fell onto the counter as i leaned forward to make sure it didn’t get all over the rug. i sliced and chopped and cut at my hair, until finally, it was to my eyes.

after curling it, i decided it looked weird. i definitely didn’t regret it, but i looked really strange. that was probably mostly because the rest of my hair was still wet.

anyways, so now i have bangs! i would absolutely say it was worth the wait, because i do really like them. they definitely make my face and hair feel more interesting. that might just be because i’m not completely used to them, though.

if you wanna cut bangs, or do anything to your hair in general, i 100% recommend you do it. even if it looks bad, at least you can say you did it instead of spending forever wondering if you should. but most of the time, if you thought it over for as long as i did, it’ll probably look great! so if you plan on cutting or dying your hair, good luck!

Artemis Fowl is the first book in an eight-book-long series, and one of my favorites. Artemis is a twelve year old genius, millionaire, and criminal mastermind. In search of gold, he decides to kidnap Holly Short, a fairy and captain of the Lower Elements Police and Reconnaissance Force, or the LEPrecon. However, Artemis finds himself in more danger than he expected. I recommend Artemis Fowl because it’s unique, has great character development, and comments on the fact that not everything is black and white, both in books and in life.

I’ve never read a book like Artemis Fowl. Most fantasy books, despite frequently being well-written, always seem familiar. For example, try to guess the title of this book: the main character finds out they’re special and goes to a place with more people who are like them. Or, maybe, the main character is the “chosen one” and has to save the world. 

 Any reader of fantasy novels could name multiple stories with that plot. While that doesn’t make the stories bad, it’s nice to switch it up sometimes. Artemis Fowl isn’t about a boy finding out he’s magical and saving the world – it’s about a non-magical boy discovering and stealing from the magical world. Additionally, before Artemis Fowl, I had never read a book where the protagonist could also be considered an antagonist. Artemis’s actions are definitely bad in this book – and yet, somehow, the audience still wants to root for him. You don’t know which side to root for in this book which is a rare instance. Books tend to have a very clear line between which characters are good and which are evil. In Artemis Fowl, most characters aren’t good or bad, and that makes the book stand out from other fantasy books.

One of my favorite things to read and to talk about in fiction is good character development. I love seeing a character’s motivation and watching them learn and grow. Artemis Fowl does character development like no other. Artemis Fowl doesn’t switch sides immediately. He doesn’t just see the light and decide to be good for the next seven books; his redemption arc progresses slowly. He starts the first book as a selfish and evil individual, but as you see his inner monologue and the environment he grows up in throughout the book, you begin to sympathize with him. The fact that he doesn’t become good quickly is what I think is so appealing about this series. You grow to love him as a character even before he chooses “goodness”, and you get to watch a character you love change. However, he does not change so drastically that he’s a completely different person. He starts out as a villain, and grows into an anti-hero. The arc is subtle in the first book, but that’s what pulls you in to read the rest of the series. Artemis Fowl has one of my favorite redemption arcs.

Finally, Artemis Fowl provides a commentary on the fact that not everything is black and white. As I said before, he’s not a “good” character. But neither are the fairies. They, too, kill and harm people even when avoidable. Artemis also feels guilty for his actions throughout this book, but ignores it and goes through with his plans. At the end, his actions contradict Artemis’s so-called selfishness. Throughout the series, Artemis’s actions are bad, but his intentions aren’t. He uses his criminal brain to do things that aren’t evil as well, and there are times where he even saves people by doing things that are bad on the surface. This shows that not everything is black and white – people can do good things for bad reasons, and bad things for good reasons. Not everything can even be separated into good or bad, and Artemis Fowl shows that. 

Artemis Fowl is definitely worth a read. It’s one of my favorite book series of all time, and I recommend that everyone read it. The first book may be kind of confusing, but the series sucks you in. Artemis Fowl is different from other books, develops the characters well, and represents the idea of moral ambiguity.

math is hard, and so is life. 

“find x,” my teacher said to me for today’s writing prompt. ‘what does that even mean?’ i wondered. most of the time, finding x is what you do for a math equation. math indicates that x will always be certain. there’s a specific number that says exactly what x is – there’s a specific place on the number line for it. however, x isn’t always just one number. x can be infinite, or x can be multiple numbers depending on the equation. x doesn’t always fit perfectly. finding x can take a lot of steps. it isn’t always one specific thing, and you might need to change your approach on it sometimes. finding x can be like life. . in life, you may think that there is one perfect goal or approach to something. but that’s not always the case. you may try a lot of different things and still not find the thing you like. there are a lot of different ways to find x, and each yields a different answer. just like there is not always a number for x, there is not always one goal to strive for in life. 

when you calculate an equation, you may end up doing something that you shouldn’t have done. it’s the same with life. to some extent, both can be erased, but you still must learn from your mistakes. last year, i took geometry. i was daunted with a  really difficult homework packet where we had to pretend to make our way through a store using a map. we had to use the distance formula and pythagorean theorem. i made so many mistakes. i would plug in the wrong numbers and use the pythagorean theorem where i should’ve used the distance formula. it took me almost an hour just to find an answer that worked. the way i got to the answer was by seeing what didn’t work. i messed up, and i realized what not to do so i could find out what i should have been doing. i almost gave up halfway, telling myself finding the solution didn’t really matter. i was glad i didn’t though, because we ended up having a test that asked the same question. the same thing tends to happen in life: you mess up, and you realize what is right and wrong. making a mistake once, and still continuing to try to better it always helps you in the future.  once you get to a happy point in your life, it’s a great feeling – a reward even – and you’re glad you didn’t give up. it’s the same with math – you find x and you get a good grade for doing so, or you finally start to understand it and utilize what you learned in the future. i believe life is about finding your x – your reward, what you have been looking for. it may be confusing, and x may be multiple things, but one day, you’ll find your x. and along the way, you’ll learn from your mistakes.

math is hard, and so is life. but that doesn’t mean either aren’t worth doing.

sorry if this post is kind of a mess, but it’s important regardless.

if you’ve been paying any attention to the news or social media, you’ll have noticed the black lives matter movement.

personally, i’ve always supported it but i never really took actual action or really talked about it to anybody until recently. after hearing about george floyd and seeing so many decide that enough is enough, i did what a lot of people are doing and started to become more active and outspoken on this.

it’s like so many people are saying: staying silent on this situation is enabling the oppressor. not supporting black lives matter is supporting the opposite.

i don’t know how any human being with basic empathy can say that the blm movement is bad. there are so many black people killed by police just for their race.

and so many of the cops that killed them don’t face any consequences.

because they “felt threatened.”

it’s interesting how when a white murderer is waving a weapon around, their arrest is non-violent and peaceful, but when a black person does literally nothing, they’re killed.

a lot of people additionally say that because the black person “was probably a drug dealer” or in a gang that it makes it okay. that doesn’t make it okay. did the cop know that when they saw them? could they sense the fact that the person sold drugs or was in a gang? and why would they have assumed it? and anyway, even if that was true, they didn’t deserve to die. i think the book the hate u give sort of touches on that topic a little more, so please read that book if you get the chance.

black lives matter. that doesn’t mean black lives matter more, or that other lives don’t matter.

black lives matter shouldn’t be a controversial statement.

trayvon martin was walking home with iced tea and skittles. he was shot by a cop, who was found not guilty.

keith scott was sitting in his car, reading. he was shot by another cop – not charged.

stephon clark was shot eight times for holding a cell phone. the officers weren’t charged.

amadou diallo was taking out his wallet. he was shot fourty one times. the four officers were acquitted.

tamir rice, a twelve year old, played with a toy gun. he was shot immediately. the officer was not charged. his family is working to get his case reopened, please sign this petition.

breonna taylor, who should’ve turned twenty seven three days ago, was sleeping in her house. she was shot eight times. the cops have faced no consequences. sign this.

george floyd. who was kneeled on and suffocated to death. his last words were, “i can’t breathe.”

i could go on.

i see so many people say that this isn’t that many people.

any amount of lives lost is too many.

cops should not be above the law. people are supposed to be able to call them when there’s violence. black people should not have to be afraid of the people they’re supposed to call for help.

there’s a talk that many black families have to have with their children. the talk of what to do when a cop approaches you. tell them what you’re about to do. no sudden movements. keep your hands where they can see them.

this shouldn’t be something black children have to worry about.

i hope one day, there’ll be a time when the future generation refers to events similar to this as something that was a long time ago, and doesn’t happen anymore, just like how to us, slavery in america was forever ago. i hope that one day, something changes.

for now, all we can do is fight. even if all you do is sign petitions, or call out someone you know on racism, or research the subject – help them. support your black friends, neighbors, doctors, any black person.

personally, i could easily stop fighting at any moment. right now, i could just decide that i don’t care anymore, and i could pretend like i don’t know what’s going on. you could ignore this post and go on with your life.

but for black people, it’s not that easy. they don’t have the option to just ignore it. for them, they’re not fighting for some people they barely know, but for themselves and their families. and they can’t do it alone. we should be using our privilege to spread awareness of this topic.

if subjects like this make you uncomfortable, good. cops killing people SHOULD make you uncomfortable. if you don’t want to see posts and articles about people being killed for the color of their skin, help stop it so we don’t have to see it anymore.

not to be all corny, but to see a change, we have to be the change.

read books and watch shows/movies about it. sign petitions. do your research. 

i saw a post on instagram that said, “i’d rather offend my white friends than bury my black friends.” i think that says enough.

in conclusion, black lives have always mattered, and will continue to matter for the rest of time. it’s time we started acting like it.

it’s may and we’re still stuck at home. can you believe that we thought that this would last only a few weeks to a month? I remember my friends and i saying that there was no way school would be closed for the rest of the year, but here we are. it’s strange that we went from being at school for seven hours per day to never leaving the house. not super mindblowing, but kind of weird that this is the new normal. at this point, it’d be weird to be able to freely go out. it would be weird to go to school, or to go to target without gloves and a mask. and honestly, it doesn’t feel like we’ll ever be able to go out, at least not in the same way we could before. so many people are saying that when we are allowed out, we’ll have to wear masks and gloves. even to school. and that’s so weird because it might start feeling normal and it’s hard to imagine wearing a mask every day when you go to school. it’s even more weird thinking about how they might change the way we sit at lunch. it’s like the normal school experience is over. and combined with the fact that i’m already going to two new schools next year (high school but i got into this other stem school so i alternate which school i go to) it’ll be super unfamiliar. it’ll be a different environment combined with different rules. it isn’t that big of a deal, but my friends and i think they might cancel stuff like dances since people aren’t exactly six feet apart at those. and that’s just one example of how even little dumb things like that are gonna change even when this pandemic ends.

however, i think that we’re lucky that we can stay in contact in ways like video chatting, social media and texting. we’re very lucky that when this happened, we were at a point where we could get information about it super easily and that we can still interact with friends and family even if it’s not in the same way. thanks to today’s technology, it’s easy for us to hear from health officials, presidents, and the news in general. even online concerts are happening. even if it’s weird being locked up, all this makes it much more bearable.

anyways make sure to stay home!!!! and don’t be dumb and protest!!! the only way to get stuff back open is to stay inside!!!!!!

okay so it’s been like a month since i wrote here, but since then, animal crossing has come out, i finished anne with an e, we’ve started online school, the virus has spread more, school has been closed for the rest of the year, and now people are apparently drinking lysol. 

so, animal crossing. a Lot of people have been playing it lately. it’s kind of the only place where (positive) things are really happening at the moment. even though i don’t play it as much as a lot of other people, i still very much enjoy it !!

anne with an e is very good. 10/10 would recommend. please watch it, it’s on netflix and it’s just very good and deals with a lot of important issues and it’s just great.

okay, online school. i think most students right now would agree with me when i say i kind of hate it. it feels like they’re giving us so much more work and at my school, a lot of teachers are using this thing called edmentum which nobody really likes. it doesn’t really teach as well, for geometry it has this thing called geogebra which is confusing and hard to operate, and a lot of people have had trouble with being locked out of assignments or their work being erased. it’s just not a great situation. it’s also hard for a lot of people to have motivation to do their work. some people just find it difficult to care about schoolwork when there’s a whole pandemic going on; others just have trouble focusing in their house, especially if surrounded by loud relatives. it can also be hard to self-teach instead of having teachers teach you. generally, even though we know that they’re trying their best, online school isn’t exactly going great.

oh yeah, also, this school year is over. my middle school career is over. people who are seniors don’t get a prom or graduation 🙁

a lot of people are saying that people can’t be sad since people are dying but like. you can be upset about something small and also acknowledge the fact that you’re lucky to be alive. also, even if it may not sound like that big of a deal, people need to understand that students spend most of their life thinking about school. like, we go there almost everyday and study and do our homework and it’s all supposed to lead up to graduation. it just kind of sucks that they aren’t getting something they’ve looked forward to for years.

and generally, it’s such a weird feeling that i’m not going back to my middle school. the next time i have school, it’ll be an entire different school. and that’s just weird to think about.

okay, so now, you might ask, why are people supposedly considering drinking lysol? well according to forbes, a few days ago, president trump said, “i see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute… is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that.” so basically he suggested that we could use disinfectant? in the human body???? no offense but like …. i don’t think that’s how it works???? you can’t have bleach like… in your body? you’re going to die?? i’m not completely sure if people are actually drinking it (i’ve just heard they have) but i very much hope they aren’t. anyways, please don’t drink bleach or inject it into your body or whatever!

anyways this situation is not only weird but scary. people are all living in fear and there are people who are dying. all we can do right now is pray for people that are losing their lives, family members, or jobs, and hope everything ends up okay.  and please stay home!! and if it’s absolutely necessary to go out, make sure to wear masks and gloves and stay six feet apart from people. basically just make sure you social distance.

so, as you probably know, there was a recent outbreak of covid-19 and now everybody is going crazy. there’s no toilet paper, people are wearing masks in public, streets are empty. it’s kind of like… apocalyptic. 

because of this, the schools in my county have been closed for, at the moment, eight days, including the weekend. (i’m including the weekend because we literally can’t go anywhere on the weekends too.) it’s kind of surreal, schools being closed because of a virus. we’re starting to think that we aren’t going back this year.

i’m not really sure how we’re gonna progress if we aren’t going back this year. like, i’m sure the elementary schoolers will be fine, but high schoolers and middle schoolers taking high school courses? what are we supposed to do? especially high schoolers. i hope nobody has to repeat a grade. that would actually suck. but i doubt it’ll happen. i was assuming summer school, but what if everything’s still like this, or worse, by june?

at the moment, march 20, there’s 274 confirmed cases in the dmv (dc, maryland, virginia) area and 94 in virginia. that’s kind of a lot. like maybe it doesn’t seem like a lot since it’s less people than how many are in my grade, but like. if you consider how many different houses and cities these people live in, lots of infecting could’ve happened.

okay so i guess i should give you a day by day thing?

so before march 12, we heard about how bad it was getting and all wanted schools to be closed. but nobody actually expected things to happen. 

march 12, 7 am, i woke up, laid in bed, not wanting to get up, when my mom came into my room. she told me to go back to sleep, and as much as i would’ve liked to, i was like “huh?”

school was closed. because of a global pandemic.

if it was a snow day, i would’ve gone back to sleep. but this was just so weird that i had to get up and get my phone.

kids from my school weren’t super surprised, just asking “ew do we still have to work?” and “wait how long are we closed?” at the moment we were going back on the 23rd.

later that day, everyone did have a conversation about how bizarre it is. well, not really bizarre, but weird for us. one of my friends kept talking about how we’re a part of history, which is kind of cool but still like… not good.

march 13th, 2020 

this day was my final day of freedom. okay, i’m being overdramatic, but it was the last day i hung out with my friends as of now. i went to the park, basically my whole friend group gathered there too, we looked at the flowers and enjoyed the nice weather and played with a dog. then, we burst into another friend’s house because i’ve never been inside his house before. that was fun. anyways, we ate pizza, i tried coke, and it was fun.

after that, all of our parents decided we were quarantined, which was kind of annoying. 

the next few days, we just kind of hung out at home and watched shows and movies and did nothing.

by march 15th, i was already tired of it.

okay, now i’m gonna be annoying and spoiled and complain about stuff.

i was literally actually enjoying this year? like covid-19 really had to mess up eighth grade for me. i was looking forward to the high school field trip, i didn’t mind school itself even though i complained a lot, and i just generally was looking forward to stuff. oh, and i was going to europe this summer, which most likely isn’t happening anymore. also. i would’ve had a high school orientation next week, but now it’s being shifted to who knows when. (okay they actually did give a date but i feel like it’s getting shifted farther than that.)

oh also there’s some online learning stuff starting next week. i’ll talk about that when it starts.

so in conclusion, nobody’s allowed to go places, we have no school, and everything is boring.

everyone’s actually starting to want school. something i never thought would happen.

the new animal crossing came out, though, so i get to play that! see you next week!

If you haven’t been living under a rock, you probably know about all the school shootings going on here in the US. There have been way too many deaths caused by shootings this year, and it’s only been 3 months.

One of the biggest shootings that has gotten the most attention as of recently is the one in Florida.

This shooting was done by someone who went to school with them. A teenager.

Why is it that a teenager can get a gun in this country without a license?

The government is just giving students “thoughts and prayers.” We don’t need “thoughts and prayers.”

What we need is gun control. Not a complete gun ban, but at least make it so that an 18 year old can’t get an assault rifle. Someone who has a history of murder in a different location could come here and get any gun. We need a higher age limit. We need thorough background checks. We need to require a license to buy a gun. We need something, anything, to stop these shootings.

Some arguments against gun control consist of “it won’t help,” and “people will get them anyway!” To those people, I say to take a look at other countries. The UK has had no shootings ever since they introduced gun control twenty years ago.

Other people argue, “this is my second amendment right!” First of all, I guess some people are unaware, but the Constitution has been changed before. It’s been changed to ban slavery and to give everyone the right to vote and many other things. Another thing I’d like to ask these people is if they care more about their “second amendment right” or about their children’s lives.

Why, you ask, is the government doing nothing? Because a group called the NRA, National Rifle Association, is giving them money. Thousands of dollars. Because apparently, money is more important than our students’ lives.

Because of all this, EMPOWER, which is the youth branch of the women’s march, has organized a national school walkout. This means that on March 14th, at 10:00 am, students across the country will walk out of school and stand in silence for 17 minutes, one minute for each person who died in the Florida shooting.

Many schools say not to, and people may get detention or a suspension, but over 250 colleges say they will still accept students who participate in it.

My school says we’ll get in trouble, but I plan on doing it anyway, because this is what I believe in.

If you believe in something, if it can affect you or your friends as well, you should stand up for it regardless of the consequences. I was blessed with extremely supportive parents, but if yours are strict, then you aren’t required to. If it causes you pain, you shouldn’t. But if you’re like me and have good reasons to do it and nothing to lose, then go for it. This is something I believe in and I will stand for it. My mom’s also taking me to a march in Washington, DC on the 24th. You should do that too, if possible.

Do everything you can to stand up for what you believe in.

To see a change, we have to be the change.