Items

• 
  2020-04-23

  A Succulent Story

  This is a succulent that I received as a gift during September of 2019. I didn’t pay that much attention to it, though, because I was always busy with school, sports, and work. Then, when school shut down, I started taking better care of it, and it grew this interesting little sprout with yellow flowers on it. I took this picture to send to my grandpa, who loves plants, and asked him what it was. I think this succulent really illustrates life for me personally during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, I filled every single day up with activities from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to bed. And that was ok, I did well with that schedule, and I was able to grow in that environment. This succulent received little care and attention from me, and was still able to grow in that environment. Then, the pandemic came. It was an adjustment to not have to do anything, with the exception of online school. It was definitely not a schedule I was used to. But with time, I found the positive in spending time alone and doing things that I didn’t normally have time to do. I was still growing, but in a different way than what I was used to. I had to learn to spend time alone, and to occupy myself without school or work or sports. This succulent received more attention from me after the pandemic, and was able to grow with this new environment, but it resulted in a different kind of growth. Plus, it allowed me to have an opportunity to talk to my grandpa. We weren’t allowed to see them during quarantine, and I knew he would appreciate talking about something that he loved so sending him this picture allowed me to still keep in touch with him and talk about something that we both enjoyed.
• 
  2021-05-24

  10 things to do while quarantine

  This book is a guide to something that I try to apply in my daily life and that is to take the positive out of every situation. Although this global pandemic has affected all us directly, I truly believe that we can do valuable things with the time and resources we have.
• 
  2021-01-30

  Covid lockdowns turned buying plants into the next big pandemic trend — for good reason

  During lockdowns, people have taken to keeping houseplants as companions. These plants help people that live alone feel less lonely and ground them. People have had varied results with their plants, but plant influences have seen a surge in people asking for help with their plants.
• 
  2021-01-25

  Modded Plants VS Zombies Videogame

  During the boring consequences of the COVID VIRUS (having to be shut in and take classes online) I would play video games (as I would expect is customary during these times). This particular video game is "Plants VS Zombies", for specifically it is "Plants VS Zombies Plus" a modded Chinese version of the former. The mod makes the video game unfairly difficult. This particular level is impossible. Plants which you can plant fall down in random intervals from the rain and you place them where you see fit. The issue is that this level is four times longer than in the regular version. The zombies in this version are much more difficult- such as the door screen zombie, who is now immune to fume-shrooms bypassing his door. Throughout the level, graves appear, making where you can place plants limited. Sometimes these graves destroy the plants themselves. The level is impossible. I have tried repeatedly but the artificial difficulty is just to much. Still fun though. (If this really is to be seen in future generations I would humbly ask that one read my book Malcorpus. At this moment it is at the works.)
• 
  2020-12-01

  Growth in Quarantine

  The week before the national quarantine guidelines were announced, I was on a choir trip to the Southern Division ACDA competition in Alabama. This trip was the beginning of my final high school plans, the beginning of the end. I was expecting to come home and tell my friends all about it, to plan for my next choir trip to New York City in a few short weeks, to soak up my last moments of high school, and, of course, to finally walk across the stage and graduate. It is kind of ironic that I was dreading the spotlight on me when I was handed my diploma and doing the awkward tassel flip, but now I wish I could have anything close to that experience. When I left that day for Alabama, I did not expect to never see a majority of those people from school ever again. The feelings of hopelessness and of worthlessness were shared among many globally, including myself, leaving me in a state of prolonged stagnance. Immediately after I got off the bus home from Alabama, I was sent on a train to my dad’s new house in rural upstate New York. I did not get to go home and get my things or say hi to my family. The next few months of my life consisted of my duffel bag packed for one week, random Amazon orders, and an endless forest. At first, I still had school to keep me occupied and feel normal, but eventually, that ended and I had nothing to fill up the days. My dad was barely home, as he had just started a new job, and there was no other human within several miles, not that I could talk to them anyway, but the thought would have been nice. I was completely isolated. I tried painting, baking, video games, and dying my hair, but nothing filled the emptiness I was feeling. I felt extremely unproductive, like I was just wasting away where no one could find me. Eventually, I decided to take advantage of the nothingness surrounding me. I ventured into the woods and saw a whole world that kept continuing amidst the pandemic. I was reminded that life kept going, and while it seemed like mine was completely frozen, that it would start up again one day. I started spending more and more time in the woods, watching saplings develop, the fawns growing older, and the stream carve its way through the rough earth. In order to keep a piece of that life closer to home, I created biospheres in glass jars so that I could feel the hope for life when I didn’t want to go outside. Through those months, I did a lot of reflection on the pandemic and what it meant for myself and others. I realized that my life will continue, I will continue to live one day, but some people will not if we are not in isolation, so suddenly all the pain of the things I missed was worth it. Eventually, I had to leave New York and come to Washington. I moved into my mom’s two bedroom apartment shared by her boyfriend and my little brother a few months prior to school starting. I began to experience those same things I did when in New York at first, but the difference was that here, I did not have a vast forest to walk into. I had approximately 1,200 square feet and a shared bedroom with a five year old boy to wander around. I had to learn to cope all over again. I turned to one of my favorite things, even before the pandemic: plants. A simple succulent now carried so much more weight than before, reminding me of life, similar to the forest in New York. I have since expanded my plant collection in my dorm room, reminding myself everyday that even when it doesn’t feel like it, I am continuing to grow and one day life will be back to normal. Once the pandemic ends, I will continue to care for and expand my collection of plants. I think that one day it will be cool to show people my “pandemic plants.” It will be a symbol of my growth through quarantine, a symbol that I made it. I never thought that something so simple would make such a big difference in my life. Everyone lost something during this time, but I believe everyone gained something too, and I gained some very valuable life lessons and insight. While the pandemic is still blazing forward and so many things are changing, I will try my best to stay inspired by life and inspire those around me as well.
• 
  2020-10-15

  The Magic Golden Pothos

  This is a Golden Pothos. It is one of many that I have in my home. This Pothos, though, is unique because I propagated and replanted it all during quarantine. Way back in March, I snipped a leaf off one of my other Pothos. Dropped it in a glass of water and waited for it to begin to sprout roots. Nothing incredible or out of the ordinary about this Pothos from all the other Pothos. But, I created this Pothos. I watered it, made sure it got enough, but not too much sun. I patiently sat by and watched this small little plant grow, undisturbed by the outside world. This small common little houseplant has, in essence, helped to keep me grounded during these challenging, unpredictable times. Every week as I watered my Pothos, I would be reminded that although so much has changed in everyone's daily lives and continues to change at an unfathomable rate, certain things will continue to be undisturbed. My little Pothos being one of them. By holding on to this way of thinking that there are things that are within my control that will move forward regardless of the outside world, I continue to find hope in today and, more importantly, tomorrow. There is no denying that this event has shaken every institution worldwide, doing irreparable damage to an untold amount of lives, families, cultures that will never be forgotten. But, there is always hope when there is life. I feel like these times a breeding ground for nihilistic thought, which can be very destructive. So, I have this daily reminder, through my Pothos, that there is still hope. Cheesy, I know. But, sometimes cheesy works (I know cheesy again)
• 
  2020-03-30

  The Great Outdoors

  The pandemic continues to rage over the country and has changed the daily way of life for millions. However, sometimes change isn’t bad and might even be needed. Before the pandemic hit, I lived my life mostly stuck inside, only going out for school and necessities. Due to the lockdown and shutdown for most businesses, my parents decided that this was a great time to explore the great outdoors. They knew that my lack of activities already would lead to an even lazier demeanor if those ceased to exist with the pandemic. I absolutely am not an outdoors person, nor do I enjoy being under the hot sun, but my parents forced my siblings and I out of the house. The first few days weren’t great as it was quite hard to go from nonmobile all day to exercise under the blazing sun. As I got use to it, I actually began to love the daily routine of wandering for hours and leaving my stresses behind me. I also picked up some earbuds and began listening to music as I explored. Sometimes the music brought me great energy and a new bounce in my step and sometimes, it swayed me into dreaming about endless possibilities. However, as the days passed, I began to notice more than my just my thoughts and I begun to take more interest in the nature around me. I would often stop to stare at the various flowers, trees, and scenery in my neighborhood. Hence the picture of the green fern as I begun to take pictures of the plants that I thought had a special aura. The day I saw the fern, the sun happened to be at the perfect angle shining down upon it and the swaying wind made it look majestic. What I believe is that the pandemic may have completely flipped one’s life upside-down, but it doesn’t mean it has changed it for the worse. Rather it simply takes just a little effort to take notice that there is so much more to the world surrounding us. *Photograph, I took the picture. change, our, world, perspective
• 
  2020-07-30

  Plant Surprise

  At the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year, our area was overrun with invasive “ankle biter” mosquitoes. My students and I were constantly bitten, and I eventually bought a “mosquito repelling” plant from Home Depot. I’m not sure it actually worked, but it was a nice addition to my classroom. On March 16, my last day before we were sent home, I put my plant outside to enjoy the rain, thinking I’d be back in a couple of weeks, like we had planned. I didn’t set foot in my classroom again until July 30. I thought of my little plant often, and was sad imagining it drying out, or getting thrown away. Imagine my shock when I drove up to my classroom to grab some items from my room to prepare to start Distance Learning for the new year and seeing my beloved plant quadrupled in size! I grabbed my items from my classroom, marveled at how it was a bit like Chernobyl with everything frozen on March 13, the last date the students were in school, and went to grab my plant to safely take home. We found it had actually broken through its pot and rooted itself into the ground. My husband (who drove with me) dug it out and I replanted it in my yard. I see my plant as sort of this odd symbol of hope and resilience in 2020. Despite being put in a situation where it was expected to die, it managed to fight, grow and thrive. I’d like to think that in this year of upheaval, we’d all be able to do the same.
• 
  05/15/2020

  my garden

  this image shows that it was super sunny outside and super war, but since we were not alloys to leave the house we decided to start a garden and so far it looks really good.
• 
  2020-05-01

  Finding Creativity

  Midway through the quarantine it felt like everyone hit their stride with finding and logging their passions. Each of us became prolific in our own right Early April, when the first of us reached our apex and we realized it would be a lot longer than we’d anticipated.
• 
  2020-04-17

  Looking after office pot plants

  Staff have vacated offices in the Law School at the University of Melbourne but pot plants from all floors are being looked after in the lobby
• 
  2020-03-23

  Growing my own toilet paper

  a joke tweet about growing toilet paper, since there was a shortage during the pandemic
• 
  2020-04-01

  Free herbs

  The things you see out on a neighbourhood walk — kids finding ways to be helpful.