Items

• 2020-12-25

  Christmas 2020

  This years Christmas was very different. Because of the pandemic, my family and I could not travel we stayed at home and had a small family Christmas. We went to the beach because we live somewhere were it is always warm. I got to go surfing. We then had a family zoom with our family who lives in New York who we would regularly have been with. Overall I like change and had a great 2020 Christmas!
• 2021-01-19

  rules

  when covid first hit the first rule was to slow down international travel. this didn't work when there was an out break in Washington that spread fast. I didn't really mind this rule I just couldn't travel over summer but then they told people to stay six feet away from each other. this wasn't too bad either just I couldn't hang out with friends indoors and we couldn't go to a public place so we mostly surfed skated and built bike jumps. then they told us to wear masks. to avoid all these rules I never really left my naborhood unless go to my friends house and then we wouldn't go out side there naborhood. the masks where the worst it would make it hard to breath and stuff.
• 2020-12-15

  Thanksgiving in Covid

  It was a very weird day and it did not feel like thanksgiving. I woke up and there I was in Hawaii I think to myself what day is it. Then I realize its Thursday and were going surfing. We packed up the car and went surfing. while we were surfing, a massive rainbow came over us and this is when I realized it was thanksgiving. I gave my thanks to God and my family and we went home to eat dinner. The End
• 2020-12-10

  Corona Virus

  In the beginning of February I was living a really good life. I got to see friends all the time, dance with my friends, and just was learning a lot in school and life was good. Little did I know in one snap life could have changed so much. I get home from school March 12, 2020 and heard the news that School was closing for 2 weeks. I really did need the break from school and thought of it as a "long spring break". But soon it turned into more weeks than months. I hated online School at first, long zooms then right when they are done I got to work on my thousands of assignments due that day. No motivation to dance or do anything. I would lay down on my phone and procrastinate all school assignments. Finally, summer hits and some Covid laws were lifted. I got to see a few friends and go surfing everyday. This was what I loved during summer. I even got motivated to dance again. My dance studio then opened and I was off of zoom. I loved getting to dance in person again. Summer soon ended and back to the online school life. This school year has been really good because I adapted to the online education, and started to not procrastinate. Sadly, my studio got back online but it was okay with me. This thanksgiving and halloween were so weird because we had no family over and it was just not the same experience. In conclusion, this pandemic has been rough but I have learned a lot and grew in many different ways.
• 2020-12-10T14:39

  Life in 2020 Before COVID-19

  It was 2020, a new decade, a fresh start. Myself and the rest of Gen-Z all thought, "This is our time". Lots of us posted on social media all excited for new beginnings. Life was perfect. I was a seventh grader who loved to dance, and I went to my studio five times a week after school. Life was routine. I would wake up, and get ready for the day. I would shower, blow dry my hair, do my makeup, and get dressed. I was so worried about what every one thought of me, the same as many thirteen year olds are. I packed my back pack, said goodbye to my dog Rowdy-Girl, got in the car, and tool the five minute drive to a place I never looked forward to going: school. Class began at 8:05, and I made sure I was never late. I opened my locker, which was always organized, got my books, and walked into my first period class. Following my second class, I had a break for 20 minutes. My friends and I went to the cafeteria and got lots of snacks. It was nice to have some time to see friends. 3 more periods, then lunch. Each day was growing moribund and the same. 2 last periods, and we were released and so happy to go home after a long day of learning. Then I would get ready for dance, and have so much fun doing the sport that I love. Sure a few bad things happened in the early months of 2020. There was almost what people were calling "World War 3" due to conflicting views between America and Iran. A famous basketball player named Kobe Bryant. Many called him a legend and saw him as an inspiration. He sadly passed away in a terrible plane crash which involved his daughter and some of her teammates as well. However, the year was still overall alright. I got to perform in my school's dance show, I developed a live for surfing, and I felt like I was on top of the world. However a huge boulder was about to knock me down. Some virus was spreading around China, but none of us thought anything of it.
• 2020-04-10

  Grateful For An Injury

  In early April of this year, I had driven to the oceanfront for a few hours of morning surfing. The weather the previous day created ideal swells. Growing up in and around the ocean, surfing has always been a way of life for me. After several sets and a few hours, I proceeded in to the beach and stepped on an embedded oyster shell. At first, it felt like a bad bruise, but it was a horrible gash on the bottom of my right foot. I knew after looking that I needed stitches. I wrapped my foot in a towel, limped off with my board, secured things as best I could, and drove myself to the nearest ER. I was checked in, placed in a room, etc. Since the wound was not bleeding profusely, my foot was placed in a basin of antibacterial solution. After the preliminaries of great care, I waited for the doctor. The door to my room was slightly cracked open, at least enough to hear much activity in the main ER area. And I waited. Over the next several hours, the ER became a flurry of chaos. But it was not what what I could see, but could hear with the door nearly closed. Multiple patients were brought in by ambulances with breathing difficulty. The rooms filled up and some stretchers started lining the halls. A nurse poked her masked face in every so often to ask how I was doing. As i waited, i learned that I was a low priority, and rightfully so. I was not dying, nor gasping for breath. I kept hearing "God! I can't breathe!" These were the sounds of the early pandemic in April. Male and female voices, struggling through broken sentences, vitally needing air under the acute distress of COVID infection. With nothing to read, and no phone (my beach excursions do not entail smartphones because of sand), I became increasingly aware of audible sensations and the suffering of others trying to breathe. Over the next few hours, I was overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude; not because of my injury, but because I could breathe. I knew my foot would be fine with some stitches and maybe a tetanus shot, and I was, wth some crutches later upon discharge. Yes, incomplete sentences imply breathing problems, but gasping and cursing, just the struggle to live for oxygen, is what the early pandemic taught me in the ER—to be grateful for just a foot injury and excellent medical care. I was not dying, but other patients were fighting acute lung infections. The news, especially during the early pandemic, gave us video of hospitals overwhelmed with critical patients and ventilators. But for me, it was the audible sensations from the door slightly open that conveyed a profound sense of the quiet insidiousness of COVID. Some infections only bring a fever. Some folks are infected and never know it due to lack of symptoms. Yet, it is the critical ones, those that cannot breathe, that can impart a perspective of gratitude to someone like me with a routine foot laceration. Retrospectively, I look back on this experience, my ER day, and recall those voices. I never saw those people struggling, but I did not have to see them to come away with gratitude for a simple surfing accident. Some of those patients were undoubtedly placed on a ventilator in the ICU, and perhaps their outcome was even worse. I ended up discharged to home.
• 
  2020-03-29

  Security standing in front of the Beach – Hermosa Beach, California

  A security officer is seen standing behind a closed sign in front of an empty beach letting passersby know that Hermosa Beach in California is closed due to COVID-19. The related Article is about how a surfer who repeatedly ignored warnings to not enter the water due to Coronavirus concerns received a $1000 citation. The article continues to say that most people follow the closures, but despite many similar closures, there is still public flocking towards these non-essential activities, leading officials to temporarily limit vehicle access.