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2021-09-18
Claire and AJ Oral History, 2021/09/18
Explains our experiences within the COVID-19 high school years, our two years of upperclassmen experience. It's important to us because it happened to us during the most formative years of our lives, and we're reflecting back on it. -
2021-09-15
CT and LG Oral History, 2021/09/15
Two college students recall how their final years of high school were changed by COVID-19, discussing how sports were cancelled and classes went online. -
2020-06-25
Hats Off: Finding Closure Amid Uncertainty
This screen recording, a small snippet taken from a live video posted on the Richardson High School Eaglettes Facebook page on June 25,2020, takes place in the back parking lot of my former high school. The fixture in the middle of the video is a "stick chick", and just beyond the stick chick is the stadium where I performed at every football game for the last three years as a member of the Richardson High School Eaglettes, a Texas style dance team. What you witnessed was the senior hat-hanging ceremony, meant to be performed in our big auditorium at the end of our final show that is usually held in April. This moment is meant to be the pinnacle of the drill team experience, a last bow in front of your teammates, family, and friends as they celebrate and applaud you for your hard work and dedication. Every early morning, every sore muscle, every tear of frustration was meant to be justified in this moment, when I could finally hang the heavily sequined hat that carried the makeup, sweat and troubles of my three-year experience and inwardly declare "I did it". But that moment never came. When school closed indefinitely in March amidst the raging global pandemic, our final show was the first event to be cancelled, followed shortly after by prom and graduation. The disappointment was crippling. I felt my world cave in as every important moment I had waited months for was stripped from me, and soon sadness made way for anger. Then one day I received an email, announcing the date of an outdoor and socially distanced closing Eaglette ceremony. And funny enough, the moment you see here almost didn't happen. I was so content with my anger that I contemplated not attending the ceremony, controlled by the belief that denying myself of this moment would show the pandemic that it could no longer hurt me. But with some motherly encouragement I gathered myself up at the last minute, making it just in time to hang my hat. I recieved honks instead of cheers, headlights instead of stage lights, and the ages old concrete of the parking lot as my stage. But I wouldn't have had it any other way. What you witnessed was my moment of victory, my realization that good can spring forth amid bad, and the moment that I decided I would not let the pandemic defeat me. -
2021-06
Lasting pandemic effects of overexercising
This page from my bullet journal displays the workout I conducted each day during the month of June, 2021. The viewer should note three pertinent pieces of information to understand the necessity of this piece for the archive: the bullet journal itself, the exercise habits, and the timeline between the beginning of the pandemic to the actual entry. Primarily, I picked up the hobby of bullet journaling itself during March of 2020. I wanted a method to record my own habits – such as exercise, eating, music taste, and TV shows - in a scrapbook type format during the pandemic. Truthfully, the entire book would contribute to the archive, due to the personal detail and day-to-day routine recorded. Secondly, the workout tracker shows a slight addiction to exercise, with runs or walks every day, in addition to tens of thousands of steps I already took. These overexercising habits began for me during quarantine, with time and stress on my hands, and no healthy ways of coping. Finally, the reader should also acknowledge that I wrote this entry in June of 2021, a full 15 months after the start of lockdown in the US. That timeline shows that lingering effects of the pandemic remain, perhaps even grow with time. This artifact expresses more about my experience with the pandemic than I can articulate due to one central reason: learning self-love through exercise. Though I’d always struggled with having time on my hands, the pandemic left me feeling more uneasy with loneliness and boredom. Without a healthy way to deal with my emotions, I turned to exercise for the release and endorphins that I needed. Before I knew it, a casual workout each day led to apple watch addiction, calorie counting obsession, and cycles of binge eating and overcompensating through exercise, etc. While this sounds like my own personal journey, quarantine kickstarted and exacerbated these issues for adolescents all over the nation. With the recent introduction of tiktok “What I eat in a day” videos and Chloe Ting’s workout videos, people grew obsessive about wellness and moving their bodies. I learned so much about my body and my brain through this struggle with overexercise and obsession – and I feel grateful for that. Still though, I notice these effects in myself and others. This small contribution of a workout tracker speaks volumes about habits of teenagers after months of loneliness and free time – whether teenagers obtained an obsession with appearance, food, or exercising. And if those issues did not resurrect for some, I’d argue that the pandemic brought many other mental health challenges to surface for my age group. While this submission does little to express my emotions or challenges surrounding my exercise routine, it conveys the lingering effects of mental health tolls and body challenges from the pandemic. -
2021
COVID-19 Story
During the pandemic, I was able to get back into reading and also once the restrictions were lifted, I was able to get back in the gym and start biking again. I would try and bike anywhere from 10-15 miles per day which was a goal of mine to hit. -
2020-03-15
Lockdown in the Frozen Tundra
When we first got the news about school closing down for a couple days, school was the last thing on my friend group and I's minds. When we got off school that gloomy March day, I instantly met up with my friends to go up north for a trip we had been planning for weeks. I was so excited because we had so many activities planned such as snowshoeing, hiking, and snowmobiling. After we all met up, we packed up the car and left. At the time, we had heard things about Covid-19 from around the world, but we were all still pretty foggy on what it is and what it does to you. It was almost as if we acknowledged that it existed, but told ourselves that it could never happen in the United States. When we got there, we unpacked all of our things and quickly headed outside to go snowshoeing on a nearby path. When we were through with our activities for the day, we headed back to the cabin. I remember checking my phone and having a bunch of texts from my parents and friends saying that they had just cancelled school for another couple of weeks, and I started to think that maybe this whole thing was more serious than I had thought. Looking back on this picture, I look at all of our faces and notice that we were so oblivious to what we were about to experience. This is essentially the picture taken before our lives changed forever. -
2021-09-12
Oreoluwapo Omotayo-Benson and Christopher Combs Oral History, 2021/09/12
This interview contains two personal accounts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The questions discussed cover multiple aspects of the pandemic, and how it has shaped our lives as high school/college students. -
2020-10-31
Connecting through Climbing in the Pandemic
Just prior to the pandemic, I got seriously into rock climbing. For me, not only it was a much more fun way to work out, but it is absolutely a social sport. Everyone at the climbing gym was and continues to be extremely friendly, and you can simply strike up a conversation with anyone by simply asking what routes they are working on so that you can help one another find the most efficient way to reach the top. As all the routes are graded, just watching yourself improve and working on harder routes is an amazing feeling. With the outbreak of the pandemic, however, the gym closed until September, and I felt like such an important piece of my life went missing. While it was hard losing an activity and social outlet like that, I like trying to find silver linings in the difficult times. Even though it took me a while to come to this conclusion, I realized that it took the pandemic and losing it to truly appreciate the people there and sport itself. Ironically, I can almost contribute the pandemic to my continued obsession with climbing, even if it did rip it away from me for a few months. Attached is a picture of the first event back at the climbing gym, which was a lights-out event for Halloween where you could only use headlamps to see where you were going. -
2021-03-03
Tossing for the First Time in a Year
This photograph was taken on the one-year anniversary since the last Providence College Club Ultimate Frisbee practice. I had sent a message in the team group chat about it being one year since we had been able to practice together. The school had not yet allowed club sports to practice again out of safety concerns. Varsity athletes were still practicing and competing, but club athletes had no indication of when they could gather again. We had already missed our spring 2020 season and our fall 2020 season, and it seemed like we were going to miss most, if not all, of our spring 2021 season as well. One of my teammates responded to the message with a burst of enthusiasm and rallied some of us to the field. It was an unusually warm day for the beginning of March, and even though there were only six of us who answered the call to toss and we were spread out and masked, something felt normal for the first time in months. We felt the joy of sharing Ultimate with each other and let the world of stress, anxiety, and worry melt away for a few blissful moments. -
2021-07-23
First Race in a Pandemic World
Terrified, I put on my shoes and walked over to the canyon. I’m always nervous before a race - where will I place? What if I can’t finish? It’s adrenaline talking. This time, it was different. For the first time since early 2020, I was competing in a race, outside, with other people. When I signed up, the case count was the lowest it had been since the original shut down. I was nervous, but excited. Then Delta exploded. As the numbers climbed, I tried running with a mask that week. Two days before the race, I made it 3 miles and had to take it off. This was the Hot and Hilly 10K I was prepping for. It’s over 90 degrees and the course is all hills. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do the mask the whole time. I also knew the course had narrow parts, wide enough for only one runner. What happened if I got in a group? Was being outside enough to dissipate the virus, like current advice suggests? Or is Delta more potent? And is there a difference between standing outside unmasked and running full speed unmasked in a group of other people roughly and heavily drawing air in and out? As I waited for the gun, I wore my mask. I was the only one and that didn’t bother me. In fact, I was a little self conscious that I would be judged but I think everyone was just focused on the trail. When the race began, there was a natural small bottleneck. I left my mask on. About a mile in, I had to take it off. Luckily, the crowd had thinned. Since I am not an elite runner, I wasn’t doing the 7 minute miles of the head of the pack. On the flip, I also am not slow. I was able to find a sweet spot where I could see the front of the pack in the distance, but was far enough ahead of the average runners that I was not in a crowd. Overall, it was amazing to be racing again. I love competition. For over a year, I ran only on the treadmill. There was part of me that wondered if my ability have disappeared during the quarantine. I came in 4th place in my division and am beyond excited with that placement. I also was relieved knowing I was done with the crowds for the day. I spent two weeks secretly nervous I contracted COVID and am happy to report that the vaccine seems to have worked for me. I have another race scheduled for October and am already feeling nervous. Our hospitalization rate has shot to nearly 500 and the ICU is two away from 100. Will my next race being outdoors be enough to protect my family, especially my two unvaccinated kids at home? Will my vaccine even still be effective by October? My second shot will have been administered seven months prior at that point. -
2021-08-11
There is No Good Decision
My daughter is very athletic. I don’t make that statement lightly. I do not lie and I will look you in the eye and tell you my son is not an athlete. But my daughter was born with a natural ability for sports. Anything she tries, even recreationally, she excels at. When she was 3, she began gymnastics and in first grade, she joined the competitive team. It’s not just that she’s athletic, she works extremely hard. So making her sit out an entire season due to COVID was not an easy decision. I do not regret it, but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t hard. When this season began in May, we cautiously allowed her to return, fully masked. The cases were down and the coaches wore masks. We decided the risk was worth it for her mental health. Then the COVID restrictions were lifted June 15. My daughter became the only one in the full gym with a mask. We hoped for the best and have been lucky so far. But the cases are exploding. They are higher now than this time last year. What do we do? All her friends are from the gym. Truly. She doesn’t have any close friends at school because most of her time is spent at the gym. Can we take that away from her again? She worked out every single day of quarantine to stay in shape and she did. Can we look at her and basically say her work was for nothing? There is no good choice. What is more important? Protecting her physically or giving her the part of her life that secures her mental health? At the end of last week, I was seriously considering pulling her as the daily cases rose to 1,000+. However, in a move that shocked me knowing the clientele and position of the gym on this entire pandemic, even her gym has reinstated masks for all coaches. This made me feel maybe 5% better. Her one on one session is also from 8 - 9pm, which I was bummed at at first - so late for a kid! But I quickly realized we’re the only ones in the gym that late, which lowers my anxiety a bit. So we’re going to take the risk for now and allow her to continue going. I just hope it’s not a decision we regret. -
2020-09-10
New research shows COVID-19 link to heart damage
a press release from Banner Health encouraging cardiac screenings for student-athletes as new research has revealed potential heart damage as an after effect from the virus. -
2020-03-13
Abnormal Rona Year
In 2020, everything I had planned for school and summer came to a halt. Even though we were forced to stay home, I still went to friends houses and played community league sports. The air smelled cleaner because there were no vehicles in sight for miles. Everything you touched was soaked in disinfectant and cleaning supplies. All you could hear was just pure silence other than the animals that live out in the woods. The birds were chirping and animal density grew due to no one being active and scaring them away. I would tend to head to my friends' house quite often. Me and him would help his father fix up a house then head to my friend's house to go fishing, trail riding, and practice baseball. We even went to the store where there were only workers inside.2020 was a completely different feel to my life than my past years, but will go down in history and my best year for trying and learning new things. -
2020-08-23
Covid-19
Last year, Covid-19 was at its peak. It was the beginning of the year, and it was during our football season. During the week of our 2nd game, about 5 of our seniors got quarantined because of some kid at their lunch table. He got Covid, so they couldn't be around anybody, including the football team. So, they had to sit out of football for 2 weeks. As the year went on, we had a bunch of people that couldn't play because of Covid-19. It got so bad that our coaches got Covid and we couldn't play in sectionals. Covid-19 completely ruined our season last year. -
2020-06
my covid times
what covid was like for me was mostly just sleeping i slept through like 70 percent of it but other than sleep i did football over that summer of 2020 and starting that school year with full in person school and we then went full virtual which messed my grades up really bad due to how bad i was at getting out of bed and then hybrid practically destroyed my grades because my body and mind just couldn't handle going from sleeping in two days in a row then waking up early for school -
2021-07-31
My covid Story
just writing about life since it started in late 2020 -
2021-07-10
Quarantine with the Breakfast Club
I tried something new. And that’s not something that I do often. I pushed myself to go to boarding school… During a pandemic. I spent one (Covid safe) month at a boarding school and kept a journal every night for the first week. Here’s my experience of sweaty masks, making friends, and living in my dorm. -
2021-07-10
Going the Social Distance
Over the course of about a week and a half I share my thoughts and feelings about the restrictions and rules we had while being placed on a modified quarantine. I discuss how it was to survive in the heat of summer, play volleyball, go to classes, and many other things while being masked up all the time. I tell readers about the testing I had to do so that everyone should know that I was negative for covid even. My story shows the different stages I've gone through throughout this modified quarantine. The stages being homesick to becoming comfortable embracing this experience of a lifetime. It is important to me because I'm using my real feelings and letting the readers know how I truly felt during the experience. -
2020-09-30
No Room for Activities
I am not overly social. Therefore, the COVID-19 pandemic’s stay-at-home orders were not a big deal to me. However, the mandate meant no after-school activities for my kids who had a very hard time with it. My ten-year-old son took it the hardest as it meant no soccer, no chess, and no playdates which also meant no touching, no tag, and absolutely no wrestling. After classes, I would pick them up and chauffeur the kids around town to all their activities. If we had time we would sometimes stop by the mall and grab a bite to eat. If we had an hour to kill, we would run into the arcade for a quick game or two of Mario Kart. But all that stopped once COVID struck. There was no room for the kids’ activities—no sports, no music lessons, no mall eateries, no more Sbarro on the run, no arcade—so in essence, no more fun. Due to COVID constraints, my boy developed a small case of depression from not being able to play with his friends and soccer buddies. Seeing my son miserable affected me, especially after reading some children were committing suicide due to these restrictions. I forgot just how much bonding with friends and socializing meant when you are ten and surrounded by thirty other kids for five days a week. While the pandemic gave parents like me a respite from all their children’s after-school extracurriculars, it was not worth seeing my son sad like that, and socializing was not the only aspect affected. My kids really missed getting their hands-on activities with other kids at the playground and soccer field. Kids simply love playing anywhere and touching everything, so not being able to do so hampers their growth through play and touch. Soccer was an outlet for all my son’s pent-up energy and once it and the other sessions were taken away, he felt trapped at home. We would play in the backyard, but it was not the same for him. Although he may complain about school now, he still needs his friends. Luckily, the pandemic is over, and soccer and their clubs are all back on. My son is back to his normal rambunctious self again. My children are back to being full-time kids again! -
2021-01-14
D.C. Kept Swimming Open During the Pandemic. It May Have Saved Me.
This is a story I wrote in Washington, D.C. in January 2021, during the pandemic, and in the immediate aftermath of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. I had taken up swimming during the pandemic because the city happened to keep some pools open for lap swimming. This new activity brought me solace and comfort during a very difficult time for our city, our nation, and for me personally. This story captures all of this and distills it into a single poignant and emotional moment of solitude and togetherness at the end of the story. -
2020-09-01
COVID - In The "Eyes" of March
Well, say hello to my first official entry into my Coronavirus Notebook! Today I’m doing pretty good. I have been very excited to be back in school, and I can’t wait to log some of my daily activities in this notebook throughout the school year. It seems so foreign returning to a classroom environment since, because of lockdowns and other COVID-19 effected incidents, we have done online school for the last quarter of the semester. As of now, I’m almost halfway through my school day, which is good. In class today, I have worked on making my class playlist. I think it was a great idea to introduce music to the classroom, and it's something no other teachers have done before, at least in my experience. After school today, I am going to a football workout with a bunch of my other classmates at Avenger Field in Audubon Park. I’m glad that we’re starting up a new activity, since our school said we were not allowed to play contact football this year, which I understand, but I’ll definitely miss it. It has been a crazy summer and starting school is awesome and I’m grateful to be back in-person learning. Things like wearing masks are totally new and seeing friends in school and not just at the park is odd. I also, of course, have a lot less free time to myself, since I actually have to wake up for school and not just sit around all day. I am very excited for this month and what we will do in history. It is also the start of a brand new month, which I hope brings better fortune than the last. I’m excited for this year while also nervous, and I can’t wait to see how and if we survive our first ever COVID year! -
2021-03-30
Weekend
March 30, 2021 Over the weekend, I went to my house in St. Francisville with my dad and sister. We made a last minute decision to go on Friday evening instead of on Saturday morning, which turned out to be a great decision because we woke up early on Saturday morning around 5:30 in the morning to go turkey hunting. Within about 30 minutes, I had shot my first turkey. My dad was so happy for me because I had been trying to kill my first turkey for so long, as it is just about the only animal we have on our property that I had not shot yet. After shooting it, we brought it to our cousin for him to breast it and take off the tail feathers. After that, my dad took me to Burger King, which is one of my favorite fast food places. I got my usual order, but just like it almost always is, the ice cream machine was broken, so I could not get a milkshake. Then we went to our house and at night we watched Alabama play our Sweet 16 game against UCLA. the game was very close all the way through, but with four seconds left, UCLA scored to put them up by three, and we inbounded it and our point guard Jahvon Quinerly sprinted up the court and passed the ball to our center Alex Reese who was standing almost on the mid-court logo, and he drained a deep three as time expired to tie the game and send it to overtime. Sadly Alabama followed up that great shot, probably one of the best shots in bama history, with one of our worst performances ever in overtime, as UCLA pulled away to win the game, and I was very frustrated because of how poorly we played in overtime. -
2021-01-18
Quarantine
January 18, 2021 I have been in quarantine for 12 days now, and it was originally supposed to end on Wednesday, but after about my fourth day of quarantine, my sister tested positive so I was exposed again, extending my quarantine to the 25th, meaning 19 days of quarantine. It was not so bad at first because I had about 6 friends who were quarantined also, but they are going back to school, so I will be alone for about the last week of quarantine. It is not so bad though because I am in St. Francisville, and after school I can play basketball, drive the Polaris, fish, or even hunt. Online school has been boring but not too bad because I can sleep later and eat basically anything I want for lunch. Also, I am very happy because Alabama’s 2021 recruiting class for football is now ranked the highest class of all time, and our basketball team is also doing amazing. I just went to the Alabama-LSU basketball game, and Alabama won by a lot and set the SEC record for most threes in a game, and I think we had 22 or 23, but the previous was also held by us, which we set last year. This was my first Alabama basketball game, and only my third college basketball game. My first one was a long time ago and was a Tulane game, and my second was a few years ago and was an LSU basketball game, and I went because it was after Bob Pettit’s statue unveiling, and my family got to go because my grandmother is Bob Pettit’s first cousin. -
2020-10-05
Record of the Day
I didn’t do very much of anything today, but I’ll give a record of it anyway because maybe it was more interesting than I thought. First things first, I woke up at 6:40 am and didn’t move out of bed until 6:50 am when my dad yelled for me to get up. Then I got ready for school, helped get my two little brothers ready for school, and drank a smoothie for breakfast. We left kind of late today, so the older of my two younger brothers was almost late for school. Then, to make sure my youngest brother was on time and so was I, my dad dropped me off at my brother's drop-off spot and I had to walk the rest of the way to school. I had advisory and the assembly first, so nothing too exciting. Next, I had science where we went over our last experiment and the homework, had a mini in-class quiz, and then we got to finish The Martian. Once science was over I had English where we just worked on our papers that are due Thursday. Thankfully, after that was lunch and recess which were a nice reprieve from schoolwork. After lunch, I had math where we learned about linear systems of inequalities. My last class of the day was PE where I am currently doing volleyball. It was pretty fun, except for my arms were sore after because the coach had us using the heavy balls to practice setting. I went home after PE, had some nut mix for a snack, and went on my phone for a while before starting my homework. I took a break from that at around 5 and went on a walk with my family before coming home and eating dinner. I finished up my homework a little after that and spent some time with my family before going to work out and shower. After I showered I went to bed, and that was my day! -
2021-05-11
Fun Weekends
This was when it was a 3 day weekend and everything that I did during that weekend because it was one of the best weekends I have had a year and I wanted to tell you all what is a fun weekend to me and how to spend a 3 day weekend with your friends and family. I hope that you like the Coronavirus journal. This weekend was so fun because it was a 3 day weekend and on top of that I got to hang out with my friends and we did a lot of fun stuff like going to Surge the trampoline park and we also went to Walmart and that was really fun to just mess around and make jokes and play with stuff there. We did not break anything but we did get a basketball and play with one of the goals that were not blocked off. And we got the bikes and we rode them around to see which was the best. And at Surge, we had so much fun like for instance we played dodgeball with people and we got to meet a lot of nice and cool people that were on my team and I was given a nickname of the ninja because I could doge every ball and catch them and I was last almost every game it was really fun trying to dodge the adults because they would throw it very hard and you had to have a good reaction time to dodge them. But after Surge, we then went to my friends’ house and went on his trampoline and then we went to Audubon Park and messed around there and we also went to the baseball fields at the fly and avenger and we played a football game, baseball game, and a kickball game and we where there for a couple of hours and it was so hot but just so fun and I can not wait until we do it again someday. -
2021-05-19
I am Dylann Roof
It's a personal essay about race in America and the need for white ownership. -
2021-01-04
Old Hobbies, New Beginnings
This is my first day back from the new year and I am making my resolutions. I had recently found out that Stefan and Hudson play tennis which is a sport I used to play. I also just finished music class where we played the piano and I thought it was really fun so I wanted to get into it. Tyler 1/4/21 New Orleans, LA Coronavirus Journal I am going to start playing tennis again. I used to play it, but because of covid I stopped taking lessons and never really got back into it. I am also getting into piano, so my mom said she could get me some lessons for that. I don't know if I will have time to do these both considering the fact that I have baseball 3 days a week and workouts 2 days a week, but I will try and make it work. Piano is also an old habit as I played it a couple years ago. I didn't really know much, but now I understand the piano and not just memorize the notes, so I think I could be successful in getting much better at piano by taking lessons. I also hope that I will improve more than I did at tennis the first time. But of course this will all take a lot of hard work and practice. Stefan and Hudson also play tennis and they play each other sometimes, so I hope that once I am good enough I will be able to beat them. I will need to remind my mom that I want to begin practicing these things though as I think she forgot to sign me up for piano lessons and about me playing tennis in general. I am excited to start practicing these things and improve. Especially tennis because I haven't played in a long time and I really enjoy it. -
2020-09-18
Grandpa's 80th Zoom Birthday
This is near the beginning of the school year. I am still settling into 8th grade and am yet used to life during coronavirus. This is the first birthday I have had to celebrate over zoom which was really weird. This is still the stage of Coronavirus Journals where I say what I ate for lunch. Tyler 9/18/20 New Orleans, LA Coronavirus Journal Today is Friday, and Rosh Hashanah. I don’t think my family will celebrate though. I know we will be celebrating my grandpa’s birthday tonight over a zoom dinner. I am really excited to talk to my grandparents because I haven’t spoken to them for a long time because of covid. Today I woke up at 7:48 am and I am really lucky that we have til 8:15 to get to school because I would have definitely been late. Yesterday I had a baseball scrimmage and did pretty well. Today for lunch I had a turkey and swiss cheese sandwich and some barbecue chips. I am pretty lucky to have no homework today since I had Science, History, and Band. -
2020-09-01
First Day of Covid School 2020
This was the first day of school of 8th grade and the whole mask thing and all of the precautions were new to me as we just got out of quarantine. I didn’t know what to expect as the outcome of the year and was just taking it all in. Tyler 9/1/20 New Orleans, LA Coronavirus Journal Today I ate a turkey and swiss cheese sandwich for lunch. I ate with my advisory. I had drama today and we played “Greetings Your Majesty”, which is basically where you come behind somebody and say “greetings your majesty” with a weird voice. If they guess who said that to them they get to stay as majesty, but If they don't then the person who spoke gets to be majesty. There is a jester who chooses who gets to go. After school today I am going to Coach Luke for pitching lessons instead of travel baseball practice because we already said we would go to pitching. Of course before that I will do my homework and if I don't finish before I leave for practice I will finish it after school. Today wasn't very special in any sort, but last Saturday was my Bar Mitzvah which was on zoom and my Bar Mitzvah party which only had like 6 kids. Last Thursday I turned 13 years old. In Docs class today we watched him do an experiment from 2 years ago and answered questions about it. On a sadder note - the actor who played Balck Panther - Chadwick Boseman died last Friday at the age of 43. I had recess in the Valmont Courtyard today and I played taps, wallball, and four square. Because of the pandemic we played foursquare using only our feet and heads. I didn't play taps and wall ball for long because a lot of people joined. Today was a pretty normal day, but a crazy week. -
2021-05-02
hermit HERALD, ISSUE 112
Biden $4 trillion proposal -
2021-04-30
High school proms go on, but with COVID-19 restrictions
Prom has been cancelled across the United States. While this is the case for most places, select locations are finding ways to make prom possible. For a school district in Pennsylvania, this meant having prom on the football field. This allowed them to enforce social distancing while still allowing the students to play games and have fun. -
2021-04-19
She’s Back and I’m Terrified
After 400 days to the day, my daughter walked back into her gym. A competitive gymnast who has been training with the same gym since the week before she turned 3, this has been a long year. We are privileged in the sense that the hardest decision we had to make during the pandemic was not related to jobs security, hunger, or even health (beyond keeping ourselves from COVID). Our hardest choice was not allowing our daughter to return to her gym to train when they reopened in June. My husband and I knew COVID was just beginning. We knew the spike would come and the health of our family wasn’t something we were willing to risk, especially because our jobs allowed us the luxury to work from home and distance. At first, we made case rates dropping our marker of when she’d go back. Then, with the announcement of the vaccine, we decided to wait until our household was vaccinated. By the end of March, the adults of our household were vaccinated and our local case count had dropped considerably, to an infection rate percentage of 1.4%. Still, we wondered “should we just wait until she’s vaccinated?” But she’s 10, there is no vaccine being publicized for her age. How long can we keep her from her life? It’s not just the training. It’s about mental health. We’ve kept her physically safe, but she’s 10 years old and hasn’t seen a single friend in person for almost 14 months. She hasn’t shown any signs of a mental health crisis, but even if she isn’t showing anything, this has to have taken a toll on her. It was a difficult and scary choice, but my husband and I decided her mental health and emotional health are worth the risk. She is so happy. She’s had two one on one sessions with her coach and we are all shocked (and relieved) that her daily solo workouts EVERY SINGLE DAY for 400+ days now paid off. She not only kept all her skills but learned enough her skills to advance to the next level. I know her coach is shocked. I don’t think she really believed that a kid would work hard enough on her own to keep in shape. I know my daughter is very proud and very relieved to know she can compete again. And the timing is perfect - the new season starts in May, so she’ll begin in a new level with other girls she knows who also leveled up. She never acted unhappy during quarantine, but since going back, she’s seemed lighter and happier. Still, the two times she went were one on one. The beginning of May will see her going back full time, three practices a week for ten hours a week of practice. I’m happy they’re letting her keep her mask on and that the coaches are wearing masks but I’m still nervous. It’s so hard to send your kid into a situation that may lead them to contract a deadly illness. But it’s also so hard to keep your kid in a bubble. I never in a million years imagined I’d have kept my child home for 400 days. I’m a public school teacher, I’m the first person to tell you the importance of socialization. But in a pandemic, I guess my mothering deep instinct to my child overpowered anything else. I hope and pray with everything in me that we don’t regret allowing her to go back. I hope we are turning a corner in CA and that a vaccine for kids arrives soon so I can feel slightly more relaxed. -
2021-03-09
#JOTPYSilver from hayden.craft_
#jotpysilver my silver lining during the pandemic was when all 5 of the major American sports were playing at the same time, due to the season delays that year and it was an awesome week of sports. I can speak for me and all my friends in saying it was definitely a bright spot during such a hard time. -
2021-04-18
The Beginning of the End!? Corona Culture Spring 2021
These items are a sampling of documents and links to news articles and public event dates that chronicle the reopening of some parts of the United States in spring 2021. One year after the start of the pandemic (the anniversary itself celebrated in various media), Texas and other parts of the U.S. were trying to return their businesses and services to more normal conditions. A community college's plan for reopening its main campus, a news article about a baseball park increasing its capacity (and having a sold out game), a listing of 2021 tour dates for popular musicians, and a town's decision to end its mask mandate all tell the story of people wanting to return to normal living. However, both government leaders and ordinary people could disagree about whether it was good to relax COVID restrictions as the announcement by a local mayor and the decision of a local school board suggests. These items reflect the challenges of returning to Pre-COVID lifestyles because not everyone was united in the belief that it was safe to live normal lives. This illustrates the interesting conflict between holding on to what makes people be or feels safe and those who believe such restrictions are unnecessary now. -
2021-04-12
Vancouver Island's Food Service Industry
In this podcast, Philip Wolf discusses how COVID-19 has impacted the food service industry with restaurant owners Oura and Kymon Giakoumakis. Their restaurant resides at a golf course, so during the winter they saw a drop in patronage and are hoping to start patio service soon so business can pick up again. They did adapt to take-out service and a "parking lot patio" in order to provide service in safe ways, but they still struggled with the requirements and monetary challenges that the pandemic has caused. In this podcast they also discuss other local restaurants, layoffs, and closures, giving a clear view of how Vancouver Island, and specifically the district of Saanich, has adapted during this time. -
2021-03-22
#JOTPYLesson from wanderlust_wilsons
wanderlust_wilsons With all this extra time...I pushed myself to get back into running and biking 🚲🏃🏼 #JOTPYlesson -
2021-04-15
Another Victim of a COVID Economy
I have anxiety. It’s not uncommon, and I have coping mechanisms. One of the things that helps me not fixate on things out of my control is being active. So I run. And for the past six years, I have been very committed to “barre,” which is similar to Pilates. My barre studio is my respite from the world, one hour to focus just on myself and my muscles. And the supportive community is unlike any other I have been a part of (I’ve done boot camps, kickboxing, etc. and have never found anything like this.) Since exercise is crucial to my mental health, when the pandemic began, I knew I could not stop working out. Especially with a household of five suddenly being at home together 24 hours a day! I was extremely fortunate that my barre studio immediately transitioned online. In fact, all throughout this pandemic, I have held them up as my example of the exact right way to deal with this situation. They made a digital library, offered multiple daily live classes over Zoom, reopened as a hybrid. My barre classes have been the constant throughout this pandemic, especially before I returned to work in person. Up until a few weeks ago, my most consistent live interaction with adult humans not living in this house were my barre instructors and the other women in the classes. So when I opened my email and saw this message, it hit me like a ton of bricks. They couldn’t survive COVID-19. It makes sense - they had two studios before COVID and rent is not cheap in Orange County. I am, of course selfishly sad - where will I find a reasonably priced, low impact but high intensity exercise studio that is five minutes from both my daughter’s gym and our church? But my real sadness is for the small business owner who opened this studio eight years ago. She is truly passionate about physical and mental health and is probably one of the most positive people I have ever met. And in a way that doesn’t annoy you, which honestly is a gift. As people get excited about businesses reopening, it makes me reflect on how many more have had to close their doors permanently. -
2021-03-22T08:10
HB-1475, Florida
An Anti-Trans sports bill preventing transgender women from participating in women's sports in high school. Whether or not you agree with the prospect of transgender women in female sports, this line from the bill seems to be overstepping the boundaries as the possible requirement for high school sports if the student in question seems "suspicious" about what gender they were assigned at birth: "The health care provider may verify the student's biological sex as part of a routine sports physical examination by relying only on one or more of the following: 1. The student's reproductive anatomy; 2. The student's genetic makeup; or 3. The student's normal endogenously produced testosterone levels." (Lines 59 to 66 of the Bill) The fact that a minor, a child may need an examination of their genitals or an invasive test of their endocrine functions or their karyotype (chromosomal makeup) is a horrible thought as it would cause many other sects of people who aren't even transgender, to begin with, to be harmed by this bill. People who are either Intersex (about a 2 in 100 occurrences) or have high testosterone (which cannot be controlled by anyone naturally) could be barred from sports out of fear for the imbalance of sports would just overall cause school sports to be more stress and trouble for students and faculty alike. Plus that is not even to mention the moderate amount of Intersex people who don't even know they are intersex due to phenotypical biological sex not always equating to the genotypical karyotypes people possess and the high amount of genital mutilation of Intersex children at birth, it would cause much more than what people would want from this sort of bill and cause a lot more harm than good. -
2021-04-13
Good, bad and ugly: Covid-19’s impact on the Valley’s tourism sector detailed in study
Over the last year, Arizona has seen the cancellation of major events due to COVID-19. These cancellations have had a major impact on business and tax revenue. The entertainment, hospitality, and food business have been hit the hardest. -
2021-03-15
Missouri Dad Testifies Against Trans Youth Athlete Ban
“As a parent the one thing we cannot do…is silence our child’s spirit.” Brandon Boulware, father of a transgender daughter, urged Missouri lawmakers to stop discriminating against trans youth while testifying in a hearing about trans youth athlete ban HJR 53. Parents, coaches, doctors, and student athletes are all coming together to say that trans people belong everywhere. Trans girls are girls, and they shouldn’t be barred from participating in sports. -
2021-02-07
Jazmine Sullivan & Eric Church Sing the National Anthem at Super Bowl LV, Interpreted by "Wawa" in ASL
Jazmine Sullivan and Eric Church sing the National Anthem for the Super Bowl LV Pregame Show. Warren “Wawa” Snipe performed the song in ASL. The Kansas City Chiefs take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during Super Bowl LV in Tampa Bay. -
2021-02-03
Interview with Wawa, Super Bowl 55 Signer
Interview with Warren "Wawa" Snipe about his gig with Super Bowl 55 this Sunday. We also discuss his new album, “Wamilton,” and his genre of Dip Hop. -
2021-02-07
National Anthem in ASL at the Superbowl
What a performance! Warren "Wawa" Snipe performed two songs during the Super Bowl. The National Anthem and America the Beautiful. He really stole the show! Kissfist! Muah! The performers were socially distanced. I wanted to add this to the archive so everyone can see Wawa's performance. He interpreted for artist H.E.R. Do you see the end? He knew he nailed it. Representation and inclusivity matter. -
2021-02-07
ASL performer steals the show during Super Bowl national anthem
Warren “Wawa” Snipe, who is deaf, performed the song in American Sign Language, and won over fans in the process. He also performed during H.E.R.'s rendition of "America the Beautiful." -
2021-03-27
Running Masked Up: Six Navajo Nation Athletes Earn All-State Accolades
By Quentin Jodie | Mar 27, 2021 | Track & Field | Navajo Times | Sharon Chischilly Kirtland Central junior Aisha Ramone places third overall in the 4A girls’ cross-country state championships on Friday at Albuquerque Academy. ALBUQUERQUE It’s been a long time coming for the Tohatchi boys’ cross-country team. On Friday, the Cougars placed four runners in the top 20 at the New Mexico Class 3A state cross-country meet as they secured the second-place trophy. “It’s been a while since we took one of these home,” Tohatchi coach Fern Spencer said of the red trophy. The longtime coach is not sure when was the last time they brought home a state trophy in cross-country but she said it was well deserved. “It’s very good for the program,” she said when asked if the state runner-up trophy is a nice addition to the trophy case. “They’re all young so we have another year with them. We’re going to continue to work hard and keep improving.” The Cougars were not the only school to take home hardware as six athletes earned All-State honors. In the 4A girls’ race, Kirtland Central’s Aisha Ramone and Shiprock’s Kaydence Platero placed third and fourth, respectively. “Finishing in the top three was my main goal and I got it,” Ramone said, who finished the 5K race in 19:47.77. “I just felt like I could have stayed up with the Albuquerque Academy runner (Emma Patton) but I just didn’t dig deep down enough to finish second.” Nonetheless, the KC runner was happy that she improved from last season’s sixth place finish at state. Platero was another runner who saw improvements from last year as she jumped four spots to fourth this year. “I’m so happy that I made the top five,” Platero said. “This is a big morale boost for me because I didn’t have a lot of confidence in myself but my team, my coach and the whole town of Shiprock cheered me on.” Platero, who was clocked in at 20:00.26, said her game plan worked to near perfection as she tried to shadow Ramone. “I tried to hang with Aisha and I tried to execute that but they did take off,” she said. “But in the end I was still able to finish behind them.” With a team score of 83 points, the Aztec Lady Tigers placed fourth while Shiprock took fifth with 94 points. In the 4A boys, Miyamura’s Tayan Benson made the podium with a 10th place finish. “I was hoping to do better than last year, but I just couldn’t do that today,” the Miyamura junior said. In the team standings, the Shiprock Chieftains placed fourth while Miyamura took sixth. In the 3A boys’ race, Albuquerque Cottonwood Classical ran away with the state title with 14 points while the Cougars finished with 47 points. Tohatchi was led by Nicolas Yazzie as he placed 10th overall. “It means a lot to us,” Yazzie said. “We all come in every day to practice and we give it our all. It just led to this moment and I think the time and effort we put into this paid off. I couldn’t have done it without them.” In addition to Yazzie, the Cougars had Melvin Scott Jr. place 14th, Jimmie Chavez III 17th and Jared Peterson 20th to complete the team score. Tohatchi’s fifth runner, Rodney Joe placed 30th overall. Individually, Crownpoint’s Tylon Tsosie and Newcomb’s Damien Johnson were named to the 3A All-State team by placing in the top 10. Tsosie took seventh, one spot ahead of Johnson. In the 1A/2A meet, the Ramah girls and Rehoboth boys took fifth in their respective races. -
2021-03-26
Premier François Legault of Quebec has received a Covid-19 Vaccine
He has received his first dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine at the Olympic stadium in Montreal. -
2021-03-19
Large Mural Project
Verified Just a block away from the Storm’s home at Climate Pledge Arena, artists Mari Shibuya and Zahyr Lauren, also known as L. Haz, put the finishing touches on a massive, 50 feet by 20 feet, mural dedicated to the four-time WNBA champions. The final pops of yellow are added around future Hall of Famer Sue Bird, who is months away from her 20th year as a WNBA player. Faces of former league MVP and reigning Finals MVP Breanna Stewart and up-and-coming All-Star guard Jewell Loyd accompany Bird, with the Seattle skyline pictured behind them. “It’s a message of solidarity, a message for social change,” said Shibuya. The Storm worked in collaboration with Muros, a global art activation agency, for the project. The art can be seen on the Toulouse Petit building on Mercer and Queen Anne Avenue. (by Alan Berner/ The Seattle Times) -
2020-07-20
Pop shares his heartfelt thoughts on issues concerning social justice, NBA athletes' use of their platforms and the coronavirus pandemic.
Pop shares his heartfelt thoughts on issues concerning social justice, NBA athletes' use of their platforms and the coronavirus pandemic. -
2020-09-10
NFL gears up for new season amid coronavirus and social justice concerns
The new NFL season kicks off tonight and it will be different from years past. The coronavirus pandemic has forced new protocols for fans, players and team staff. Additionally, players are calling on the league to do more to address social injustices. Darrell Green, an NFL Hall of Fame inductee and vice president of strategic marketing for Halodine, joined CBSN to discuss the upcoming season. -
2020-09-15
Naomi Osaka Raises Awareness of Black Genocide
Love this representation of Naomi Osaka by @_granddaughter (via @drcegreen ) Posted @withregram • @_granddaughter Naomi Osaka, a Black and Asian professional tennis player and the highest paid female athlete, will be wearing a different mask everyday of the US Open to raise awareness about the “continued genocide of Black people.” Whether you have a worldwide audience like Naomi or just a few insty followers, how are you standing up for what is right? Her murderers are still free 🤬 - Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankisom, and Myles Cosgrove must be arrested. . . . #breonnataylor #naomiosaka #usopen #black #asian #japanese #haitian #womenempowerment #justiceforbreonnataylor #nojusticenopeace #usopen2020 #queen #nike #blackwomen #blacklivesmatter #blm #asianwomen #womenofillustration #womensupportingwomen #womenoftype #biden2020 #bidenharris2020