Items
Tag is exactly
friend
-
2021-05-20
A Potentially "Deadly" Decision
The vaccination was a crossroads decision in my life. I hated that people trusted a vaccine that was rushed into existence, forced on the people by exploiting their fears. Although, I did see the benefits of having this on my record, I still had fear that the vaccine would have unwanted effects on my body, but my fears weren't worth putting my fellow man in danger of contracting a disease that could potentially kill others. I had to make a decision in order for my life to get back on track. I was tired of being stuck in a confined space without social interaction. Being away from friends and family wasn't worth it. So I got my vaccine. Thinking about it now, I am thankful that I was able to overcome my anxiety about the covid vaccine, but I hope in the future there will be a better alternative for the current options we have now. -
2021-12-28
COVID-19 Infectious Snowballs
COVID-19 gave us a tough time, and many of us haven’t had a chance to stop and check in with ourselves about what has actually been happening around us. Coming to New York was a new beginning for me that came with additional responsibilities. I had to balance my personal and academic life, family’s financial needs, extracurricular activities, and work. Just when I felt that everything was going smoothly, I was shattered to hear that it had been three months since my I-20 was terminated because of an academic document transfer issue. I could not go back to my country as I was part of “Hizmet,” a faith-inspired civil society movement, which at that time was facing oppression and persecution due to the bogus allegations of orchestrating a failed coup in Turkey. Therefore, I had to apply for asylum, which caused me a lot of stress, and it affected my academic career as I had to focus on court procedures. Even though due to the pandemic, the scheduled hearings got canceled, prolonging this challenging period, and I lost my job which was the only source for me to pay for my college tuition and support my family, still I tried to engage rather than focus on the negative side of the situation and depress myself. I put all of my efforts into being academically productive and doing something one day I could be proud of by boosting my academic performance leading me get several scholarships, involving myself in research programs, and focusing on advocacy as a student leader. As the responsibilities got heavier and more stressful, I just kept telling myself: "The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory." Life goes on... This funny story comes to my mind when the topic is about COVID-19. This past winter, the weather got really cold and snowy, and the lake behind a rental Pocono house froze over. With all the snow around us, we inevitably enjoyed a good-old fashioned snowball fight where the snowballs were called the "COVID-19" infected snowballs. Once you get hit, you get the virus. However, we soon found ourselves chasing one of our friends on top of the lake due to the ferocity he threw the snowballs with. One by one, we raced our way towards the middle of the lake. It may be obvious what happened next, but it took us all by surprise at the moment. The ice that once was had cracked, and I found my body submerged in the ice-cold water. As I tried to make myself back to solid ground, the image of my other friends frantically trying to stay calm caught my attention. When we finally did make it to safety, I couldn’t help but laugh at the events that just transpired. -
2020-08-27
Returning back to school
In the past year, I have experienced more stress and fatigue while attending virtual school, especially as I began my freshman year of college in 2020. Freshman year of college is a brand-new experience for all students, and going to school during a pandemic has changed what I thought college would be for me. I remember the exact moment when schools closed in 2020 because I was a senior in high school when the Department of Education announced that all schools need to close because the pandemic had just started making society nervous. I used to participate in my school’s music program, but when my high school sent an email that all classes had been shifted to online classes, it was a shock to everyone, including the teachers. When the online school first started, we were all unsure of how it would work, and my friends and I began questioning how we could take classes online and submit our homework. When I was a first-year college student, it has been difficult to connect to other students, because many of my high school friends went to a different colleges,s and making friends in online classes can be difficult. Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to say goodbye in person to my high school friends because our graduation ceremony was canceled. I have only gotten to know my fellow peers briefly in online classes; I learned that making friends in classes has been different, because we are only connecting on social media outside of class, and not getting to interact with one another on campus, in study groups, or at the library. Finally, most of the classes go back in person and we are able to build social relationships with others and experience real college life as a college student. -
2021-08-02
Giving The Family Covid
One day I woke up fine and normal like every other day and I went to work. At round 2 pm that day I started getting headaches and my body was cold. It was really hot that day too while my body was cold. I told me boss I'm not feeling too well and I wanted to go home. I called my friend who works in a pharmacy my symptoms and he said its possible to be covid-19. He went to my house and waited outside with a rapid test and I met him there. We did a test in the car and after 15 minutes it came out positive. I called my dad who was in my house to come outside so I can break the news to him before the rest of my family because they would've freaked out. I told my dad that I'm positive for covid-19 and he went to setup the house for me and seclude me from everyone else. I went upstairs and I saw my family waiting for me and my uncle had his hand out to greet me and I ignored all of them without giving eye contact and went straight to my room. I rarely ever get sick from anything really. Im sitting in my room thinking I really got covid-19 thinking I'm immune and invincible because I'm a healthy 21 year old and I never get sick. Also no one in my family previously got covid I was the first. This pandemic has showed me what I'm not and I'm just like every other person. The good thing is I mentioned it to my boss and asked my friend to test me right away. This is what everyone should be doing, check up on yourself right away. -
2020-07-04
Podcast In a Pandemic
During the pandemic, I've decided to create a podcast with my friends discussing relationships and social issues relating to men and women in their 20s. The idea came to us after we decided to turn our daily debates into content -
2020-03-26
The day it all went south
From the beginning of quarantine till now the simple, everyday things I used to do has now become a difficult. Such examples would be going to the bodega or going to my therapy appointments or even going to work. There’s now so many extra steps and protocols as if my job wasn’t already stressful enough. While I personally haven’t been affected by corona virus in terms of health, I can still say that it has turned everything upside down. I still can hang out with friends but I’ve missed so many events that I was looking forward to. Anime event to birthday event, all of those experiences missed. The biggest thing about COVID for me was that it showed me just how selfish and ignorant others are by not only people refusing to wear masks but some even denying it’s existence. -
2020-03-01
Mental Health Effects of COVID-19
COVID-19 was an experience that presented the ideal conditions that would challenge our mental health. The fear of the unknown, fear of losing loved ones, fear of missing out on our precious years of life as well as not knowing when we'll see our close family and friends. We are separated from society unable to see our loved ones, schools are closed, many people lost their jobs or were unable to work to prevent the spread of this horrifying disease. As we're locked into our homes, we confine ourselves in our own minds which can often be our worst enemies at times for people like me. We need to be occupied and be around loved ones in order to stray away from negativity. During these times being surrounded by close family and friends was a luxury we couldn't afford because of the virus and ultimately many people like myself picked up hobbies to distract ourselves from the dreadful events occurring all over the world. During my summer break, I began learning to paint and would spend about a couple hours a day painting with my friends over Zoom which would either sometimes turn out to be a competition between us of who would do the best or we would just freely paint while listening to some calming music and keeping each other company. Although I am not very artistic or good at acrylic painting there was something very therapeutic about it. My entire focus and attention was solely on doing my best to recreate the painting from the tutorial I was watching on YouTube or trying to win the friendly competition with my friends and this helped me steer away from pondering about what's been going on in the world and was very stress-relieving. In a way my COVID-19 experience taught me a lot about my mental health and helped me find ways to make the best of the situation and not take anything for granted. Now a couple months into quarantine I still paint from time to time although not as much because the semester started and being bombarded with assignments and tests but I do make time for it if I find that I need to release my stress.