Tales of Tenth Grade

Piles of clothing, books, papers, riddle the floor, Obscuring the carpet, Making the room feel tighter, And the walls feel closer.  I could clean once a day and it would still not prevent the inevitable reck.  I must have sat in every place in this room, From the desk, to the bed, to the carpet,  To the few feet of exposed hardwood infront of the sliding closet doors.  But no new location could bring new vigor to the digital worksheets that adorn my laptop screen. The days are short, but insufferably long. I stop every ten minutes to pursue a new task,  I allow school work to drag late into the night, and fall asleep in the early hours of the morning.  In the day, the world feels idle. But at night I can not help but entertain the anxieties avoided in the day's tasks. A battle rages in the hospitals, and it will not be contained. It is here already, and there is no foreseeable end. I end each day scrolling through new...

     As more time passes, the more it seems that COVID-19 is the only thing going on in the world right now. At least, if you were to look at any news feed right now, it would look that way. Every single article is somehow related to the virus. But obviously thats not the only thing happening that's worthy of having an article written about, for an example, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Obran has recently been given rule indefinatly, which the EU has done very little to stop. But that story isn't making headlines, despite it being an important event for the future of democracy in the nation.      So is it a problem that its become more difficult to find other news? Maybe. The thing is, the coronavirus should be at the top of the news right now, because the scale of the pandemic cannot be understated. Right now, there are predictions that as many as 240,000 Americans could die from the disease. There are rarely events in news that affect so many peop...

Amidst the devastating news of the coronavirus, many are finding solace in the idea that the Earth has been granted a much-needed reprieve. Emissions all over the world have significantly decreased, waters have begun to run clearer, and wildlife has been returning to areas they had previously abandoned. Yet this “good fortune” has not been extended to all wildlife. Lost amidst rising death tolls and news headlines cheerily touting “clearer water in the Venice Canals” or “lower emissions over China” are articles which detail the inhumanity of bear bile farms- bear bile farms which have been capitalizing off of the Chinese government’s decision to release a list of “cures” for the coronavirus. The industry for bear bile is one which is rather ancient- bear bile has been incorporated into traditional Chinese medicines since the 8th century, yet the farming of bears for their bile didn’t begin until the 1980s. The only way to obtain this bear bile, however, is throug...

The effects of coronavirus have been extremely devastating. Countless people are testing positive all over the world and many have lost their lives to the virus. Doctors advise everyone to self-quarantine during these times to decrease the spread. However, COVID-19 has taken a toll on some that don't even have the virus. Self-isolation for some could lead to horrible outcomes in their mental health. Being isolated from the outside world comes with extreme loneliness. Having no one to talk to and nothing to do increases anxiety. People need human interaction to not feel alone. People that are used to always going out and doing things with other people now feel trapped. There is ways to cope with feeling lonely in your house such as calling family and friends. People begin to realize how much they rely on human interaction. Introverts may not want to reach out to people, but it is crucial. They may not realize that talking to people can make them feel less alone in this situation. ...

On Monday, March 30th, Sparta started their third week of online schooling, along with almost everyone else across the country. Before this began and everything regarding the idea were just rumors, no one really took it that seriously. Everyone assumed that, because no one had any idea what to do with online schooling, nothing would get done. I had this mindset too, and when I first heard that school was closing for 2 weeks, I was looking forward to sleeping in and coasting through my classes. However, things aren’t stopping, and they are going to have to keep getting harder. The country, along with the world, is nowhere near a solution to the coronavirus pandemic, and school can’t reopen until they get a handle on the situation. This means that for all of marking period 4, school could become video calls to learn new units and tests almost all being open ended. Personally, I’m worried this will happen to the AP tests, which now that they are online, will inevitably have to be much har...

Although everyone is fairly tired of hearing "coronavirus" and "COVID-19," it is having a significantly negative impact on our world. But, it is important to understand how this pandemic is affecting the upcoming presidential election in the United States. The problem is in-person voting. Due to the current strict six-foot social distancing rule, in-person voting has become impossible. Voting by mail is a solution to this, however. According to Jocelyn Benson, the Secretary of State of Michigan, a voting system through the mail could be implemented by voting season (Seitz-Wald, " Coronavirus 'worst-case scenario': Could the presidential vote be done by mail?").  The uncertainty of the pandemic situation is causing lawmakers to be unsure about how to go about the elections. The virus could die by the summer, or it could still be a danger in November. There is also the threat of the virus mutating and coming back as another strand in late 2020.  (S...

Obviously, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has had a very negative effect on all of our lives. There have been over 20,000 deaths globally, and there are more than 400,000 confirmed cases worldwide. People are being forced to stay home. Kids to be unable to go to school, and many people are unable to go into work. Because of this, many are losing their jobs, and children who depend on school for meals are going hungry. We can hardly go anywhere. We can hardly do anything. We can't even go to the store without toilet paper drama. High school, college, and professional sports have stopped, the stock market is crashing and the entire world is in a state of panic and fear all because of the suspected consumption of one infected bat. However, with the social distancing and the lack of travel, the one thing that has flourished during this time has been the environment. According to BBC news, measures to contain the virus have caused pollution in New York to drop by almost 50%. In Chin...