Tales of Tenth Grade

As June and the end of school approaches, many people are looking into what our summer will consist of.  Will we continue to social distance, or will it be like any other awesome summer?  Although it did not seem promising a few weeks ago, things are starting to look brighter for our summer fun. As of Memorial Day weekend, New Jersey Governor, Phil Murphy, has eased restrictions to allow a gathering of 25 people outside of buildings and 10 people inside if social distancing remains "intact."  As soon as the day after this small gathering was permitted, I saw a gym hold a class outside.  Even though the members had to remain 6 feet apart, it was a step towards the "normal" lifestyle we once had.  Furthermore, non-contact sports as well as summer camps will be able to resume on June 22.  Although soccer is not among the list of non-contact sports, this reduced restriction provides hope that there will at least be a soccer season next fall.  Additionall...

After school is over, I eat lunch. My family never really ate lunch together, even on the weekend when we were all home. But over quarantine, we have all been having lunch together, which is pretty nice. After lunch, I'll usually play MLB The Show for an hour or so and talk with my friends online, and then after that, if it is a nice day out, I'll go on my trampoline or play basketball.  Since the coronavirus has basically shut down the United States, all of us have been stuck at home for the past month and a half. There is no school, no extra-curricular activities, nothing. So, you can imagine that it gets pretty boring. I try to keep myself entertained as best as possible, and this is how I do it. Since we still have online school, everyone still has to do that. Personally, I do it right when I get up because I don't really want it hanging over my head all day. I usually wake up around 8:30, and then finish my work between 11 or 12, and I go to whatever live session...

     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...

If one month ago you had told me that we would be switching to online school for two weeks because of the coronavirus, I would have called you crazy. Yet here I am, awaiting our first day of online school tomorrow. This past week, I have heard murmurs about us possibly going digital for a few weeks. At first, I remember thinking to myself, this will never happen . As the week went on though, I slowly began to change this mentality. This will never happen slowly turned into this probably won't happen, which eventually morphed into this might happen, and finally, on Friday, ended with this is happening . At first, I was extremely panicked. I sat there on Friday, our day off, watching as my bio assignments began to pile up. This, on top of the realization that we would essentially be trapped in our houses for two weeks, drove me insane for awhile. Come Saturday morning, however, I finally came to terms with reality. Yes, the assignments look like a lot, but all of the assignmen...

Yup. The blue dudes (plus Smurfette) who live in mushroom houses deep in the forest and battle the evil wizard Gargamel and his cat Azrael. (I think we should all take a moment to appreciate Gargamel.) Recently, as I'm sure you are aware, the coronavirus has taken hold of our lives. The fear of COVID-19 has spread (pun intended) world-wide, and much of Europe is living with anxiety. But would one small town give up on their dream of winning the Guinness World Record title for "Most People Dressed As Smurfs" because of a viral respiratory disease?  Of course not!  The people of Landerneau, France, were determined to enjoy life, to "not stop living," as Mayor Patrick Leclerc explained. Well, that and to beat Lauchrigen, Germany's impressive record of 2,762 people wearing smurf costumes. So, despite the 1,000 French people infected, the 16 French people killed, and French President Macron's warning to limit contact with the elderly and avoi...