Albarracin Week 7- BATTLE OF STALINGRAD (paintball)

Grit.  Violence.  Pain.  Sacrifice.  Paintball....

The battle of Stalingrad will be remembered as a key battle in the second world war.  It represents the harshest brutality of any war and reminds everyone just how harsh the cold can be.  . Skirmish Paintball Park hosts the Stalingrad event each year during march, and in some sense, it captures the essence of Stalingrad without the brutal and evil factors of the war.  

For starters, there are two teams or armies you can join.  The red army and the axis army.  Red army representing the Soviet Union and the axis army represents the Axis Powers.  Depending on which side you choose, you will have different objectives and will start on different sides of the park.  Each army has designated captains which control different regiments of "soldiers".  Although most people prefer to fall into or join different clans.  Clans are groups of people who constantly come to the paintball park and have formed teams of 7-15 people.  They all have different names and uniforms.  I happened to join the Mud Dogs.  They were a fantastic group, and it was a pleasure to join their clan for the event, but that is a story for another time.  All of these regimens and clans form to make up both armies.  Skirmish offers several maps across its hundreds of acres of land.  On each map, a different objective with different goals is played out for a certain window of time.  Game modes such as capture the flag, last man standing, or good old fashion pushing the other army out of the objective factor into the winning army.  These different game modes are simultaneously occurring around the entire park on different maps and different portions of land.  Some game modes last longer than others.  Regardless, each game modes provides a certain number of points, these points are added up until the final game mode.  The final game is one of the largest and packed capture the flag games in existence.  The axis army must capture a a Russian flag from a "secure" stronghold, the red army must protect the flag.  This game mode offers the most amount of points, so each side fights with everything they have, and at times, to the last man.  People from all walks of life come to this monster of an event.  Ex-soldiers, suburban dad’s, kids, people from different states, people from different countries all come to skirmish to partake in an event they’ll never forget.  Using eco-friendly paintballs as ammunition, even concerned eco protestors have fun from time to time, as skirmish refuses to needlessly deforest any area without trying to build a map around the natural landscape.  Even the most passionate pacifists will revel at the sight of their first kill (elimination).  No need to worry if your eliminated though, simply walk back to camp, “revive” yourself, get the okay from one of the several referees to enter the fight, and you are good to go.  As long as you can get over the fear of being hit, conserve ammo, and fight with everyone you’ve got, you’ll be just fine.  Don’t forget, the most feared element of this entire event is not the immense assortment of weapons  that deal painful blows,  rugged and tough terrain, or even the enemy, but the cold.  The cold reminds you why the Germans were able to defeated in Stalingrad, it’s a force unlike any other.  So suit up, fill your hopper, and warm up, because Stalingrad is one event that’s worth the pain!

(A demonstration of the intense cold available during the event)

Tayi Week 7 - Plans Post Quarantine

    I and most of my friend group are people who love to spend our time inside. Because of quarantine, we have been able to talk and play online together every day since last March. This has led my group to become very close friends. It's very nice to think about how a chaotic 16 group of people could be so close to each other and know all about each other. No odd man out in this group!

Sadly, we have come to the realization that things aren't going to stay like this forever and once college hits, realistically speaking, our group is going to be split up into smaller groups and not talk to each other on a daily basis anymore. We don't hang out in real life as often as we should because of how much fun we have online and obviously because of the pandemic. This led us to an idea.

Assuming (hoping) quarantine is over by the time we are in the summer of senior year, we all decided we are going to go on a trip together. Not just some lame trip to Dorney that I'm sure we are all sick of by now. I mean a trip to another country. Japan is a country we have all always wanted to go to. For some reason, we are all fascinated by Japanese culture. The food, the sights, the people, everything about Japan looks so appealing to us. One of us has even gone to Japan before, but he was pretty young and doesn't remember enough to be bored of it.

Realistically, there is no way that all of us are going to be able to go across the globe together. There will most likely be eight people maximum going on the trip. We are all hoping that this final trip together before college will happen. We already have five people that have agreed/got permission to go. It doesn't sound like a lot but we are more than a year early. As someone who travels outside of the country a lot, I can easily say I have never been more excited about visiting another country. And even if the trip ends up being canceled, something tells me we have plenty more ideas to spend our last summers together.

Henchy Week 7 - Fun at Work

    About two months ago, I got a new job at the Kiffle Kitchen, a bakery in Bath.  My previous job was making sandwiches at Wendy's, and the working conditions were horrible.  So, having a new one made me very excited.  I quickly have found that my job at the Kiffle Kitchen is actually much more fun and enjoyable than any one I have heard of.

    The nice thing about my job that I love is that we have no 'assigned' roles, meaning that there is a lot of work to be done each day and everyday just works on whatever part of it they would like, and we all go home when all the work is done.  These short and constantly changing tasks make me not as bored as doing the same thing for four hours.  I believe this actually increases productivity since it makes me actually want to do what I am working on, because i chose it over several other jobs.

    Another really fun time that has formed is nights.  Often, my boss leaves around 4 and all of my older coworkers leave around 6.  After that it is just me and a few other high school kids, left alone to complete the night's work and lock up.  These nights are usually a ton of fun since we finish work somewhere around 7/8 and just mess around together for an hour.  

    Finally, my boss is 33, and own a Mustang.  Obviously he is pretty financially stable with how much output the business has, so he is a really laid back guy who is more interested in the stock market than how productive we are being.  

    Overall, I am very glad I found a positive job experience after my first very bad experience at Wendy's.  It really is important to work with friends and to have fun; it makes the time go by so much quicker.

Bakery

Aaliyah Cohen week 7 TRACK

    I have a love-hate relationship with running. I love running because it’s relaxing. Whether it’s hot or cold when that windy breeze hits your face it’s almost refreshing. Step by step I look down at the track, telling myself to keep going and that it’ll be worth it in the end. The two rewards I tell myself are getting in shape and victory. The overall feeling of running may be hard, but when you just put your mind to it and zone out your surroundings it can be a beautiful experience. 

    The other side of this relationship is hate. I hate running because of having the constant urge to stop. Whether I stare at the track or not, it truly doesn’t feel any better because I still have a distance to run. I hate running because it makes me tired, and having practice everyday doesn’t help that. Everyday I’m in constant agony, whether it’s from stressing about school or having soreness for track. While I may be struggling now, I hope that soon things will sort out and my life will be back on schedule. 

    My love-hate relationship is honestly what keeps me going though. The hate makes me nervous all the time and makes me lose my drive, but the love for running comes in and turns everything around and keeps me pushing on. I take on the track step by step, stride by stride until I cross over those white numbers, letting me know that I’m safe and I made it out alive.

Karve Week 7- New Hair

Anyone that knows me knows that I love doing hair. I always have. I was one of the girls in elementary school that would get yelled at by the teacher, who said "This is a school, not a hair salon!" I've also always been good at doing hair. For dance, we had to do this crazy hairstyle, and I would end up doing everyones hair for them. Outside of dance, and as I got older, I stopped braiding hair and moved to curling and straightening my naturally wavy hair. For the past few years, I've had highlights in my hair. I didn't love them, but I didn't hate them. I wanted a change, but didn't know what to do. Then, one of my friends suggested that I dye my hair darker. I'm naturally a brunette, and my hair is pretty dark, but the highlights have lightened it over the years. Originally, I hated the idea. I didn't think that it suited my personality. Also, my mom hated the idea. However, it grew on me, and I finally decided what I wanted to do. My mom took a little convincing, but she eventually made the appointment. At the appointment, I was very nervous that I wouldn't like it and that I would regret my decision. But once she washed the dye out, I loved it! It gave me a new sort of confidence that I didn't know I was lacking. It's funny how a small change can affect you. When I got home I showed my mom, and she said that she actually liked it, or maybe she was lying to me. I, of course, had to show all of my friends right away, and I am really happy with my decision.

Harclerode Week 7- Volleyball Problems

     This club volleyball season has not been off to a very good start. First, we lost in the semifinals of our first tournament. Our second tournament was actually really good because we placed 2nd in an 18s level tournament as a 17s team, but after that everything went down hill...

    That 18s tournament was all the way back in January, January 17-18 to be exact. Then we did not have a single tournament for the entire month of February. It was like torture. Every other club team in our age group was going to tournaments, so why couldn't we? It was so frustrating! We finally had another tournament this past weekend, but we were so rusty from the lack of actual game-play that we did not even get out of pool play and into the semifinals. Don't get me wrong, we fought hard and even went to three sets in every game we played, but after our successful season last year, it was disappointing to lose and go home so much earlier than if we had made it to the finals. Now, we have to wait yet another month to have our next tournament...

    I just wish that we could go to more tournaments and travel more. I understand that some people are wary of COVID, but I personally feel that if that was one of your concerns, you should not have joined a travel team in the first place (and just to clarify, we are very safe while we play, we have out masks on the entire time and we make sure to take the necessary precautions so none of this would cause any harm). However, since some players' parents do not want to travel to tournaments outside of Pennsylvania, our selection of tournaments is very limited. This leads to us never going to any tournaments, and that just hurts the team. It's as if all the time off makes us forget how to play in an actually competitive game! In addition, one of my favorite parts about club volleyball was the traveling, but now we barely go anywhere. All of the tournaments in remotely interesting places have either been cancelled or are going to be cancelled. COVID has really messed up our season. I wish things could go back to normal so that we could travel, go to more tournaments, and be a winning team again.

Zhang Week 7 - Visiting the Supermarket

Ever since COVID began, my family has been pretty limited in places to visit when we just want to get out of the house and relax. Last summer we weren't able to go to the beach, have long road trips, or visit cities. But, we've actually found a new outlet to have family time. Once a month, we've been going to Edison, New Jersey to visit the asian supermarket as well as other bakeries and restaurants in the area. My parents will rush in the supermarket, buying ingredients like noodles, beef, seafood, and sauces, which are ingredients for hotpot. We also make sure to buy asian snacks like matcha flavored ice cream, mochi, and etc., which we can't find in the supermarkets at home. My favorite part of these grocery runs is definitely when we're just about to leave and go shopping for food, so I can visit the stationary store which is located at the checkout area of the market. I always order boba tea after shopping, and my mom gets shaved ice--one of her all time favorite treats. Even in the winter, it's really refreshing to have a cold, sweet, snack after running around the supermarket. The boba and shaved ice shops are in the same plaza as the supermarket, so it's really convenient. It takes us a few hours to finish shopping for food, and usually we pick up sushi or takeout for dinner afterwards. The car ride back home is always a little disappointing because I know I'll have to wait a few weeks before we can go again, but it's also relieving because we are all so tired from shopping the whole day. While COVID did take away bigger luxuries like more eventful day trips and vacations, it also made me become more exposed to my own culture because previously, we didn't have as many ingredients at home that my parents could cook a more exciting variety of authentic dishes from.

White Week 7, My favorite fictional character is cooler than yours

 White Week 7, My favorite fictional character is cooler than yours

THANKS, USEASTLY I ''LOVE YOUR SERVICE''

    Everyone reading this right now has a favorite fictional character, or someone that they think just emulates themselves through fictional media.  Whether it be Luke skywalker, Mr potato head, or some female character (I include this because I can't name a favorite female character off the top of my head).  But I think the reason behind 'us' liking characters is because we like how they fit ourselves or others that we look up to or down upon.  That being said what's about to be stated is entirely opinionated as my favorite character is of course going to be cooler to me because it's my favorite (duh).  But the goal for this opinion piece is to draw out someone (it could be you) and to hear them tell me why they think their character is cooler.  

https://kimetsu-no-yaiba.fandom.com/wiki/Inosuke_Hashibira/Image_Gallery

    Now to begin, I think I should make it evident why I think he's cool to me (and others, you might think he's cool but I don't know that).  His name is Inosuke Hashibra, (for the sake of this I'll refer to him by his first name).  He is a character from the Demon Slayer Manga (and anime adaptation) a story about demons roaming the lands of Japan and the hidden protectors of humanity conveniently named demon slayers. Without getting into the story a lot because this is a character review, Inosuke's backstory is he was saved by his mother from a demon and raised by wild boars in the jungle (his mom did a Bambi). That on its own is cool but even cooler is that he found about the demon slayer organization by finding a demon slayer and beating him up, for the most part, for fun. I think his unconventional beginning made him stand out to me and have me interested in him.  But I think even better than his introduction is his whole style and attitude throughout the story.  He is by no means the strongest character or the nicest (as evident).  He often parades around challenging others to fight him and degrades others around him as a means of provoking them for his enjoyment.  And even though he is avid to fight he knows when he's outmatched and looks upon them as inspiration to get stronger.  And through this inspiration I loved his character as on the outside he is very upfront doesn't care about you or your feelings, but to his core, he is a motivational character that constantly strives to better himself until he is the best at something.  He, I think emulates my desires/qualities and that's why I like his character soooo much. 

https://kimetsu-no-yaiba.fandom.com/wiki/Inosuke_Hashibira/Image_Gallery#Plot

    Characters for example luke skywalker (btw I love Star Wars so I thought this would be a great example for my point), are for most people a great person with honorable ambitions.  I think that Luke skywalker is a great character and I can see why people like him so much or with that any other character.  For them, they see him as a role model or just simply as someone cool.  But for that same reason, I like Inosuke, he is bold, ambitious, and straight to the point.  He sees himself as above others around him and knows exactly who is above him and strives to beat that person at their profession. So In that respect, I think that Inosuke is way cooler than whomever you like because he emulates what I think is a cool personality and character even though he might not be the studious or upright individual, he's someone that I think has a real personality and doesn't fit into the mesh of white knight characters that I see all the time.  But I want to know who is your favorite character and why you think they are better than Inosuke. So please tell me so I can tell you why you are wrong and why Inosuke is cooler than your fictional character. 

(note: Demonslayer can be watched on Hulu, Netflix, Crunchyroll, Funimation, and I used VIZ for the Manga)

Inosuke appreciation below. (all are from the Wiki fandom page)

 

Allen Week 7: The Stresses of Competitive Soccer

I am going into my first major tournament this weekend, so I thought it appropriate to talk a bit about my history with the beautiful game. For those of you who don’t know, I play soccer. I was on the high school varsity team, but more important (and more relevant to my blog), I play starting center back for the ENCO College Showcase team. “College Showcase” sounds very prestigious, but all it really means is that we get the most attention from college coaches. This means we play against the best teams and get invited to some of the biggest tournaments in the country. My ENCO team is currently 7th in the state, so we stir up a lot of interest when colleges find out we are playing.

Our tournament this weekend is the Steel United Turf Showcase and we are going to go straight into the biggest game of the tournament where we will play the number 6 team in the state. This is a fight for 6th place because we are only slightly behind this team in rankings. If we lost this game, we would likely be overtaken by the team in 8th place, so our goal for this tournament is to take home the win and push ourselves into striking distance of the top five.

Now I know a lot of you are probably confused by how the rankings work, so I will do my best to explain them. The rankings are all run through a website called GotSoccer. They are in charge of ranking teams in the US and Canada. Now every team is ranked in order based on how many points they have. You don’t lose any points if you lose a game, you get 10 points for a draw and 30 points for a win. If you beat a team who are 200 points higher than you then you get 10% of their points on top of the 30 points for winning the game. Each tournament has a prize pool that goes to the winner. The weird thing about GotSoccer is that after a year, the points go away. So if I had played in a tournament today of last year, those points would disappear tomorrow. This just means that there is extra pressure and you have to work harder to win every game.

My Team

Vaughn Week 7 - Importance of Sleep

                                                     Vaughn Week 7 - Importance of Sleep

Over the past few weeks, my sleeping schedule has become more and more irregular. This week I've been trying to keep my sleeping schedule as consistent as possible and although I haven't noticed any positive effects yet as it's only been a couple days, I did learn some interesting facts regarding sleep and its importance.

A study on medical interns showed that interns with “extended work hours of more than 24 hours made 36% more serious medical errors than interns on a schedule that allowed more sleep.” Although I always knew lack of sleep can cause learning and concentration issues, I would never expect it to have that much of an effect on the interns. As a student, this is interesting because I wonder if lack of sleep can potentially cause me to make 36% more errors. 

Another study that was held in 2009, determined that events in the brain called sharp-wave ripples are what consolidates our memory. These also transfer learned information to the neocortex, which is where long-term memories are stored. These only occur during the deepest stage of sleep.

Lack of sleep also weakens the area of the brain that manages problem-solving, organization, and planning. Lack of sleep also reduces our self-control, which can cause people to get frustrated more easily, and give up on tasks. 

Overall, as a student, I've realized that I've been underestimating the effect of lack of sleep on my performance in school and other tasks. I've noticed that I've been getting very tired in class lately and it's probably harming my performance a decent amount. Although I've always been aware of the harms, I've never taken them as seriously as I should, and I look forward to improving my sleep schedule. 

Picture

Blackham Week 7 - First Week of Track

    This past Monday was our first track practice. I do long jump and short sprints, and this week we’ve mainly been working on longer sprinting and drills. I am so impressed with those who can run long distances. That doesn’t work for me. I wish I could say that the last few practices were great, but to be honest, they’ve been really hard. I have a condition called Vocal Cord Dysfunction or VCD. For a long time, we thought I had exercise-induced asthma since the symptoms are so similar. Basically, when I run for longer distances, even just two laps around the track, my vocal cords close up, restricting airflow. It sounds so pathetic, but after two laps, I’ll be hyperventilating and wheezing with bad chest pain. After three laps (our warm-up), I’m choking and gagging. For the 30 minutes after, I’m still choking and coughing badly. I don’t have any problems sprinting the 100m or running for the long jump. I just struggle with our warm-ups and drills.

    The problem with VCD is there isn’t an easy treatment. For asthma, an inhaler can be used to open the air tube and allow airflow. However, with VCD, the only treatment is training your vocal cords to work properly. What’s even more frustrating is when I try these exercises or “rescue breaths,” it only seems to get worse. To be honest, the first couple of practices have been really discouraging. I’ve been looking forward to track ever since our season was cut short last year. I love to sprint and jump with the burst of energy and rush of adrenaline. It’s dumb that I can’t do an easy warm-up. What is especially frustrating is my inability to fix the problem. I’m someone who believes that improvement comes from hard work and pushing through pain. I did competitive gymnastics for seven years and pushed through pain every day. While teammates would slack off, I would work harder. During these VCD attacks, as I try to push harder, it just seems to get worse. The harder I try to take in more air, the tighter my vocal cords become. Everything I’ve tried doesn’t seem to help. And that lack of control is more frustrating than you can imagine. I’ve been to the doctor and trainer before but never saw any significant improvements. I’m probably going back in the next week or so to see if they suggest anything else. Hopefully, this can get better soon. 

    Update: I wrote the above on Tuesday but had a much better practice on Wednesday and Thursday. On Thursday (today), I even had the farthest distance on long jump!! 

Elarousy week 7 : summertime

 My favorite season is summer, because of the warm weather, school vacation, and the endless fun and free time. Most of my fondest memories were in the summer. I really enjoy the weather as it provides for an almost perfect atmosphere for outdoor activities. My favorite part of summer is the very fact that school is closed for about 2 months. during the summer we are at liberty to do whatever we want without any restrictions or worry over waking up early in the morning, which is something I find very hard to do, this break just offers a great opportunity to wake up and sleep whenever we want and we aren’t confined or bound to a strict schedule.  It’s just a great time to relax with family and friends by soaking up the sun at the beach or simply just spending time together over dinner. 

Especially since everyone works so hard during the school free that we all deserve some time free time. Summertime is are stress-free, relaxing, and fun. we don’t have to worry about assignments,  projects, or studying for a test. It the best time for festivities and activities. You can’t get bored on a summer day there are so many things to do like: swimming, sports, picnic, and barbeques. The evenings are the best time to go to concerts, movies, parties, and just spending some quality time with friends.

I was so disappointed that we didn’t get to experience that this summer due to covid but hopefully by summertime this year things would be better.

    

“summer 2018 Hurghada, Egypt” ( It was so HOT!!)

Voloshen Week 7- Good Food

     I absolutely love food. It can increase your mood, make you feel more energized, and it can even help you explore different cultures. I truly believe that food has away of bringing people together and lifting the mood of an event. I haven't always viewed food in this light though. As a kid, I had never paid any attention to what I was eating, but if it looked good I would eat it. Once I entered my freshman year, I realized that I would have to start eating healthier in order to run as competitively as I wanted to. So, my diet did a complete 180 over the summer of 2018. I began eating more fruits, vegetables, seeds, oats, nuts, and healthy proteins and I immediately felt a difference. Not only did I feel sustained and healthy on my runs, but I would feel that way as I was eating too. After a few weeks of eating healthier, I began to notice that my body started craving fruits and vegetables over sweets and fried food. 

    I knew that my body was craving these food for a reason contributing to my health, but I've always wondered what the exact benefits were that these foods provided. I decided to research some of my favorite fruits and see how they affect our bodies over periods of time. For example, mango is rich in Vitamin C, which our bodies need to form blood vessels and heal injuries. It is also a great source of potassium and magnesium, which play an important role in lowering blood pressure. Additionally, mangoes provide fiber to stabilize our digestive systems, folate for DNA replication, and antioxidants to fight cell-damaging free radicals.  

As I said before: I love food. It's nice to know that some foods love our bodies just as much. 

Benefits of eating mango: https://www.webmd.com/diet/health-benefits-mango#1 

    

Moore Week 7 - Women's History Month

 

    This month is women’s national history month! Women’s history month is a whole month dedicated to celebrating the achievements of all women all over the world and is an opportunity to look closer at equality and opportunities for women. It’s not just celebrated in the U.S, but it’s also celebrated in the U.K, Canada, and Australia. 

Women’s history month is in March for a few different reasons. March 8th has been International Women’s History Day since 1911 and was officially recognized by the U.N in 1977. Eventually, International Women’s History day turned into a whole week when different organizations began celebrating the entire week instead. In 1980, President Carter designated the first official National Women’s History Week.  After several states declared the whole month of March as Women’s History Month, eventually in March 1987 Congress declared it the first Women’s History Month. There’s also been several important milestones and events for women’s history that have occurred throughout March like the passing of Title IX and the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972, and the first women’s suffrage parade in Washington, D.C in 1913. 

Months dedicated to minorities like Black History Month, Women’s History Month, and LGBT Pride Month, all are really important because they help bring awareness to important issues surrounding those groups. This year during Women’s History Month, problems regarding the pandemic have been brought to attention. For instance, the pandemic has had an impact on the gender wage gap since many women have been forced to quit their jobs due to childcare or have lost their jobs. Economists have actually projected that due to the pandemic the gap is going to widen by 5 percentage points. 

In the end, I really think that it’s important that we continue to celebrate these months so that it can bring more attention to issues that people can often forget about during the rest of the year. It’s also a great way to honor those who have fought for these rights in the past, and to help bring light to how far we still have to go.

Link

Vakiener Week 7- A New Job

     I started at my new job last week as a culinary services employee. I was told that working at Moravian hall square could be challenging while still being fun, and since I knew most of the people I would be working with I decided to apply. I met with many different people over the span of a month to talk about paperwork and how the building was currently operating under Covid 19 guidelines. I had to go through multiple background checks and have a bunch of medical work done. And after all of that, I began my first week of training. 

    The first two days of my training were great I was on two shifts on two days back to back with people that I knew. I learned how to unload and load the dish machine how the kitchen, freezers, floors, and storage rooms all have a separate way of being cleaned. Being told all of this at first seemed like a daunting task however as I got to practice I understood that this would not end up being as stressful as I had presumed it would be. And I was right! The first two days went smoothly I worked Monday and Tuesday and got ready to come back on Thursday.

So for those of you who don't know which I am assuming is most Moravian has two big dishwashers. This is where each kitchen sends through each of their dishes. I up until this point had been trained on the one machine that was in the Rose Inn kitchen, not the one in the main kitchen. That being said when I arrived on Thursday the Rose Inn machine was in shambles. This stressed everyone out because the machines were really expensive and took a long time to get fixed, but the immediate problem was that now we didn't have a machine in the Rose Inn kitchen. That meant that we had to run two kitchens' worth of dishes through one machine. The last two nights of my training were pretty hectic filled with lots of running and lots of bumping into other people, but we still manage to leave. A little bit late but we still left. Tonight is my first shift outside of training and I am a bit nervous. But if I was able to survive that first week I should be able to survive anything.

Rosynek Week 7- My New Cat

 

    Last Friday, I left my lights on in my 2006 truck. I essentially drained the battery so low that it couldn't recharge and we replaced it after finding out that it was 6+ years old anyway. I left it in the North Campus parking lot from 2-8 before I picked it up.

     Between those times, my mother and I went to a shelter in Stroudsburg to visit a cat that was recently surrendered there. My mom had seen her on Facebook and jumped at the opportunity to see her. Her name is Angel. She is 12 years old and was living in a house, before the shelter, with an older couple that died. When we went to see her, she buried herself under the pillow in her cage but as soon as she saw us coming to pet her, she came out. We could tell that she was very stressed. She was losing fur constantly, and the shelter volunteers said that she didn't eat very much. So, we spent a little bit of time with her and getting to know her. I have wanted a cat for a few years since our other one had passed away a few years ago, and I thought this was my opportunity to have one. She was very alert and skittish, although she was in a smaller room with other cats that were just as stressed out. 

    My mother and I decided to adopt her. It was impulsive but it was the best decision we could have made. She spent most of the first day at home under my bed. Then, she started to come out more and walk around my room. She was still afraid of noises, for example my parents coming up and down the stairs of our three-floor house. As she realized none of us were there to hurt her, but to comfort and help her settle in, she started to explore outside of my room and play. 

    Now, Angel follows me around. She knows her name and she talks A LOT. If I'm even slightly later than 6AM or 5PM to give her wet cat food, she follows me around and yells at me. She runs around and plays and she has even sat on the counters in the kitchen. I'm super excited to have my own cat and I'm very grateful to have her. 

Ernst Week 7- College Stress

Lately all I have been able to think about is the future. Will I get into college? Will I be able to get a good job? These questions have been on my mind almost always. I know college is still a little bit away (1 ½ year), but I have to think about what I’m majoring in and apply for colleges in less than a year.

I’m still not 100% sure what I want to do or where I want to go, but I have a good idea. I think I want to major in political science and minor in psychology (possibly neuropsychology) because I am interested in both those things. Some of my top colleges right now are Villanova, Bucknell, and Lehigh. It is scary not knowing if I will get into the college I want, but I am going to try my best to keep up my grades and stay involved in school. 

I am also stressed out about what will happen after college. Where will I live? Will I be able to find a good job? The unknown has always scared me and being at this crazy time in my life, my anxiety has only grown worse. I am just trying to stay on the bright side, as I am sure everything will be O.K. 

Febbo Week 7 - Waitress Stress

     About a month or two ago, my boss asked me if I wanted to start waitressing. At that point, I had already been working the register for about 3-4 months, so I already knew the menu and how most things worked around the restaurant. I slowly began to learn how to waitress, by watching the other girl's waitress. I already had some past waitressing experience, from when I used to work at a small breakfast place about 3 years ago. However, I wasn't the best waitress 3 years ago.

    After, about 2 weeks of watching the other girls and beginning to waitress with some help, I had my first shift waitressing by myself. I was pretty nervous to be alone, as you never know how busy it may get and I didn't have anyone else helping me, so I had to make sure I kept everything organized, so I was still quick and efficient. 

    The night started off being pretty slow, but around 5 o'clock I started to get a few tables. Then, by about 6 o'clock I got even more and I was running around like a crazy person. I somehow managed to stay calm and I did my best to get everything done. By the end of the night, I was exhausted. Waitressing, definitely, uses up a lot of your energy and I'm usually pretty beat by the end of my shift. 

    Although, I was pretty stressed out for most of the night, I was proud that I managed to do everything on my own.

Ellis Week 7 - Speech Therapy

 

    As many of my friends and family know, I am an incredibly indecisive person. I have gone through about every single career option possible, and it is starting to really stress me out. Ever since I was little I knew I wanted to go into the medical field, but that’s about all I got. I have mentioned this problem in past blogs, but I am happy to say I think I finally decided on a career. 

    The other night, my mom and I were going through old files and came upon a huge folder that belonged to me. It was every paper we ever got while I was in speech, which was for about 3 years because I was really struggling. I wasn't substituting the common letters into words, and that really concerned my doctor. By this I mean that sometimes kids will substitute a w instead of an r, because it is just easier to pronounce. However, I was substituting the letter h in just about every word, which made it almost impossible for anyone to understand me. This resulted in a lot of frustration as a 3 year old, and a lot of lack in confidence. I was in such bad shape that my speech therapist brought up that maybe I should use ASL until I was able to form my own words… but they ended up not moving forward with that idea, worried that I would become too dependent on that way of communication. 

    After going down memory lane, I realized that a career in speech pathology would be perfect for me. It is flexible, medical, it deals with people of all ages, and I would have a connection with the clients because that was once me. I ended up emailing my old speech therapist for the first time in 12 years, and I will most likely be job shadowing her when things calm down with Covid. 

    I am really happy that I seem to at least have a more distinct option as to what I want to pursue. It makes me feel a lot more relaxed and comfortable considering I want to start looking at colleges soon.  

Level week 7 - Shopping Addiction

        As this virus continues to live in our world I have notices some changes that it has brought for me. The one thing that this virus has brought into everyone's lives is the digital world. Everything can be done online now school, meetings, ordering food, and now more than every shopping. Online shopping has skyrocketed during these moments which makes sense. 

    Everyone used to say that they preferred to shop in person instead of online because they thought it was easier, more reliable, and it was what they were used to. Now most people only online shop due to the stores being forced to close at the beginning of this chaos. Everything adapted so that we would be able to do it online instead of in-person. This changed everything. 

    Before when I went shopping I was able to see how much I bought and how much I spent, but now that I am used to online shopping it is different. In the beginning, I was finding myself with a new package being delivered to me every week, and since I had just started getting paid from my new job I was buying even more. 

    It all started when I would get bored I would look at clothing online and then one day I just decided to buy the things I liked. Now when I shop I don't really take into consideration how many items I bought recently or even how much I spent in total. I don't really mind because when I receive packages I get very excited and happy. My mom and friends from time to time will tell me that I should save some money and not buy as much. Whenever some tell me that I simply respond with "money is meant to be spent especially when college is going to take all of it in a year" and then we proceed to laugh. 

    I believe that this is more of a positive than a negative. I view it as a positive because I am able to be creative fashionwise as well as make myself happy in the process which really helped at the beginning of quarantine. When I notice that there are pieces of clothing that I do not wear anymore or as often as I should, I donate them to my local Jewish clothing donation center that sends the clothing to children around the world that need them. So I feel like at the end of the day it is not a bad addiction to have considering that most of the other kids that are my age spend their money on many different things.