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April 21st

Today is April 21st.*CONTAINS SPOILERS OF TIGER KING* Last night I watched the last four episodes of Tiger King. It was a very good show with many twists and turns. It is odd because Joe Exotic is the protagonist but he is not a hero. Joe is charged with murder for hire. In my own opinion I believe he was set up. Joe wanted Carole Baskins dead, but I do not know if Joe is smart enough to hire a hit man to kill Carole. I believe his business partner set him up and started recording everything and trying to frame Joe by making him say some sketchy stuff. Joe Exotic is no saint in fact I think he is a self obsessed abusive person but I do not think he tried to hire to kill Carole, he for sure killed the five tigers, bred tigers, and sold tigers. Being that I finished this show I now have to find a new show to binge, I am between Ozark and Game of Thrones. I have started Game of Thrones back in the day, but the show is very long and has many seasons so I never really got started. Later today after class I plan on going on a bike ride and getting some much needed fresh air, which I am looking forward to. I am really missing the freedom to get a much needed hair cut. My barber is closed, which really is unfortunate and a pain in my day to day experience. This is the longest my hair has ever been and it is very unfortunate because I a starting to look like a hippie and get frustrated with how uncomfortable my hair can be at times. It is really unfortunate that they extended lockdown further, at what point do we start to go back to normal life, we are completely destroying our economy which will one hundred percent due much more damage to families then we realize. We should at all costs avoid being in lockdown for that much longer. When I say lockdown has to lift, I do not mean that sporting events, parades, school, church, or any other type of mass gathering should go on, but at what point does the economic damage out weight the virus’s damage. We have to make an effort to save and bail out small businesses that are getting destroyed like my barber shop which most likely can not afford to pay all of their bills with no steady flow of income.

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April 20th

Today is April 20th 2020. I finally caved, I decided to watch The Tiger King. I have finished the first three episodes and I am hooked. I debated watching the whole seven hours in one day, but decided against it, because by waiting I have given myself another thing for me to do tomorrow. It is rather challenging to find things to do. I am a rather busy person and it is very weird for me to not be busy, and if I am going to be honest I am kind of struggling with it. I am stressed out about nothing and ack motivation to do any work. Tiger King has helped make time pass by. Tiger King is about Joe Exotic and a plethora of other characters who are obsessed with Big Cats and run “sanctuaries” for the animals. These people started with good intentions but it has slowly dissolved into a personal war. One of the most striking things that I took away from the documentary is that there are more tigers in the US in captivity then there are tigers in the rest of the world. That just does not seem right. I have no doubt that the fact is accurate, and i do not know what personal plan would be best for the US, but we as a society need to take care of those animals. The tigers seem to be rather inexpensive too, the main cost is feeding them, but a tiger could run you two thousand dollars to five thousand dollars. I know people that have paid more for dogs then that. Imagine if your next door neighbor bought a tiger cub, two years later they would have a six hundred pound tiger. Other than watching this documentary I made it a personal mission of mine to do some yard work around my house. I mowed my lawn, fashioned with a double cut front. I then remultched it, then I watered the grass, plants, and trees. My younger brother used the blower, and I used a broom to push the extra grass clippings away. It looks very good and is topped off with my class of 2020 sign. I got my sign yesterday, now tomorrow we will take some photos with the sign and house due to the fact that I am the oldest and it is a tradition in our house, since I did it in eighth grade.

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April 19th

Today is April 19th. I am very bored with my current state of being. I have started to watch much more tv instead of video games. Tonight was night one of the “The Last Dance” documentary. The documentary is about Michael Jordan and the 1998 Bulls. The Bulls were looking to repeat the three peat. The documentary goes over the Michael Jordan era as a whole, and then followed the bulls after Jerry Krause told Phil Jackson that it was his final year coaching the team. Jordan had to balance all sorts of expectations as well as an internal organizational battle. Jerry Krause was the GM at the time, and he was a man who helped create the Bulls dynasty, and started to become a detriment to the team. The documentary is a ten part series but is being released 2 episodes a week on every Sunday. I am very much looking forward to next Sunday. I have been looking into getting a laptop for college. I am currently looking to get a MacBook Pro or a windows PC. My major suggests a window’s PC, but in regards to what the best laptop is, by far the MacBook Pro is the best Laptop. I am talking to my parents and other friends at college as to what I can do. I am no longer really working on video games, I really believe that I am burnt out of them. I truthfully hate this quarantine, due to the fact that I have not been able get food from wherever or whenever I want. I miss being able to go get food from Culver’s, Nino’s, McDonald’s, Meatheads, Wendy’s, Jimmy John’s, and El gallo. I love to get food with my friends or family. We do not really eat out that often but when we do it is a nice change in pace from eating at home or having small snacks. I am debating on if I should watch Tiger King. All of my friends have watched it and all they do is talk about it. Tiger king is a documentary on Netflix, but I do not really know what it is about. I have not binged a documentary in like 5 years. The last Netflix special I binged was The Office. Right before that I watched How I met your Mother, which was a good show but I watched it Freshman Year.

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Renewing Relationships

Lately I have begun to start going outside everyday. I have been going outside in an effort to remain sane due to the fact that I am very tired of being inside of video games and YouTube. I am a kid who was raised with the idea that you have to go outside and spend the majority of my day there. Video games are fun do not get me wrong but playing baseball on a PlayStation is not the same as doing it with your friends. I miss sending my friends the text that I am in the area and bored. Over the last few years that text alone has garnered my friends and myself many adventures. I enjoy going to the rec center with them, golfing, or even swimming. School is usually the limiting factor when it comes to the amount of time that we can hang out so it is weird to think that I do not have school, and that I can not go out with them. I miss the general conversations that we have and the quality of their company. I have spent a lot more time with my younger siblings and they are ok, they are not as bad as they used to be. My brothers and I are very competitive and tend to find a competition in everything. Although that is fun, it tends to get too competitive. Especially between Daniel and myself. Daniel is a junior and is the same height as me. Daniel loves to compete probably more so than myself. I usually just wind up playing catch with my youngest brother Aidan. Aidan is a freshman at Marist and looks like the younger version of myself. I enjoy my time with my brothers. They have started to appreciate my company as well as myself as an individual since they are realizing that I will be leaving soon. They seem to be happy for me and want me to do what is best for myself. So I guess that is a good take away from this whole situation. I have been spending much more time with my family then I would have if I were at School or out with my friends. I am hopeful that this Corona Virus is on the downward trend. In the coming weeks I believe it is imperative to reopen the economy and to try and save this so far disastrous year.

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April 16th

Today is April 16th, it is currently 11:42 pm. I am really missing my day to day. My friends and I have talked to each other periodically. Every once in a while I send them a check up text to see how they are doing as well as their respective families. I am also at the point where I have decided to delve into YouTube for hours at a time where I watch a lot of varying content from Joe Rogan to Pat McAfee. I have been watching a lot of informative content about many different aspects of life, everything from Corona to AI. The amount of knowledge I have gained from the content I have been watching is really helping me better understand certain events throughout our history as well as giving me new and different perspectives. I usually watch Pat McAfee for his sports content, and even though there are no sports on right now McAfee has still found a way to make content and not just garbage time content, but some real quality top tier content. I personally do not believe that the NBA and NHL are coming back. I believe that those Leagues are done for the year. That would be a sad reality with the idea that some of these guys looked really strong as they were surging into the playoffs. Baseball and the MLB will be back but it will be in either early or mid June that it starts up, and I do not know how they would handle that. All that the news has been about lately is the CoronaVirus, which is important do not get me wrong, but it is miserable. This week has been especially depressing due to the fact that it is the general consensus that this will be an okay week for the CoronaVirus in the US. The curve is starting to even out. By shutting down the country you could slow down the curve which would allow the US healthcare system to brace for the incoming boom in healthcare needed. This would also allow the company’s such as GMC to produce the ventilators needed to help people get over Corona. This has also allowed other company’s time to make and develop the needed medicines.

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Looking Forward

Today is April 14th, I am now looking forward to being out of quarantine. I just wanna see my friends again. I am really done with waiting for this quarantine to be over so my life can go back to normal, or rather as normal as it can be. My current day is just sitting at home doing my school work, playing the same video game, and then going to bed. I am at the point where in order to have a feeling of accomplishment I have to set objectives in the game and if I do not accomplish them in a timely manner I will stay up as late as I need to in order to accomplish that objective. This overall situation seems like a horrible ending to a wonderful chapter of my life. I truthfully can say that I loved highschool and I look forward to college, but I will always look back at my highschool career with a giant cloud of thought about what could have been. I will eventually have to come to terms with the idea that the relationships I had are what they are and that I need to move on to the next chapter. It is almost like I do not know what fun is anymore. I get excited to go to the grocery store with my mom. The stores are all loaded with people but that seems impossible because if you drive down the road it seems as if the whole town was abandoned. This whole situation seems like the start of a horror film about the apocalypse. I personally am not worried, but I am aware of the dangers out in the world right now. Honestly bring on Memorial Day weekend. I would love to just start the summer fresh outta quarantine. I just wanna go to my lake house, have my summer orientation, as well as to spend time with my friends. I really just want to have a decent summer. I really wanna spend my last summer before college with my friends and family, just so that we can get that much closure. The worst part of this whole experience is that I haven’t been able to see my friends since about three weeks ago, and this seems like we are at the beginning of this period of social isolation, whereas we all hope it is the end. I just wanna be able to see my friends and compete against them in every dumb little game we play. I miss school.

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Day I don’t know

Today is April 7th, it is currently 1:35 am and I am still up due to my lack of knowing what day it is. I realized that I still need to do this blog post. I honestly am getting so overwhelmed with the amount of work I am receiving. I truly am getting too much work, a lot of my teachers think that they are the only class that I have, and that tends to be a problem. Although we are all on this weird school break, but not really break thing, I do not think that teachers should be loading us up with all this work. I am hoping that teachers realize how stressed we are too. As a second semester senior we are all missing out on what makes high school so memorable and enjoyable. Many seniors I know still are yet to make a college decision. I did not even get the chance to visit the school that I chose before I made my decision. By the way I chose Dayton, so go Flyers! I am very excited for my next four years there. I just hope that we start college on time. Corona has ruined so many things that I have been looking forward to. I really just hope that Corona is gone sooner rather than later. Today Boris Johnson was admitted to an intensive care unit in the hospital. This is very significant due to the fact that Boris Johnson is the current Prime Minister of Great Britain. I really hope that he gets better. Boris Johnson is a big deal all across Europe. I am hopeful that the curve will be cut down due to the social distancing we are all doing. I am also no longer afraid of getting Corona due to the aspect that many people who get Corona that are my age are asymptomatic. I think there is a very good chance that I will not get it due to the extra precautions that I personally have taken. I have not left my house in two and a half weeks and it seems like it has been a lifetime, but whatever I can do to avoid receiving or spreading the Virus. I am more fearful that I will get it and be asymptomatic and give it to my parents or grandparents, because I could most likely handle it better than they could.

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The Good and the Bad

Today is Monday April 6th, it is currently 10:15 am, and I am well rested and ready to go. It took about a week but I finally have fixed my sleep schedule. I am rather happy about that. That is not the only good news, we also received an extra two days of Easter Break. That is it for the good news. It’s nice to have good news, it has been a while since the last time we received good news. All that the news has been about lately is the CoronaVirus, which is important do not get me wrong, but it is miserable. This week has been especially depressing due to the fact that it is the general consensus that this will be the worst week for the CoronaVirus in the US. The curve is starting to rise and hopefully we did enough in the past weeks to have a lessened impact. Everyone who isn’t concerned about this situation should be. I get rather aggravated when people don’t listen to the stay in place order, because they are the ones who are causing us to have to stay socially distant for a longer duration of time. I have friends that are not paying much attention to the outside world and that makes me disappointed, because I just wanna be done with this whole situation and it is  becoming more and more of a burden to stay inside. My current day is just sitting at home doing my school work, playing the same video game, and then going to bed. I am at the point where in order to have a feeling of accomplishment I have to set objectives in the game and if I do not accomplish them in a timely manner I will stay up as late as I need to in order to accomplish that objective. That yearning for the feeling of accomplishment is what has kept my sleep schedule out of whack. I continuously set objectives that are insanely hard, or if they are too easy then I set multiple. Over the course of the last 2 weeks I have gone up 65 levels and made 15 million dollars in the game. Overall the quarantine is starting to get to me. I just wanna be done with all of this social distancing. I personally believe that this will get better over the next two months.

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School Closures in the Midwest

Today is Friday April 3rd, yesterday the second state in the Midwest cancelled classes for the rest of the year. Now Indiana and Michigan are done with school for the rest of the year, they don’t have any e-learning, they are just done. As a Senior I feel bad for the seniors in those states because their year was cut so short. I believe that Illinois will soon join them in cancelling classes for the rest of the year as well. Governor Pritzker said he wanted to hold off until mid April, but due to the exponential spread of the virus I personally do not believe that it is possible to send people to school anytime soon. Honestly it is my personal belief that unless great strides are taken towards a cure, vaccine, and limiting the spread that all of our start times in late august could be in jeopardy. I just can not see a scenario where this does not go down and that we go back to school. I believe that social distancing will go on until mid June. I do not know how long people will listen to that order for. I just can not see people willingly socially isolating themselves over the coming summer months. I think that we should have a two week national shut down where only essential businesses operate. By shutting down the country you could slow down the curve which would allow the US healthcare system to brace for the incoming boom in healthcare needed. This would also allow the company’s such as GMC to produce the ventilators needed to help people get over Corona. I know that this too shall pass, but this is a really sad way to end my high school experience at Marist. I have attended classes at Marist for the last five years, due to being in the Marist Morning Math program when I was in 8th grade. I have come to terms with this being how high school ends for the class of 2020, but I really just want to have a decent summer. I really wanna spend my last summer before college with my friends and family, just so that we can get that much closure. The worst part of this whole experience is that I haven’t been able to see my friends since about three weeks ago, and this seems like we are at the beginning of this period of social isolation, whereas we all hope it is the end. I just wanna be able to see my friends and compete against them in every dumb little game we play. I just want this to end soon, or atleast to get more clarity so that we as a class, community, and nation have some sort of sense of direction.

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Second Semester Senior

Today the social distancing orders were expanded until April 30th. Which only leaves us 9 potential school days left, and those days are shrouded in doubt. I find this whole situation as a whole very unfortunate. If you were to tell me back in august that I would finish my high school career in the comfort of my own bedroom I would have thought you were insane. Now that is my reality along with a majority of kids my age, and that is a depressing situation. I as well as my classmates will never get true closure at Marist. If I am going to be honest that really hurts deep down. I have been looking forward to my high school graduation for about 5 years now because I have been involved at Marist for 5 years now. I took the eighth grade math program and was in the cross country program. I love Marist and it is really depressing that unlike any other year I will have to miss out on the second half of my senior year. The prospect of not having prom, senior lock in, senior tailgates, the Baclorette mass, and Graduation makes me sad. The really sad aspect is that there is a chance that I won’t be able to see my friends that I don’t hang out with outside of school. This whole situation is so devastating. As much as this is hard for me to deal with I truly feel bad for my parents. My mother and father have made many sacrifices in order to allow for me to be able to attend 12 years of Catholic school, and I get sick thinking about the prospect that they won’t be able to watch me walk the stage. Graduation is as much an event for seniors as it is for their parents. I know that my parents are upset that I might not get to have that closure, but I know that they are also  upset that this is how my last few months in Illinois are ending. This overall situation seems like a horrible ending to a wonderful chapter of my life. I truthfully can say that I loved highschool and I look forward to college, but I will always look back at my highschool career with a giant cloud of thought about what could have been. I will eventually have to come to terms with the idea that the relationships I had are what they are and that I need to move on to the next chapter.

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Today is Monday March 30th, it is currently 7:33 am. Over the last 5 days I have started to experience another aspect of how the CoronaVirus is changing my day to day life, and that is my messed up sleep schedule. If you know me you are aware of how prideful I am in the amount of sleep I get. In fact my record time for the latest I have ever gotten out of bed and made it to school on time is 8:15. Today I did not wake up early, I have not gone to sleep yet because I now never get tired. Luckily I have not experienced any adverse effects from my messed up sleep schedule but it will be interesting to see if I can correct that in the near future. I also have found myself playing video games everyday. It is the only thing that I am able to do. I have played everyday from 12pm to 2am with limited breaks, as bad as that sounds I have nothing better to do. I have found that because of my lack of sleep and endless gaming that the days now blend together and that I am less aware of the news. I am trying to pay attention to the pandemic, but in all reality the mass amounts of misinformation and political attacks have made me avoid the news and the CoronaVirus information as a whole. The worst part about this whole thing is the fact that we can not go out. I have been outside of my house twice in a week and a half. I feel as if I am grounded. I am the type of person that is constantly busy, and this is the complete opposite. The two times I got to leave were not fun. I went with my mom to the grocery store, and that was miserable because when you are out you become so paranoid that every person in the store has Corona. You see people wearing masks that serve no purpose because they have no protection versus a virus. The stores are all loaded with people but that seems impossible because if you drive down the road it seems as if the whole town was abandoned. This whole situation seems like the start of a horror film about the apocalypse. I personally am not worried, but I am aware of the dangers out in the world right now.

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COVID-19 and its Effects on my Life

   Today is March 24th, we are currently in the midst of the CoronaVirus Pandemic. CoronaVirus has destroyed my day to day life. I used to be able to go to school, work, go outside, and see my friends, that is no longer the reality. I have been social distancing since Saturday and it has been okay. Staying in your house all night is not ideal but whatever helps flatten the curve. The worst part is that the only thing on TV is the CoronaVirus, staying home would not be so bad if we still had sports to watch and other things to keep us occupied. It is a nice break from work and society but those feelings that I have will soon dissipate and I will miss the things involved going to work and the social interactions.

   My day to day life is very monotonous. I currently wake up, go to my desk, work on school for a few hours. Then I go back to bed and play video games for the remainder of the day. I call my friends every once in a while to check in with them and to see how they are doing. I miss being able to go out and see people. I miss being able to go for food, or the store. Overall I just miss my normal life. E-Learning seems alright, but that is most likely because it is fresh and that too will soon begin to be a source of sorrow. I sit in my room with this constant feeling that I need to do something or forgot to do something but in all reality there is nothing to do. I also have a super off kilter sleep schedule and it is bleeding into my overall happiness which is getting pretty low. In all reality I am fine, I just wish that this would not have happened now because I was supposed to go on college visits and those were all cancelled. I know that all of this will pass one day but it is just a major inconvenience for the time being. I just hope that we will get to have a graduation ceremony. It really is unfortunate that we will most likely miss out on all of our fun senior activities. Odds are that this will be history one day, at least I will get to have a first hand experience in it. I really hope that this is not how my high school career at Marist ends.