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One thing I have found myself confused about through quarantine is my friendships. I have gained and lost so many strong bonds with others. But I will say the pandemic has brought be closer to the ones I really love. For instance, In summer ‘21, I attended the Miss America Empower Academy. This was a week of workshops during Miss America’s Outstanding Teen, with girls all over the country. I met one of my best friends, Katie, who lives in TN. While covid wasn’t and hasn’t been an issue since then, I find our situation similar. We have only seen each other once in person. And when we did, I appreciated it more than ever. I think this was because of Covid-19. When the pandemic started, I wasn’t sure how my social skills would handle it. I learned that hand to hand contact is crucial to growing up properly. Yet we were deprived of it. Obviously, when someone is deprived of something, they develop some sort of appreciation for it. So, I guess what I’m saying is that I am sort of grateful for covid, because without it, I wouldn’t appreciate things as much.

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When covid started, I wasn’t really worried. It was supposedly two free weeks off of school. But two weeks turned to two months. And two months turned into almost two years. Some may say online school was easy. While I know many people who got by easy, I didnt. I struggled endlessly with not only worrying about what assignment is due next, but also with the concern of what changes are next. Being an election year during covid made things very stressful politically. So just being in an environment of conflict also stressed me out. While most people assumed this horrible virus was just a phase, I knew better. Corona won’t go away, but I was hoping for it to get better. The cases were skyrocketing at some points, but dropping completely at other moments. I am a very straight up person. I don’t want anything to be “wishy washy”, I want the answer. I think this is what caused a lot of my stress and anxiety. Another thing I was surprised about was seeing a therapist for a small amount of time. I never ever thought therapy was needed, because nothing was wrong with me. But to be honest, it was just fun telling someone about all of the drama

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This is my best friend Brooklyn. While we have been put through so much, we do it together. I hope we never grow apart :)

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Ethan, my younger brother, has become famous at Florida Panther hockey games. He is known by every fan and player. He gets recognized on the Jumbotron for flexing and hyping the crowd up. It is so crazy to see thousands of people cheer for my baby brother. What’s even crazier is when the crowd gets loud for him, they score!!

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My older cousin, Amaya graduated nursing school recently

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Interview of my younger brother, Ethan Sanders 

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This is my new baby cat. My dad was in Arkansas and got him at a local shelter. He then drove 18 hours straight (so the cat wouldn’t have to go into a hotel) and delivered him the day before Valentine’s Day at 3:00 AM. I call him Wingnut, but we still haven’t really decided a name

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I have recently been crowned Miss Broward County’s Outstanding Teen

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I have grown up dancing, it has always been my passion. But with covid came the devastating loss of my dance classes. It was a bit of an odd situation. I had just moved to Florida in late 2019. Of course, moving from Arkansas was hard as is, but with covid hitting, figuring out how I could safely dance was hard. By the time I could dance at home, of course, I endured a stress fracture in my foot. I could not dance until I got back to school, at the beginning of 2021.

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Social media is definitely my top entertainment. Because I am a bit nosy, social media like TikTok and Instagram keeps me up to date on everyone. I also just love the crazy videos and pictures people post :)

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Lately, Johnny Depp has been in court, fighting his ex wife on the abuse she accuses him of, when it’s really the other way around. I am both interested in the court case and also amused by the hilarious instances that occur while debating. This is just one of many occurrences that have lightened the mood in such a serious situation.

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Currently, Russia has been making strong attacks on Ukraine. The war was only expected to last 3 days because Russia had so much power over them. It has been around two months now. I think that it is so upsetting to see not only what Ukraine is going through, but it is also extremely devastating to know the Russian citizens are not aware of what is happening. They are deprived of the normal resources we provide them, but they don’t know why.