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Nice shirt I found but sadly couldn’t buy. 

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Ever since coming back to school I’ve been discovering my own style in clothing and other things. I’m sure its not exactly what people expect but I like things that are creative, different, and have a lot of color. What I mean by my style or just my personality isn’t what people expect is that I have a volley ball player build (what everyone in my family says) and yet I’m a shy artist with asthma.
Every time I try to make a painting, for example, with a specific style in mind that isn’t bright and colorful it always ends up looking bright and colorful. I can’t help myself!

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1738 songs in liked, and the number has increased since the taking of this photo

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I’m not sure if this is normal, but for me it makes sense. My music taste varies from Bon Jovi to Panic At the Disco to Cavetown to Mother Mother to Glass animals. :/ (I like Indie Pop music) It is also very fun making your own playlists and sharing them with other people. Someone’s music taste can say a lot about a person. For example, I find that people who like songs from musicals are very musical and creative themselves.

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30- 60 sec vid addressing 20-30  year later self. I wanted to make the video as casual as possible so it feels like I’m having a conversation with my future self.

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I went to an escape room for the 1st with my best friend for my birthday. Some of the things that happened became an inside joke between us and the parents. (For example, my mother believed that to solve one of the puzzles you had to put a bell on the light when the instructions clearly said what to do, and it wasn’t to put the bell on the light.) We escaped with 15 minutes left and we all jokingly brag about it all the time.

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The cake to celebrate everyone’s birthday. 

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I went to Puerto Rico over spring break, most of my family is from there and/or lives there. Since almost all of my family rarely comes together, all of us, in one place. We celebrated everyone’s birthday in one day; all of the birthdays are fairly close to each other.

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While other people took up baking and extra reading during quarantine, I have a new hobby of plants. Three orchids, two air plants, two succulents, one rose, and one Charlie (I don’t know what kind of plant it is so I just call it Charlie). They all have names (as shown in the photo). Two of my plants aren’t in the picture because there isn’t enough space on my desk for all of them. I’ve lost two plants ever since starting my plant collection. One rose got white flies and a plant named Clementine (I don’t know what kind of plant it was) was left alone for a week while I was on vacation and died.

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This is a progress pride flag I drew in my sketchbook. 

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Every since I found out last year what Pride Month was I have been a big LGBT ally. And then I realized a was LGBT ._. My current pronouns are they/he/she and my preferred name (“nickname”) is Jasper.  It was nice to join a club here that had people like me that I could be open and have fun with, the GSA club. It’s very comforting that there are people who are like you with all the representation going around, its very nice.

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Photo from my sketchbook of my character design process. Its not very organized

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I took up art in 6th grade and now it’s something I’m very passionate about. I like making characters that have stories and lives, sometimes I accidentally make one who is just like me or who I want to be. I have been taking art classes this year since my old school didn’t have an actual art program. This character sketch shown is one of the characters that I use to represent myself in my sketchbook, characters like these are called sonas. I try to make characters to represent me that I think represent who I am inside or who I soon want to be.

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During this year I’ve also been taking choir classes, also because my old school didn’t have one. I love to sing and singing in a group is amazing. The teacher is so much fun, she gave us a full day to look for choir memes during class the day after our performance.

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Everyone plays wordle so everyone understands the pain when it comes to comparing how you got the word to how your friend got the word. 

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Wordle took the world by storm. I personally haven’t played much Wordle, only when I am bored. My mother on the other hand LOVES wordle. I have fun doing the daily wordle with her :) I actually once got a wordle like shown in the meme, I was very proud of myself.

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People are going to have a whole wallet full of just covid vaccine cards that they have to carry around soon. 

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Everyone thought Covid was going to go away by the end of 2020. We were wrong. And it doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon.

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The best shows I watched this year: Moon Knight, Owl House, Amphibia, Heartstopper, She-ra etc (I like cartoons). I almost ran out of shows to watch on Netflix since it was age restricted before, but since covid my parents had to remove it so I could have access to more shows. Netflix and Disney+ are the only streaming platforms I use, I find that they have the best shows.

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I have remembered how fun it is to read physical books. They take up a lot of space but once I finish them I can donate them to my local library. My favorite books this year are: The Giver, The Book Thief, The House in the Cerulean Sea, etc. There’s something different about reading physical books instead of online or audiobooks.

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During the Oscars the comedian made a rude joke about Will Smith’s wife being bald so Will walked up on stage and slapped him. This became a very big deal very quickly, people wondered if he would get his Oscar taken away and others said he should due to his unprofessionalism. The comedian has stated that he and Will Smith are friends and will resolve the issue.

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This year Russia has started a war with Ukraine stating that Ukraine is their land due to the history of Russia. The rest of the world is against the war. They are blocking supplies and contributing materials to Ukraine. But because of this the price of things has started to become more expensive since we are not buying of Russias products at the moment. Our president is doing his best to support Ukraine but we are starting to run out of funds to help Ukraine. The whole world is doing their best to support Ukraine while not directly getting involved in the war. I am not sure when it will end but many Ukrainians have suffered from this war. Many have run away and fled to somewhere safer. I hope everyone is as safe as they can be at the moment.

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My parents didn’t want me to put pictures of them and I wasn’t sure what to put so I put clip art. 

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Mother Interview:
Q: How was your life changed due to covid?
A: The Covid 19 pandemic was a a transforming experience in my life. As a teacher, I feel as we were in the first responders category. Doctors, nurses, and EMTs were giving their all… we teachers were all giving our all. First we went from the comfort of our classroom where he have set procedures and routines to the unknown. I was very scary, not only the reality of living in a Pandemic, but the realization that I have to figure out how to keep my students engaged and learning from Zoom, while keeping my family safe. It was very difficult and it involved working  countless hours and a lot of creativity. We did it and we thrived, everyone had hope, a positive attitude, and we were showered with appreciation after the parents realization of the reality of teaching. I learned that not only children are resilient, everyone is. I learned how much I missed my students and how important human contact is. I learned not to take hugs from granted. I learned how important we are for our students and the impact we have in their lives. I saw several 8 year olds sobbing just because I visited them from 3 meters away inside my car after a month of lockdown. I learned life is precious and we should treasure very moment and relationship, because a microscopic organism can take anyone… I learned that after the rain comes the rainbow, and I hope everyone remembers all the lessons we learned from the pandemic.

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My parents didn’t want me to put pictures of them and I wasn’t sure what to put so I put clip art. 

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Father Interview:
Q- How was your life due to Covid?
A- My life was calming and relaxed because I could work from home. I was very lucky because my job can easily be worked form home so I wasn’t as affected by it like other people.
Q- I know you changed jobs a few times during covid. How was that?
A- All of the jobs I had are all very similar, just different companies and a few different benefits. It was easy since all of the jobs could be done from home.
Q- What are your hopes for after covid?
A- I want to continue to work from home since I’ve gotten used to it and quite like it. I also hope that I will be able to travel more since covid didn’t allow us to go anywhere for a long time and it is still risky to go now.

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(WARNING: this is a very personal story)
About 2 or 3 months ago my mom decided enough was enough and took me to therapy. Well not quite, my mom has a friend who is a therapist who said she would talk to me for free and “unprofessionally”. After half a year of being alone at a new school she got very concerned about me. The techniques I’ve being taught are helpful, from coming out of my shell to dealing with anxiety. The therapist suggested I start a journal to keep track of how I’m feeling and writing thoughts down helps them get organized and calms people down. But ever since making new friends and making up with old ones I have been feeling much better.

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A photo taken from my old school imagine Weston

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Moving to a new school was hard for me, especially going from 7th grade online school to in person school in 8th grade at a completely new school. Heritage is a much bigger school than my old school, Imagine Weston. I bet at least 3 Imagines could fit into Heritage.
Coming to this school was hard with no friends except my best friend who still goes to my old school, and high expectations from my parents because they sacrificed a lot so I could go to this school. I could only talk to my best friend on the weekend for about 30 minutes due to work and stress from school. I made new friends eventually, but they only lasted for a month or two in November. But just a month ago I made new friends, they are very friendly and welcoming of me into their friend group. They have made this year so much better for me. They have also helped me come out of my shell and start talking to more people which is something I struggle with, I am forever grateful for their friendship (even if it sounds a bit cheesy).