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A few days before my 12th birthday, my 6th grade science teacher told us about some sort of illness on another continent. At first, I didn’t think much of it. It seemed like another random minor piece of news that didn’t affect me. A few days later, the news stations reported numbers and images that I didn’t really understand but that I knew meant the situation was getting worse. Then, at school, our parents and teachers told us not to hug or sit too close to each other or touch our faces and to wash our hands frequently. I complied, thinking these were going to be the only changes to my life. The next week, disaster struck. Two of my friends and their families had gotten a virus called “COVID-19”. My mother told me that her parents would be staying with us for a while and that we had to be extra careful around them. When we started having to wear masks even to go outside, the situation became real to me. I felt like I was in a sci fi movie where everyone had hazmat suits or that we were in Europe with Bubonic Plague and it would kill ⅓ of everybody we knew. It was a terrifying time.

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Just a quick little reminder to enjoy yourself and be happy!

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This is my friend Emilia in costume for her two characters on our show that we've had (in our camera rolls) for 5 years. On the left is Emilia Bedilia (based on the books) and on the right is her douchey cousin Ryan.

PS. The bottle on the bottom left is not actually beer it's some sort of lemonade just in case that needed to be said.

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An Exclusive Interview with Florencia, My Mother

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An Exclusive Interview with Florencia, My Mother

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When we first found out about COVID, it was terrifying. No one knew what to expect and I was especially worried for my daughter and my parents.

Then, we had to adjust to the way we lived our lives and learned all sorts of new practices to stay safe.

As we got used to our new normal, we all picked up new hobbies (crossword puzzles for me) and learned different ways to connect with each other, like Zoom, and spent more time together as a family.

After we felt safe enough, we were able to go to concerts, art exhibitions, and many more activities that we used to enjoy with our friends. (The image below was 2 weeks ago at the Bass Museum of Art. We were the least crazy dressed there! My husband didn’t want to wear his banana headband and tie for the photo because he was too embarrassed, but he got lots of compliments on it later!)

Now, we are able to be closer with our friends and family members and the pandemic just made us appreciate everything that we had before much more.

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I made this meme at the start of the pandemic in 2020. Just so you know, this was not staged. My friend Giulia actually just lay down like that and put her mask over her eyes.

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This was Christmas Eve 2021 at my old house. (We moved January 2022). On the left is my 11 (then 10) year old cousin, Lucia, on the right is me, and at the bottom is Lucia's younger sister, 3 year old Valentina (who begged to be in the picture with us).

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The war between Russia and Ukraine is worsening by the day. I hope peace can win out.

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This was at Easter lunch with my family. I didn't notice that my grandfather (back right) had picked up a random lamp from the floor of the restaurant and posed with it in the photo until later. Classic Abu!

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This was at Spris with Giulia and her younger sisters (some of my best friends). The photo was very reluctantly taken but eventually they obliged.

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Unfortunately, this is the truth in our world right now. People still have to fight for their basic rights in certain places. It makes me feel fortunate to live where I do.

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This is me with my rabbit, Clover, (who I got in August of 2020, more explained in 2nd journal entry) on my 13th birthday. I did not find out until later that the "headband" he was wearing (which I took off immediately after, of course) was actually supposed to be a bun holder for ballet. Still looked cute though!

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This is at Stella's 14th birthday party right after around 30 minutes of Just Dance. I hate to say it, but Hank clearly crushed all of us with his "spectacular" (his words, not mine) moves.

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This is me on a Zoom call with some of my friends from CISV (a 28 day sleep away camp with kids from 12 countries). We hadn't seen each other since camp in Mexico the year before so we were extremely happy to be in contact again.

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This is a collage of a few of my favorite portraits I took of my grandfather and Mia (Giulia's little sister). How could I make a time capsule without them in it?

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This is a portrait of Charlie, Emilia's dog, that I took on Easter 2022. (He may or may not have had to had been enticed with a treat for it). I submitted it for a new photography class at MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) that I started with her in 2020.

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I've been wanting to make an image like this for a while. I took a picture like this with my friends and family as models for my photography class in the "Pandemic" section. I wanted it to reflect how the pandemic was inhibiting our social lives and how the masks serve more purposes than just stopping the spread.
They, quite literally, mask one's identity.

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Does our former president brush his hair with a balloon or something?

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Now, Florida government has gotten to the point where they are rejecting around 1/2 of primary school math textbooks because they have "inappropriate social-emotional content". What a world we live in.

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This meme was created at the start of the pandemic. Though I still laugh at the accuracy of the images, I also can't help but giggle at the fact that this person thinks Zoom meeting will just be for the next "couple of weeks".

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I got really into healthy cooking during the pandemic. This is me a few weeks before Christmas 2020 practicing my Christmas dishes with my grandfather, who was staying with us at the time. The sweet and sour cauliflower tasted delicious!

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"The Most Interesting Box" - Lucia Trachtenberg, an Interview

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"The Most Interesting Box" - Lucia Trachtenberg, an Interview

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When COVID started, I was in 3rd grade (I’m now 11 and in 5th grade). I go to a private school in Houston and they mandated masks immediately, wanting to keep all of their students safe. I didn’t get the whole point of it at first, I didn’t understand why we couldn’t hug our friends or why we had to wear cloth on our face during class.

I started getting scared as people I knew started getting sick, even the teachers. I was more worried for my little sister though. At the time, she was around a year old and very curious about the world around her. Curious as in “lick an electrical socket and stick your fingers into it” curious. (Yes, that actually happened).

It also broke my heart that she couldn’t socialize with other kids her age, she just started preschool around January 2022, and toddlers can barely talk, much less use Zoom.

My dad is a cardiologist, so he made sure to teach us all of the proper precautions and kept our family safe through the pandemic. Now, both my sister and I are spending lots of time with our friends and I feel extremely grateful for my family and for having been able to stay safe during these past few years.

Ceci here: Lucia begged me to use this photo, she says she had so much fun that day. Love ya, cuz!

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This is also a meme of my creation. (Don't worry, it's the last one 😉). I figured I needed at least one "The Office" meme in here.

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Journal II - Maybe This isn't So Bad After All

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Journal II - Maybe This isn't So Bad After All

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Lockdown was especially difficult for me as I was an only child, and at the beginning, I didn't get to see my friends practically at all. Thank goodness for Zoom! With nothing else to do at home, I started cooking, drawing, and taking photos. I also reconnected with some old friends, and boy, I’m glad I did, because I was able to save my pet rabbit, Clover, from my friend’s sister who couldn’t take care of him anymore and was being mistreated. I also had lots of free time, only working on school about 3-4 hours a day, and I even finished the school year early! I studied at Florida Virtual School (FLVS) along with 5 friends, and every evening, we would meet (outdoors of course) at one of our homes and help each other with work for a bit, then hang out. We even finished Science in January and the rest of our subjects in April! Even though we couldn’t do much inside without masks, we still had lots of fun. We swam, played board games in the garden, and went on walks and talked about what was going on in our lives. Even with Covid, they still found a way to gossip! All things considered, I’m glad we got the chance to discover new hobbies, reconnect with family and friends, and appreciate all that we have.