This summer I engaged in my usual activities: playing video games, watching anime, listening to music and practicing coding. But one thing that I did that slightly motivated/educated me was doing some research on some considerable approaches regarding what stocks to acquire. Specifically ones that would maintain a steady level of growth both during and after the pandemic, and are affordable. I know I won’t become the “Wizard of Wall Street” in just a few months, but just having the basic knowledge motivated to continue doing more research on it to hopefully become a full-time investor.

Overall, my favorite story was “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, due to the dark irony behind the story’s name and the events that transpire within the story. When one usually imagines winning the lottery, they don’t associate it with getting stoned to death. Another reason behind my favoring this story over the others are the themes behind it, one of them regarding the concept of mob mentality and how it affects society and traditions. This is most evident when considering that the townspeople have no qualms about killing a member of their community for the sake of tradition and at the behest of the community leader. I would say “The Black Cat” is a close second however, due to it being a somewhat sobering yet very disturbing take on concepts pertaining to the human condition. But I chose “The Lottery” because I sensed those same concepts in that story but it was more of a widespread matter regarding a community not just one person.