Author: Selina Myrtil

James Baldwin was saying that you don’t have to assimilate to society expectations.  You have the right to be able to perceive the world in which you wish to perceive it.  Baldwin means when he says the “world is larger” is that the world is gonna continue to expand. When people are born they gain knowledge from other generations. This knowledge is therefore passed on to the next generation. What he means by saying we have the necessity to exam things is to learn off the things we are learning, to be able to adapt it. I wish in school I had been taught about stocks, taxes, and financial literacy. We had to wait until college. Even in college we still don’t know about it unless its our major or we learn outside of school. To know these things we are getting a better understanding of life. We don’t want to be ignorant of the things around us. I wish I had also been taught how to get a job and make money in school.  No one said you were guarantee a job after college even if you take the hardest major. No one said what was next. We just constantly go to school for 4 years or even more without knowing what’s next. After Elementary we knew it was middle school then high school then you choose a major to study in college but what is after that? What do we do next ? How do we move forwards ?  Yes, you can go for your masters if you want and that can just give you even more money to spend for another possible 4 years of school. But with an associates, bachelors and masters what is next for anyone ? Yes you can apply for internships but it’s not 100% guarantee a job on the spot. So, yes it would’ve been useful to know these topics in school so I can survive through life knowing I have no problems.

I don’t know if this is a saying or not but I think it goes like this when you enter high school and college you can be whoever you want or change. That’s what I thought as I entered my first year of high school. At first I was nervous because I knew I had to make new friends the same as I did when I was in middle school but this time it felt scarier. Yes I did make new friends but that didn’t last long because that next following year March 13,2020 to be exact life changed. March 13th 2020 marks a major event in my life as the world suffered a global pandemic. It didn’t just change me but it changed the whole world because we all suffered. And it changed the way education had to be taught.
When Covid was first announced I didn’t think it was nothing serious. I thought I would go back to school that following Monday but when I saw the news it said school would reopen the following week. At first I was excited because it was freshman year I didn’t really want anything to stress me out. Then a week turned into 2 then 2 turned into 3 etc. At that point I knew I wasn’t going back to school no time soon and all the friendships I had will soon fade away or so I thought.  I kept a few friends and other we didn’t talk much but we were still cool even though we didn’t speak to one another. After a month school had resumed but instead of going in person it was through a computer screen. I think it was honestly a great idea because it meant I never had to leave my house lowering my chances of getting Covid. After a while this online classes started getting to me mentally. I was gaining weight because I never left my house and no longer knew how to socially interact with others because it’s not face to face and just over a screen isn’t the same. I think everyone felt that way honestly. Not only that people were constantly dying because of Covid, but because of Covid people were also losing jobs because the bosses had to prevent everyone from getting sick.  I may have never gotten Covid but constantly hearing that my loved ones died from it was a really a heartache.