Right Way during COVID -19
What is right in your mind and heart makes us do the right thing! During this time we should: - Maintain social distancing - must wear a mask - protect yourself
What is right in your mind and heart makes us do the right thing! During this time we should: - Maintain social distancing - must wear a mask - protect yourself
While taking the PSAT for the third year in a row, I began to think about "standardized testing" in a more in-depth way. In recent years, I have taken ISTEPs (my state's standardized testing), PSATs, an ACT, and an SAT. I have listened to countless universities say that they take a holistic approach to the college application reviewing process. I have studied for the many different standardized tests, but for what? What do standardized test scores represent? What is a number score worth in terms of academic success? I personally believe that there is an extreme need for a standard method for...
When I was in kindergarten, I was the kid who spent every second of my free time voluntarily reorganizing my teacher’s collection of books (Yeah, I know. I’m a nerd. Now stop judging and keep reading. Thank you very much). I would sort them differently every day, whether it was alphabetical, color-coded, or whatever random system I came up with on that specific day. I didn’t particularly like sorting things; I just wanted to be near the books, with all of their colorful cartoons and stories that made my imagination erupt in a million swirls of creativity and excitement. When I was in second...
Worldwide around 970 million people have mental health illnesses, ranging from anxiety to dysthymia. These same illnesses are responsible for around 14.3% of deaths or 8 million deaths each year, and the numbers continue to skyrocket. Despite the heartache from these numbers, they are also valuable tools to demonstrate how prevalent mental health illnesses are in our world and to raise public awareness. We need to use these statistics to convey how rampant mental health problems are and advocate for our world’s well-being. Furthermore, we should take action and target predictable triggers to...
Living the American nightmare is what the residents of Flint have been experiencing in the last few years, the water crisis that hit the city having long-term repercussions on the health of inhabitants, in severe cases even leading to deaths. When disaster hit, no one was prepared for the disappointing explanations and the course of action taken at the time, a poor decision-making process leading to a basic return to the middle ages for this once beautiful city in the United States. Some were lucky enough to not rely on the water treatment provided by the municipality, to begin with, but most...
There is no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted each of our lives. It has been more than a year since the first cases were identified and communicated to the public, while it spread around the globe at an incredibly rapid pace. Today, everyone is eager to go back to live their lives freely, without worries of getting themselves nor their loved ones sick. Thankfully, scientists have given us a solution to this pandemic: COVID-19 vaccines. The different types of COVID-19 vaccines were made in record time thanks to previous research, a never-before-seen number of resources to fund...
Throughout the covid-19 pandemic which has now hit its year and 11 day mark from being declared a global pandemic, a message of, "stay home save lives," has flooded the media and has been a common directive of many leaders when hoping to curb the growth of the pandemic. However, holidays like Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas and the breaks from work and school that come with them, have led to a widespread desire to travel. Many go about traveling with precaution and safety; wearing a mask, taking a viral test before traveling and after, etc. But sometimes this doesn't always create an...
Whenever my online classes end, so do human lives. They cry in languageless agony. But thousands of miles away, I’m deaf. The news is my hearing aid. Maybe the news glitched, because it’s on a loop: COVID-19. COVID. The virus which won’t be named. The fancy-sounding variants. India. I scroll through before crashing into paywalls. But the little snippet reads about overfilled hospitals. Crowds. Infection Rates. Rampant spread. Flip to another story; it's still there. I’ll read about the horrors: their frail hands clasping each other with a vicious panic. The colorful saris and kurtas fall prey...
My dream has always been to be a nurse. I want to help people and I want to show people I care. Nurses are always helpful. While others may not care about their job and just want to earn money, I want to help, not just focus on the money, the amount I’m making, or anything materialistic. I want to be there to listen to people, take care of them, help them with anything and be there to make sure they are okay. On the other hand, nurses also work long hours away from their families. They are asked to do tasks that most people in the world won’t want to do. Sometimes they deal with patients with...
A lovely pink flower Carried by the wind With beauty as its power No one knows where it’s been Its endured countless showers Blown through storms upwind Burned in the sun for hours Happiness it can only imagine It only sees its errors Satisfaction paper thin Yet others see what lies above rather than lying within So a lovely pink flower is where its story begins and a lovely pink flower it will remain till its dusk has risen
Nowadays, it is nearly impossible for a year to go by without a school shooting taking place in the USA. A school shooting- the place which should be reserved for education and knowledge- yet we now have to go through drills and be taught what to do in case a shooter came to our school. Why should we be so worried about being killed when we go somewhere to learn and expand what we know? What is the government’s response to this? They’ve barely made any changes to gun control laws, even after the March4OurLives protest and yearly killings. Instead, the Trump Administration’s suggestion was to...
One shot, two shots, down We trusted you with our lives You’re meant to be our relief Supposed to keep us safe Yet we lay lifeless on the ground Our families only left with their cries Who do we trust now? Who do we call out for help? When our very own saviors are the causes of our deaths Why is it always the ones with more melanin who can’t walk away alive in any situation? Shoot, why is that the first thing that comes to mind? A few seconds of choice affect the rest of anothers lives Forever a hole gapes in their heart From where the bullet killed their loved one Our police, our lawsetters...
Graduate School should be hard, but not impossible. Graduate school should help you develop professionally, without losing your personal life. Graduate school should challenge you without taking a toll on your mental health. Graduate school should encourage you to be creative, not force you to prove that you are worthy of being there. Because you know what? You are more than worthy. You should embrace who you are and where you come from. Coming from the small island of Puerto Rico, an island which sometimes you cannot even find on a map, I often feel lost in this big escape of being in...
War Conflict. Suffering. Misery. Despair. What did we do for this sorrow that we bare? Humanity fighting and roads ablaze, People in their homes, counting the days. Families torn apart, thrown into dejection, Everyone lost with no direction. Souls filled with heavy melancholy, As poverty and starvation struck wishing it could not be more folly And realizing that this was all rotten luck They knew this would cause genocide, Watching greif, as people died, Forced to flee from their home, To find peace, faraway they roam Guns firing, bombs bursting, Freedom and refuge, was what they all were...
It’s my life You can’t take it away It’s my right to say what I have to say Imagine your son or daughter dying on Valentine’s Day By a what ? A gun The whole word was left stunned How can a 19-year-old walk around with one? This needs to stop Hell, this should’ve been controlled when JFK got popped But I don’t want to say too much The walk on Washington? Yeah that wasn’t enough Congress didn’t even budge How long should we suffer from this? How many more innocent lives should we add on to the list ? One mother’s wish But I don’t want to say too much
A page ready to be filled, history ready to be made Write as you will Because education is everything, improvement needs to be made For some education is gold But what if that gold was limited or restrained What if that gold was restrained because of gender inequality Because of ones pride and satisfaction A page ready to be filled A page that still hasn't been filled for decades A page that has been written on, but has never been completed A page that has a decent beginning but not a marvelous ending So write as you will Write until the page is filled Write until history is made Write until...
On March 15, 2019, the Muslim community witnessed a horrific act. An Australian man by the name of Brenton Harrison Tarrant attacked Muslims at a mosque. Last I watched the news it was stated that 50 people were killed and an additional 50 were wounded or in critical condition. I felt great sadness and despair as I watched the news because It seems like every other day you turn on the news people are being killed at the hands of terrorists or gunmen. When are WE as a society going to put a stop to such acts of hatred and fight for what's right? In the world that we live today such things as...
Violence is brought up by hatred A feeling so deep all you can do is ask “why me?” I have seen this violence with my own eyes But I am not proud to say I have seen some die We as a society have gone through great ordeals of pain This violence will not only leave you beaten and battered physically But mentally too This is “giving to the world a tired and ugly message of terror and brutality and hate” They have left us here to rot in poverty in such a corrupted place We have to fight and break free from this cycle of violence For change To end the bad path that was set for your kids and mine We...
I believe our education system is failing. These days, it appears that it isn't much about learning. It seems to be all about tests, grades, and your school's average grade or percentage. I believe many students aren't really gaining any knowledge at all. Grades are determining how smart we are or what schools we qualify to enter. Grades shouldn't determine this at all. Everybody is smart in their own way. Some teachers only care about themselves, their reputations and how they look to their school. Also, some teachers move on from lesson to lesson without taking the time to pause and see if...