Over the past years since the start of the pandemic, life, for me, was mundane and a pleasant change of environment. What I worried and to this day worry about the most is how well I’m doing in school. Trying to find a perfect schedule to work around my job was hard but I managed. Though I’m now yet again behind on my assignments. I usually rush into things without knowing what I’m supposed to do, and in doing so, I just mess things up. I worry about my future a lot, I’m 20 years old and I still have no idea what it is I want to do. Just thinking about what I should do once I’m done with school is really stressing me out. I’m also extremely frustrated at the fact that I’m a lazy bum, it’s hard to change that habit. I tried to fix that habit of being lazy but it’s so difficult. 

     Honestly, a few lessons I learned from this time period is to use most of my free time to do what I enjoy doing, like hanging out with friends and playing games with them. Otherwise, I will just be back to being a mess of stress. I also learned how to adequately manage my time, but I still need to work on that. What I will do differently now would be to get better at time management. I struggle when it comes to managing my time, and that is extremely detrimental to my education. What I also learned from this period of time is that while managing my time, taking things slowly will relieve my stresses. 

Hi, my name is Pau Khai. I preferred to be called Khai (Kai), but you can also call me Pau (Paw/Pow either one.) My hobbies are similar to your average guys; I love video games. My love for video games has put me on a path to computer science because I want to make my games. Unfortunately, computer science is extremely tedious if you’re someone like me who gets bored quickly. So I combat this boredom through music called LoFi (Low Fy).

I don’t know if I need to explain what LoFi is, but I will explain it to the best of my ability. LoFi is a collection of music with all of them having the same goal, to mellow the audience. My current favorite collection of LoFi is from a YouTube channel called “Riot Games Music” titled “Sessions: Diana | A Creator-Safe Collection | Riot Games Music.” At the moment, I don’t have any favorite movies or shows, or sports to talk about. 

I know it’s incredibly late for me not to have made up my mind yet, but I don’t know what I should do for my future goal. I’m not skilled or have adequate knowledge of anything, so that’s also what’s weighing on what I should do. Once I finish college, I will trickle into society and get a job; from there on out, I guess I’ll see what happens.

     I really can’t recall much of what happened back then. I was one of the lucky ones as I didn’t have any relatives that had died from Covid. I was, however, worried for my families and friends though. This is not as hard as it is to talk about but I guess since I still remember it, deep inside I was traumatized. I saw my grandma’s lifeless body back in my country when I was about 6 years old. While recalling this memory doesn’t have such a deep impact now, I was probably traumatized and I had never realized it. What I’m getting at is that I would hate to experience a death of a loved one so soon.

     What comforted me through the pandemic in 2020, was my friends and family. Since none of my friends were affected nor were any of my family and their families, we could still hang out. We would hike Stone Mountain almost every week, it was refreshing. There was barely anyone most of the time and that was also nice. I can’t specifically say a show or movie I watched during those times. I watch a lot of movies and shows during the summer. There were no specific genres I like either but I guess I could say I binged watch a lot of cartoons and animated films. I also played a lot of games with one of my friends (he was the only one that had a computer). We would constantly play this game called “League of Legends,” and it was fun.

Dr. C, I thought I had already posted my Blog#1,3,4 but it seems it didn’t get posted in this specific site, my apologies.

Aloany Singh  

February 15,2022 

English  

Dr. Crowther  

Visual Rhetorical  

All animals should be respected, just like humans. Most of us have pets and think of them as part of the family. We couldn’t imagine someone harming or hurting them or even trying to. We defend our pets like they’re our family. Many pets are abused or oppressed; every day. Many, even kids, mistreat pets, harm and abuse pets, and some people respect their pets and other pets. have you ever seen those commercials where animals and pets have been mistreated and are looking for new families to rescue them? Those commercials are the saddest to see and see somebody miss treat something God created like you and me. We want to be treated right with care and respect and pets. They deserve to be loved and cared for like humans. They should be treated with respect also. My first impression of the visual rhetorical I picked is the well know rapper named Waka Flocka Flame. He is known for his loud and rebellious rap music. He is an African American male with tattoos holding a rescued dog Daphna who looks like she has been mistreated and abandoned. They are positioned right to the words. I see the design of the grey background with a darker shade of grey and red words. he is making eye contact, and the dog is as well. 

I peep PETA in red which stands for People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals. I see waka warns cowards to “pick on somebody your size because it says, “Only Cowards Abuse Animals. It also says on the red part in the image with light white words and one bold white word: “To dogs and cats, people are often the biggest bullies.” the one bold white word is people. In the dark grey, it says, “please always speak up if you see or suspect cruelty to animals, including chaining fighting or abuse of any kind. Their lives may depend on it.” It feels like it is arguing and aiming to stop chaining, fighting, and other abuse of dogs and other animals. The image’s argumentative strategy is ethos because they are using someone who will convince the audience, somebody trustworthy, knowledgeable, and well-meaning. It is also pathos because it brings emotions. It may be logos because it gives reasoning and figures about people bulling animals. 

Treat animals with kindness. It could be a problem with them using an African American holding a dog. Telling people only cowards abuse animals. Many whites care for the pets like family, you know, like feed them human food ride around with them in their car people take the dogs o doggy dates get them groomed and African American people do that as well. Still, many African Americans treat pets like wildlife animals. They give them water and dog food they them. Chained up in the backyard, barely give them baths. They don’t even take their pets to the vet to get checked; even some just let their pets die. So them using a black male who is known for his rebellious rap music and is on a very popular reality show in Atlanta could be seen as problematic considering what I just said about how many Africans treat pets and animals. 

Hi, my name is Aloany Singh. In this discussion, I will be explaining my first essay of the semester, the structures I used to piece my essay together, and the strategies I used to complete my final draft. So, I started by reading the prompt and the rubric. I then began brainstorming, and I used a diagram. I also used prewriting drafting as a strategy. I used bullet point notes, keywords, and outlines. I used chronology order, organization mind mapping, and looping. After gathering all the details, I wanted to include them in my essay. I begin with the purpose of writing the essay.
Then I began to gather my audience’s attention by introducing myself. I started by talking about the current chapter in my life and my career pathway plan. I was glad to engage and tell my side of the story relating to the pandemic and how it felt living in the moment from my perspective and experience. I can say pretty much everything went well; from brainstorming to outlining to prewriting my rough draft to writing my final essay, it all went well. The strength of the paper is I used very descriptive details when I was writing. I put everything together in the end by just using a few transition words and adding some words to make everything make sense to the readers. It wasn’t difficult for me. My instructor went over the instructions well, and in every detail, she gave us a rubric to follow and so many more helpful tools and strategies to write the essay. I struggled with closing my sentences and writing them clearly for readers to read and understand. my weakness of the paper was that I had to rephrase some things, find a stopping point, and include punctuation. I would use all these strategies in the future; brainstorming, outlining, prewriting the rough drafting was my favorite strategy. I used New York Times resource to get data. Next time, I will find a closing point in my sentences and write my sentences clearer for the readers to read and understand.

rough

Even though the pandemic started off rough, things gradually got better. To be honest I thought that the pandemic was going to last longer. To this day 2.32 million people have gotten sick from this tragic event. Now there are vaccines and treatments in place for the virus symptoms. Everything right now is starting to get back to normal. People are roaming the street again. Business and schools are opening back up. We still have to wear masks but the world is starting to look like its old self. Although things were getting better, bad things started to evolve. Asians are getting blamed for the spread of the virus. They are being harassed and attacked because rumors spread that it’s true. There are more than “9000” incidents that have been reported of people being “Anti-Asian.” Since the coronavirus was first started in China, families of Asian and Pacific Islander descent have been treated as “scapegoats” just because of their race. Things were starting to get so bad that there were starting campaigns, bystander training sessions, and public rallies. Even the president got involved. President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act. Incidents like this, including the pandemic, are what really bring people together. Families that haven’t spoken to each other, have now got the urge to speak. There are multiple lessons that have been learned in this pandemic. One thing that I learned is that we all depend on each other. We’re all in this together, whether we like it or not, and our success or failure is dependent on everyone doing their part. I hope we never forget how much we rely on supermarket cashiers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers, public-sector workers, teachers, and one another. We all suffer if one component of the system fails. It is critical that we all work together for the greater good. Also to do what you want to do now. You never know how long you will have to do what you want. If you want to do something don’t wait.

Ah yes, we all have the long, hopeful story of how we grew over the past 2 years. The B.C. (Before Corona) you, the Mid-Corona you, and the Post-Corona you, if we ever get there. Here’s hoping. Blended in with hope and positivity is, of course, tragedy. I myself have felt a bit of this, as many beloved people to me have died in this quarantine. My cousin, the son of my dad’s sister, fell victim to COVID-19 about 6 months ago, followed by my grandmother’s cousin and, not too long after, my mom’s aunt. And that’s just my relatives. There seemed to be a funeral every week throughout the span of time between July and December 2020. With that much death and sorrow surrounding us, I and my family needed some positivity, and boy did we get it. On September 2nd, 2020, we were blessed with the birth of my youngest sister, Sihaam. A blessing until I get annoyed with her, anyway. I jest. She is the best thing to have happened to us in the last 3 years, and the peak and highlight of this pandemic that held us captive for far too long.

And…the future. If I gained nothing positive from this pandemic, at least I learned some lessons about what to expect moving on. I despised 2019 mostly for the deaths of Juice WRLD and Cameron Boyce and swore that 2020 would be better, kickstarting a 2-year jinx of our lives. But I digress from this scandalous assumption. I learned one very valuable aspect of life from my time in quarantine and seemingly eternal boredom. This was my realization during my 2-year long quarantine, that I had taken life for granted. As I lay in bed wishing I could go out to play basketball, watch a movie, go to Six Flags, heck just go walk, I felt handicapped in my own world. I swore to myself at that moment that for the rest of my life, I would enjoy every moment, every smile, every laugh, every blink, every breath. I would never again let a moment pass by without reflecting on it and the impact it would have then and in the future. I would see the future for what it truly is: a chance to rebirth yourself, a chance to redo your past and change it to the best you can. Here’s to the future.

The past years have been a wild ride. I know so many people lost a lot during this time. Things have changed so much, some for the better and others not so much. It is hard to say if I would be where I am now without a Global Pandemic that shook the world. It is entirely possible I would be in a better place without it. However, I try not to think about the ‘what-ifs’, they only lead to confusion and disappointment. My 11^th grade year was cut short and my senior year was entirely virtual. The only time I got to see my friends in one place was as we all walked across the stage during graduation. I had seen a few of them over the past year from a distance, most commonly the foothill of a driveway or from behind a computer camera.

I am thankful that I am still here and well. The time spent alone in my house will never be something I will forget. I learned that I don’t mind speaking to people nor do I mind having something cover my face. Before the pandemic I would have never had guessed that I could live off such little interaction. Social encounters were never my thing, I often froze and was unable to express myself fluently. Now, two years into the pandemic, I have found that I was pressuring myself to interact with people in a certain way. I feared that judgment would come my way even from my closet friends so I would put up a façade hid how I felt. With the time alone I got to know myself better and the social interactions I did have were more meaningful.

It is hard to know what the future will bring. Maybe a new variant, maybe another vaccine or maybe a whole other pandemic. We do not know and only time will tell.

In my Ap Language class back in 11^th grade, we would take some time out of every class to briefly cover ‘current events’. My teacher thought it was important for us to be educated on what was going on beyond the classroom, which I agree with. I think it is necessary to be informed on topics and issues that people are facing around the world, even when not directly impacting you.  We did this all year. Many topics would come up for a week and then drop off the next, cycling through. January brought the Australian Wildfires which we covered every single day, from start to finish. We discussed the devastating effects the bushfires had on the wildlife, where nearly 3 billion animals were impacted in the first half of 2020. January did not only bring the devastating fires but also a rapidly spreading virus in China. I remember scrolling for a topic to bring up in the class discussion, trying to search for something other than the wildfires in Australia. I read how the fast spreading virus in China pushed officials to build an entirely new hospital in Wuhan dedicated to help patients with the new virus, Covid 19. We had spoken about the virus before in class but it did not worry any of us. How could it find its way on the other side of the world to us? It was not till early March when the fear started to set in, but by that time it was already too late.

My school was holding an auction on the Friday night of March 13^th, 2020. I did not attend the attend the event, it was a Friday, and I wanted to go home after a long week of school. I did not miss out on much. Just 30 minutes into the auction, everyone was urged to go home immediately. because of the Covid 19, which at this point had been labeled as a Pandemic for some time now. Later that night, in-person school was canceled for the following two weeks, which later became the entire semester, and we were set to switch to virtual schooling. The teachers had no time to prepare their classes nor did the students have any opportunity to grab anything out of lockers. The school had completely shut down, and it was not till mid-summer when anyone was allowed back in to grab personal belongings.

Summer of 2020 was like no time before and I doubt there will ever be a time like it again. The fear of the pandemic was still alive and hardly anyone left their house. I was one of those who never left, I was terrified of what might happen if I did. With all this time in my house things became stale fast. I needed a new hobby other than scrolling mindlessly on my phone. My first attempt was with paining. I set up a white foldout table and a stool in the center of my room. The small selection of paint I had was placed meticulously in the left hand corner, organized by color. Starting with the earth tones and ending with the pale pastels. A cup of water stood on the right side, teetering on the edge of the table. The brush met the paper and started to deposited the olive green paint as I moved it along in large strokes. Shortly after an oval like figure had been formed I gave up. Painting was not for me. My second attempt at a new hobby was with candle making. At the start of summer I purchased a peach scented candle and that sparked my love for candles so much that I thought I should take it upon myself to make my own. Why buy them when you can make your own? From my brief spout with candle making I learned that it is certainly far more expensive, time consuming, and aggravating to make your own. I suggest buying premade candles to be the best option.

I did not see my friends that summer and I only talked to one on a regular basis. Long facetime calls starting from sundown to sunrise were my only form of social interaction. However, I did not mind. My socially incompetent self, found the time alone to be calming. I went from seeing the same people daily to seeing no one. It was a big change but I enjoyed it. The friend I kept in touch with insisted we spend all this free time we had watching Avatar: The Last Air Bender via facetime, which was one of their favorite shows. I reluctantly gave in, what else was I to do? I had heard of the show and knew many people grew up with it but the show never peaked my interest. We started watching from the top, spending a few hours every other day watching more and more. Unfortunately, we were never able to finish. School started in August which consumed the free time we had previously