Keeping up with Kenny

The most recent holiday was yesterday, and it was Earth Day. This is the 50th Earth day, and it was a good one. Although the pandemic has shut everything down, it has given the Earth time to heal. What we have seen is how much damage people do to the planet, and it's sad that it took a global pandemic for people to realize how hurtful people really are to the planet. It baffles me how people cannot believe in climate change when there are numerous scientists, studies and evidence that proves that it's happening. This Earth Day however we are seeing  “the best air quality in decades”. It took a global pandemic, but now people can see how much of an impact their actions are making on the Earth. Two weeks ago, satellite data from NASA showed a 30% drop in air pollutants in the northeastern section of the U.S. during March. Large CO2 emitters such as power plants and automobiles and trucks are currently shut down due to the pandemic. Although many people are upset about this pandm...

Oh boy. My thoughts towards school have changed so much. If I learned one thing during this pandemic about school, it's to enjoy it. Constantly I hear people complaining about how boring it is. But in reality, the best memories are the ones from school and being surrounded by the people we love and care about. A lot of times we see that people didn't live their highschool experience to the fullest and especially seniors who “pushed everything off for the second semester”. Now we see that all the experiences that they looked forward to are gone. What this has taught me is that I need to enjoy every moment next year. Even the smallest ones. Highschool goes by so fast that we can't spend the whole time worrying about having the perfect stats and being the perfect student, because once we get all of that, we leave with no memories. Although those are important, so is living your life, making experiences and being happy. This pandemic has taught me that the best way to live lif...

Right now, all sports are canceled, NBA, MLB, NHL and more. Sports are a lot more than just keeping us engaged during quarantine and something to just pass by the time. They signify a sense of connection. When a sports game goes on, everyone watches the game, becomes invested and becomes connected. It feels like all of the words problems and time just stops and the only thing to worry about is a game. When we lost sports, we not only lost something to watch, but we lost a source of connection that brought together many people. Sports are something that bring people together, and that is what we need right now, to be brought together. This sunday Michael Jordan released the first two episodes of “The Last Dance” the minute the first second aired, this sense of connection that sports bring was suddenly united, and it felt like all the world's problems just stopped for a minute. The documentary, along with sports bring the connection to the people showing that not only are we all in t...

Today was a very interesting day. Today was the day that our Illinois governor JB Pritzker announced that all schools in Illinois would be closed for the rest of the academic school year.  It made me very anxious because it shows that the trend is still rising with the number of cases and deaths. However, it makes me feel more secure that people will be staying home more and we are heading in the right direction. Don't get me wrong, I am very upset about missing prom and I feel bad for the seniors who are missing graduation, but ultimately, I feel like we need to protect the people and keep everyone safe from this virus before more people die. I'm trying to avoid listening to the news and looking at social media, but it's very hard. Currently on the news, I see people revolting about the stay at home orders. Their reasoning is that they need to restart the economy. Some of the statments they made are that they would ratehr “I perfer dangerous freedom over peacful slavery”....

The best advice I have heard is to stay home. Yes, I know it's basic, but it's the best advice anyone can give and hear. When people don't stay home the virus will continue to affect more people and our hospitals will become filled beyond capacity and we will run out of ventilators and respirators needed to allow people to survive. Although staying home might spread how long this pandemic lasts, it will keep everything at a manageable level that allows us to save the most amount of lives. When we stay home, a lot of people think that it's to protect themselves, and yes, in a way this is true. However, the key reason we stay home is to protect ourselves from others. Many times we see people who are spreading the virus when they don't even know that they have it. When people don't think they have the virus and leave their house, they are continuing to spread the virus. In a similar way with masks, people believe that wearing a mask is to prevent yourself from get...

My quote of the day is chosen by AOC, A U.S Representative of New York’s 14th congressional district. The quote is “ As someone who has been told to go back, imma tell you, we're moving forward,” This quote moved me. Personally, I have been someone told to “go back”, so this quote was something that I could relate to. But what really grabbed my attention was the idea of moving forward. What we need to do is move forward as a more accepting society, multiracial democracy, a living wage, and most importantly, guaranteed healthcare. What I think is happening as the more impactful this pandemic gets, the more people's eyes are opening. People who are most affected by this pandemic are the people who don't have the option to self quarantine because they are homeless, the people who can't help themselves because they can't afford healthcare for their family. People are realizing that the most affected by this pandemic, are the people that need help the most. What we need...

At first, school being out seemed like a dream. Everyone was excited that we would have a break from school and could finally relax. But as remote learning starting on Monday, everything felt different. Everyone was quarantined and couldn’t leave there house. So it wasn’t this perfect vacation away from school that everyone wanted. In addition, so many people started missing their friends and social life. The same people that wanted school canceled, are now the same people begging for school to pick up again. I agree, I miss seeing all my friends, teachers and having social interactions with the rest of my peers. Being quarantined isn’t the best, I haven’t been able to leave my house in so long and I miss being able to hang out with people and have fun. We all say we don’t have enough “free time” but now that we have it, we have too much and everything is boring. Video games are boring, scrolling through social media and Tik Tok is getting boring now too. In fact, Ive resorted to c...

One example that I see of racial and income inequality is through the coronavirus outbreak. I see and hear many people in our community complaining about how bad and horrible it is to be staying at home. On social media I see celebrities posting about how much quarantine and staying home “sucks”. But, at the very least, we have the option to quarantine and stay home. Millions of Americans across the country are homeless, living in apartments and townhouses, or even in prisons where they don't have the option to self quarantine. People with lower incomes can potentially not afford a house to quarantine in and therefore is at a greater risk. In addition, not only do people of lower income have a greater risk of catching the virus, but they're at a lower risk of being treated. Due to the income inequality many people with low incomes can’t afford healthcare to help them if they catch this virus. Yet again, the people who live in lower income communities are getting the short end ...

Ever since quarantine has started, our use of technology has skyrocketed. To start, let's look at school. With remote learning, all students and teachers are required to stare at a screen for almost 6 hours every day. Through canvas assignments, essays, projects and zoom, our entire learning curriculum has been transformed to be completely virtual. One thing is that I bought an apple pencil and a macbook during quarantine to make all this remote learning easier. These are items that I would have never thought I would need, but as more and more things relied on technology during these hard times, getting more technology made everything easier and more convenient. During quarantine, technology has not only taken over our education system but it became our main source of entertainment. Because we can't leave our houses, we are stuck inside and as a teen, some of the only things to keep me occupied for such an extended amount of time include; watching a movie on netflix, playing v...