Unsa Munir 4/28/20 Period 2 - Blog #3 (LATE)

Modern Mythology 2020

Unsa Munir

 4/28/20

What is it like working from home?

Tough. Senior year was rough from the start. Senioritis was slowly creeping up on me ever since eighth grade and this year it really attacked me. If doing work while going to school was hard, this is another level. It was an easy switch at first. I thought it wouldn’t last long, and many teachers were giving basic work. As time went on I lost motivation and it was too easy to ignore my responsibilities. Going to school I was forced to pay attention (to some extent) and establish a work setting. Now that there’s no difference between home and school, it’s hard to create it myself. I open the tab for Google Classroom and next thing you know I’m seven videos deep into some oddly specific conspiracy theory. It’s comforting knowing that a lot of my friends are/were in the same situation. Of course, I would never encourage this or hope for anyone to be going through the same, but the fact that I’m not alone does make me feel better. The worst part of working from home is that there is no escape. Even if I slacked off in school, I was able to socialize easily or deal with my problems by playing handball or eating some good food nearby. Now I have to deal with everything in my home and it begins to get suffocating. Regardless, school is a priority and in the end I am determined to finish all my work! Even if it takes me forever, and I lose a lot of points, I want to do my best until the end. I’m just hoping some things get better in time for college because I would hate to have this mentality/environment while starting a major time in my life.

What are you learning about your world/community based on the reactions?

It’s nothing I didn’t know before, but wow some people are selfish. There was a tweet written by Jeff Kasanoff saying “Very American to decide we are bored with COVID and therefore it is over.” While other countries are dealing with their last cases, reopening schools, and safely roaming the streets, we are out here in war. It is beyond me that there are groups of people protesting the right for a haircut. Do they not know scissors exist? Do they not know how to use them themselves? Considering that they’re protesting for things like that, I would believe it if they didn’t know how to use them. But really, America had a lot of time to prepare. Instead of making racist ‘jokes’, our fellow citizens and people in power should’ve been taking the time to educate themselves about what was going down. Even when things finally got serious, there were/are still groups of people taking this lightly. I don’t understand how over 100,000 people have died from this in the US yet there are still people who are going out unprotected because they want their freedom. We all want a summer, a life, a job, etc. but in order to get there we need to work together. I’m pretty disappointed in how the US has responded, especially people from my community who I thought would’ve known better. But then again it’s Staten Island. Apparently a tanning salon should’ve been an essential business. What’s going on?

Your own personal feelings and thoughts about what is happening right now.

These past few months, especially this past week, has felt like a never ending boss level in a terribly hard video game. Everyday there’s a new issue and it’s truly unpredictable. What’s been on my mind, especially after Ahmed Aubrey and George Floyd is the BLM movement. There was a news headline that read “ Two Deadly Viruses are Killing Americans” Covid-19 and Racism.” The acts committed recently are absolutely disgusting. Yet, I can’t say I’m surprised. Things like this have been going on for years. Every day, another life is turned into a trending hashtag. I’m glad things have been recorded recently. Without evidence and proper exposure, these names wouldn’t be known. Imagine how many cases aren’t even cases because of that. I’m doing what I can to help but I know I don’t have much power. The worst or maybe the best part of these situations is finding out who the closeted racist is amongst my followers. I’m incredibly passionate about these situations, as are many others. Seeing videos of innocent people being tortured because of their skin color is something everyone should have a strong feeling about. In all honesty, I’m scared but excited. I’m scared because in a few days it’s June which means it's basically level six of Jumanji. I’m terrified to know what next month holds. However, I’m excited for the movement. It’s sad that these riots happen often but these ones seem different. There’s more power to them. Perhaps it’s because of the power of the media. More cases are being exposed and many celebrities have been sharing them as well. The protests going on are being covered and I feel like we’re closer to change. I could be completely wrong and this could just be another act of racism we write off until the next, but I’d hope not.