week 7 - valerie wilhelm

 Thanksgiving’s gonna be different this year for sure. Usually my family goes to visit some relatives in North Carolina. It's really fun, we go to my cousin’s house and have a huge dinner and pretty much just hang out and watch football. This year is different, however, and it's just gonna be my immediate family in our house.

Week 7 - Melanie Duronio

There was one morning where I was in class with a friend virtually, and I had to send her a quick text about the classwork we were working on. As we briefly messaged back and forth, I could see my friend smiling down at her phone as my messages were delivered to her. It made my heart warm to see how happy she was to be talking to me, and think of how important our friendship must be to her. I feel like most people don’t seem to have an expression on their face when looking at their phone, so I was really happy that receiving a message from me was able to make my friend smile.

Week 7- Beatriz Ferreira

I like reading, but sometimes I spend too much time reading school stuff that I don't want to read the books I like at the end of the day. I love that it feels like we enter a new world when we are reading and that it is just an effective way to learn, not only about topics that we find appealing but exploring new worlds. 

Week 7- Sakthi C

For the first time in two months, I picked up my rubik’s cube. For a school project, I was searching for some colored pencils in my drawer and I came across my old rubik’s cube. It was a speed cube that I used to always use in freshman year. I remember solving the cube within five minutes, which I thought was impressive at the time, but it really wasn’t because I had multiple friends who could solve it under two minutes. I had joined a rubik’s cube club and all we would do was practice solving rubik’s cubes in an efficient way. In the summer of freshman year, I had stopped using the cube because I had gotten bored of it. Overall, the finding of this rubik’s cube inspired my day because it brought back multiple memories.

Patrick Zheng - Week 7

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for my teachers. I hadn’t fully appreciated what teachers do until this year. Seeing all the work teachers put into their class plans and syllabi and their efforts to give help for students is one thing that really became clear to me through the hybrid learning model.

Kate Barnes- Week 7

 Nov 24, 2020- Recently my sleep schedule has been a little bit out of whack. But I’m still pretty well rested. This is because I’ll sleep for five or so hours at night and then take naps. My parents say that this is unhealthy, but in ancient Rome people slept in two increments during the day as well. The Spanish do it too. I don’t know why it’s not a thing in the United States. Probably because of our hard working culture. But I think I would work a lot harder if I had a little nap everyday.

Olivia Davies - Week 7

 Most of my thinking is subconscious. I am never fully aware of my thoughts. Lately I try to catch myself and look inside my brain, because I’m curious of what is going on in there. Most of the time it’s never anything profound or revolutionary. Most of the time I’m just singing a song in my head, or having an imaginary conversation with someone. That’s why journaling is a great habit. You can stimulate your brain and put your true thoughts onto paper.

Tess Acabbo- Week 7

 I love to make people smile. When you compliment someone's outfit and you get to watch their face light up. Or when someone is having a bad day and you can find a way to brighten it, even just a little bit. It is the best feeling in the world to make people happy. Making others happy keeps me happy. People spend so much time focusing on the bad and negative sides of things when it is so much easier to focus on the positive. 

Paige Stephan - Week 7

Got out and took a walk with my dog for the first time since getting sick, and I think I am starting to get better. I managed to get some fresh air in and even ran for a little while. It helped get some ideas circulating as I got out and got some exercise, since I have found that I tend to come up with the most ideas when I am moving. Observing some of the scenery along the route also gave me some ideas for how the settings of some stories I am working on can look like.

Week 9 - Erin McEwan

November is such a strange month within the seasons. It’s the off period between the ending of fall and the beginning of winter. The leaves are still red and orange, but frost lays on the ground in the mornings.

week 7 - erin cragg

 On Friday night, my friend and I went to the Cape to visit her grandparents. We just stayed for one night, so we left Saturday night. On Saturday, we got take out and ate together at their dining room table, like a family meal. I really like her grandparents, they're really fun. It's nice to feel so apart of her family because they are all very close and I don't have grandparents anymore so it's like a reminder of those good times. 

Week 8 - Erin McEwan

The trees stand tall in the forest, like confident guards with abnormally good posture. They sway from side to side in the wind, rustling the green leaves, and causing them to fall on the ground.

Week 6- Sakthi

 Who would you vote for president? This question hit me when I woke up this morning because I realized I had no school today because of the presidential election. I decided that if I was eighteen and legal to vote, I would probably vote for Joe Biden. This is because I feel that with Trump being president, the United States will go into more debt and the coronavirus pandemic would be extended. With Joe Biden as president, the US will probably get shut down for a couple of months but this would help end the pandemic which is probably the US’s biggest problem right now. Overall, this idea inspired my day by making me realize how important the presidential election is.

Conor Burrell - Week 6

 Playing with my dog in the warm sun gives me a brief but beautiful sense of freedom and relaxation. All the worries and stress bogging me down just disappear for a short period of time. It’s just me and my buddy, no one else, and a warm autumn day. A nice warm breeze, orange and brown leafs everywhere, and a baby blue cloudless sky.

Week 6 - Melanie Duronio

 Biden won the election.  I still can’t believe it, words cannot describe the relief that I feel now, thinking about the next four years. I can still vividly remember when I first found out. My family and I huddled around the tv in the living room, my mom weeping tears of relief, and my sister grinning at the television like an idiot while I sat in a daze staring at the screen showing the electoral results. I felt like I was watching the first few rays of sunlight peek through the clouds after a long and heavy rainstorm. These past few days I’ve seen pictures and videos from all over the country of cities celebrating, with people laughing and waving flags in the streets. In one video I even saw people popping bottles of champagne in the center of a cheering crowd.  I haven’t seen this much joy and unity in years. Our country is still far from perfect, and I know that Biden’s election does not mean the problems we face are even close to being solved, but it’s a step in the right direction for sure, and for the first time in four years I feel hopeful for the future.  

week 6- tess acabbo

 The sunsets have been so beautiful lately. When I look out my window and see the cotton candy looking sunset, I am grateful. Grateful to live in such a beautiful world. The world can be scary and filled with uncertainty, but I always get to see the sunset every day. The sunset is a bittersweet way to end each day, maybe it’s the one beautiful thing to happen in a day filled with sadness. Something so calming and precious that makes one forget about the sorrow even if it’s just for a quick moment.

valerie w - week 6

I have been pretty stressed lately. This weekly journal entry assignment does actually help me relax a bit. Sometimes I have zero motivation to do assignments, other times I work too hard and lose track of time and that causes me to miss google meets and other assignments. I'm glad thanksgiving break is on the way.

Patrick Zheng - Week 6

On Thursday, March 12, school suddenly closed and we never went back to school again after Friday the 13th. This Friday, it is the thirteenth of November. Will it be the last day of school again?

Week 6- Kate Barnes

 November 5, 2020- Lately my best friend and I have been going on weekly trips to random towns around the state. With all that’s going on right now, we’re bored and this is a fun thing to look forward to. Today we drove to Hampton beach. It was dead but it wasn’t very cold today, and since it’s fall we didn’t have to pay for parking. We went to a restaurant and after that, we just walked around and sat on the big stage. It felt like a ghost town.

Week 6 - Jane Edison

 Cooking is easily my favorite form of escape. Eggs in particular. Poached, scrambled, fried, runny, or even in an omelette. They are so versatile. The way each egg cooks differently, each egg curdles or crisps. It's easy to lose time in cooking. Waiting for the ingredients to reach a certain temperature, a desired flavor, a specific shape. There are no worries in cooking. If it burns? Just try again. Doesn’t taste good? Cook something else.

Week 6 - Olivia Davies

 I am growing more aware of my subconscious tendencies. Today, I posted a picture on instagram, and obsessively checked the likes. Refresh, refresh, refresh. I was realizing what I was doing, but simply couldn’t stop. The endorphins would temporarily fill my brain when I saw the comments and likes increasing. I hope that I can detach from this false sense of happiness and accomplishment.

Week 6- Beatriz Ferreira

 Today, I read the first page of "10-minute Feng Shui". This book wasn't mine, but I got it from my aunt after she saw me moving my bed against the window. She said something about bad luck but didn't explain why I couldn't do it. From what I learned, Feng Shui is the ancient art of placement that can transform our life and overall happiness. I was impressed that a single position could influence how we live because it seems too simple when it comes to life. 

Week 7 - Paige Stephan

Remembering old characters from when I first started writing stories can be a massive reminder of how far I’ve come since then. Sure, it can be a little embarrassing at times, with characters with obnoxious traits and designs and stories that take blatantly obvious inspiration from media I enjoyed at the time, but being embarrassed at them is only a sign of progress. At the time, I thought these designs and stories were the most amazing things ever, and looking back, although I may consider them embarrassing now, it was only what I was capable of and inspired by at the time. It is important to let beginners experiment with things, no matter how silly they may be, because the only way to improve is to keep going, and no one is capable of instantly being good at anything.

Week 7 - Erin McEwan

Today is the day that decides our future for the next four years. Who knows, whether either outcome will be good or bad. I fear for what I believe is the worst result, but we shall have to wait for tomorrow. Let’s hope for the best.

Week 5 - Conor Burrell

 The beauty of snow falling cannot be understated. It brings joy and vibes of Christmas and warm fires by the fireplace. Something I believe everyone cherishes to some degree. The only pain is going outside to shovel.

Patrick Zheng - Week 6

It seems like there are three stages of fall and winter; fall with the beautiful colors, winter with white snow, and then the in-between season where everything is brown and gray. A few days ago, we were still in the first stage, with trees loaded with beautiful, bright orange leaves. Today, they were all gone, all washed off by the snow and rain and blown away by the wind. Hopefully the last stage of winter comes soon to get us out of this in-between stage.

week 6 - erin cragg

On Friday, it snowed. I have a love/hate relationship with winter. I don't like the cold but snow is very pretty. I used to love playing in the snow as a child, but now I like to stay inside where it's warm. It's interesting how things change, I've lived in the same place forever and it has always snowed. Even in middle school I was excited when it snowed, but in only a few years, my opinion completely changed. 

Week 6 - Paige Stephan

My friends and I had a discussion about beautiful album covers today. Through seeing what other people picked and trying to find one for myself, it became easy to determine other people's individual aesthetics, and it was also a source of artistic inspiration. As I went through the artworks on the albums, I noticed particular qualities that made them appealing and that made them stand out. Many of the more eye-catching ones for me tended to be more symbolic, intricate, and traditionally artistic as opposed to photographs. They gave me a spark of inspiration for my own art pieces through these particular qualities, and listening to the music in and of itself can help with that process as well.