This week, my close friend Brooks tested positive for COVID-19. Fortunately, he hasn't seen anyone recently so it is unlikely that anyone else was exposed. However, I wanted to find a way to help him since his symptoms were pretty bad. Since my mother is a pharmacist and has been studying and keeping up with all of the updates about COVID, I thought that I could at least get her advice about what medicines he should take. After listening to him describe his symptoms and what medicines he was already taking, I asked my mom what else he could take to feel better. She was able to give him detailed advice on what medicines to take to clear up any congestion, what will strengthen his immune system, and how to monitor his oxygen levels from home. He was able to tell his parents what he needed from the pharmacy and get all of the vitamins and medicines that my mom recommended he take. The sad thing to me is that all of the medical knowledge that my mom had gotten from her conferences and studies, is not readily available to the public and is not being spread by our public health officials. You would think that since the pandemic is currently such a big issue in all parts of the world, this kind of information would be a priority for these officials to share with the public. Something as simple as taking vitamin d every day can strengthen your immune system and prevent someone from getting a severe case of COVID. I believe that the current political climate in the U.S. is to blame for this and that the abundance of misinformation about the virus needs to be stopped. There also needs to be more support for people who have COVID. Since Brooks' family did not want to risk going out and spreading the virus, we decided to cook them some food and drop it off outside of his house. So far his parents have been lucky and have not gotten the virus so I hope that my mother's advice and the food we brought can help them stay safe and bring Brooks a quick recovery!
Service- LO7 (09/02/20)- Lending a Helping Hand
Last week was a pretty crazy week! We had hurricane Laura come through Houston and Galveston. Initially, it seemed like it was going to be a bad hurricane with very high winds. Due to this, my friend John who lives in Galveston was planning on evacuating. Since he couldn't stay with his dad, he had nowhere to evacuate to. Because of this, I felt really bad for him and wanted to see if my family would let him stay with us. He has also helped me countless times before when I needed a place to stay so I felt like this was the least I could do. He was very appreciative of this offer and decided to come stay at my house. The benefit of him staying here was that we could study and attend our online classes together and also hang out together when school was finished. Before he arrived, I set up the guest room and cleaned the house so that he would have a place to sleep and a place to work during the day. I also wanted him to feel as comfortable as possible so I moved some more pillows into the room and cleaned out the drawers so he could have a place to put his clothes. In the south, guests need to be treated like royalty so I made sure that everything was clean and that he would have anything he needed during his stay. We ended up having a lot of fun despite still being in school and having to work. The hurricane did not affect the part of town that I live in so I was able to take him to the burger place that I had wanted him to try for a long time. After grabbing burgers, we also stopped by Lowe's for another surprise. We bought a mini-fridge for the room he was staying in so that he could keep his leftovers and have drinks in his room for the rest of his time at my house. He was very grateful for being able to stay with my family and joked that it was probably better than staying at his Dad's. When the hurricane had passed, he was able to safely return to Galveston with some more food for the road.
Creativity- LO 4 (08/12/20) National Lampoon's Family Beach Getaway
Yesterday, my family and I rented a place out by the beach in Galveston and had a short vacation before the school year starts again. We decided to bring the cat down with us too! Unfortunately, this did not go well. When we got to the house, we noticed that there was lots of cat fur behind the couch which smelled like cat pee. This made our cat freak out and hide in the corner behind a shelf. We spent the longest time trying to get her out or get her to eat her food with no success. When we finally did get her out, my father decided it would be better to take her home and let her stayed there until we came back. After he left, I went to visit my friend John, and his family. His grandparents are always very welcoming and always make sure that I leave with a full stomach of their delicious family cooking. While I was there, I received a call from my mother who realized that my dad had taken the key to the house we were staying in and that she couldn't leave without locking herself out. Although this was another bump in the road, John and I tried to come up with a solution. We drove back down to where we were staying and hung out there for a little bit instead. We weren't going to let these challenges stop all of us from getting to enjoy our vacation! After John went back to his place and my father returned from his impromptu journey, we finally went down to the beach. Since it was already getting dark and the temperature was starting to drop, we did not really want to go out onto the beach to swim. Instead, we found another way to enjoy the beach. We waited until it was dark and went out to go look at the stars. Since we were still relatively close to the city, we were all surprised that we could see what we saw. We were able to see a few shooting stars and even part of the milky way! Even though the vacation did not go as planned, we found ways to improvise and enjoy the beach in a different way.
Service LO5 (07/16/20)- Teaching a friend how to skateboard
It has been quite a long time since I have spent time in town. Due to the pandemic and the fact that I live pretty far away from my friends at school, the only way I have been in contact with them is through my phone and through playing video games together. However, today I got to go to Houston to see my friend Brooks. It was weird to see him in person after not seeing him for a few months but both of us were really happy to be able to spend time together in person. Since the summer began, I had been trying to get myself back into skateboarding. Skateboarding has always been a sport that I have loved, even though it involves a lot of falling and can be oftentimes frustrating. Brooks had never really been into skateboarding before but wanted me to teach him so that we could skate together. Once he got his own skateboard, I decided to give him some tips and teach him how to ride the board and get more comfortable on it. I decided to take us to a basketball court to help him do this. The court was the ideal location to practice since the ground is smooth and the court is in the shade. When seeing him ride his board, I noticed that he was having difficulty trying to turn. At first, we thought it was a matter of balance but I also noticed that the trucks (the metal things that you use to turn) were very tight. Since I had a tool that I use to adjust mine with me, I was able to help him out by loosening his trucks. This helped him quite a bit and by the end of our practice session, he was able to turn and keep his balance a lot more easily. I was glad that I could help him with his challenge and I hope that we can go skate again soon. When he's ready to I want to go to the skatepark with him so I can have someone that I know to talk to and film tricks with!
Creativity LO4 (06/15/20)- Room Improvement
I decided to redecorate and rearrange my room again. Since the last time I completely redid my room, I tore out the carpet and replaced it with a vinyl floor. I wanted something that reminded me of the beach so the color I chose to replace it with was a grey and white wood. I wanted to make my room a better place to work in for doing schoolwork next year if we are still in online school. I also wanted to make my room into a better space for making music so I would be encouraged to pick up my guitar or play drums instead of being lazy and watching tv or playing video games all summer. The first thing I did was take everything out of my room and clean it. After a deep clean, I moved all of my instruments back into the room. However, I decided that I would divide the room into two sections. One half of the room would have all of my music equipment, my desk, and file cabinet to use as a workspace and studio. For the other half of my room, I wanted to dedicate it as an area to relax and to sleep. I moved a bookshelf and two chairs into one corner and went through all of the books that I owned and organized them. This way, I can sit in a chair, relax, and grab a nice book to read. Since I have been sleeping in the guest room and working in my room, I moved a futon into my room. It is not ideal but at least I now have a place to sleep in my room. My next step is to find a cheap bed that can fit in my room and that I can afford. I will be continuing to try and improve my room and make it a better space to work in the next few months. I think that having the dedicated work area and also having my room organized will help me be more productive when summer ends.
Activity LO6 (05/16/20)- Dealing with stress in a healthy way
This past week has not been easy but I have tried to make the best out of it. My dog, Ben had been sick for the past month. He was having trouble sleeping and his breathing had been strained. After taking him to the vet countless times, we found out that he had cancer in his jaw. They told us there was nothing we could do to help him. Since we lost him, I have had a really hard time concentrating on finishing up the last of my schoolwork for this year. I decided that I needed to find a healthy way to deal with my stress and feelings. Normally exercise, nature, and playing music helps me to do this so my mother and I planned a day to go down to the beach. Instead, of going to our usual spot in Galveston, we decided to make a trip down to Surfside. Since I wanted to skimboard, I scouted for a spot to go out on and set up our beach chairs. Having the fresh ocean breeze and finding time to relax really helped me have a little peace of mind. I plan on making more trips to the beach this summer. With so many people experiencing the loss of loved ones and increased stress from the current state of the world, I believe it is crucial that everyone finds their own healthy way to deal with stress. I have started to encourage my friends to do the same. Whether it is taking a walk outside, reading a good book, listening to your favorite music, or exercising, we all need to address our own health, find ways to take care of our mental health, and practice self-care. I have realized how fortunate I am to have the support of my family and friends during a time when the world seems to be falling apart. I am sure that as the pandemic continues, the importance of self-care and mental health will become an issue that will start to be addressed by more people.
Service LO7 -(04/16/20) Meal for the family
Due to the drastic changes that have occurred in the past month, my family has had a hard time adjusting to quarantine and to having everyone work from home. This week, my parents have been especially busy and stressed so I decided I would surprise them with a big dinner. I made a trip to the grocery store to pick up some vegetables and ground turkey to make them their favorite dishes (well at least the ones I know how to make...). I cooked my mother Japanese chicken curry and made my father turkey burgers. I thought it would be a nice way to help them both feel less stressed and not have to worry about dinner. Although I typically do not enjoy playing scrabble, I told my mother that we would play it since she had been wanting to play for a while. I had felt bad for not wanting to play since she is always willing to watch my TV shows with me even though they are not her kind of show. Due to this, I thought that I needed to return the same gestures of kindness back to her. I'm glad that we did play since it was actually pretty fun and also because I finally beat her after years of her holding the crown.