Summer Review

 Give me a recap of your time since you left this building in the spring of 2020.

Comments

  1. Since leaving the building in the spring of 2020, the year has been uneventful. The last day in school was spent listening to DeWine discuss how Ohio was going to be shut down. On that day our band trip to Chicago was cancelled. Slowly I became lazier and lazier as online work became more and more boring. Throughout the summer I did not do much but sit around on my PC, locked inside my bedroom. As the summer progressed I got a job at a grocery store, but besides that nothing really changed for me. At least I was getting weeks to a gallon of gas during that time

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    1. Interesting entry, Emily Cappelli. I found that I too got lazy at points, especially during the end of the year. Additionally, as you know, I too enjoyed periods of time on my PC. The job development is one to get quite excited about, as you have stepped up into the big wide world of adulthood (and taxes).

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  2. Since we left, I got laid off and hired again, I went to Florida and South Dakota, and helped my grandparents move in to their new apartment. I was also chosen to be a section leader in marching band. After my new glasses finally came in, I spent most of my time reading when I wasn't sleeping.

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    1. Alexis, I find your developments nice. The traveling must have been nice, as well as seeing family. I know that my times spent seeing family these last few months have been rather epic. I hope that the job market has not crushed your will as it has to others

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    2. Imagine actually reading books haha but I am sad to hear that subway has done you so dirty! I shall boycott them by never going there again, although I never go there to begin with. But I am happy that you are able to see now!

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    3. Beth I got my job back please don't boycott I need money

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    4. my efforts have already begun the planning stages, 'tis too late to stop now.

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  3. I did nothing for the first couple of weeks of summer. Eventually, it was time for conditioning so I had to do a lot of running. I did not enjoy conditioning at all. Band started up soon after that. I am a trumpet section leader so I had to show up every single day. Along with band and conditioning, I worked on my summer work. I finished all of my summer work a week before school started so I was finally able to relax for that last week.

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    1. Wow dude, that sounds like a sad and pathetic summer. Thankfully I'm not you.

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    2. Ben, it is no wonder you are a physical specimen. The amount of physical activity you have done has surely transformed you into a hulking mass of muscle.

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  4. When we first went on quarantine, I felt overwhelmed because of the amount of work I was given. To relieve my stress, I started to spend more time outside. I mostly went on bike rides with my sister for about thirty minutes each day. Mrs. Morton even lives on one of the streets we would ride on, so I still got to see her every once in a while. Once summer started, I didn’t really have anything to do other than swim in my pool and go to tennis practice. During the month of August, my schedule picked up because I began to have matches every week, other school activities, and summer assignments.

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    1. Ah the great outdoors. During my great times of stress, I too would bike as well as spend my days outside. There truly is something magical about seeing the green of the Earth and being able to listen to the sounds of the birds. I only wish it was not such a task to do during my more busy times.

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  5. When we first left school in the spring, I contintued with my usual schedule: wake up, complete work, and then relax for the rest of the day. However, this routine became monotonous and difficult to complete after an extended period of time. So, I began encorperating meditation and yoga into my morning and night routines. Clearer in my body and mind, I had more motivation to finish out the school year strong. After another month of studying and final exams, school was over and I was left to my own devices. Sitting at home during the summer is always one of the most grueling experiences of my life; therefore, I decided to seached for something to pass the time this year. After much trial and error, I found crocheting, studying chinese, and a job at starbucks filled the time fairly well. After a few months of coffee and sweater making passed, my family decided to take a "social distancing style vacation" to the cottage my grandparents own at lake Erie. Eventhough Erie is not my favorite body of water, it was still a peaceful and memorable getaway. Fianlly, summer ended and I made the decision to return to school in person.

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    1. Online school was indeed tedious. I am glad to hear you added things like yoga and meditation to your routine to help ease the difficult situation. I did a similar thing by taking daily walks. I also find it interesting that you picked up new hobbies. Many of my friends have suggested it for me, and I haven't had the motivation to do it. But is is good to see that it has worked for someone else.

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    2. I must say, Josh, I aspire to become as zen as yourself. I have long eyed yoga myself, but have never pulled the trigger on actually going for it. Additionally, meditation is indeed an epic way to calm down. Unfortunately, your employ at Starbucks leaves a bad taste in my mouth, much like their hot chocolate.

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  6. I shall start my tale from the very beginning. At first, my spring was wondrous, as I enjoyed spending time with my friends and other people. However, as world disasters progressed, I began to rapidly lose people whom I cared about (not to death, though). This progressed until the lowest point, which, incidentally, was Easter. As some of you know, that day in particular shall be forever marred by a deep betrayal. Following this, I searched for ways to pour my energies into other tasks than wallowing in self pity. It was a rough road, but I as the days passed I picked up many skills like: cooking, playing guitar, landscaping, woodworking, car repair, and a general increase to my maturity. I was still knocked down for most of the summer (despite being elected as the president of NHS, which was, and still is, a major victory for my self esteem) and ended up taking about a month of complete disconnect from most people in order to reestablish a sense of self in this whirlwind of a year. Then August arrived. With the arrival of band camp and my newfound position as a section leader, I quickly became similar to the person as I was before the complete cascade of my personal life. I had to be an example of strength and excellence in both morality and musical ability. This ultimately put me back on my feet for good. I vastly enjoyed seeing my friends everyday and getting to talk to more people than the small circle I surrounded myself with. Fast forward a couple weeks, and we arrive at the Choir practice days. For those of you not aware, I, a band student, sat in on a couple of Concert Choir practices. I was blown away. Concert Choir is a vastly different world than what I was used to as a band member. Additionally, our Concert Choir is amazing. Enjoying my time with them, talking a lot, I ultimately found great comfort catching up with old friends. Besides these tell tale events, as well as a couple marching performances, I have detailed the entirety of my fairly depressing bummer summer. However, I still believe that recent developments in my life and the vast improvement of my overall character means that my crucible of a summer has ultimately led to good.

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    1. Harrowing tale Alexander. You have admirable strength and courage. I wish thee fair tidings and joy for your future endeavors.

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    2. I am happy to hear that you became a better person while pushing through your struggles. How wonderful!

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  7. Since we left school in March 2020, I continued to work at my job, Dairy Queen, and focused on my schoolwork. My summer, however, was primarily spent at early morning band practices. Also, Josh began teaching me how to crochet, and I started taking a liking to a genre of book I had never previously enjoyed: classics. My favorite novel of the summer was "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens. Overall, I attempted to keep busy during the pandemic in order to avoid boredom.

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    1. It sounds like you had a more compelling summer than I did. I feel like Dairy Queen would be a fun place to work during the summer since it's cooler in the building. I have actually been wanting to learn how to crochet for a while now. I got a bunch of supplies for Christmas years ago and had one or two lessons but never fully got into it. I've been meaning to try again, but I always put it off. I'm glad you found another genre of book you like. I'm always hesitant to read a book that is different from what I normally read.

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    2. Boredom is the most pervasive plague that there is on this planet. I have not read "Oliver Twist", but I have heard good things. Perhaps I shall one day glance upon its pages.

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  8. There is not much to say about what I did since quarantine began. I used the excess free time to catch up on things I enjoy but have not had time to do since starting high school. I read thirty-three books — most of which were not exceptionally meaningful or profound but, rather, entertaining. I also wrote my speech for this season. Most days, I tried to walk for at least two hours. My cat would sit and wait for me to walk back up my driveway almost every time; it was adorable. With no school, practices, or performances, I spent my days missing my friends, texting them constantly to fill the hole. The lack of human interaction, while painful, allowed me to reflect on myself and my mental health. Overall, it was a relaxing, unproductive period of growth for me.

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    1. Hello Willow! I totally agree with your statement of this summer being a "unproductive period" as I have gotten nothing accomplished really over this summer as well. I found much joy reading about your cat, and, although I have not taken a walk in a while, I think that the moment of fresh air was very beneficial! Woo nature. while I'm thinking about it, we still need to have your birthday get together omg. Farewell!

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    2. Yes, yes we do. Perhaps in the next couple of weeks I will plan something. I have to get back into socializing with more than one person at a time ha.

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    3. I wish I would have read that much, it must have been a true joy. Nonetheless, self improvement is king upon all.

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  9. I explored the "Carcelli's Junior AP: Social Distance Blog Page" daily. I manufactured 3 posts a day at times. This was mostly because I was bored and wanted to share my humorous insight on my daily routine. If I was not posting on the blog, I was probably playing tennis. Tennis is a miracle because it allows you to still remain socially distant. I also went to Cedar Point and got cool merchandise. I got a dog on the very last day of school before everything was shut down. His name is Sherman and he's an absolute tank. He is a beagle (Aged 3.5) and from Angels for Animals. I spent a lot of time with my dog. I also learned how to drive and I got my license. Towards the end of the break, the old car I had reached the end of its service life so we had to get a new car. I now can't drive it because it's legally my twin sister's and she hates me more than anyone else despite me being her twin. While exploring and growing in my faith through Christ, I grew into a better person than I was at the start of quarantine. The heavy, burdensome weight of sin stacked upon my aching back throughout the months and years of my life have pushed me to find answers and seriously evaluate myself. I have not achieved my spiritual goals yet but with repeated life changing bible explorations and church excursions I have surely become better. There is still much more to do. Oh yeah I watched a lot of Spongebob over break. I'd put it on every day around 12 and watch til about 4 while doing other various tasks. Both old and new episodes. Obviously seasons 1-6 are the best but there's a lot of good ones later. I have stockpiled a spreadsheet of my top Spongebob episodes over break so if anyone would like to observe or add to it let me know.
    1. Shanghaied
    2. Band Geeks
    3. Pizza Delivery
    4. Idiot Box
    5. Nasty Patty
    6. Christmas Who?
    7. Dying For Pie
    8. Survival of the Idiots
    9. As Seen on TV
    10. Clams

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    1. Nathanial, you have made a most interesting post here. Given our close proximity in life, I find most of this older news. However, the personal development you have underwent is quite nice. No matter what, always keep learning and always strive to be better. Your selection of episodes is quite the glamorous enigma. Personally, my favorite episode is most likely the one with the singing stones. That is a true episode. Nonetheless, your choices remain quality, at least in my eyes.

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    2. By the way that is merely my top 10 spongebob episodes. I actually have a google spreadsheet of my top episodes. Apologies for the possible misunderstanding

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    3. Wow natan! Very cool :D

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  10. For the first two months of quarantine, I didn't really do much. I mainly just finished up school work. Once things started opening up in June, I started going to youth group and church again. In the middle of June I started two virtual science/medical research internships. They were originally supposed to be on a college campus doing actual lab research; unfortunately, that could not happen this summer. The one with Vanderbilt University was two weeks, and the one with the University of Wyoming was six weeks. I spent around 40 hours a week exclusively on things related to the programs. August I mainly spent a few days in Pittsburgh, church, and watching tv.

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    1. Michelle,

      I find your endeavors excellent to learn about. I myself had considered doing a NASA internship, but instead focused on a more college class minded approach to my getting ahead of the curve. Nonetheless, I find it wonderful that you are getting involved and ahead of the average fellow.

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  11. Interesting hypothesis Klyler. While I agree with the first half of your statement, the second half leaves much to be desired in my mind. I get where you're coming from, but how I was raised, I can not conform to your belief. I respect your opinion, but unfortunately we will have to simply accept our differences and move on. Overall, it's quite interesting what you managed to conquer over break. I'm glad to see this magnitude of personal and physical growth amongst classmates. The simplicity yet complexity in your statement speaks volumes about our society as a whole. I am glad you have brought this to my attention.

    Fair days to thee

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  12. Klylith,

    I write to you to say that I too am doing well these days. The homefront is quite difficult to survive on, and is rather lonely. When I get exceptionally down, I think of all the fun laughs we have had together. That is why it is so joyful to receive a masterpiece of a letter from thee. However, I am beginning to worry. There have been many cyclones lately, and my crops are beginning to wither. I hope that I may survive and see thee again

    Your friend,
    Alexander Orion Butrick

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  13. ^ignore that, please

    Right when we left school, that friday was the release of PoE's delirium league. I played that for a month and got one character to level 91 and quit after getting a bad amount of requirements to fight the final boss. Then, I switched to playing some Factorio and BTD6. Then some news came out that Terraria 1.4 would be released soon. I decided to begin passing time by programming a browser game. Currently, I'm still doing that; however, I also had to program some school courses directory thing for the school. I don't know where they are using it or if they are using it, though. That directory could be called "unfinished," but that couldn't be said from a programming standpoint-- just a graphic design one. Someone else was supposed to add images for the courses and give me pointers on what would be clean graphic design that I could then implement; however, that never happened.

    I beat Terraria 1.4 in a few days and got Zenith and geared myself up with the best items and prefixes. Then I thought tmodloader was on 1.4 because it came out on steam with the game, but it wasn't. I played through Calamity again with only rogue weapons that time.

    Later in summer I played Monster Train, Gunfire Reborn, Ether Loop, Bug Fables, and Time Warpers. Of those, Monster Train and Gunfire Reborn were the best. I beat Ether Loop in a few days and Bug Fables felt too slow for a Paper Mario clone. Time Warpers, though, lasted even less time because I realized that the game doesn't become any more interesting after the first few hours--it just becomes numbers automatically increasing on your screen.

    I played Neon Abyss and that one was good. I was able to get school work done a ton quicker than when I was at school, and I had a ton more free time because I didn't have to, for example, wait for any other student to have their question answered before I could move on.

    I played through a bunch of Minecraft modpacks. I quit one or two, but I beat the rest. I think I played 6 total. When Risk of Rain 2 v1.0 came out a little bit ago, I didn't realize I beat the final boss when I did. I beat it on the hardest difficulty on the first day of the update coming out within the first 2 hours of it being out.

    I played some badminton with father a whole bunch throughout the whole coronavirus time and I still am, but now I'm waiting for the announcement of the next PoE league which should be today at 5pm.

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  14. It seems like school closing because of the virus was one of the best things that could have happened. You thrived in this situation. Well done Kyle!

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  16. What a treat! Your last post was satisfactory but this is even better. Glad to hear the productivity has been through the roof. Well done!

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  17. Since I have stepped foot out of this building, I have been discovering countless interesting and very beneficial ways to spend my time. This includes working at dairy queen, playing fetch with my dogs, spending all of my money on amazon, and sleeping the days away. As I said, very beneficial. My birthday fell during the beginning of quarantine, so I got to go on a birthday drive around town with my family; that was my first step out of the house in a while. Of course, our tour was cancelled along with the concert and play production, so all of the things I was looking forward to were ripped from my hands. So naturally that put me and many others in a little slump. But life moves on, and we’re all just vibing now. As time passed and things began to open up, I unconsciously started to better myself in different ways. New year, new me, I guess. I found myself chilling with my pals a ton and enjoying the most that I could out of my final summer as a high school student.

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    1. I am proud of you, self care is important since 2020 is trying to kill us.

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    2. Your time passing methods do sound QUITE beneficial, especially the part about playing fetch with your dogs! Though, it sucks that everything you were looking forward to died really fast; I experienced the same thing, it is very sad. But good on you for not letting that ruin your mood for the summer and for enjoying it as much as you could while also working on self-improvement. Taking care of yourself is very important!!!

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    3. Beth,

      I find that your treatise on life and its ways is particularly guiding, especially with the heavy amount of sleep you say you employed. Impressive.

      - Alexander

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  18. Quarantine started on my birthday, which means I had an excuse to not go to school that day! But since then, nothing really happened other than me finding a million different ways to spend my time that did not include doing schoolwork - such as drawing or playing games on my Switch and PC. Occasionally, I would venture outdoors - quite dangerous, I know - to lay in the grass that makes up my backyard, beckoning Mother Earth to reclaim my body in its vegetative state. She, however, denied me such a luxury, thus leaving me stranded on her surface for yet another year.

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    1. Ah, to get lost in the moss. Since the ground can't just open up and take you with it, I recommend laying in your driveway while it rains pretty hard as an alternative.

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    2. I promise this isn't as depressing as it sounds - laying outside is actually a super peaceful and grounding experience and it gives you the chance to just breathe and take in your surroundings. With nothing but the grass beneath you and the sky above you, along with a tree or two, you can really just exist and listen to the leaves rustle and cicadas scream. 10/10 would recommend to anyone who is able to get onto and up from the ground without breaking their knees.

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    3. YES ALEXIS I AGREE 100% DROWNING IN THE RAIN IS ANOTHER GOOD EXPERIENCE I JUST LOVE NATURE!!!!!

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    4. Jade,

      Dare it be said by I, a humble viewer, but I too yearn to be returned to the primal substances from which my conscience was formed. Perhaps someday I may be part of a potted plant. Additionally, your commentary on nature and its peace rings true with myself. When I was in my most dire straits, performing a stint of yard work rejuvenated my soul.

      - Alexander Orion Butrick, Royal Consort

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  19. I forgot that I also played some more Factorio toward the end of summer and played through another run of it with the mod Krastorio 2 and some other smaller mods. There was also a Maplestory private server that I played around that time too.

    I also forgot that I read some books that are on the level of being interesting but too much of a risky purchase for you to want to buy. So I took advantage of that "Here're over a million free books for this sad sad coronavirus time :'^( " and downloaded some books I wanted.

    And to balance it out, I went outside sometimes Not for badminton, too. It's called a dog.
    OVERALL SUPER DUPER GOOD SUMMER.

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  20. I forgot to hit submit but I got a job, went to Murtle Beach, and sat at my house and that's allllll

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    1. Abby,

      Your update contains great development, particularly in the field of personal wealth. This is good, and a trip to the beach sounds quite exhilarating.

      - Alex Butrick, Professional Blogger

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