Zarine's Blog

4/20/20 My thoughts towards school have changed immensely. Before quarantine, I realized that I didn’t appreciate the beautiful architecture of the new building because that’s one of the things I miss the most about New Trier. Every morning, my friends and I would meet up in the library commons and I never really absorbed my surroundings then but now I yearn for it. I’ve talked to a few of my friends about their feelings towards New Trier and most of them feel the same way I do except a select few who absolutely resent it. Another thing I especially miss is all my teachers. I’m glad to say that I’ve loved almost all the teachers I’ve had in my years in New Trier and they all brightened up my day so much and it’s definitely not the same through zoom. I really came to this realization when I had a zoom with my Spanish teacher and she said that she’s trying her best to be her normal, bubbly, energetic self but it’s really hard for her. I hope that in my senior year I’ll be able to reco

4/13/20 I’ve always been into doing my nails and I’d say that I’ve gotten good at it over the years. But today, I decided to take on a nail design because I didn’t want to waste my time napping or watching Netflix and I’ve also been wanting to get in touch with my artistic side lately. It took me about 1.5 hours total but I finally achieved what I wanted to, which was a checker pattern. Keeping my left hand steady was difficult but I did it somehow. It was moments like these that I wish I was ambidextrous.  4/15/20  Something today that made me happy, hopeful and relaxed was a call I had with a college squash coach. The call was scheduled for 4 pm but when I didn’t receive a call, I started to get nervous. I waited about 30 minutes and still received no call so I decided to leave a voicemail. About 30 minutes later, my phone rang and I was so relieved. Squash is really the only thing I know for sure that I want to do in college. The rest, I have no idea about. We talked for hal

3/20/2020 I’ve been spending my time much more differently than I have been before Corona. Since all gyms have shut down, I can no longer play squash which I usually would do about 8-9 hours a week so to fill up that time, I’ve been revisiting video games that I used to play back when my schedule wasn’t so filled. This then led me to see conversations over text between me and some old friends. I enjoyed reading my past texts from when everything was so much more simple, less stressful and when I could afford to hang out with friends on a weekday. I also have been taking less midday naps because I don’t feel as tired and stressed as I did before. Sometimes right after school, I would just fall asleep right away and stay asleep for hours which threw off my sleep schedule completely. But now, I’ve been trying to keep myself busy during the day to avoid these midday naps. My family has been able to eat dinner together every night now because before we all had work to do but now we can al

I researched the reason for the emotional desensitization to violence in Americans. I found that it’s due to a combination of how media portrays violence, through news and movies, and violence is a big part of America’s history. Specifically, news stories depict massacres just as numbers sometimes which makes people extremely emotionally disconnected. Also, movies sometimes do not accurately portray acts of violence which leads people to assumptions and generalizations.  My opinion on my topic started to shift as I did more research. When I first started, my opinion was strictly “Americans are desensitized because of media” but I found that it actually goes much deeper than just media. It’s really because Americans are scared so becoming more emotionally numb is an unconscious coping strategy rather than a set decision that people make. My topic is extremely urgent to today’s society because mass shootings are becoming increasingly common and not everyone thinks about the psycholog

While 47% of white murder cases are solved, less than 22% of African American cases are solved, ( NPR ) leaving many African American families with no justice for the crime that was committed against someone dear to them. Of course, nothing can ever completely solve the injustice of murder but by knowing who did it, helps provide closure for the family. Not only are most African American cases left unsolved, but when they are solved only 47% of cases result in an arrest being made (Washington Post). When Coates’s son was upset about Michael Brown’s murderer being let free, Coates refused to comfort him because of deeper injustices. Another case that didn’t result in any arrests happened in Atlanta in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. A serial killer murdered a dozen children, mostly African American boys whose bodies were later found in rivers, under bridges, and behind dumpsters. In 1982, Wayne Williams was sentenced to two lifetimes in prison for killing two adults ( New York Times

The American narrative tells one story and the societal narrative tells another. America claims to highly value people who are different and people who speak out for themselves. For example, in our political society we have two main parties along with several independent parties in order for everyone to be heard and valued. Another example is in the news, where people who do something different or go against society’s norms are recognized. Everything seems great, and the people who are doing different than the societal norms are being honored.  The other side people see is on social media. On social media, what’s showcased is impossible beauty standards that are achieved using photoshop or plastic surgery. These people are placed on a pedestal on social media for the way they look and people are only adding to this “elite” group of people. Instead of going against these unachievable beauty standards, people only contribute to them. By contributing to this group, it makes o