I am a journalism freshman college student who believes in the power of news. Journalism is important because without it, the world would be a much darker and naive place.

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Final Project Assignment

Positivity in the midst of a pandemic

By Alexis King

Due to COVID-19, shelters need help to get their animals fostered. The Montgomery County Animal Shelter in Texas has been able to accomplish this goal despite first efforts seeming impossible, “When everything first started, we had a decrease in our adoptions and fostering as well, so we did some posts on facebook and I think everyone began to understand it was important to get the animals out”, said Courtney Gawel, foster coordinator at the shelter.

The shelter began to experience an influx in fosters, starting with around 400 animals in the facility and currently having 25. Gawel explains how the “community involvement” has been extremely helpful, especially with their staff being cut down due to the pandemic. 

The influx of fosters has allowed the shelter to “improve their facility for the benefits of the animals”, Gawel explained. Every room has been sterilized and other rooms have been repainted. These enrichments have been needed for a while, but were put off due to the amount of animals constantly in the shelter and the lack of time they had.

A fear Gawel has is the repercussions that may come from the shelter not being open for intake during COVID-19, such as people holding onto animals just to bring them back once the pandemic has ended. While this is a fear the shelter has, there are only 95 animals left for adoption. Many foster parents have also stated they will hold on to pets until they get adopted, relieving Gawel of her worry of the animals returning to the shelter.

Jessica Rust, a current foster parent has experienced a repercussion from the shelter having less animals and no intake process, “I talked to the lady in charge at Montgomery County Animal Shelter and they said they no longer have any small dogs and the intake process had stopped so they won’t be expecting any more small dogs.”, Rust explained when she was on the search for a small pup at the shelter.  

Jenn Smith, another person currently fostering dogs received her fosters through Barc, an animal shelter in Houston, Texas. This shelter differs from the one in Montgomery, because they are no longer open to appointments. Smith explained how the process is “different now since quarantine…you’re not able to go in and meet the dog ahead of time.” All you have to do is look online for the pet you want, “drive up, call them, and they bring the dog out to you”, said Smith.

Montgomery is still open to the public but solely by appointment. They also have workers out front to help with the flow of people. They offer curbside pickup for anyone who prefers it.

The pandemic has affected the shelter in an array of ways, but the majority of changes have been positive. Fosters are finding permanent, loving homes and the fosters that will return to the shelter will be in a newly renovated facility.

Video Story

Social Media Post

Source List

Jessica Rust-Foster parent

Email-jessica.rust@boxwoodmeans.com

Jenn Smith-Foster parent

Email-hello@pabi.tel

Phone number: 713-550-7581

Courtney Gawel

Foster Coordinator-Expert

Email-courtney.gawel@mctx.org

Steve Burns Assignment

The three stories I chose were, “New Rochelle Residents Wondering When Quarantine Will End”, “Thousands Respond To Call To Foster Pets During Coronavirus Crisis”, and “Firefighter Who Lost FDNY Brother On 9/11 Dies From Cancer”. I chose these stories because they were the ones that intrigued me the most just by the titles. The stories I chose on covid-19 are appealing because one discussed how to help animals that need to be fostered during this time and the other discussed how residents that have already been healed from the virus after fourteen days are still being quarantined. The third story I chose was appealing because it was a change of pace. This story did not focus on the virus. It shed light on a brave firefighter who was a responder during 9/11 and how he had recently died. I wanted to choose a story from February and from March to show the range between the two stories. The stories produced in March are almost all centered around the coronavirus, whereas the stories in February range from bike lane reconstruction to suing President Trump over out-of-state polluters. 

The angle of the story, “New Rochelle Residents Wondering When Quarantine Will End” was to inform the public on how the first cases of COVID-19 in New york state are wondering how long they will be in quarantine after already being isolated for fourteen days. I believe this was a good angle to choose because it is shedding light on how even though people are fully recovered from the virus that does not mean they are allowed out of quarantine. The CDC says people can not be released from quarantine until they have two negative covid-19 tests, however the supply of testing kits is low due to the huge outbreak of the virus, leaving people stuck in isolation longer than expected. The natural sound in this audio was a quote from Eli Epstein. This added to the story, because it discussed the quarantine in further detail by explaining the shutting down of the synagogue in New Rochelle to further prevent the spread of disease. If I were to write this story in print, I would add a photo to entice the reader and give them an ideal on what the story is about. 

The angle of the story, “Thousands Respond To Call To Foster Pets During Coronavirus Crisis” was to show how animal care centers in New York City are looking for pet fosters and have found around two-thousand cases. This is a good angle because, although it is a story on covid-19, it is different from all the other stories in the news on the virus. This story, unlike the others, is more lighthearted. It is shedding light on how animals are being fostered during this tough time and how the public can also help by fostering a pet. This story will allow for people to see that there are still hopeful and caring moments happening amidst all the chaos. A quote from Katy Hansen, the market director at ACC, was used as the natural sound. This quote helped the story because it offered statistics on how there are over a thousand cases of pets being fostered. This added information to the story. If this story were in print, I would add a photo of a dog within the shelter to captivate the reader into the story as well as a photo of a pet being fostered to pull at the reader’s heartstrings a little. 

The angle of the story, “Firefighter Who Lost FDNY Brother On 9/11 Dies From Cancer” is to inform the public on a heroic death, firefighter, Daniel Foley, died from pancreatic cancer, which was likely a result from his work done during 9/11. His brother Thomas Foley was also a part of the FDNY and he died on 9/11 due to the attacks when he ran into the south tower right before it collapsed. Both brothers were heros who got their lives taken away too soon. No natural sound was used other than Steve Burns talking. If this story were in print, I would add a photo of Daniel Foley to show the reader who the article is about. However, I wouldn’t add any additional information, because I believe the story is already detailed and concise. 

A main thing I took away from Steve Burns was how even in tough times, as a reporter, you must always remain impartial and biased no matter the circumstances or your personal feelings towards the story. “You need to learn to compartmentalize”, Steve said. No matter what you are going through in your personal life, you leave that at home when you go to work on reporting on a story. I will use this tool when reporting.

INTERVIEWS ON GARAGEBAND

Due to technical difficulties, I was not able to upload my audio interviews on WordPress. I emailed you the audio file as well as submitted it on canvas. So Sorry!

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March 24, 2020

Today, I spent most of my day stuck inside the house. I had my first three online zoom classes that went pretty well. I was worried about having my classes on zoom and thought I would prefer them to be asynchronous but after today, I’m glad that they are not. For the first time, in a long time, I felt like things were finally going back to normal. At least as normal as they can get in times like these. I had structure in my life again and I didn’t feel as alone anymore. After my classes, I spent the rest of the day catching up on homework and trying to stay ahead of my work load so that my homework does not begin to pile up. I was excited to hear from my classmates about how they are feeling during this time, because it reminded me that we are all in this together. Now, I am looking forward to my classes on Thursday.

March 25, 2020

Today was less productive than yesterday. I just have one class today at 7 a.m. and it is not on zoom. The teacher posts assignments on canvas and we are expected to complete them the next day by midnight. I still wake up at 7 a.m. and do them immediately because I want to have some form of structure on the days that I do not have my zoom classes. This afternoon, I did some reading and tonight I plan on doing some more work to get ahead. I wish today was more like yesterday. Certain days are harder than others to get through. Today is one of those days. I guess I’m just in a funk today, but I’m excited to have zoom classes tomorrow to hopefully feel more useful and productive. I also look forward to FaceTiming my friends tonight and reconnecting with them again.

March 26, 2020

Today, I spent my whole day in zoom classes. My first class was at 7 a.m. and it ran over by an hour so I was out by 10 a.m. My second class was at 11 a.m. and then I had my journalism class right after that one. All my classes were interesting and I learned a lot. I felt like a real student again. My first class we broke out into groups and used the break-out rooms on zoom to do a lab together. This was exciting because it felt more like an actual college class. I felt like I was right back in health class when we would have our group meetings and work together as a team. My literature of photography class held a discussion on a story we read separately. I really enjoyed this because I got to hear other students thoughts on the reading and learned their perspective on what they got from the passage. The discussion on zoom was thought-provoking and I forgot how much I valued and missed hearing other people’s ideas and opinions in discussions. I had a lot of ah-ha moments when they would mention something in the passage that I completely missed when I was reading it. Finally, my journalism class was entertaining because we got to hear from Steve Burns, a former Emerson alumni who is now working at WCBS as a radio broadcaster. This was exciting for me, because I got to see yet another side of journalism. My classes today made me very excited to do work, which I never thought I would say. I never knew how much I would miss learning and face-to-face discussions with my classes until I wasn’t able to do it anymore.

March 27, 2020

Today, I spent the day outside with my family. We hung out in our backyard and went swimming. Then we made stores over our stove. I have six siblings so they keep me on my toes during this quarantine. Honestly, I’m lucky to have them because they make it hard to be bored. Whenever I begin to get cabin fever or feel bored, I just choose which sibling I’m going to go annoy or have entertain me. I did some homework because if I miss a day I know I’ll fall way behind. The swimming helped me feel refreshed and being around my family in a different setting was fun. At the end of the night, I went back to the pool to do some night swimming. Today was a good, relaxing, therapeutic day and it was much needed.

March 28, 2020

Today, I am going to spend majority of the day doing homework. I have projects and presentations due on Monday and Tuesday so I need to finish them this weekend. Lately, I’ve been stressed with schoolwork. I feel like my teachers are going me more work than they did when I was actually at Emerson. Luckily, it is a lot easier to get work done, because there is nothing else to do. There is no time to go out or hang out with friends, so that just leaves doing homework. I know if I start my work within an hour, I will be done before tonight. Tomorrow morning, I have a zoom meeting with my group to record a presentation for our health class. I also have church so once I finish my homework, I’ll probably just go straight to bed. Less relaxing than yesterday, but at least I’ll be occupied with work.

March 29,2020

Today, I hung out with my family all day. We went swimming and watched movies. I helped my little sister clean out her fish tank and I played basketball with my little brother. It was nice to spend time with them. I didn’t do any homework today which I kind of regret but I decided a day without work would be best for my mental health. It allowed me to relax and focus on my family. I also hung out with my cat and tried to mess with it to see if I could scare it, but I couldn’t. I also started three new show series on Netflix. I have never watched more Netflix in my life, then I have during this quarantine. Oh, I almost forgot, I also watched church online today with my family. I love doing that every Sunday, because it keeps me positive in this dark time.

March 30, 2020

Today, I will be working on my research writing assignment and Literature of Photography assignment. I have a hybrid text to write for research writing and a four page essay for literature of photography. I have procrastinated writing these because I know it will take me a while to do. I’m starting now on one of the assignments and then hopefully I will start the other one right after I finish the other. My goal is to start early and not procrastinate, otherwise I’ll be stressed all day. I am also watching the show New Girl, to have in the background while I work. This will keep me entertained and more relaxed while I do my work.

March 31, 202

Today was my brother’s 25th birthday. He came over and we had steak and cake. We all made him handmade cards since we couldn’t go out to buy any. We sang him happy birthday and told him how much we appreciated him. Our goal was to make him feel special and have a great birthday, despite the pandemic. After, his birthday dinner, we all ate cake and he opened his cards. Then he went back to his apartment with his girlfriend. Earlier today I had three zoom classes. My health class announced that they have decided to become asynchronous. This kind of upset me because now I only have two classes on zoom and I was finally starting to enjoy the feeling of having my classes synchronized. I hope this class and my literature of photography class decides to stay on zoom, because these are the classes I look forward to the most now. Being able to see everyone’s faces and talk to them as well as my professors is helping me adjust to online. I feel like I’m actually in class or at least more so than I would’ve been if I was just doing assignments on Canvas. The face-to-face discussions make me feel less alone during this crisis.

April 1, 2020

Today is April Fools Day! My sister spent the morning covering eggs with chocolate frosting and sticking them in the freezer. She is going to prank my parents later by telling them she made cake balls and then when they bite into the “cake balls” an egg will explode in their mouths. I would have stopped her but my mom got me pretty good this morning with an April fools prank so now I feel like she deserves whatever comes her way. I am currently sitting outside about to go swimming…again. I feel like ever since this quarantine started, all I’ve done is swim. I have never swam or been outside more in my entire life. On my way outside I heard my dad yelling for help. He is currently dissembling my little siblings’ fish tanks. The filter stopped working a few days ago and the smell coming from the tanks is horrendous. He is currently trying to clean their tanks but if I’m being honest I think he’s just breaking them even more. My dad is far from a handyman. He’s more a business, laptop working kind of guy. Things like dissembling fish tanks and fixing them is not what he was born to do. Either way, it’s pretty entertaining to watch and during this quarantine, I could use a laugh or two. Please enjoy these photos that show my day.

Oh and I hope you enjoy the rainbow. I saw it on my little sister’s face when she was talking and thought it’d be a cool photo.

April 2, 2020

Today, is Thursday and I had my usual two zoom classes and one discussion post on canvas for my health class. I spent all day writing poems for my research writing class. I had to write about my thoughts and how this time has made me feel. It was very therapeutic to write again without having strict guidelines. I love to write poetry, because it helps me get out all of my emotions and feelings. I have written poems on relationships and insecurities I have. I’ve written about how this world terrifies me sometimes. There is a poem I wrote when I was sixteen years old about my little sister. I had just found out that something traumatic had happened to one of my close family friends. The night I found out, I couldn’t sleep. I just stayed up watching my four year old sister, trying to think about all the ways I could keep her safe. Thoughts were flowing through my mind and I couldn’t turn them off so I wrote this poem as a result. I hope you like it!

HOW?

Tell me how my little sister is supposed to grow up in a world of hatred. Tell me how I’m going to know every second of Every day that she is protected. Tell me how this world can be so screwed up that people are killing, assaulting, and stealing. Tell me how I am supposed to be okay with letting my four year old sister leave my sight and go to school when there is the possibility that she won’t get home safe. The small possibility that she will be in that rare percentage of kids who get taken away from their families. That small percentage that appear on the news. That small percentage that becomes a statistic. Because when you think about it that small percentage isn’t small at all when there are enemies waiting to see you fall. When there are people making you bawl. When there’s the devil attacking people like Saul. No that percentage isn’t small at all when it becomes your niece, sister, brother, Cousin, or daughter. That is why we have to remember that we have a Heavenly Father. And that is how my 4 year old sister will grow up in a world of hatred. That is how I will know every second of every day that she is protected. That is how I will be okay with letting her out of my sight and trusting that God will give her enough strength to fight. I will do all these things with as little fear as possible and know that God does the impossible. Because one day we won’t live in a world of hatred. No, one day we won’t feel so unprotected. One day we won’t have to worry whether every person we meet is a Friend or a foe. We won’t have world hunger, there won’t be people without a home. Yes one day there won’t be corruption. One day there won’t be any wars. Because one day if we’re lucky enough we will live in a place of love and so much more. One day the kingdom will come. One day all of our plans will be done. So I will wait for that day that Jesus comes down and shows us how he is so very profound. I will wait for a home in heaven where I won’t have to fear if my 4 year old Sister is safe because I know God is near. Until that day I will Have faith and know we all can make it in this screwed up world with God’s never ending grace.

April 3, 2020

Today, I took hours on a health quiz. We had to use this thing called SIMUTEXT to complete these modules of passages and then answer questions to a quiz at the end of it. This was probably the hardest quiz I have ever taken in Human Health and Disease this whole semester. I did not understand a thing I was reading. Certain texts I could understand but then when the reading started throwing in mathematical equations on how to calculate if a pandemic will occur, I completely lost it. I understood why my Professor chose this assignment, especially with the world being in a pandemic as we speak, but it just added to my stress. Reading all the deaths and risks that can occur from a pandemic and how if one person is infected then others will be and then the rate of transmission will grow and become faster. I’m glad my professor gave us this assignment because it did teach me a lot about pandemics and their risks and how they grow and expand, however a part of me also wishes I did not have the assignment, because I began to lose hope that this virus could lessen. I began having a more pessimistic outlook on the future, but I know now that this outbreak will lessen and our country will get better.

April 4, 2020

Today is Saturday and I spent the day in bed being unproductive. I probably got up only a handful of times. I wasn’t able to do any homework, which isn’t like me, because I like having work done early so that it doesn’t pile up and get ahead of me. Lately, majority of my professors have stacked up on work. I don’t know if it’s because they are worried and don’t know what to give us so they decide to give us everything or if it’s because since we’re not on zoom, they decide to give work in place of the class time as well as homework. Whatever the reason may be, it has drained me, and today, I was not able to do anything. I just sat in my bed watching Gossip Girl. At one point, I got up and decided to try and make “fluffy coffee” which is this type of coffee everyone is making on Tik-Tok and Instagram. I decided to partake in the trend. The coffee I made ended up looking nothing like the coffee I had seen all over social media. I could taste the coffee grounds in my mouth. It was disgusting, but I have never been able to cook or bake anything to save my life. I hope you enjoy this photo of my attempt at “fluffy coffee”.

April 5, 2020

Today is Sunday and I spent the morning watching online church with my family. We do this every Sunday. It’s a good way for us to have our spirits uplifted and bond as a family. My little sister went fishing at the pond outside our house and caught a catfish. She catches them and then lets them go right after. I have been spending the day catching up on work and trying to get back to where I was on Friday. I want to be more productive on the days I don’t have any classes, otherwise I’m just going to get in a funk and not want to do anything. I find it important to make myself just wear jeans instead of sweat pants, because the longer I stay in pajama bottoms or sweat pants, the harder it will be for me to put on jeans when quarantine is over. I’m just hoping the virus lessens and goes away soon, because I want to spend the summer visiting my friends and my boyfriend. I want to go out and interact with people again. I want to go to the mall with my friends or have a movie night at my house and a swimming party, like I did last summer. I don’t want the summer to be a waste and I want to return to Emerson in the Fall and not worry about still being on zoom, but until that can happen I shall watch my little sister fish in our neighborhood.

April 6, 2020

Today, I have been conducting interviews for our WordPress assignment. I got to interview my father as an expert, since he is currently still working during this time. I then interviewed my friend from Texas State and asked her how her life has been affected by the virus. I wish I had something interesting to say, but all my days are slowly turning into the same thing: Wake up, eat, do homework, repeat. I am currently on season three of Gossip Girl, which I find impressive considering that I started the series a week ago. The weather in Texas has been terrible and rain has been pouring down nonstop, so my swimming days have been halted as of now as well as going in my backyard to get some fresh air. I feel more trapped inside than ever since I can not even walk around my block due to the ongoing rain. Please enjoy these photos of my cat displaying the emotions I feel inside.

April 7, 2020

Today, after my zoom classes, I got the worst stomach pains that I have ever gotten. My lower back and stomach felt as if they were getting stabbed. I couldn’t move or get up to walk. I just laid on the floor and cried. I called my parents off my phone and my mom came to my room to help me. My dad stayed far away because he was convinced I had the coronavirus even though I tried to tell him it was menstrual cramps. My mom gave me this pill her doctor gave her for cramps and after I took it, it knocked me out. I was asleep for hours and woke up at 8pm. Now I am way behind on homework and am kind of freaking out. I’ll probably have to pull an all nighter. Luckily, I got a long nap today, so that shouldn’t be too hard. I am excited to watch the press conferences for the assignment especially my local one, because I haven’t been keeping up on the Texas news. I still check the Boston Globe more than the Texas Tribune. I have to get used to Texas feeling like home again. I was finally seeing Boston as my home when we were all forced to pack up and move out. Nevertheless, I’m just thankful I’m safe with my family in Texas and that my stomach/back pains are gone. Please enjoy these photos I took while in Boston.

April 8, 2020

I spent the day reading a book for my literature of photography class and while certain parts of the book were intriguing, majority of it bored me and was a struggle to continue. Luckily, I got through it and am ready to discuss it in class tomorrow. I am now going to begin the press conference assignment that is due on Friday. My goal is to get through two of the press conferences today and take notes that way tomorrow I just have the presidental news briefing to watch. I wish I had more intriguing things to talk about, but being quarantined hasn’t offered much excitement in my life. I have, however, been writing more poems lately to get my thoughts and emotions out so I decided to share some of them here. This poem is about feeling trapped while being in quarantine. I know being quarantined in all of our houses has been challenging. I find it specifically hard because I feel like I haven’t gotten a true college experience. I had just moved out of my house and was enjoying college as a freshman, trying to figure out who I am and who I want to become when the coronavirus hit and we all had to go back home. I’m just praying that by the time Fall rolls around, we’re all back at Emerson. I want to have a true college experience and since this virus I feel like I’ve gone backwards. I’m back home with my family and all my siblings and as much as I love my family, I just want to move forward again and have a life separated from the one I have in Texas. I hope you like the poem. It’s not the best.

Trapped Inside
Trapped inside, I wonder if this my new life
Enclosed by four white walls with nothing but online zoom calls.
Trapped inside, I feel lost even though I am home.
I find comfort in my cushioned mattress while I lay in my bed,
But is this guest room where I will always live?
Trapped inside, memories fly through my mind of Boston, my boyfriend, and simpler times.
Television shows remind me of parties and social events that I am going to miss.
I wish I could socialize instead of social distance.
Trapped inside, I see cracks in worn down mirrors and pen marks on white bed sheets.
The overpiling of work makes the void in my heart feel less empty.
Trapped inside, I hear laughs from my seven year old sister and screams from my ten year old brother.
My other two sisters are yelling at each other and I can see fear illuminate from the face of my mother.
Luckily, the air conditioning drowns out all these sounds as I cuddle my fluffy, pink bunny wishing I was still Boston Bound.
Trapped inside, the keyboard is my only relief to get out all my feelings while remaining in one piece.
The smell of lysol encomapsses the room while the black and white clock Tick-Tocks to my inevitable doom.
Trapped inside, I stare at the carpeted floor that resembles sand by the ocean, while outside the never ending rain is a symbol of my emotions.
Trapped inside with no where to go.
Tell me how can one feel so lost when they are finally home?

April 9, 2020

Today, I had my zoom classes and then did homework. My health professor has assigned me seven assignments that are due on Saturday, which leads me to constantly be working. I have studied multiple diseases from CTE to Alzheimers to Schizophrenia. I thought I would be bored of this class by now, but it is actually very interesting. The class keeps me busy with work and is informing me on things I never knew before. It has added an ordeal of stress to my life, but I know it will be worth it in the long run. I decided to share another poem of mine, because I have found it very therapeutic to write poetry at this time. This poem is called lost.

Lost

Feeling lost
With no where to go
Try to call for help
But I can’t find my voice
Sadness creeps in and takes over
In seconds I go from happy to depressed
The devil is trying to tear me apart
Jesus Christ is the one who has my heart
I’m lost with no direction
No loved ones fill this void
I want to run away from all the noise
I’m lost and can’t be found

This poem is not my best work so I decided to add in another that I have written. This poem is based on lack of trust in a relationship. I hope you enjoy!

I get this feeling in the pit of my stomach when you mention her name

I feel fear 

I feel hurt 

I feel shame 

I can’t help but wonder whether this is just another one of your games 

I know you say you’re over her but I think you just want your words to take us back to who we were 

I love our am calls 

There’s a moment when we’re talking that I think about tearing down my walls 

…Then you mention her name 

It bothers me that you still love her and can’t see it 

You tell me that your feelings are real 

But we’ve been through this before and I was the one who needed time to heal 

I want to believe you…I start to believe you 

Then you mention her name 

I know that you miss her I can see it in your eyes 

She was your first love and I was just a girl who helped you pass the time 

I want to be mad at you but I know I’m the one to blame 

So here’s to everything I didn’t say 

April 10, 2020

Today is Friday and I have done a lot of homework, but I want to focus on a more exciting thing that happened to me today. I spent the day with my seven-year old sister, Lola. I helped her reorganize her entire room. We moved her bed, dressers, and got rid of a ton of her toys. My little sister may only be seven but she is a hoarder. She has enough toys that if someone were to walk in her room, they would mistake it for a toy store. She also has a variety of books. Her book shelf is overloaded with The Magic Tree House and Dr. Seus. She is the youngest one out of the seven of us, which granted her the ability to get everything she wants in the world. My parents treat her like a princess and my other siblings and I are her subjects. At times it can get annoying, but I can’t lie she is pretty cute. I thought it would be impossible to get her to donate her toys, but she was actually excited to do it. She ran into the kitchen, got the trash bags, and began piling up toys to donate. After we donated her toys and rearranged her room, we decided to begin personalizing it so we hung up purple lights on her ceiling and posters on her walls. We also hung up work that she had done along with posters that my siblings had done. She was so excited to have her new, personalized room that she decided to sleep in her bed tonight. This is a huge accomplishment for her, because she is terrified to sleep alone in her room. I would say that this day was a success. Here’s a photo of her new room.

April 11, 2020

Today I went outside and swam with Aaliyah, my eighteen year old sister. We tanned for a few hours and swam when we weren’t tanning. We ate ice cream and talked about friends and what we missed being stuck at home. It was nice to not feel so trapped anymore. We were making it seem like it was just another Spring day. In Texas it is never cold so it feels like Summer all the time. This comes in handy when you just want to go outside and swim. It is finally sunny again. The rainy days have left and I am hoping that the change in weather will also brighten up my family’s mood. Being trapped in the house with eight people can be very stressful, especially during this time. Luckily, we are still able to laugh at certain times throughout the day. I see this as a good sign. There is more time left before we all turn against each other. My binge watching of Netflix shows has also increased tremendously during this time and I am beginning to have a red mark on my right eye from the endless hours of staring at a computer screen. I am trying to convince my family of having a dress-up night to get us out of our funk. I want us to pretend like we’re at a fancy restaurant for dinner and get all dressed up. I have seen this trend go around a lot on social media and I think it can really help. It will force us to get out of our pajamas and beds. I hope everyone agrees to doing it. My mom is already picking out her dress. Here are a few photos of the nice weather out today.

April 12, 2020

Today is Easter and this is a huge holiday for the King family. We love this holiday and love to celebrate it. We’re christians and my parents make sure we know the meaning of Easter and how important it is for us and our relationship with God. We started today off with church and then took Easter photos. We decorated eggs and my mom hung up decorations outside our house. She hung up three crosses and one has a white cloth around it to represent Jesus. She also hung up a red cloth around our front door to represent Jesus’s blood. We had a family lunch after church and we each had to make a point on a message we took away from church service. Watching my little siblings paint Easter eggs reminded me of when I was little. I would fall asleep on Saturday night, hoping the Easter bunny would bring me a basket when I woke up the next morning. This Easter was slightly different, because my parents did not want my littlest two siblings to believe in the Easter bunny. They want this day to be focused on God rather than an imaginary bunny, however the traditions have remained the same. They still got Easter baskets full of candy and toy bunnies but instead of the Easter bunny delivering them, my parents delivered them. This day has been full of focusing on God and acknowledging all the wonderful things he’s done for us as well as the sacrifice his son made on the cross. The day has also been full of traditions I have grown up with, like Easter egg hunts and painting eggs. I’m happy I got to spend another Easter with my family.

April 13, 2020

Today is Monday so majority of my day will consist of schoolwork. I just applied for summer classes so that I can get more credits and hopefully graduate a semester early. This is the one time I will be able to do summer courses, because it will be online and I will be at home with my family. Since my Mondays are usually boring I decided to write another poem. This one is titled Serenity and it is about finding peace and calm during rough times. I hope you enjoy!

Serenity

Skies of blue offer relief

in times of struggle when it feels hard to breath.

The colorful leaves from the trees sway in the wind.

The outdoors is a great place to leave your worries behind.

As I close my eyes, I take in a deep breath and count.

One. Two. Three. Four. Release.

I do this again. 

One. Two. Three. Four. Release.

Breathing in and out, until I feel an overwhelming peace.

I stare up into the clouds.

What can I see?

One looks like a flower. 

The other is shaped like a monkey.

I laugh at the array of figures I can find hidden within the ocean blue sky.

All my worries and sorrows have disappeared.

Nature’s beauty has shown me I have nothing to fear.

The birds fly high singing their songs.

The breeze from the wind pushes my hair out of my face,

 as if it’s my friend trying to show me how beautiful life is.

I hear music from the wind and the birds.

I see the leaves on the trees and the bright, green grass dancing in unison.

The sun shines through the clouds offering light.

No matter how dark it gets, light will always shine through.

The songs of nature, the beauties that lie outside are therapeutic and make me feel alive.

I am no longer lost in a world full of people.

I have found refuge in the great outside.

One more time, I take a deep breath in.

One. Two. Three. Four. Release.

Now, my life full of peace and serenity can begin.

April 14, 2020

Today I helped my eighteen year old sister, Aaliyah, look for prom dresses online. Her senior prom is cancelled and it hasn’t been announced yet, but chances are she won’t have a graduation ceremony. She will most likely just receive her diploma in the mail. Regardless of whether she has a traditional prom or not, my family has decided that we are going to make her her own personalized prom while being at home. We are going to decorate the house and dress up with her as if it’s her real life prom. Obviously, her friends will not be able to attend, so we are going to try and get them in on the plan and have them zoom in. We are trying to give my sister a night she will always remember and I know that this will be no where near to what she expected her prom to look like, but nevertheless it will be special. Luckily, with my big family it seems like we already make up a big group so she will definitely not feel alone. I am not sure how the night will go or how it will end up looking, but I will be sure to post about it when the day comes. All this talk about prom and dress shopping is reminding me of my senior prom so I decided to upload some photos of that day along with a photo of my sister’s prom dress. I hope you enjoy!

April 15, 2020

My little sister, Lola, got sick today. She was complaining that her stomach hurt her and about thirty minutes later she threw up. We were all really worried for her and just tried to make her feel better. Luckily, by the end of the night she felt a lot better, but in the moment we were terrified. This virus has everyone on edge and if one of us gets sick, we all freak out, because chances are if one of us gets it, we all get it. I am especially worried for my dad because he has heart disease and if he catches the virus, the odds won’t be in his favor. Nonetheless, we are staying positive and trying to focus on the good things going on in life. At least we are all together and healthy. The other person in my family we are worried about is my older sister, Bella. She is twenty-two and is 7 and a half months pregnant. I will be an aunt in June and I am very excited, but my mom is worried she won’t be able to be in the emergency room with her when she gives birth. My sister’s doctor told her a while ago that if the virus does not lessen, my sister will not be allowed to have anyone in the emergency room with her, not her boyfriend or my mother, just my sister and the doctors. Luckily, a few days ago her doctor okayed her boyfriend being in the delivery room with her, which is better than nothing. My sister claims she is not worried, but she has never really been one to show her emotions. The doctor has also said that if the virus is still like this and hasn’t improved that when the baby is born, there is a possibility that my sister won’t be able to hold him for a while to make sure that the baby is isolated and has no chance of catching the virus. I am not quite sure what this would do, but I understand the concern. Now is a really scary time to be in especially when you are pregnant. I have faith that everything will be okay and that my soon to be nephew, Finley, will be a healthy baby boy. Here is a photo of me and my older sister when we were little. I am on the left and she is on the right.

April 16, 2020

Lola is feeling a lot better today which is great news. The fear has left my family and I and we are feeling a lot better knowing that the cause of Lola’s sickness was most likely something she ate. I decided to write more on my sister and her pregnancy. This is her very first time being pregnant and while it was not expected, I know she is going to make an incredible mother. My sister is very strong, probably the strongest out of all seven of us kids. She is also incredibly smart and graduated high school a year early, starting college at 17 years old and graduating at 21 years old. She also has an incredible boyfriend who has been right by her side ever since she found out she was pregnant. They are going to be incredible parents and I am so excited to be an aunt. The baby’s name will be Finley Bradbury. My sister has had a few complications during this pregnancy, such as her doctors thinking there could be a chance that she had gestational diabetes, which is a type of diabetes that only happens during pregnancies. There was also concern that something could be wrong with the baby because my sister is really tiny so her belly was not that big. Luckily, both accounts proved to be wrong and the baby is a healthy little boy. My sister is just petite so her bump isn’t huge like other pregnancies. For instance, she is 30 weeks but her baby measures as a 28 week old baby, causing him to be two weeks behind. However the baby is completely healthy. He is simply small because my sister is small. Another thing that makes my sister’s pregnancy different than others is that she hates being pregnant and is ready for her baby to just be out. My sister does have pregnancy cravings. She eats hotdogs, broccoli, and pop tarts every single day. Her ribs are also constantly hurting and when you are pregnant there is the possibility that the baby can break your ribs and the doctor can not fix it until the baby is delivered. As I said before though, my sister is strong and in two months this will all be worth it. Here are some photos of my sister and her little family.

April 17, 2020

Today is Friday and I spent the day taking my human health and disease exam. We have exactly two hours to complete this exam and once the time is up, if you are not done, canvas will automatically turn the exam in for you. Well needless to say, I did not finish the exam in time. My mother kept walking into my room to talk to me, which was frustrating because I kept having to explain to her that I was taking a timed exam and couldn’t talk at the moment. This in turn made her mad. I decided to lock my door hoping this would be a good solution to my problem and hoping that the door being locked would keep her and my siblings out of my room. I was wrong. It did not matter that my door was locked or that I was taking a timed exam. My family couldn’t care less. They just picked the lock to my door and proceeded to talk to me as if my grade meant nothing to them. While I was trying to explain to my mother and sister to please leave me alone because I only had a few minutes left to take the exam and still had questions left to answer, the exam was automatically turned in and my time was up. I immediately went into panic mode and began stressing out about my grade. on top of that I was furious that my family couldn’t leave me alone for just an hour and thirty minutes so I could finish my exam in peace. I was not able to answer two questions and in total they added up to fifteen points, leaving my current average on my exam to an 85 and that is not including the answers that I was able to answer, but probably got wrong. I immediately emailed my teacher apologizing and telling her what happened and she was kind enough to email me the questions I didn’t have time to answer and told me if I emailed her my answers, she would not take off any points and would count them. This took away any stress I had. I was so thankful and relieved to have an opportunity to better my grade. Today taught me that online schooling is a lot more stressful than I thought it would be. I am constantly looking for a quiet place to do my work and even if my door is locked, I still can not concentrate, because my siblings still barge into my room. I can not wait for summer to come already so I can be done with all my classes.

April 18, 2020

Today I spent the day writing my research writing essay and finishing my literature of photography project. I have had so much work lately and it is getting harder and harder to manage my time. I have 3 projects due this week, a research writing essay, an annotated bibliography, and I need to begin my final project for journalism. Then next week, I have a final essay, exam, and project due. I am just trying to figure out the best way to get all of these assignments done while not forgetting anything. Lately, I have felt like there is not enough time in the world for me to be able to finish all my work. The research writing essay I turned in today was a draft. The final will most likely be due by the end of the week. The genre I wrote in was a prose poem and it ended up being seven pages long. I still have to add on to the essay, but for now I am done with it. I will now begin my health projects and hope to finish majority of it by Sunday night. I was able to finish my photography project today and my goal is to finish my other two projects by tomorrow night so that on Monday I can solely focus on beginning my journalism project. At first I enjoyed all the work I was getting from school, because it kept me productive and I was less bored, but now I am just tired and ready to be done with school.

April 19, 2020

Today I wanted to include photos that make me smile. I want to focus this blog on a more relaxing and happy note since my last two blogs focused solely on work and me being stressed. These photos make me smile because they remind me of people and places I love. I have also included a poem that I wrote when my little sister was four years old. My family and I had just found out that our family friend was assaulted and it made me feel a deep hatred for the world that I was living in, a world I called home. I wrote this poem in a response to what had happened and how it made me feel overprotective of my little sister.

How?
Tell me how my little sister is supposed to grow up in a world of hatred.
Tell me how I’m going to know every second of every day that she is protected.
Tell me how this world can be so screwed up that people are killing, assaulting, and stealing.
Tell me how I am supposed to be okay with letting my four year old sister leave my sight and go to school when there is the possibility that she won’t get home safe.
The small possibility that she will be in that rare percentage of kids who get taken away from their families.
That small percentage that appears on the news.
That small percentage that becomes a statistic.
Because when you think about it that small percentage isn’t small at all when there are enemies waiting to see you fall.
When there are people making you bawl.
When there’s the devil attacking people like Saul.
No that percentage isn’t small at all when it becomes your niece, sister, brother, cousin, or daughter.
That is why we have to remember that we have a Heavenly Father.
And that is how my 4 year old sister will grow up in a world of hatred.
That is how I will know every second of every day that she is protected.
That is how I will be okay with letting her out of my sight and trusting that God will give her enough strength to fight.
I will do all these things with as little fear as possible and know that God does the impossible.
Because one day we won’t live in a world of hatred.
No, one day we won’t feel so unprotected.
One day we won’t have to worry whether every person we meet is a Friend or a foe.
We won’t have world hunger, there won’t be people without a home.
Yes, one day there won’t be corruption.
One day there won’t be any wars.
Because one day if we’re lucky enough we will live in a place of love and so much more.
One day the kingdom will come.
One day all of our sins will be done.
So I will wait for that day that Jesus comes down and shows us how he is so very profound.
I will wait for a home in heaven where I won’t have to fear if my 4 year old Sister is safe because I know God is near.
Until that day I will Have faith and know we all can make it in this screwed up world with God’s never ending grace.

April 20, 2020

Today I was able to relax a lot more because I finished a huge amount of homework this weekend to get ahead of schedule. I am completely done with human health and disease for the rest of the semester. I finished my final projects for the class and the exam and now I have a huge sense of relief, because that class was the one who was giving me insane amounts of work. I am also done with literature of photography for the week (work wise not zoom wise) and finished my research writing essay draft early so that I could use this week to solely focus on my final project for journalism. I contacted three people today about the possibility of interviews and so far have received one yes and have yet to hear back from the other two. I am hoping to hear back from them tomorrow so that I can interview them on Wednesday and Thursday. My goal is to do my social media post tomorrow and finish the interviews by Thursday night so that Friday I can write the article and Saturday I can finish the video story. If everything goes as planned, I will be done with the project by Saturday night and will be able to focus Sunday and Monday on studying for my final exam in literature of photography and finishing my final essay for research writing. I already got all the photos I need for the final today when I drove to the animal shelter. My goal is to get on top of this project before it gets the best of me and I am hopeful in saying as of now, everything is going as planned. I hope I don’t jinx myself! Please enjoy this photo of my friends and I when we were still in Boston.

April 21, 2020

Today I got my interviews in line for my project. I got back all three yeses and have an interview scheduled for tomorrow. I am trying to get the other two interviews done tomorrow as well but I have not heard back from those people about the times yet. I am also wanting to finish the social media post tomorrow so that I get a lot of work done and do not have to stress about rushing the final project. Today my health teacher decided to add another assignment on canvas which kind of upset me because she said we were done with assignments for the year and I had gotten ahead and finished them all for this week and next week, but now I have another assignment to do for that class. My goal for this week and weekend is to use the best time management skills I have so that I can finish my final essay for research writing, study for my exam for literature of photography, do my last assignment for health, and finish my journalism project all in a timely fashion so that I do not have to stress too much about having my work pile up. There are just eight days left of classes and I am trying to make the most of them. This week has been pretty stressful, but the one thing getting me through it is the thought of how close we are to summer. Please enjoy these photos of my best friend and I last summer.

April 22, 2020

Today I was able to finish one video interview. I had to email the expert again because they did not respond to my last email. She responded and said she would do the interview if I just emailed her the time. I said, “Great. Thank you! Does 2 or 3 p.m work?” and she never got back to me. I am going to email her again and ask if she can do tomorrow at a certain time since she did not respond to that email and it is already 4 p.m. The other person I am interviewing will be someone who is fostering a pet. She agreed to doing a zoom interview today, but then asked if we could do tomorrow instead. I have a zoom interview scheduled with her at 10 a.m tomorrow. I hope that these two people do not flake again, because I can not begin my print or video story until they are interviewed. I am relying on them to follow through tomorrow and meet me at the times they agreed to. Although I did not get all interviews done today, I am happy that I at least got one interview done as well as my social media post. My goal is to have the whole project done by Friday night and if everything goes as planned tomorrow, I know my goal will be accomplished. The interview I did today was useful but also a struggle because today was the only time the girl was available to talk, but she was in a car on a road trip with her husband while on the video call and in certain parts we had technical difficulties. All in all, I believe I can use a lot of what she told me in my final stories so that was a relief.

April 23, 2020

Today I finally finished all of my interviews. I have learned that they take a lot of time so it is better to start as early as you can on getting your interviews done, because they are the basis of your article and video story. The interviews went well. They could have been better at certain parts, such as technical difficulties that kept occurring. I also wish I could have gotten a video interview with my expert as opposed to a phone interview, but that was all they could do. I am also learning, through this final project, that your angle may change based on your interviews and the answers you get. I am now going to focus also on animal rescues because they came up a lot in my interviews. I just need to figure out what angles would be best for each story. Today I will transcribe my interviews and watch them back to take further notes on important quotes and information being said. Once I’ve done this I will begin my slideshow of photos and videos. Tomorrow I plan on doing voice over work for my video story and I plan on finishing my video story. My goal is to also finish my print story by tomorrow night. If I can not finish everything by tomorrow night, I will for sure finish it by Saturday. I’m proud of myself for not choosing this time to procrastinate on my final project. I am trying to learn from my midterm. I did well on it, however I was stressed because I started later than I should have. Now, I am going to finish earlier than expected for my final.

April 24, 2020

Today I was more behind on my project than I wanted to be I wrote out the script of the most important things I should say in my video story and completed the whole slideshow and the arrangement of it to match my voice, however I did not record my audio to do the voiceover for the video story, so the video story is still incomplete. I am still proud of the work I have done because I am so close to finishing. Today I also did my peer review for research writing. I peer reviewed an essay of a person in my class and he decided to do his genre on a newspaper interview. This was perfect for me, being a journalist, because I knew exactly what he was missing. I was surprised to realize how much I have actually remembered and comprehended from my journalism classes. I thought I completely forgot about interviews and how to conduct them but reading his article, I realized everything he was missing. I also was able to tell him how to conduct a byline. He had it written out as “BY:”. I was able to correct him and tell him that it is a huge misconception that that’s how a byline should look. I thought the same thing when I first came to Emerson but my professor, Cindy Rodriquez, quickly told me otherwise. She explained to me that a byline should just be bolded. I was able to pass this along to my peer for his editing. All in all, it was a productive day and I felt like I accomplished a lot.

April 25, 2020

Today I want to take a different approach on my blogs. I have been discussing my project so much and I know it is probably getting pretty boring to read so I decided to add some photos that never seize to make me smile as well as an old poem I wrote. This poem is the most personal poem I have shared so far. It is called “Reflection”. The poem is about how I view myself or would see myself. I wrote it three years ago when I was seventeen years old. It was a really hard time for me. I was not confident at all. I have always struggled with insecurity. I like to think that I am not the only one who struggles with being confident. I am a lot better now. I mean don’t get me wrong, I still have my days, but it’s not everyday, like it was in high school. Anyway that’s enough talking for me. I hope you enjoy the poem and photos!

Reflection 

She looks at herself with disgust as if she’s done unacceptable things. She’s mad at herself for just being her. She thinks of moments that happened in the past and they haunt her. They consume her mind constantly during the day. Not even the night offers relief for her dreams are just reenactments of things she hates about herself. Then she’s sad at herself. Sad for feeling ugly. Sad for feeling unworthy of love. Sad for not seeing herself the way god sees her. She also looks at herself with guilt. Guilt that she has a roof over her head when others do not. Guilt that she has 2 wonderful loving parents when others have none. Guilt that she doesn’t deserve any blessings she’s ever gotten when there are people with kinder souls out there who deserve so much more than she has and yet they have nothing. She looks at herself with fear. Fear that she is unlovable. Fear that she’s not a good friend. Fear that she’s not a good child of god. Fear that she is a bully. Fear that she is a bystander. Fear that she is a loser. Fear that she is a bad daughter. A bad sister. A bad niece. A bad cousin. A bad granddaughter. At times she yells at herself for being the way that she is. Voices echo through her mind.

“Why did you say that? You’re so stupid” 

“Why did you do that? You’re so awkward” 

“Why are you the way that you are”

She looks at her reflection in the mirror and constantly feels hideous. For a moment she thinks this is a good thing. She thinks maybe it’s humbling it’s allowing me to not be self absorbed. But this moment quickly vanishes when she realizes the bad outweighs the good. And she would rather be self absorbed and pretty than ugly and insecure. The hatred she has for herself is like one someone has for their greatest enemy. The kind of hate that infuriates you. It sets a fire in your soul and makes you want to hurt the person that hurt you. It’s the hate that Satan had for God. The hate that caused segregation. The hate that caused war and riots. This overpowering hate lives in her and it’s her own battle that she fights every time she looks in the mirror. Every time she laughs. Every time she talks. Every time she opens her heart up to love. Every time she meets someone new. Every time a friend turns into a foe. The battle she fights is one that can not be won. She is learning to be okay with that. After all everyone has a battle that they must fight. 

April 26, 2020

I finally finished my final project and I am proud of the work I have done. When the day started I though I had my video story done and finished my print story. I ended up realizing my video story was thirty seconds over the time and my print article was one hundred and thirty words over the limit. It took me so long to be able to cut the print article down to the correct word count as well as the video story. It’s kind of funny, because I thought the hardest thing would be the interviews or writing the news story, but in actuality it was the shortening and editing of the article and video story that became the most challenging to do. I debated being able to cut down the word count to meet five-hundred as well as the video story to one minute and thirty seconds as opposed to two minutes, but then my dad said, “When you become an actual journalist and are in a news room, you won’t be able to have a two minute video when they tell you how long your segment is, instead they’re gonna cut it.” This annoyed me, but he was right. This final project taught me that word count, deadline, and time is extremely important. The project was at times challenging, but I truly feel like I’ve become a better journalist from it. I was able to meet the requirement of 500 words on my article and not go over, which I don’t think I’ve ever done since being in the class, even for my midterm article, I was either under the word count or over it. I was also able to cut the video story down by thirty seconds, which I really did not think I’d be able to do. I realized certain sentences were unnecessary or unimportant to the audience. I was adding facts that did not need to be added or words that did not need to be there. Overall, I am proud of the work I have accomplished in this project, but I am especially proud of the journalism skills I have learned this year. I’m really going to miss this class.

April 27, 2020

Today I did not have much homework. I finished a ton of work over the weekend so all I had to do today was a discussion post on canvas. The discussion was short and sweet and did not take long. We are so close to Summer and being done with freshman year. I am so excited to finally be done with school, but I’m also sad because I feel like freshman year got cut short. There were still so many things I wanted to do with my friends before I had to go back home that I never got to do. I mean there is always next year, if we go back in August or January so I’m not too worried about it. I just hope everything settles down soon with the virus so that everything can go back to normal. On May 1st phase one begins in Texas. Governor, Greg Abbott has discussed two phases to get everything back and running again while also maintaining the virus. The past seventeen days we have seen a decrease in the number of COVID-19 cases so the Governor is allowing certain businesses to open up on Friday. On May 18th phase two will occur where more businesses will reopen and the businesses that are already open can begin to grow their work and facility. Here is a news article that further explains Governor Abbott’s plan, https://abc13.com/texas-news-reopening-houston-governor-greg-abbott/6131223/. I believe this is happening because the stay at home order for Texans end this Thursday, April 30th. My biggest fear is once the order is up and everyone begins to go out that the virus will return stronger than ever. I am just going to pray and hope that everything remains good and continues to get better even after the stay-at-home order is up.

April 28, 2020

Today I had a zoom class where we reviewed materials for our final exam on Thursday. After the class, I read some readings for my research writing class and am now writing this blog. Other than that, I do not have any more homework for today. The final exam I am taking on Thursday is open book so I will prepare for it tomorrow a little and then I should be ready to take it on Thursday. I have my final essay for research writing due on Friday and I have the draft down so I just have to touch up a few areas. Other than the exam, essay, and presenting my final journalism project, I am practically done for the week. The exam should not be that hard, being that it’s open book and we have twenty-four hours to complete it and the essay is practically done, minus a few touch-ups. This week has been pretty relaxed so far, which is surprising since it’s finals week. I start summer school in about two weeks. I’m just relieved I can get some rest for a few days before I have to begin school work again. Hopefully, the classes should not be that hard or take that long, so I don’t mind taking them. I am really going to miss having classes and seeing people’s faces so I think taking summer courses will make me less bored and feel more productive. I wanted to share some photos of my family and I, since I have discussed them in previous blogs. I hope you enjoy the slideshow! There are seven children in total. The second to last photo is of my siblings and I and the last photo is all of us together, including my parents.