Grace, 

 

Not sure when you are going to be reading this, but I hope you are happy with where you are in life. Currently it’s April 21, 2020 at 11:34 PM, and I guess this is the time I feel that my creative juices are going to flow best or I just can’t get myself to get tired before 12:30 anymore. 

 

Anyways, if you forgot what is currently going on in your life during 2020 right now I am stuck at home all day everyday because of COVID-19. Honestly it sucks. I am so pissed about everything right now. I feel like the reward for working so hard in high school is getting completely taken away from me. They canceled airband, spring, the rest of the semester at school. Earlier today IHSA announced that there would be no state tournament for any spring sports this year, taking away my chance to go to state with the soccer team. The only hope we have for a season now is for a DVC conference tournament in the summer. At this point I will take any form of a game that I can get, I just want to play one game as a senior in North’s uniform. 

 

I am really really really trying to not be negative about this situation so I am going to limit myself to having that be the only time I complain about this situation. So…. on the bright side, prom and graduation got rescheduled for the summer which is probably the two events I was looking forward to the most. There is a possibility for senior celebration to get rescheduled too which would be amazing because I would get to see everyone for one last time before graduating. Honestly I am just happy that I am going to be tan for prom and graduation now because it’s in the middle of July. I think it’s going to be kinda weird going to graduation parties before we actually graduate. But I am just so excited for when I am able to see people in large groups again, I love my family but man, after 40 days of quarantine they can get kinda annoying.

 

Other than the Coronavirus pandemic, I’d say my life is very similar to a lot of high school seniors. Right now I am planning to attend the University of Alabama in the fall to major in their athletic training program. I hope to become a physical therapist in the future, not sure if that will be true when you are reading this though. Honestly, I just hope whatever your job is is something that you love to do everyday. High school has been quite an experience, I guess I really have learned a lot about myself during these past four years. I am guessing that I am going to learn a lot more about myself in college too. Let’s see… what else should I remind you about… I guess reflecting on senior year, it has probably been the best year ever. I have really tried to cherish every minute of it by surrounding myself with all the people I love. I hope looking back on it even more in the future I won’t have any regrets, because I know that right now, I have no regrets about how high school went, especially this past year. 

 

Seriously now, I hope you are doing well and are healthy and happy and all that cheesy stuff. I just hope that whenever you do read this again, you are reminded of where you came from and how it shaped who you are now. I hope you haven’t changed too much because I really like who I am right now. Of course, I am open to change but don’t do a full 180 on me and start not liking bacon, or the Bachelor, or Chelsea. If you ever like Chelsea please do some serious self evaluation because somewhere along the way you went extremely wrong. Other than some of the essentials of what makes you you and I guess me me, I think it’s good to change because that naturally happens to everyone over time. I just hope that this letter reminds you of who you were at the end of high school. Maybe it will be a relief you aren’t like this anymore, or maybe you will want to go back to how you were now. Who knows… only time will tell. 

 

Until next time. 

 

Love, High School Senior Grace

Hello all, I hope everyone is well. I know this time is very difficult for everyone. Especially with emotions. So I thought I would share how I am feeling during the first few weeks of quarantine with y’all.

After Finding Out
I never thought that I would ever be so mad about school getting cancelled. I am usually overjoyed whenever a snow day presents itself. Over the past 12 years of going to school, I have always been ecstatic when I learn that we have an unexpected day off.

This time was different, I am guessing most people will relate to my views on having these next 3 weeks off. Honestly, I’m sad that we do not have school. I never ever ever thought that I would be saying that. Then again, I never thought that a virus would be ruining a big chunk of my senior year of high school.

Second semester senior year is supposed to be the time we can all just relax, have fun, and enjoy our time together. While this typically causes a ton of senioritis, it also causes for a lot of memories to be made. Whether it’s during off campus lunch or airband practices. More importantly, senior celebration, prom, and graduation. I just never thought it would even be a possibility that any of these would be cancelled. But now it is.

I guess the coronavirus is letting me learn a lot about myself. I never ever ever in a million years thought I would be so sad about not going to school, let alone cry over it. Which I admit I did on Friday. After a meeting with my soccer team, we all walked out of school knowing it would be the last time we would all be together for a while. I think saying goodbye to all of my teammates was probably the most difficult thing for me to accept because we had just started practicing. We were supposed to have our first game on Monday, but now I don’t know if we are even going to be able to play.

Basically, I am not really looking forward to the next few weeks and I just want my senior year back.

After Week 1
Okay, so I have gone through a whole week of eLearning, and I have a mutual feeling towards it. I would much rather be in my classes with everyone because I enjoy interacting with others during class. I do enjoy the fact that I can determine how fast I finish my classes. It was definitely an adjustment, I had to learn how to not procrastinate on everything with the option of going on Tik Tok at my disposal every minute. Usually I put my phone away during class at school because I do not want to be rude during class by having my phone out. But I don’t feel guilty having my phone out at home. Hopefully, my Tik Tok addiction won’t interfere too much with my schoo

l work.

During this week, I had to learn to be around my family A LOT without getting frustrated at them. I think I am doing okay with distracting myself. I have already watched season 3 of On My Block and season 2 of All American. Both of which I highly suggest, they are A – MAZ – ING. I also complete a 1000 piece puzzle in about 4 days because I am that bored. Yes, I have resorted to puzzles. It’s okay, I have learned that I am actually pretty good at puzzles and am definitely going to be buying some more to do over the next few weeks.

I think the biggest thing that kept me sane all week was that my parents are letting me go outside and be around people as long as it is not a huge group. This has been really nice because I have been able to leave my house to see some friends. A few times this week, some of my friends got together and went to play soccer which was really fun because we could all use the exercise.

This week definitely had some ups and downs for me emotionally. When airband got cancelled I cried, and I am not even in an airband. I was just so disappointed because it is such a big part of being a senior at North, and it was gone just like that. I think it just really hit me that there is that possibility that I might not be getting the rest of my senior year.

So I would say that my first full week wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. Yes, I was definitely bored but I was able to keep myself busy most of the time. Hopefully it doesn’t get much worse.

After Week 2
So I have just finished all my eLearning for this week and I am officially on SPRING BREAK!! While eLearning isn’t awful, I am just sick of having to do all this busy work that I would not be doing if I was at school. But I am happy to say that I have finished it all.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with my next week of free time. This past week was definitely more of a struggle because they closed down Nike park so I can’t go there to play soccer anymore. I guess I am going to have to try to go running… YIKES. This past week, I have been going for walks with my parents and our dog which has been a good way for me to get out of the house. I met up with some of my friends this week, which was very much needed. It was so nice to see them and just talk about everything except the coronavirus.

I spent a lot more time on facetime calls this week, I think it’s because everyone is starting to get tired of only talking to their family all day. Either way, it just helps to hear my friends voices and to laugh like we normally would. We have also discovered that a very fun game to play while facetiming is Psych because it is a live interactive game that has everyone write their own answers. We are actually planning to play again tonight with a bunch of people, so I am really excited for that.

There hasn’t been much bad news regarding school, except that it is closed through April 7th as of right now. Other than that, it has been pretty positive news for me because IHSA has announced that they are planning to extend the spring season so that sports have a chance to play. So things are looking up, maybe I will get my senior season after all.

I would say that my quarantine experience has been up and down. I am definitely trying to make the best out of this situation. I hope you all are doing well! Hopefully I will be seeing you soon.

“What would your last meal be?”

 

My entire family was puzzled by this question when my sister asked it during dinner this past summer. At the time, we were in Italy, surrounded by some of the best food in the world – PIZZA. 

 

At the same time, we all began to realize the seriousness that this question posed. I like many others, I L – O – V – E food. No joke, the majority of my memories on Snapchat are pictures of food. Which is why this question was so difficult for me to answer. There were so many factors to consider. Would I be getting full? How many sides could I have? Would there be dessert? 

 

Eventually my family decided that to answer this question we need to set some ground rules. In the end we decided that each person could have: 1 appetizer, 1 main entree with 2 sides, 1 dessert, and two drinks – one for the main meal and one for dessert. 

 

Now, it was time for each of us to decide what we wanted in our last meal. Soon I began to realize how much you can learn about someone by having them answer this question. For example, my mom – a nutritionist – had a cauliflower dish in her final meal. Along with that, she decided to replace her dessert for sweet potato fries instead. I guess if that’s what she wants, it is her final meal. While my last meal consisted of: 

 

Appetizer: bacon wrapped dates from Meson Sabika

 

Entree: steak from RPM Steakhouse

Side 1: hasselback potato from RPM Steakhouse

Side 2: my mom’s cornbread stuffing 

 

Drink 1: Arnold Palmer

 

Dessert: hula pie from Keoki’s Paradise

Drink 2: chocolate shake from shake shack

Mmmmmmm!! Delicious! I wish I could have this meal right now. 

 

As I was saying before, this question reveals a lot about someone because it truly makes them think about their answer. You can probably tell by my choices that I can be pleased by very simple things such as steak and potatoes when they are made very well. It does not take much to make me happy. I would say that I am a fairly simple person, which is why my meal choices definitely reflect this part of my personality. A lot of the time someone’s choices for food can reflect different parts of their personality. Not to dis on all the simple people in the world, but I know a lot of people that like just plain cheese pizza. But this typically reflects the type of people that like to stick with what they know, which is not always a bad thing. Over the years, I have realized that many people have different parts of their personalities reflected with their food choices. So when my family was asked this question, I learned a bit more about each of them as they described their last meal. At first it seems like a simple question, but the more you think about it the more important the question becomes. Who knew you could learn so much based on what people like to eat? 

 

So, the next time you are trying to get to know someone, ask the question: 

 

What would your last meal be?

My entire life I have always leaned towards eating healthier foods. Now… It hasn’t always been exactly my choice to eat like this. When I was younger, my parents chose what I ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Just like any other 5 year old, I was unable to make the decision about every meal I ate. I mean it was probably the right decision, considering at that time I would eat ice cream for every meal each day of the week. 

 

Now, I am 17 years old, and my parents definitely do NOT have control over every meal I eat. If they did, I would have gone crazy by now – thankfully I haven’t.

Over the past two years, my mom took online courses to get a new degree that certified her to be a nutritionist. She earned her degree last June, and is now a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP). I am not completely positive on what she is certified to do, but I do know that she works with clients each day to help them reach their goals.

 

To be clear, my mom does not just try to help people to lose weight, she helps to diagnose them with possible autoimmune diseases such as leaky gut, lymes disease, celiacs, I could go on and on. Her main job is to help identify what issues, if there are any, are going on with her clients. Then she will help to plan a “diet” for them to try to maintain to help them feel better and reach their goals. 

 

While it can be very helpful to know so much about food because my mom is a nutritionist. My family tends to be her guinea pigs when trying to learn more about different “diets” she wants to try. Meaning I have had many many many different food restrictions throughout my entire life. 

 

I’m pretty sure that her interest with food affecting health started around when I was 10, and she cut out gluten from our house. Next she got rid of dairy, then any unnatural sugar – meaning only honey and maple syrup allowed – and then the microwave. At first, it was very difficult to adjust to eating a bunch of food that does not taste very good all the time. Especially since the popularity of being gluten free was not as wide spread when she first started having no gluten in the house. Over the years, I have grown use to the way my mom wants me to eat. It has been difficult to adjust to how to eat so health every single day, especially when I just want a really big cheeseburger and milkshake.

 

Luckily, I have been able to learn a lot about balancing “cheat” meals with my normal meals. Since I am a teenager, I like to go out to get food with my friends – I mean what else are we going to do, the school offers us off campus lunch as Seniors, we got to take advantage of it. I do not always stick to the way my mom wants me to eat, and she knows that. For the majority of the time, I eat gluten free, dairy free, and only natural sugars. Since I have eaten this way for so long, I have learned that if I eat too much candy or ice cream I tend to feel pretty bad after. 

 

Proving to myself and my mom that she’s right, especially when it comes to what I eat. Since I will be heading off to college soon, I know my mom is worried about how I am going to continue to eat healthy there. I think that my body will teach me a lesson if  I stray too far away from my current diet. While it can be very tedious to eat like this 24/7, I have noticed that it helps me in a lot of different aspects of my life. Typically, I feel pretty well energized, I can stay focused, and I never feel bad after eating. I guess eating this way for the majority of my has been pretty helpful. 

 

I think what I am trying to say is that I am very thankful that my mom has raised me to be aware of how I feel after eating fast food compared to a homemade meal. While I still have disagreements with her about food, I think that everything she has done for me has been very helpful. I am very glad my mom loves to share her wisdom about food with me – even when I feel that it is unnecessary, she still loves to share. So I guess what I am trying to say is that living with a nutritionist is a lot better than it seems.

The clock hit 12:00 AM, Saturday, February 1st, 2020. 

My heart skipped a beat. The game had begun… 

… 5 minutes later I see a notification on my phone: “FIRST KILL”

The game: Assassin’s

The players: any Naperville North Senior willing to pay $5

The prizes: 

• Winner(s) – $750
• First kill – $50
• Most kills – $100
• Most creative kill – $100 

The end goal: to survive until May 17th or until no one but you is left

 

Before you get too worried, thinking I am talking about actually getting killed. Assassin’s is played with water guns and silly string. 

Phew!

Now we can get down to talking about the strategy and rules of the game that has completely consumed my life over the past week. 

Here is a quick rundown of the how game works and its rules: 

Assassin’s gets organized by a few seniors each year, they help to collect money and forms of information from everyone that wants to play. Once the registration deadline hits, everyone that turned in their money and forms is now considered to be players. Now, the organizers begin to assign targets to each person playing. The assignment of targets is completely randomized, and you find out who your target is the day before the 1st round starts. 

There are 3 rounds over the course of the next 3 months, all of it ending before graduation. The main rule is that in order to move on to the next round you must get at least one kill. Forcing people to get kills instead of just staying at home hiding until the last day. The only way to stay alive is to stay dry. If your target tries to get you, but you shot them first it gives you 2 hours of immunity. 

Yes, there are many limits to the game. Most importantly, no one can be killed on school property or at a school event. I mean I think that’s pretty reasonable, otherwise the senior parking lot would be a “bloodbath” each day before and after school. 

To put the 3 pages of rules simply: don’t trespass, driver seat is safe, and no kills at school. 

 

Now that you understand the basics of what Assassin’s is. It’s time to talk about strategy for the game. 

What I have learned over the past week is that it is very nerve wracking to leave my house at all. At the same time that I am trying to not get killed, I also have to be planning how to kill my target. Just having to multitask that is stressful enough, but then there are the rumor accounts. Twitter is the platform used to say who killed who for each hit, this way everyone playing can keep track of who is out. The only account that is trustworthy is the one run by the people that organized the game. Every year since twitter has been used, there has always been so called “rumor accounts” that show up. 

These accounts get DM’s all day long, especially on weekends, about everyone’s plans. Then they post these rumors to help their assigns try to get the targets. The issue with these accounts is that you never know if what is posted is true. A lot of times groups of people will DM the wrong address of where they are hanging out to throw off their assassins. 

This makes it even more difficult to decide when to go after your target because sometimes they might be expecting you to try to get them. 

I think I have come to the conclusion that in order to stay alive in this game you need to tell no one your schedule. Learn information about your target from as many people as possible without them finding out. Take help when offered. But still never fully trust someone.

And may the best player win. 

Stay safe 😉

I was thinking for my first blog post I should probably talk about something that I absolutely love. Since it just got taken off Netflix, I figured why not talk about Friends. Considering I have seen every episode at least 3 times, I think it’s fair to say I am pretty much a Friends expert. If you are doubting this lets just say I can recite every line from Season 4 Episode 12 “The One with the Embryos”. Whether you believe me or not, I think it’s time to address a much needed issue: how do you rank the best Friends characters?

 

Over the years, I have gotten in many arguments with my family about who the best character in the show is. Each character has had so many iconic scenes from “PIVOT!” to “My eyes! My eyes” each one has their own special thing. That is why ranking of them is different based on each person’s opinion. Over the years I think I have been able to gather enough information and opinions from other fans of the show to put together the most accurate ranking of these characters. 

 

 

Starting with… 

 

#1: Phoebe Buffay

I feel that Phoebe is probably the most underrated character of the entire cast. She is apart of almost every iconic scene in the show, but I won’t be putting any spoilers in here for those of you that want to watch Friends, if you haven’t yet. Which I don’t really understand why some people haven’t watched at least part of the show, but that’s their choice. Anyways, Phoebe is the best character on Friends because of her ability to be consistently funny throughout the entire show. Phoebe would have to be my very favorite character because of her ability to completely in-body the quirkiness that is Phoebe Buffay. Hands down, she has some of the funniest scenes and just adds to some of the best episodes to make them even better. 

 

 

 

#2: Joey Tribbiani 

How you doin?

 

Come on, how can Joey not be in someone’s top 2? He’s an Italian actor that’s kinda ditzy, he  was born and raised in Queens. He acts all tough by dating around but deep down he’s just a guy that really cares about those he loves. Also, if you ever need to know something about Joey it’s that Joey LOVES food. I think that fact alone just proves my argument about how Joey is the 2nd best. Also, Joey would have to be the 2nd best character because of his ability to be so relatable to anyone watching the show. I think everyone should have Joey in their life. He is always someone that you can count on laughing from each episode. He also has a sweet side that he keeps hidden, but when it comes out, Joey shows how much he truly cares for people. 

 

 

#3: Chandler Bing (AKA Mrs. Chanandler Bong for you true fanatics) 

 

I would have to say, I think Chandler is probably the most controversial character in the show because some people don’t understand a lot of his jokes. While I love them because it is all sarcasm. Chandler is definitely one of my favorites of the show because of his quick-wit humor. He’s always the person to have a joke ready for any situation, which is why I enjoy his character so much. Also, the ability Chandler has to pull off a sweater vest I mean it takes a special type of person to be able to do that. His humor is the main reason why I have given him the ranking of 3rd. 

 

 

#4: Rachel Green 

 

The very first impression everyone has of Rachel is that she just walked out on her wedding because she realized she didn’t love her fiance. I mean good for her, it takes a lot of courage to walk away from her life plan. She brings a lot of love to the group as its newest member. Along with being one of the most fashionable women in the 90’s when the show started. She even had people copying her famous haircut known as the Rachel. Rachel is someone everyone has a friend like her, she gets along with everyone in the group in her own unique way.

 

 

#5: Ross Geller

 

Oh, Ross. Now don’t get me wrong, Ross has a lot of really funny scenes but as a character overall, I would have to say he is probably the most frustrating of all 6 but he does have some really good moments in the show. Ross’s character was just set up to be somewhat annoying, he is a paleontologist that just got divorced. Also, he has had a crush on Rachel FOREVER, which is very frustrating in the beginning of the show because he never attempts to make a move to date her. Then he complains when she starts dating another guy. Seriously? You can’t complain about it when you didn’t even attempt to be with her. Also, the amount of gel that he puts in his hair, it’s just too much and everyone knows it. They even make fun of the gel multiple times in the show, and Rachel describes it as “crunchy”. Ew! Who likes to have crunchy hair. Even though all this is very annoying, Ross isn’t the worst out of the 6 because of his relationship with Rachel and his connection with Chandler from college creates many entertaining and classic story lines. 

 

 

#6: Monica Geller

Monica, Monica, Monica, I would have to put her at the back end of the Friends rankings simply because sometimes she is just too Monica. For those of you that have watched the show, you know exactly what I am talking about. For the people that haven’t watched Friends, to put it simply, Monica is a very controlling, neat-freak, and acts like everyone’s little sister. You love her, but a lot of the time she can be way too nosy and annoying. She has her moments as all the other characters do, but she does not have nearly as many memorable 

In the end, each Friends character brings something different to the show, they all make the show what it is. Without each of them, the show would not be nearly as iconic as it is. I hope that you other fans agree with me on this ranking, but I know it’s always hard to decide who is the best. Anyways, I must go now before I get too sad about the fact that I can’t binge watch Friends anymore.

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