As high school has now basically come to an end, it’s not surprising to see that everybody is reflecting back upon their past four years. From things ranging from their favorite high school memories, their worst high school assignments, or their uber-familiar places they’ll miss, it’s a time which is undoubtedly filled with both sadness and excitement. Yet, within this period of reflection, it also comes along with numerous blogs on this topic which have created this bandwagon in which I’m ecstatic to be hopping on.

Now, as I’ve spent the past couple of weeks reflecting back on my entire high school experience, I can’t really say there’s been one definitive moment that has made or breaked my time here. Of course there were highs, there were lows, and there were a lot in betweens but I honestly can’t recall a specific instance. Furthermore, as I’ve pondered what I’d miss from my experience here, I’ve come to realize that while sure, I’m going to miss my friends, the school, the environment, I’m actually going to miss d203’s Google Hangouts so much more.

While I know, you might be saying, what? Why hangouts! 

Well, if anything, it was this that has been one of the biggest components during my high school life, an essential part of my high school experience in which, sadly to say, I still have a love hate relationship with. It’s this little green bubble which remains my largest saving grace yet also my undoubtable kryptonite, my best friend yet my worst enemy — all at the same time.

Ever since day one of high school, Hangouts has been my right hand man (and the most useful tool ever provided by North). Some examples include….

– Class chats! Throwback to my freshman semester one PE class with this world-class PE leader named Mike Rotter. It was through our massive class chat in which I met new people, got to ask questions about high school, and really just make new friends.

– Classes when you’re absent or have a quick question about something you learn today. I can’t tell you the amount of time this little green bubble has saved me walking across the room to get my phone or drafting this whole email (since lowkey, that takes forever to make sure you’re extremely polite and things like that) and being able to teach a friend without having to text out paragraph by paragraph is also amazing.

– Group Projects. Imagine being assigned to some peeps you don’t really know well and we have a present the next day and nobody has done anything and you don’t have their number. Well… I’ve definitely been there, done that, and Hangouts has been a lifesaver in these situations.

But then, there are times when Hangouts is a curse to my existence. Instances may include… 

– The hours of productivity I’ve lost to Hangouts. Since Hangouts is basically the #1 app I use for talking with friends, basically replacing my iMessage, DMs, and snap, it has the ability to distract me since it’s implemented on the device which I need to do homework.

– The sleep I’ve lost. As senior year has continued to progress, I’ve begun to notice that, night after night, hour after hour, I’ve spent more and more time on this app talking and laughing with friends which, thus, has made homework take longer which also destroyed my sleep schedule.

– Then finally, it’s also with this loss of productivity that has even managed to distract me on the most important of nights, the night before a test, a project, etc and probably caused me to bomb these tests harder than what I’d like to admit.

So, while Hangouts does have its ups and downs, it’s still a critical part of my life. And following the fact that my time in high school has now abruptly come to a close, it’s sad to see my primary method of communication fade along with it. And, in these next few months in which our accounts will inevitably fall to the void, it’s going to be sad to lose such a connection that has tied me to some of my closest friends. But with this end of an era, inevitably there is one saving grace…. It just so happens that, for the next four years of my life, I’ll be attending a university that’s once more powered again by google so just feel free to hangout me at my @umich.edu account instead.

During the past three weeks, I’ll bet ya that for basically every morning in which you’ve woken up (or possibly the afternoon in case a super late night owls like me), you’ve probably already been bombarded by the headlines of COVID-19, social distancing, and other things covering this quarantine. And, while I also do agree with many of these points and their relevance to society now, it just sadly isn’t really applicable to many high-schoolers today. Instead, we’re just stuck at home losing track of our minutes, our hours, our days — and it’s just become clear that there’s really just not much to do.

So, in true FDR fashion (but this time in a blog, not radio station), I here to fill you in on something you can do!  But, unlike some other blogs here that have already beat me to the punch with lists of recommendations, I’m merely here to refresh the most popular way to pass the time: by reinventing the way that YOU can talk with your friends.

So, it’s probably safe to assume you’ve already spammed one of your friends to death and or annoyed the living bejesus out of them too. And, with us already three weeks into this period of pure isolation, it’s clear all of us have probably run out of things to say (as every “how was your day” results in one of three responses) and your chats have possibly deformed into an incomprehensible stream of “hi”s or “bet”s. But, what if I told you there was a way to re-invigorate the chats?

Yes, I kid you not, there is a way! Just… consider talking to them very late at night :)

And no, I’m not talking about rookie times like at 10pm. No. You gotta pass at least the 1 am threshold. 3 am if you really want a wild ride.

But Jeremy, you might be asking, why so late at night! I need my sleep! Well, here are some reasons on why…

1. When you’re tired, a weird phenomenon happens where literally everything becomes funny. Like have you ever mispronounced a word? Now it’s funny. Your house creaked and made a weird sound? Hilarious! Like literally anything that would’ve made you giggle even a little bit during the day is guaranteed to make you (and if you have friend(s), I guess) bend over from laughter, trying to catch your breath. And, it’s probably only during these late nights where your face will somehow become physically sore from laughing so dang hard.
2. It’s also during this time where conversations get deep. Real deep. Like have you ever wanted to question society? Now’s the time. Discuss the moralities of the death penalty? Yea, of course. And even have an existential crisis? What other time would there be! And, I know what you’re thinking but just hear me out. When it’s late, your brain comes up with the weirdest of ideas which guarantees hours of entertainment, just like what I’ve done on a multitude of occasions with some friends :).
3. Surprisingly, it’s also this late at night when you and, more importantly, your friends become extremely honest and open. For some reason, late nights cause alcohol-like effects (supposidly?) which allows way more confessions to occur and really just honest truths. It’s amazing to see just how close you and your friend can get in these late hours.

Then finally, if you do manage to stay up this late with a friend and can’t manage to get a conversation rolling, here are just a couple of tips / ideas.

• Make a random sound / noise!
• Ask a super random question!
• Or even just play would you rather or truth or dare!

You’d be surprised to see where the conversation goes. Have fun!

About two weeks ago on October 25, 2019, a single video was uploaded to YouTube that started one of, if not, the biggest fundraising movements that the internet has ever seen. This video, titled “Planting 20,000,000 Trees, My Biggest Project Ever!” made by Mr. Beast in collaboration with Mark Rober created the TeamTrees challenge which strives to plant twenty million (yes, the number two followed by seven zeros) trees by the start of 2020.

To accomplish this ambitious goal, these two individuals have partnered together with the Arbor Day Foundation, a non-for profit organization, to plant all these trees. As stated and proven by the foundation, every dollar donated will equate to one tree being planted in an environmentally safe and sustainable way by December of 2022.

Furthermore, they’ve also collaborated with numerous other YouTubers on the platform to help raise money. Even YouTubers like PewDiePie, one of the largest channels on the entire platform with over a hundred million subscribers, have also expressed and provided their direct support.

But even with all this is going on, how did it all start?

To explain, we need to go back to May 2019 when Mr. Beast, a YouTuber, first hit twenty million subscribers. Known as the YouTuber who completes numerous extravagant and attention-grabbing stunts (many of which pertains to assisting those in need), he wanted to do something extremely large for such an impressive milestone. As such, he turned to Twitter for answers, ultimately concluding on this result.

However, even though this was the case, there was still a large challenge in front of him. While attempting to manually plant all the trees, he found that, even with an army of over five hundred fans, they still barely managed to plant over three thousand trees in a day, a rate which would have been much too slow to complete this challenge. Because of this, he teamed up with Mark Rober, an educational YouTuber and ex-NASA engineer, to help discover other methods to accomplish this goal.

Through their collaboration and research, they finally concluded on two sources. One was this video and movement stated above and two was through many automated drones which would spread seeds to help plant trees in recently devastated areas (like by wildfires).

But why plant trees?

As you may be able to see from right outside the window, the climate has been rapidly changing. Even within the past five years, we’ve seen much greater variability within the temperatures. We’ve shattered record highs and lows and even here, we are seeing record-breaking early snow falls within the year.

And that’s not surprising, given what we are doing to the environment. As researched by CBS News, we are releasing upward of 2.4 million pounds of carbon dioxide per second. Furthermore, the parts per million (or basically the ratio of carbon dioxide) in our atmosphere has also nearly tripled since 1950 (as discovered by NASA).

Because of all this carbon dioxide, its starting to change the only home we have. We’re seeing predictions of sea levels rising upward of 2 meters, estimates of global temperatures increasing by three degrees, and projections of over fifty percent of all animal species going extinct.

But there’s still things we can do to prevent this impending future.

As researched by North Carolina State University, a single tree can absorb around 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. And even though that’s not a lot compared to the amount we are producing, it’s still a step in the right direction. However, not by very much.

A research conducted by CNN concluded that we would need to roughly 1.2 trillion trees to reverse ten years of climate change. But even though this figure is sixty thousand times greater than the goal of TeamTrees, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and make a difference.

Every tree, every dollar, every word still makes a difference in protecting our future. Even if you can’t easily or cheaply plant a tree, go to teamtrees.org and donate a bit. They’re currently at $14.8 million raised! And, if you can’t do that, still try to spread the word! You can attend a local climate strike, post something on to raise awareness on social media (like #teamtrees for example), or even just tell your friends!

ANY effort can make a difference and let’s help create a future that we won’t regret. #teamtrees.