Hello world!

8 thoughts on “Hello world!”

1. Hi, this is a comment.
   To get started with moderating, editing, and deleting comments, please visit the Comments screen in the dashboard.
   Commenter avatars come from Gravatar.

2. My Portfolio Map Project

   https://imgur.com/giCvFHj

   https://arcg.is/0GOa4S

3. Over the past year, the Covid-19 Pandemic has devastated our city. Many lives were lost to this pandemic and many people’s lives are changed forever. At first, the disease didn’t seem like a big deal, many people thought that it would never reach the city. Then the first case of coronavirus was detected around March of 2020. The virus then rapidly spread across the city and before we knew it, we were in lockdown. Everyone had to quarantine themselves at home after this. Schools became remote so kids had to switch to online learning which isn’t the most efficient. Restaurants only allowed takeaway but then eventually those had to be shut down for the lockdown to go into effect.
   Despite the lockdown efforts to try and contain the virus, New York City quickly became the epicenter of the virus. At one point, cases surpassed 6000 cases a day. The situation in the United States was worsening at an alarming rate. As of today, the situation is improving again as 72 million people have received the vaccine so far in our country which is about 21 percent of our population. The good news is that soon the majority of the population will have received at least 1 dose of the Vaccine. However, the damage that this virus has caused has already implanted a lasting effect on our city. Our standards have changed as a country due to our experience with this pandemic. Even though things can get back to normal soon, things will never really be the same. This situation gave our country a new perspective on how people will react based on how our government treated this situation. We would have never thought that wearing masks every day would be part of our normal lives before the pandemic yet this habit would probably stick around for a long time even after things have returned to normal.
   Schools were hit particularly hard at the start of the pandemic. Schools were shut down pretty quickly in reaction to the rise in cases. Kids had to start taking online classes and even some private schools had to go remote. College students had to also switch to online lectures instead. However, this is not the most efficient way to learn for a lot of people. It is a lot harder to pay attention in online classes compared to in-person classes according to many including myself.
   From my perspective, this pandemic has been kind of a double-edged sword for me. On one hand, I am fine with the fact that I don’t have to take the train to school every day because that was a huge hassle for me when I was still commuting to school pre-pandemic. On the other hand, I think that this will have a lasting impact on me for the rest of my life. It certainly is a peculiar situation because it is pretty weird that I have never even been to my college yet I have been taking classes here for almost a full year.
   College dorms and campuses have it pretty bad during this pandemic too. Many events have been halted and kids are just paying to live in a dorm while still going to classes on their laptops regardless. Tuition is still the same price for many students and it is really expensive. The only money that some kids are saving is the dorm money if they stayed at home to take classes but this is not the case for everyone. However, Money is not the only factor when it comes to college. Quarantine has made it difficult for everyone this year. Kids haven’t seen their friends in over a year and this has a huge impact on their social life. Furthermore, it also limits the opportunity for making new friends since we are all restricted to home unable to meet new people. The effect of this would be that kids who are still going to school today will have more limited connections by the time they become adults. Scenarios like this aren’t only going to limit students attending schools currently, it can also have a drastic effect on adult social life too. The same reasons can be equally applied for anyone who misses out on meeting new people because of how the pandemic is keeping people in their homes.
   Racism is another hot topic that has been brought up a lot ever since the start of the pandemic. While Racism is nothing new to this city, it is safe to say that because of this virus’s suspected origin, racism again Asians in the city has increased at an alarming rate. It is also worth mentioning that New York City is one of the most diverse cities in the world so racism can be a lot harder to deal with. You have a higher chance of dealing with racism in New York City because of this.
   It is already evident that racism is on the rise in the city because of the virus already. Asian Americans have been getting attacked verbally and physically a lot more than before and it doesn’t help that the president called Covid-19 “the Chinese virus” (Alpert and Feng). This sort of misunderstanding is very dangerous especially at a time like this. People tend to look for someone to blame and because the disease is believed to have originated from China, then Chinese people would be an easy scapegoat for them.
   As an Asian American myself, personally, I feel as if the atmosphere around me has changed a lot because of Covid-19. After hearing so many stories about how Asian Americans are getting attacked, I feel frightened that something like this may happen to me or my family. I wouldn’t know what to do if it happens to me. This saddens me greatly because I used to love going outside without having to worry about my well-being but now, I have to be way more on alert and vigilant every time I go outside. Although I can be hopeful that things would be improved after a majority of the population gets the covid vaccine, it pains me to say that the hate against Asian Americans will never end and that the coronavirus will always be used to berate Asians.
   On top of the issue of racism, This pandemic has also taken a toll on our city’s healthcare system. Due to the rapid rise in cases during the early stages of the pandemic, many hospitals were overflowing because there weren’t enough beds to go around for everyone. This resulted in a tremendous amount of deaths because not everyone could be treated during that time. Alpert recounted how when she looked out the window one time, she saw a “freezer trailer across the street in front of Northwell Health” and states that she knew “it was a make-shift morgue”. There was so much death in the city because of the virus that there were not enough places to store all the bodies that were accumulating.
   The large rise in cases also caused a spike in the amount of emergency medical services calls. Statistics show that “The COVID-19 peak of March 16-April 15 2020 resulted in a 60% increase in EMS calls”(Prezant 2.3 Outcomes). This study also shows that the “ average ambulance response time increased from 10 minutes on March 16, 2020, to a peak of 45 minutes on March 30, 2020” (Prezant 3.2 System response times). There is a correlation that can be made about how the increase of emergency services activity can further transmit diseases faster from one another. Many health workers on the frontline have been infected as a result.
   Out of our five boroughs, The Bronx has been hit the hardest in this pandemic. As one of the boroughs with poorer communities, they have suffered a lot. Living in the conditions during a lockdown can induce stress in many people. People with mental health conditions are particularly vulnerable at times like this. They may have more trouble because of their “cognitive and behavioral difficulties that can interfere with their ability to comply with quarantine and hygiene measures” (Sarcevic 1.1). Homelessness is also a big contributing factor in spreading the disease because they can’t self isolate themselves if they are infected.
   One of the most dangerous positions to have during this pandemic is being a frontline medical worker. They take in the most in terms of risk because they are dealing with infected patients daily. Certain Patients can be really difficult at times especially the ones suffering mental conditions and treating these patients require physical contact which increases the risk of infection for medical workers.
   The effects of the coronavirus over the past year have drastically affected our city. The pandemic impacted our lives in such a way that our standards have changed forever. Things can get back to normal but it would never be the same as before. This experience has given us insight into a lot of things and our perspectives on the world will have changed. I would have never thought in my lifetime that something like this would happen. It is very interesting to me that kids in the future will also hear about this as it will go down as one of the big events in history.

4. When you commute from one place to another in this city, there are many types of patterns that you would notice while traveling. People notice these patterns all the time when they move around the city. The kids that take the subway to school and the adults that drive to work. No matter who you are, if you live in this city then you would have most likely you would have noticed the patterns from your everyday commute.
   The Manhattan bridge is something that every commuter in this city went through before. Chances are, if you take the subway daily then you have crossed the boroughs using this bridge before because of the subway line that runs through here. Many people in New York city travel without a car so the subway is usually the only source of transportation for these people. What’s fascinating is the view that from the bridge while crossing it. The people driving and the people taking the subway all have access to the view while crossing this spectacular bridge. This is just one of the many things that people experience when commuting in this city.
   Another pattern that a daily commuter might notice while strolling through the city is the graffiti that they see. Graffiti is a very interesting subject because it can be found almost anywhere in New York city. Graffiti can be found in the most mind-boggling places. If you were to pay attention while taking the subway, you would even find graffiti in the dark tunnels. It always amazes me how I know that If I see graffiti in these places, then I know that someone else had been there before me.
   Graffiti is a big thing is New York city because it represents a big part of our culture. Tourist from all over the world flock to this city and are amazed by the type of graffiti they see. Anyone who have lived in New York has been impacted by the graffiti that they see one way or another. It is something that New Yorkers are just used to when they go outside.
   Now traffic is something that pertains to the whole world. It’s not just people in New York that experience it. But there is a certain pattern of New York traffic that one might notice throughout their daily commute. It just depends on the time of the day you travel around. For instance, When I was still taking the subway to school, it was always jammed pack and many times, you would never even be able to fit into the train. My perception was that the subway line that I was taking was always packed. It wasn’t until I took that same subway line at a later time that I discovered that It’s not always like this. That 1 hour difference of you taking the subway impacts your experience drastically. I started to see that a lot of people take the subway at the same time during the day because of the similar work and school hours. I started to envy the people who didn’t have to go through this because they could take the subway later to get to work or school.
   This also relates highway traffic because you would also notice the patterns in highway traffic. The situation is very similar because highway users would also start to notice the different flow of traffic depending on the time of the day. The people taking the highway would start to notice when people generally go to work depending on the flow of traffic. Usually there would be the most traffic around the morning and night times when people are going to work and leaving work.
   You can also notice other things when you are just walking around many neighborhoods. The restaurants are also something that one might pay attention to when walking around. In this city there are all types of restaurants and one thing to notice is the diversity of them. I don’t think there is anywhere else in the world where you can just eat so much food from different cultures. New York city is one of the most diverse cities in the world and because of this, it also has the most choices of food. When people move here, they bring with them their culture and that is what makes it beautiful because we can all share it through the food that we make for each other. The choices for food is just endless in this city and I am grateful to be a part of it.
   Bikes are also a big part of the commute around the city. Everywhere you go, you would see someone riding a bike. Citibikes also help because people have easier access to bicycles for traveling around. Bikes allow people to travel farther without the use of the subway or a car. Many people just bike to work or school nowadays and it is a much easier form of transportation. You wouldn’t have to look for a place to park a car if you were driving and you wouldn’t have to pay for a metro card if you wanted to take the subway. Bike paths also make it easier for the average biker because they don’t have to bike right next to cars.
   In conclusion, the people writing and reading these texts are the people who live in this city, They all live different lives but we all have one thing in common: Our commute. We see the same things when we walk the streets and when we take the subway. The many traits of this city are unique and special. Only the people living here year round experience it fully. We have access to so many things in this city that just make our lives so much easier. Every type of commute that we use in this city brings a new perspective to us. We see different views depending on what we use. Many people enjoy the urban life that this city provides and our commute is what makes this system thrive because so many people depend on it

5. I never saw myself as a writer throughout my life. I was never good at it and I would always get stuck most of the time when trying to come up with ideas. The ability to establish that flow in my writing is difficult. I always drift off somewhere else when trying to think of how to write my paper. I think this just depends on the topic that I’m writing about and how passionate I am about it because there are times where I am able to write and get my work done compared to the many other times where I just hit a roadblock.
   Up until high school, I never wrote much and didn’t write many essays throughout middle school. We would read books as a class but I only wrote in short summaries for different questions. In high school, I was astonished by how many papers I had to write. It was a whole different ball game. I realized that writing long papers is a lot harder than just answering single questions. You have to be more creative to find different ways to convey yourself through writing. My vocabulary isn’t the best so it was hard for me to form sentences sometimes because I could just never find that one word that I needed. I also tend to have a hard time structuring my papers and something always felt off to me because of this. When I read other papers, I always though that they wrote better than me. Their flow always sounded better than my papers when I read them.
   I had to write the most during my junior year of high school because I took an ap class in English. The class was a lot harder than the normal English classes that I took in freshman and sophomore years. I remember having to write a 5 page paper that year and I had a lot of trouble writing it. I had never wrote a paper that was that long before. I had no idea how to write this paper. When I wrote my first draft and read it over, everything felt so repetitive because It seemed like I just repeat the same things over and over again. I never know if I did well on my writing so peer reviewing was always a scary thing for me. The way I saw it my classmate’s papers were always better than mine.
   I never have confidence in my writing so when it came time to write my college essay, I had a hard time. Once again, I hit a roadblock and didn’t know what to write about. I thought long and hard about what I wanted to write and finally I settled on writing about my first job. Surprisingly, writing this essay wasn’t as hard as I thought. I knew exactly what I wanted to write because I had interest in this and that I took the time to sit down and brainstorm for ideas. I know writing isn’t supposed to be easy but if I realized from writing this essay that if I just take my time to think and write then it would be a much easier process.

6. I think that when it comes to my writing, I always feel overwhelmed by the many ideas that are in my head. When I sit down to think about what I am writing about, I feel like there are always a billion thoughts in my head. It’s not the lack of ideas that troubles me when it comes to writing but I think it is the fact that I can’t choose one of these ideas and just write about it. It always feels like I have the idea down in my head but it drifts off into somewhere else and then I eventually lose it. There are always a lot of ideas but it is just difficult to connect them and make them flow naturally. I would worry about the order of things. If it gets bad enough, I won’t even look at what I wrote in the beginning because I wouldn’t know how to connect it to what I am writing now. As I said, I always have an idea of what to write about but when It comes out on paper and I look at what I’m writing, suddenly it doesn’t sound as nice.

   Another thing is, I feel like I get lazier than usual when it comes to writing. I’m ashamed to admit that when it comes to writing, I just lose a lot of my motivation instantly. Now I know that one of the most important parts of writing is brainstorming but when it comes to brainstorming, I would lose even more focus because It takes up a lot of time. Many times, I just end up procrastinating the time to even think about what I am going to write. It would always eventually just come down to me writing as I go without any previous ideas and I think this has a lot to do with the problem of writer’s block. When I start writing as I go without any previous ideas, I would come up with some later and struggle to connect it to the first part of my paper.

   When it comes to peer review, I’m never really sure what to tell my peers when I read their papers because I feel like I don’t know what could be improved. Since their papers already always seem good compared to mine, I don’t think I’m the one to tell them how to improve their papers. I’m always glad to take advice from others but I don’t know how to give out advice to others when it comes to writing and formatting.

   Lastly, I feel like I try to force my writing to be “deeper” a lot of the time and oversee how I just have to start writing so that I can establish a flow. If you spend too much time trying to force and think of something like that then you would lose track of what you want to write. Something I learned is that If you try to force something way too hard then it would never work. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow and I hope that I can avoid trying to do this in my future writing.

7. I have never been much of a writer but this class has given me more insight into the different methods when it comes to writing. It has widened my perspective and I am grateful that I have more options when it comes to the different types of writing. I know that there will be a lot more writing to do in college and this is just the beginning of it. I want to continue to improve on my writing in my future English classes. It is going to be a very useful skill to learn how to be a good writer. For now, I think that it is important for me to establish a writing style for myself so that it will seem more natural to me when I write in the future. The technology and applications we have today also help us with our writing. There are all types of grammar correcting applications that are extremely helpful to many people. However even though some grammar may be corrected, there are still times where I experience difficulty trying to get my point across. I still have trouble wording and phrasing so that is what I would like to work on very much for my writing. I am kind of proud that I did some longer papers during this semester. I think writing these papers may have pulled me out of my comfort zone for writing because I never really wrote that much before in high school especially not long papers as I did in this class so I’m grateful for these papers because it will help me be better adjusted for future writing classes.

8. As I have mentioned many times before, writing was never my subject. Growing up, I never liked sitting down for long periods of time to just brainstorm and write. I admire the many people who can do that because it shows that they can stay committed to it and make something out of it. Some people are really good writers naturally. They just have the flow. I would admit that sometimes I would feel like I have some sort of flow too when it comes to writing but it just depends on the topic and how passionate I am about it. I think that I can definitely still grow a lot as a writer. I have plenty of time to grow and improve. If I can develop my style then it would be a lot easier when I write a lot of the time. I think that everyone is different and grows at their own pace. I might be on the slower end but I am eager to continue to learn. It is only still my first year in college so there is way more room to grow. I am grateful to all my friends and teachers who are there for me when I am stuck. They give me great ideas and make things a lot easier for me.

Comments are closed.