My 2020 playlist

This year was the worst yea I’ve ever been alive. On my website, I talk about how music influenced my life this year and how it helped me escape. The transition from Middle school to high school all while doing it virtually is what I also talk about and how the year 2020 has affected my mental health. The artist I chose the mention: BTS, SZA, and Ariana grande have helped me tremendously through these times and I’m happy I get to share this project with you.

https://raegan.carrd.co/

How I FEEL

Do you have a clue on how I feel? 2020 is one of the worst things that could have happened to me or any teenager. 2020 was supposed to be the year that I was supposed to find my true self, others too. Some of us were 8th graders going to 9th grade, some of us were 12th graders going to college or just trying to make a lot of money. STOP, can you hear me!! Can you hear us!!

2020 has me broken, I don’t even feel as though I’m myself. Im am currently a 9th grader, yes I was one of those students starting a new school virtually. It’s hard. People say everything is going to be ok but it’s not, the world is different now. Our “President” has put the United States in shock. The police that are supposed to be protecting us, as people but no they are killing people like me. Yes, Im black and after all the deaths (George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Walter Wallace Jr. etc.) George Floyd died because I white officer had his knee in his neck!! Breonna Taylor was shot in her own house because the police didn’t want to announce themselves. Walter Wallace Jr. was shot and killed in Philly by a white police man because they were scared, why did they have to use the gun? If they have tasers. I’m scared to be in my black skin. All the protests that turn into looting. The COIVID-19, QUARANTINE!! Are you sure you want to know how I really feel? I’m tired, stressed, I just don’t feel like me. It’s been a lot, a little too much for some people like me to handle. I mean we have a new President. At Least we got Trump out of office but this is going to cause more problems. Trump supporters have been laying low but they are coming up with something and I know it’s not going to be good. I just hope the world can become a better place. It’s hard to live in a world where everyone isn’t treated equally.

2020, I haven’t been able to see any of my family which sucks because family means everything to me. The friends that I did have I don’t talk to them as much because they all live far from me. I have to work on weekends so even if I wanted to hang with friends I couldn’t, but at least I get to travel to Houston, Texas to visit my mom and my brothers.

This is how I really feel. I’m scared. How do you really feel? Are you scared?

How my life was different in 2020

Artist’s Statement I completed this essay in my room, late at night on 11/12/20. I wrote it on my computer using google documents. I created an essay because I had a good idea in mind and didn’t know any other way to convey that idea other than an essay. The essay I wrote connects to the idea of the contest by showing how I and my life have changed due to covid-19 this year.

English NYT benchmark

Life In 2020

Adobe Scan Nov 12, 2020
Adobe Scan Nov 11, 2020
Adobe Scan Nov 12, 2020 (2)
Adobe Scan Nov 12, 2020 (3)
Adobe Scan Nov 12, 2020 (4)
Adobe Scan Nov 12, 2020 (5)

I started this project once it was given to me. at first, I was not sure what I wanted to do then it came to me a comic of my life in 2020. I would sit outside in mother nature to get ideas and in many other parts of my home. I chose to do a comic because I thought that it would be way better for everyone to see my point of view instead of reading my point of view.

Another Day Gone

Winston Elliott New York Times Submission

I created this piece on my laptop at my house in Philadelphia PA. For this piece, I wanted to make a descriptive piece of writing that show what the past months have been like. I didn’t want to make some regular piece of writing though. the more I thought about the it the more I realized that several main words came to mind when I thought about the year of 2020. Pandemic, Tension, Laughter, Focus, and relief.

This writing relates to the theme of being a teenager during 2020 because it reflects some of the day to day experiences that I had. To write this I would write a paragraph about something that I remembered, or that had happened sometime that day. Each paragraph was written on a different day for I wanted my mindset on different days show in my writing. For example you may see that some paragraphs are sad/dark and others are happy.

Love, Family, & Fighting

Love, Family, & Fighting-2

The second piece that I created for the contest is a sonnet poem that I made about my nephew and our relationship. A sonnet poem has 14 lines divided into 4 quatrains and a couplet, which I followed to express my feelings towards my nephew. The poem has many emotions portrayed in it that represent my feelings very generously and I feel a range of emotions throughout the poem. The first emotion that I portrayed in this essay was love. This is love for my nephew and how much we care for each other. This is represented by a light purple color. The next emotion portrayed is family. This is the feeling of being there for one another and knowing we will stay together through whatever troubles we face. This is represented by a light blue The final emotion that I showed is anger or hate. Sometimes me and my nephew don’t get along, so we fight and argue all the time. This emotion is represented by a light red. When I first heard about the New York Times project, I wanted to do two things. First, I wanted to make something informative and personal, like an essay, and secondly I wanted to create an interesting writing piece, like a poem. I wanted both of the pieces to be about the same thing, so both writing pieces are about my relationship with my nephew. I created this piece by thinking of what I wanted to create. Once I had that figured out, I formed my piece and tried to find the right words to use that made sense for my emotions and followed the rhyme scheme I wanted to use. I went back many times and read through the poem to make sure it was good and portrayed what I wanted it to. It was kind of difficult to find something creative that I would be able to do, but I made something that I am proud of that is special to me.

COVID-19: a year of pain for musicians

Artist’s Statement:

Hi, I am Anh Ngo. I created this piece of art reasonably recently, being honest as a project for my English teacher. When I started, though, it’s not because of the grades. I wanted to draw these pictures out so that in the future, I can look back and have evidence of what happened in our world. I will try to save this, as this could also be a piece of history of the world. I know that these pictures are a bit strange and biased, but I only have one purpose when I drew these pictures, and that purpose is to show what it looks like through the lens of a musician during this time. I have no doubt that there are other people who are project is very similar to mine (and in fact, even better), but I wanted to tell my own story and how I looked at it. For example, in July, I drew about how I participated in a music summer camp, entirely online. Now, I know that not everyone has a music camp online, but I wanted to tell a story of a person from someone who does and what it felt like. To be honest, I don’t exactly have the best drawing skills, but I do try as much as I can to describe what it looks like from the point of view of a musician. Oh and also, another thing I wanted to point out: A lot of other people, especially those from Wuhan, have been affected by COVID-19 starting from December. Since this is from my point of view, I will only be starting the pictures in February, since that was when this whole mess started to affect me and my family. I would also like to say that I chose not to have color to reflect the fact that this year has been dark. Now, I know that my pictures may not be as glamorous as others, but I will try as hard as I possibly can to help bring the point of view of a musician through these challenging times. Thank you.

COVID-19_ a bad year for musicians (2) (1)

My Life With My Nephew In 2020

My Life With My Nephew In 2020 - Coming of Age in 2020 NYT Project

This written piece is a display of how I try my best to put my relationship with my nephew into words. We are close and to me, he feels more like a brother than a nephew. I wanted to write an essay to show the foundation of our relationship and how it has strengthened and changed throughout 2020. As we all know, it has been a very difficult year with many trials and tribulations over only 12 months, but I wanted to write about how my relationship with my nephew has survived this difficult year. I created this piece during October and I immediately thought of writing about my nephew and me in 2020 and the transition of feelings throughout this year. I created an essay to show my feelings about him, but I also created another piece to convey my thoughts and feelings uniquely. I wanted to create this specific type of piece as an elementary way to show how I feel about him and the way our relationship has altered throughout this year. I have not faced many challenges this year, but I have faced the very arduous task of living with my nephew every single day. My nephew and I go through many hardships dealing with one another every single day, but we will always get through the trials that face us together. The theme of this project is how teenagers are growing in 2020, and my project relates to the theme of being a teenager during this year in the fact that I have to handle and deal with my annoying younger “brother” while going to online school. It can be hard to deal with him, but in the essay, I convey my thoughts as best as I can. I created this essay by first, thinking of what I wanted to create. Then, I put all of my thoughts and feelings into one space that helped me format the way I wrote the essay. I went through many processes to improve my writing and make the pieces interesting, but I am pleased with the results of my planning and development. It was hard to find one thing to write about that was personal, but in the end, I found a great topic that was applicable and riveting enough to read.

Amber Mitchell- Coming of Age 2020

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Coming of Age in 2020 2020 has been a crazy year for all of us. Lots of bad things have happened, so I’ll be talking about my experiences from this year. A lot of events took place that stuck with me, so I decided to create an art piece to show my take on the events of the Black Lives Matter movement, The Election, and Covid. So I’ll be explaining that through my work.

In the upper right corner, there is Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. Many black people have died this year due to police brutality, but that’s not new. Every year a lot of black people are killed by police. I’ve always been hurt by that but after George Floyd, it really struck a chord for me. For a lot of people actually. His death was the last straw for the black community and allies. Life as a black person in America is scary. I worry about my life whenever my family and I are pulled over because of the amount of deaths by police officers that happens. I shouldn’t feel that way, no one should, but that’s just how POCs are treated here. It needs to change, but no matter how many times we march for justice, we somehow rarely ever get it. It’s painful to know that. The red drops represent the blood of black Americans that are shed every day.

To the left is Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The elections were always important, but this is the first time that I’m paying attention to since I’m old enough. I’m worried about who will win. My rights are on the line during this election. If Donald Trump wins, woman will lose the right to safe abortions and Planned Parenthood. Not to mention, the LGBTQ+ rights are also on the line. Same sex couples would lose the right to adopt a child, the right to marry and more. Also, Trump is racist, sexist, and has 26 sexual assault/rape alllegations. We can’t have him in office anymore. He’s done so much damage to so many people and will continue to if he stays. It’s clear to say that I want Biden to win.

At the bottom is corona. I missed a lot because of it. I didn’t have my graduation or any of my 8th grade trips. I didn’t get to say a proper goodbye to anyone. I also didn’t get my yearbook and I most likely never will. But, I’m grateful I didn’t lose any loved ones to covid like so many people did. This year has sucked, but it’s almost over, so let’s keep our heads up.