Name one thing in nature you have noticed/discovered in the last week.

    Recently, I have been trying to go for more walks and observe more nature during this never-ending quarantine. To do this, I set out a goal for myself to wake up one morning early enough to watch the sunrise over the horizon. The opportunity arose when I had to drop a friend off at the airport very early in the morning. My friend Eido unfortunately had to move back to Israel after a complication with his job. When he asked me to drive him to the airport the next morning, I wasn’t excited because his flight was at 6AM. The silver lining in this early morning task was that I could go to the beach afterwards and watch the sunrise. When the morning came I was awake at 3AM and after I picked him up we drove to O’Hare airport and I dropped him off at 4AM. Due to the Coronavirus the airport felt completely empty with no cars anywhere in the drop-off zone besides mine. I then drove home along the vacant highway and patiently waited until 6AM when the sun would rise. After sleeping for another hour, I got in my car and drove to Gillson Park beach to watch my first ever sunrise. With my phone camera ready, I watched the world's beautiful energy source arise over the horizon and sweep gorgeous colors of red and orange across the sky. It was a breathtaking event that I will definitely try to see again. 

Name one thing you make sure to do that makes you happy, hopeful, more relaxed. 

    I’ve never enjoyed art until I was locked inside my house due to a global pandemic. When I was a kid, art was never my strong suit. Over quarantine I have decided to branch out and try something new that could relax me from the stressful world we are living in today. So, I started drawing. The first drawing I made was of an album I love, Kanye West’s, Graduation. I found a strategy online of how to copy printed images and transfer the outline onto a piece of paper allowing me to fill in the lines. Using this strategy, I successfully copied all the lines of the album cover on my paper and started coloring them in. I decided to draw with colored pencils because they were easier to draw with and I made fewer mistakes with them. Then when I colored in between lines the picture was completed and looked very close to the original picture of the album cover. When I completed the picture it made me happy because it turned the way I wanted it to. Although quarantine is a continuous cycle of boredom, I am now more hopeful because I have an outlet to express myself creatively.

What impact is technology having on your daily life? Is this different than usual?

    With no face to face interactions with any of my friends, technology has played a big part in connecting with my friends over quarantine. The only social interactions that I have with my friends are now through FaceTime, Snapchat, Instagram, and Xbox. Because I can’t see people in person, technology has essentially taken over the way I interact. I spend countless hours a week on my phone and online trying to connect with my peers. Many of the conversations are lacking real value because much of what we talk about are the pandemic that we are living under and how bored we all are. The mood of all of our conversations is usually depressing because all we want is for this pandemic to end and for everything to go back to normal. But alas, these are the times that we are living in and there is no telling when we are going to go back to regular daily life. Without technology, I would be completely socially isolated. But with technology, I am now able to connect with my friends and family in new ways.