Month: July 2020

I think I would rather stay gen-Z. We have much freedom and enjoyment at our disposal. We have many problems to solve which makes life more fun. We are the problem-solvers, the rescuers, which I think is very cool. It also makes me feel important. I like gen-Z because we have widescale access to the internet and there are many problems to solve, which I enjoy.
First, we have wide-scale access to the internet. I see this as a massive upside, because the internet is amazing. We can get instant access to any sort of information we need. We also have the ability to do jobs in computing-fields of work. These all pay well, and are very interesting. The internet’s possibilities are endless.
Next, some may say that gen-Z is bad because all the previous generations left us with all the mistakes they made. I see this as a total win though. It makes us seem capable and good at accomplishing things. The fact that we managed to make such a mess in our planet is fascinating and I feel that learning about it will be just as interesting. It’s a big challenge, and challenges are fun.
Lastly, we are in a very balanced world. There aren’t any major conflicts. Most people are on good terms, and hopefully the outbreak will make some people start getting up and doing something. Once this is all over, hopefully we can all be on good terms and nothing bad happens.
In conclusion I feel being gen-Z is great and I don’t want to change. This is because we have much access to the internet, which opens up many opportunities. We have many problems to solve, which makes us feel important and challenges are fun. We have a peaceful world which makes life fun living. I’m perfectly content with my current life and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Victor is a boy in seventh grade who likes a girl named Teresa. He is determined that this year will be the year that he will be brave enough to talk to Teresa.

He goes to math class but because he is probably too nervous, Teresa says hi and he just says hi back. He regrets not saying something nicer to her so he seeks her out during lunch. When he sees her, instead of actually talking to her and trying to “win her heart,” he just daydreams about her until the bell rings and she smiles at him. During French class, Victor pretends to know French to impress Teresa. This actually backfires on him because when the teacher asks him to speak some French, he doesn’t know any. He is lucky that the teacher didn’t call him out on it and that Teresa fell for his bluff and asked him to teach her French. He still shouldn’t have lied but at least this means that he can spend time with Teresa. However, if Teresa found out he lied, she would think that Victor was an untrustworthy person and always lies. To make sure that Teresa doesn’t find out, Victor now dug himself in a deeper hole and has to learn French faster.

To impress Teresa, Victor added to his seventh grade workload and could have potentially embarrassed himself. Some of the choices that Victor made for love are not very rational.

The short story, Seventh Grade by Gary Soto is an interesting story. I liked all the parts.

The first thing I liked about the story is that it describes why the characters do what they do very well. I think this because when the french teacher does not tell Trissa that Victor was saying fake french after that the book says “He remembered his college years when he dated a girlfri0end in
borrowed cars. She thought he was rich because each time
he picked her up he had a different car. It was fun until he
had spent all his money on her and had to write home to his
parents because he was broke.”

The second thing I like about the short story is that It describes what the characters are doing very well. The reason I think this is because when it says that Victor was looking around for Trissa it tells us how he does it, “He lowered his eyes, pretending to study, then looked slowly to the left. No Teresa. He turned a page in the book and stared at some math problems that scared him because he knew he would have to do them eventually. He looked at the right. Still no sign of her. He stretched out lazily in an
attempt to disguise his snooping.”

This is why I think the short story , Seventh Grade by Gary Soto is a very good story.

People need to connect with other people and maintain relationships. It is a fundamental necessity. But with the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone is forced to stay home, and are unable to meet others in real life. The effects of normal loneliness and forced isolation are different. A study on mice showed that when they were forced to isolate themselves from other mice, they started to want more social engagement. This connects to people, which supports the theory that being social is a basic need for humans.

In a study conducted by Livia Tomova and Rebecca Saxe, some subjects fasted for a full day, while others were in isolation for a full day. They found that people who were more lonely before forced isolation wanted to socially interact with others less than people who weren’t as lonely before. There is a “social homeostasis” hypothesis, which is that animals evolved to want to connect with others.

Personally, I don’t need much face to face interaction. Talking, chatting, or going on an online meeting is enough for me. When I chat online, I can think more about what I’m going to say and lower the chances of me messing a conversation up. Also, communicating online is more convenient, because I can go into a call anytime I have free time. I would like to see my friends in real life, but I don’t crave it a lot.

In the article “Forced Social Isolation Causes Neural Craving Similar to Hunger”, they talked about how humans are social beings and we can’t survive without social interaction. It’s basically stuck in our behavior and needs just like water and food.

The scientists first experimented with mice, isolating mice so that they can’t talk or see other fellow mice. The result was that the mice was actually lonely and it turned out that even mice needs social interaction for a good healthy brain. Another experiment was on humans, some scientists isolated humans for 10 hours and showed pictures of them doing fun things like playing or chatting with friends. Out of all the pictures shown, playing with friends half the biggest impact, showing once again humans crave social interaction. There’s a chemical in the brain that plays a big part in this craving and its called dopamine. Dopamine is a chemical released when having fun or excitement. Dopamine is also in drugs.

In the situation we are in now (Covid-19), knowing these kinds of things are really important, especially in social isolation and quarantine where you lack social interaction. Human beings are social creatures and talking to people or playing with people are just the same as food and water, but for the brain. Since Covid-19 is not allowing us to talk to our friends the same way as before, it is really important to stay positive and have some form of communication.

Overall, social interaction is really important for the human brain and without it, us humans cannot survive. It helps us not go insane, and furthermore boosts our self-esteem and our focus. This is not to be ignored and I think everybody should realize a small thing like playing with friends could matter deeply in their own lives.

In “Seventh Grade” by Gary Soto, the theme is that things seem terrible before you get to know them. Victor starts the first day of seventh grade unsure of what it’ll bring, but at the end of the day, he likes seventh grade.

Victor goes into seventh grade nervous. He is taking a French elective for class. He talks a bit with his friend, Michael, about scowling and he leaves to go to class. On the way to class, he meets the girl he likes, Teresa. He finished English and math and goes to eat lunch. After lunch, he has French class. He fakes knowing French and the teacher doesn’t rat him out, remembering what it was like when he was in love. At the end of school, he thinks that school isn’t so bad after all.

Many things seem terrible at first, but after it’s done you realize it isn’t so bad, such as flu shots. Everyone has something they are scared of but overcome. I used to be scared of the dark but I once went to go to the restroom at night and I realized “this isn’t so bad,” which is what got me over my fear of the dark.

Madi Hammond, the speaker of Living as Gen Z: From Fear to Positive Change, talks about Gen Z and how her own experiences are from her fear of clowns. I thought this Ted Talk was like most others, the speaker says an intro and talks about their personal experiences. Then they talk about the impact and what they learned. I thought that the speaker went through tough times, like the time she was afraid of clowns and didn’t go trick-or-treating, go outside, or search up the word clown because she was afraid what would show up. Next I thought the fact that she tried to go without crying in 7th grade. was kind of absurd. Adults even cry, I don’t think it should be your yearly goal. Studies have found that crying is actually healthy for you. I do not really like this video. I don’t like the topic, the topic is kind of confusing. I do not have much to say about it, so I guess this is the end.

In the short story 7th grade, we follow Victor during the school day where we see him talk to his desperate friend Michael and his longing to talk to his crush Teresa. In the end he ends up impressing his crush by pretending to be able to speak french and thankfully his teacher doesn’t expose his inability to speak french.

Now I will be talking about the reason why his teacher didn’t expose him when he pretended to speak French. His teacher didn’t expose him because he was empathetic towards him. He also says “He remembered his college years when he dated a girlfriend in borrowed cars.” which means that he was trying to pretend that he was rich.

Victor pretending to be able to speak french actually turned out to be a good thing since Teresa asks him to help her study for French. Victor’s teacher feeling empathetic towards him causes Victor’s crush to talk to him.

Seventh grade is a short story that talks about Victor’s first few days in seventh grade. Victor has a crush on Teresa and desperately wants Teresa to like him. At the beginning of seventh grade, he waits in a long line to get a computer card with the elective he choose on it. He choose French. He choose French because he wanted to visit French one day and of course, because his crush is also taking it.

He gets some advice on how to get girls to like you. The advice is to scowl. His friend gave him that advice because he had read a G Q magazine his older brother had borrowed and saw that all the male models all had a scowl on their faces when they had their arm around pretty woman, a scowl on their face when sitting by a pool, and a scowl on their face when eating with cool drinks in their hands.

When French class starts, the teachers asks who can speak French and Victor raises his hand wanting to impress Teresa, the teachers asks a question in French but Victor doesn’t understand. Instead of impressing Teresa, he humiliates himself but no one knows that except for the teacher. The teacher understood that he didn’t know French and turned away. Teresa thought he understood French so she asked if “he could help her learn French?” Victor said “yes” Victor then left and thought his teacher and his crush were good people.

7th grade is a story about Victor, the main character, and his first day of 7th grade.
On the first page, Victor goes to homeroom and gets his supplies. He also explains how he knows Teresa and why he
likes her. I like the start because it explains everything and
tells us what the story is about.
On the second page, it explains all the classes that he goes through up until French (dun Dun DUN!!!)
I like this page because it just seems like real life.
In the third and fourth page, it tells us about the French class.
All normal, the students say hi to the teacher and the teacher starts class. Until… Victor wants to impress Teresa by pretending that he knows french. The thing I like about this is that what he says is just nonsense. (lol)
But instead, Mr. Bueller let him go instead of giving him detention or some punishment. Because the teacher had the same problem he could understand what happened.

The Moral of this story is to not be overconfident.
Probably because if you are, you’ll end up messing up.