Rain, rain, go away! Today is March 24.
I’ve decided the sky has forgotten it’s allowed to be more than one color. For the last few days, morning, noon and night have all looked like identical shades of sorrow and sadness. As much as I enjoy a good rainy day with a book, my cat and a fire, it’s been hard to have any motivation to work when the whole world seems to be shrouded in a monochrome blanket.
Dreary weather aside, I had a lovely morning filled with fluffy Texas toast French toast. Since I was a little girl, any time my dad makes French toast I’ve been his sous chef. While he deals with mixing the milk, eggs and vanilla extract in a big bowl, carefully dipping in slices of bread and spreading them out on the griddle, I shake cinnamon and nutmeg onto their slowly browning surfaces. Part of the way through cooking, my parents and I got the news about Columbia and Boone County’s stay-at-home order. While some of my friends were sad about the extension of being away from school, I was excited to have more time to spend at home with my family reading, playing cards and relaxing. When we sat down to eat, we all chatted about what the order meant for seniors, classes, teachers and the rest of the year. At that time, there had been no announcement from Columbia Public Schools regarding the district’s policy, so our speculations were purely guesswork. It is crazy to think a week ago was the last day of in-seat school I’d have this month.
I lounged around after breakfast and ended up starting “Katy Keene,” a new TV show about a group of friends living in New York City. I became enthralled in the drama-comedy and quickly finished the first two episodes. I felt a little too lazy for my own good, however, so I decided to take a shower and shave. Having no place to be, I took my time and enjoyed relaxing and pampering myself a little rather than rushing like usual. When I was done, I decided to do some work preparing for an essay on William Shakespeare’s Hamlet I needed to write for Advanced Placement (AP) Literature and Composition. After being absent on the day I was supposed to complete it in class, I was a little more than a week late on handing it in, which I felt bad for.
I worked with my dad for a bit reviewing his old Hamlet materials from when he taught AP Literature and Composition years ago. While I felt I understood the plot of the play well enough, I struggled to deeply analyze the themes and recall a variety of specific quotations, which I’m sure was apparent in my finished product. He showed me multiple sample thesis and essays, gave me tips and critiqued my comprehension. After about an hour or so, I decided it was time for me to take my own shot and dive into writing my essay. Of the three options, I selected the prompt about madness and did my best to analyze the various character, literary and thematic elements in Hamlet in the most sophisticated way I knew how in the 50 minute time constraint without having access to my notes or the actual text.
As confident as I felt about my textual knowledge, I still submitted the paper feeling shaky and uncertain in my own abilities. Regardless of what happened with my grade, however, I intend to read Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World in the next few days, and by applying myself to a new text I’ll be able to further improve my proficiency in literary analysis. Even though it’s spring break, I’m planning on completing some assignments for AP Psychology and some of my other classes tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll have the energy to apply myself and burn through the work so I can have time to enjoy the rest of my week. For the rest of the night, my family and I are watching our favorite TV shows and movies together, so it will be nice to be able to shut off my brain for a bit.
“… And then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?” — Vincent van Gogh, artist
How did you spend your seventh day of social distancing? Let us know in the comment below.
