So for me I have a decently interesting story for behind like what's my favorite food. So I really like lobster. Lobster tastes, tastes pretty good. The way my mom makes it is pretty good, but kind of the memory I associate with having lobster or like the kind of thing that I associate whenever I'm eating lobster, is kind of like, my family being together because she would always make lobster since it's fairly more expensive than just what I normally eat. Like, I don't eat lobster every day. It's reserved for special occasions like a holiday or a birthday celebration. And for these celebrations, my whole family would gather together and my mom would, of course, cook the lobster for dinner. And I love the taste of seafood and kind of like the novelty of, because it would just be like once every few months that I would be having this dinner. So, definitely, like I like the change of pace and also because It would be the gathering of, like, my family. My siblings are significantly older than me and they don't, they didn't often like come home except for these celebrations or holidays so whenever they would come home it would be, they would enjoy this lobster dinner with me and there would usually just be a fun time with everyone together.

And then another really cool thing that had happened is I'm doing this summer program where I get to connect with people like across the world and I got to connect with this person in Indonesia and she's gonna be like -- kind of like a mentor for me and it's so crazy but like we can -- we are so alike in so many ways. We have a lot of the same interests and I was just talking to her about like horror movies and like these thrillers, like I'm really into that stuff and it's really hard for me to find people that are into that stuff like my age, and we started talking about this show like Dexter, and we both really, really like the show and I like, literally have never met someone who liked that show in my age group and it was just so crazy to be able to talk about that stuff.

Looking back to the beginning, was there a specific moment you realized this was going to be a big deal? Oh yeah, oh COVID. I remember very -- I remember exactly actually. It was mid March, and I guess that's not exact, but I remember it was one day until my state meet for my synchronized swimming competition. And we had been practicing for months and months and months. And the next day was going to be our meet. And I remember at school, they started talking about this whole COVID thing, like, "oh in a couple of weeks we might take a week or something off." And I was like, "okay, yeah, whatever, taking a week off is chill." And then that was on a Thursday and then that Friday like there was no school. I remember I had a physics test that Friday and I was so happy there was no school 'cause I did not want to take the physics test. But I was super, super upset because we also didn't have our state meet. I was like, "wait, what? So are we rescheduling it? What is going on?" So then just like that, like a week went by, and I was like, "okay, well, they did say a week," and then I started watching the cases and they just kept going up. And I was like, "wait a second, wait a second. This is not -- this is not what supposed to be happening, you know? This is like something that happened so far away, like why is this affecting me? Like, I don't understand." And so, I went through this like state of confusion, I guess.

This week has been exciting, but it's also been a little bit sad. I was taking part in the American Legion Auxiliary program for Girls' State Michigan. And it was fun, it was exciting. And I made a lot of great friends and learned that I probably will want to go into law for my career. But I was also sad because I didn't get into Girls' Nation and I didn't get scholarships that I wanted to get. So that part has been pretty upsetting to me, but I am glad that I made some friends, even though they are scattered all around the state, including the Upper Peninsula. I probably won't be able to see them very much, but I'm glad that I at least now have a new group of girls to talk to. So that's -- that's pretty fun. Yeah, having to deal with the feeling of not being good enough to win the scholarships and to win Girls' Nation has been something that I've really been struggling with over the past two days. Even though I've known that I've worked hard, it's tough for me to see other girls who have worked just as hard as I have get it and wonder like what could I have done to be better? What could I have done to actually achieve the goals that I want to achieve? It's been really difficult for me but hopefully I can move past this feeling and work hard and possibly even harder in the future to work towards what I want to do.

Further into Corona when we went on a hybrid schedule... so two of our days would be in person and then the other two would be virtual, I was nervous obviously cuz I didn't know who was gonna be there. And when I got into class, I didn't know anyone very well because this was the first time that I had taken these classes in person. And so I remember having to stretch myself very outside of my comfort zone in order to start a conversation with those around me and get out of my comfort zone and just talk to people that I wouldn't have normally talked to. And I remember, my -- one of my really good friends now, we didn't know each at the beginning of Corona, or we didn't know each other that well, like, we were acquaintances. But we never talked much. And so I had to take a leap and I just struck up a conversation with her one day in our German class, and she turned out to be very friendly and very nice. And she's one of my closest friends now and I'm really grateful for Corona because I had had anxiety over social situations before this and I feel like the Coronavirus really pushed me to create social interactions and to just lean out of my comfort zone and discuss things with people that I wouldn't normally discuss because we have nothing else to talk about and to create those new bonds and to create these new friendships. And I -- I feel like that's one of the ups that this pandemic has really shown me is to get over my social fears of possibly being rejected or just tons, tons of different things that I was afraid of that the pandemic has kind of shown me that no, you don't need to be afraid of this cuz everyone, everyone is afraid of it. And so that is one of the things that I am actually thankful about the pandemic for.