A letter from June 8th, 2020

Dearest me, I am well. How are you? Right now I am listening to the song "Watermelon Sugar" by Harry Styles :)). This is an assignment (optional) for APUSH (the class I got an A in all year). I am supposed to right about, let me check..."your thoughts and unique experiences while living through the COVID pandemic with any personal struggles, skills you learned, and how your relationships evolved. You can also choose to write about the protests that have occurred across the nation. You can include your perspective on why Civil Rights are still a dream for many, the impact social media has on the cause, and your thoughts on the appropriate way to invoke change." So, I shall now go through this list of things and see what happens. Maybe I will start ranting about something (even though I don't have many opinions lol), this is very exciting so lets get to it. First up, thoughts on the pandemic, well I don't have many. A lot of people are saying they like "miss their friends" but I don't see it. Maybe I am more of an introvert than originally thought. I don't have any "unique experiences" I suppose I have started talking a lot less and I seem incapable of holding conversations - especially with my mother. Oh wait... I just remembered my grandpa died. That sucks, sometimes I cry about it. I got this picture of me and my grandma from when I was 2 months old from his apartment. I miss him. He died of a stroke... A stroke, IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC. Whatever, the funeral was Saturday (2 days ago). I cried at the viewing and almost did at the funeral, but I kept it together. My cousin Katy knew Grandpa WAY better than I thought (better than I did). When we were at the viewing I started realizing that everyone has all these memories of him and Grandma but I really don't remember that much. I was so young most of their lives. Well hopefully in 5 years or whatever the feeling of missing him will be better. I have gotten off topic. I am supposed to be thinking about the pandemic. I haven't learned any new skills, but I have been working out a lot. I need to lose some weight (like 10 pounds) if I ever want to become a pilot in the Air Force. I'll get on that... at some point. Wow I'm procrastinating on the one thing that I literally can't procrastinate on. None, of my relationships have evolved but whatever. I'm tired of talking about this so I'm gonna move on. Ok, next, jeez I just read that and its like 17 gabillion things so I guess I'll just see what comes out of mouth or hands lol. (did you notice how I used the wrong "its"... I did that on purpose to make sure that 20-something me is as smart as 16 year old me.) So, we are in the middle of a stupid virus on a ******* spree and this is when cops decide to go all middle age crazy on black people. Like Jesus Christ can't you all see how blatantly ignorant you're being. The answer is no, no they can't. So, basically the story, in case you have forgotten, is this guy named George Floyd was ****** because this cop was SITTING ON HIS NECK, I put that in caps to make sure the point was made. 3 other cops just stood there watching, like they are literally supposed to be protecting people so to protect all the white people they decided that this innocent black man was endangering them all or something. Well anyways, this along with some other racist people have started international-wide protests on being anti-racists. That's good. I have not protested at all, in fact I don't even really want to go on Instagram because of all the posts about anti-racism. I feel bad about it... really I do but some people are like "dismantle cops" and I don't think that's an answer but maybe I'm completely wrong on this one. Hmm who knows. I feel like I should participate in this activism, but I really just don't want to and yes I know in 30 years when I have some adopted kid (because I don't want to birth a kid) they will ask me what I did in this time and I'll basically have to explain how I seemed to be on the wrong side of history. I'll work on getting myself to speak up about this kind of stuff. Well, this was an assignment for APUSH but I don't really feel like writing about this stuff anymore so I am just gonna say a bunch of stuff about me (in 2020). Ok let's see. I had guild yesterday, I think I did pretty well but I completely messed up my Chopin (Nocturne in C# minor) like the left hand was UGH I can't even. Whatever she literally said, "I can tell you love to play Chopin" so maybe I am too hard on myself. I also played Brahms Rhapsody in G minor, Prelude and Fugue in B flat Major, Spanish Prelude by Gershwin and some other stuff go look at the Guild report card that I am sure I'll put somewhere for keepsakes to see how I did. So since Guild was yesterday I haven't played piano today... that is the first time I haven't played since Easter which was literally 2 months ago. I think I'm getting pretty good at piano. Better than Julia McDonald at least. People keep asking me if I'm gonna like minor in music in college or something. Honestly, I have no idea. Like if I go to the Air Force Academy (which I realize is a extreme long shot, a massive "if" if you will) I wouldn't even be able to minor in music but anywhere else I'm sure I would. I guess I wouldn't mind keeping music in my life like that but there are so many more practical applications for a minor, like what am I gonna do with a minor in music - play jazz in some oldies band in bars on weekdays?? Whatever, maybe it can be a side job. Speaking of jobs, right now I want to be a physicist but I keep thinking about how filthy rich I want to be so working on Wall Street would be a better option therefore I would have to study like economics or something, which could be useful. I am taking both of those classes Junior year so I guess we'll see which one I like more... ooh the suspense, what will I do? What other classes am I taking next year, you ask, well 8.9 credits worth! Ok I'm gonna name them - AP Lang (gross) , AP Euro (hard) , AP Econ (we'll see), AP Physics (oh snap), AP Comp Sci Principles (easy), AP calc AB (O'Hara wouldn't let me switch to BC), Jazz Band (cute), German 3 (lol), and 3 day girls concert choir (only for playing piano, I couldn't care less about singing). Well it's a long shot that all of that is going to happen in one schedule. This letter has gotten rather long, I wonder if you're still reading. Of course you are, that's why I will now call you (myself) an "idiot" just to make sure that you know how much I like the word. You are an idiot :). Well, I don't know if I have anything else to say. I told mom that I would write down all the colleges I am thinking about so we can think about how to do college visits. Ooh let me see if I can name them and then you can play this fun game of like, what was I thinking at age 16. Ok here goes nothing - Pitt (not my first choice by a long shot, don't tell Sydney that, oh wait she already knows that lol), Northeastern, Tufts, Carnegie Mellon, Dartmouth (they don't have ROTC though), maybe Princeton, Cambridge (should I actually apply there), and of course the Air Force and Naval academies but as I said somewhere up in that big thing of words that will be a long shot. I am reading a book called "Lovely War" by Julie Berry, it's quite good but I'm not to far into it yet, I finished the prequel to the "Hunger Games" which was really good. The song that just came on is "Mystery of Love" from the movie Call me by Your Name which reminds me that I want to reread that book, maybe I will do that this summer. Ahh Timothee Chalamet is so hot, like God his jaw line... anyways. I am finishing the 4th season of 13 reasons why maybe I will do that today or maybe tomorrow. Alex is like questioning his ********* and he is also really insecure and he was like dating Winston or something, but then he stopped that and now this other guy (Charlie St. George) is like into him but Alex is pushing him away but I'm thinking they'll end up together. Just a hunch. Oh and Clay has actually lost his mind. Whatever you are doing right now, stop, and watch 13rw cause then you will be transported back to this date and you will be like "OMG 16 year old me had really good taste in Netflix shows and wow like Clay really has lost his mind". Oh coronavirus moved spacecamp from this summer to next that sucks but you know I'm still going for free right now so it should be good. I have run out of things to say and my hands are getting tired so I will leave you with a few closing remarks. You better not own a dog now. Or a cat. Really no animal. Drink some water. Actually you'll be over 21 I think by the time this gets to you so go have a shot of whiskey for me. Cheers - I hope you hate it! You will be making millions, unless you become a physicist... what a predicament. In fact go watch "The Martian" because that's what originally made us want to be physicists in the first place. Whatever, if you become a physicist than there is always NASA and SpaceX and astronauting and stuff, so maybe it won't be all bad. I am rather interested about what Russia is like so maybe take a trip there figure it out and stuff. I'm not a big fan of boats so maybe I shouldn't go into the Navy. I can't find a job. Try and find all the grammar mistakes in this for a gold star. Maybe we'll like English better in the future. Well that's all from you in 2020. With the deepest sympathies for what the world has become, love, me/you