What is your strongest opinion? If you could change one issue in the world with unlimited resources, what would it be and why?

I would say I feel strongly about inequality. My parents are unbiased, so I can make my own opinion. As a woman, I have been catcalled and harassed, so I have intense emotions about equality. I know many of my friends have experienced gender inequality, racism, etc, which only makes me more passionate about this topic.  I am also very passionate about the environment, about changing the world for the better. Global warming is a big issue, and it is only getting worse. Originally, I was planning on going to a global warming rally earlier in the year, but it was unfortunately canceled. Me and my family regularly reuse and recycle compost, and we made a vow to never use plastic straws. 

What are the most important values and qualities in a person to have, according to you? Have you made any close friends at ISM, who are they, and what do you think is their most special quality?

I haven't made friends at ISM yet, but they are all friendly to me. I think the most important values and qualities in a person are how compassionate, kind, respectful, and humorous they are. Overall, they can make mistakes, but they need to be decent people. 

How to Have a Healthy Lifestyle

In our generation, people have seemed to lose track of their health especially with popular fast food chains and getting no exercise at all from laying down all day. Now that we are in a global  pandemic people have more on their minds especially students on zoom all day. Your health is one of the most important things because it's how your body runs but most people don’t realize this. There are major things to improve your overall health and they are easy to follow. Some are simple like 10 minute exercises but some are bigger like a change in your diet. 

Do you ever have to wake up at 7am for work or school and you realize how little sleep you got? That is bad for you. According to research, children from the age of 6 to 13 need 9-11 hours of sleep per night, Teens from the age of 14 to 17 need 8-10 hours of sleep per night, and adults from the age of 18 to 60 need 7 hours of sleep. From not getting enough sleep, you get eye bags, sleep deprivation, and it decreases the ability of your brain to think. Now that we have established how bad not getting enough sleep is for you, here are ways to fix your lack of sleep on days that you have to wake up early. An important thing to remember is to not drink any liquids with caffeine up to 1 hour before bed because caffeine activates your brain and wakes you up. Another thing to incorporate into your sleep routine is to stay aways from electronics or screens an hour before sleeping and instead play bored games with your family or read a book. Now that you know about the importance of sleeping, make sure to take care of yourself and get a good night's rest.

Exercise is the number one thing you can do for your body to stay fit. When you are fit, it's not only about your looks but also about your health. Your immune system benefits from having a healthy body and helps you combat diseases. Exercise also gets you up and active for your blood to flow and wake you up. Exercise also helps you sleep better, lowers your blood pressure and reduces depression and anxiety. Exercising can improve your strength and boost your endurance. I learned from the website 10 benefits of physical activity , that physical activities bring oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and help your cardiovascular system work better. 

What a person eats defines their lifestyle. You should try to eat healthy and less preservative while still getting your nutrients to stay active throughout the day. Preservative foods like canned food are hormonal and affect your mood throughout the day. Your diet also affects your weight and like I said from not exercising, your immune system is weaker which means you are prone to more diseases.

In conclusion, there are a lot of things people can do to keep themselves healthy, emotionally and physically. Exercising, sleeping well, and having good eating habits will make a great impact on your health. All of these 3 are connected to each other because to exercise, make sure you have enough energy and you can get that energy from sleep or getting your nutrients from healthy food. Try doing these changes and watch your lifestyle get healthier by the day.    

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise/art-20048389 

By Alina Suga

Music has always been at our disposal. Can be found on almost any site, from Spotify to Apple Music, and YouTube. Some people say that music is their life, so what would anybody do if the music weren’t in their lives? Would emotions change? Memory? Health? Recovery? Coming in different forms and used in different ways throughout the world, they have the same effect on us. Whether it’s pop, folk, indie, nature, brain waves, or 8D audio they all affect our bodies in unimaginable ways. 

The most obvious effect of music is that if you are listening to a fast-tempo song your heart rate and blood pressure increase, and high tempo music has been found to evoke positive emotions in the listener. Some of the emotions that were found to develop were happiness, excitement, delight, and liveliness. Whereas when you listen to a slow-tempo song your heart rate and blood pressure decreases, as well as building negative emotions. Emotions that were found were sadness, depression, and heaviness. 

Melodies don’t only have an effect on your emotions, blood pressure, and heart rate but also on your memory or your ‘brain’ in general. The brain's role in the human body is to regulate our emotions, memory, and speech, as well as the action of our arms and legs and the function of several organs. Our senses are also provided by the hippocampus which is located in the temporal lobe of the brain. Recent studies have shown that music helps to relieve anxiety, blood pressure, and pain, while also enhancing sleep quality, mood, mental alertness, and memory. Given this information, doctors and scientists have studied the effect of music on each section on the brain. After studying how the brain reacts to music, doctors were able to learn that each section reacts differently. According to Sugaya, the functions of the frontal lobe - for controlling higher-level executive functions, voluntary movement, creative expression, and management of higher-level executive functions - and by listening to music, we can enhance the functions. Other sections of the brain are similarly affected by music. 

You may be wondering if music has any impact on preventing a stroke, heart attack, or other health issues. A study conducted by Harvard Medical School concluded that music helps with the recovery of a stroke, and can possibly prevent them. After being treated for severe strokes, sixty people were enrolled in a trial. A third of the patients were allocated at random to listen to recorded music for at least one hour per day. Visual memory increased 60% in the music listeners after three months. 

Overall, music has tremendous impacts on the listener, from stroke recovery to emotional impact, to memories. Music is widely used, as it should be. Next time you listen to music see if you can see a difference in your emotions, memories that you are reminded of, or perhaps just relax. 

I GOT THE SHOT!

By Clare M. May 21st 2021

My name is Clare Maldony and on May 14th I received my COVID vaccine the day after it was approved for kids 12-15 in the United States. This was my experience with the vaccine process!

On May 13th at around 7 pm, Kamala Harris reposted a post from the Whitehouse Instagram on her story, which stated that kids 12 and up were now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccination. I was super excited because this could mean I would be able to travel over the summer and do more of the things that were opening up with restrictions, and I had been waiting for months at this point. So I rushed to vaccines.gov and specified that I wanted the Pfizer vaccine. With that, I was able to input my zip code and find the nearest place offering my chosen vaccine to where I’m currently living. (Edison, NJ) Luckily there was an appointment available the next day for a Walgreens in Bayonne NJ, which is about 30 minutes away, so I booked it. The only information they needed upon confirmation was an email, my birth date, and a phone number. 

The following day we went early to the Walgreens in Bayonne for my appointment at 3:30 pm. Upon arrival, we waited in line for approximately 5 minutes, and then we were able to confirm our appointment. They asked once again for an email and phone number, as well as insurance. We have insurance so we set that up, but the lady clarified that if we didn’t have insurance she would mark it under another health care service of some kind. She gave us a paper to fill out and a receipt for $0.00 (haha) and we sat and waited for the doctor. 

At about 3:10 the doctor came out and called my name. He was very kind and reassuring and explained that it would take like three seconds. He did the shot, and it didn’t hurt. At all. When we finished he wrote down the information on my vaccine card and told me to wait outside for about 15 minutes before I left in case I had any major symptoms. I read my book while I waited, and by the time the 15 minutes were up my arm was sore and my head was hurting. Nothing major, but normal symptoms. 

That night I was exhausted and I was having very bad allergy symptoms. The next couple of days my arm still hurt a bit but nothing extreme. About a week later now, I feel no pain and no symptoms.

My second dose is scheduled for June 3rd. If you’re thinking about getting the vaccine, or you’re unsure and it’s available, get it! Better to be safe than sorry I say.