For today’s journal prompts, you are going to read/listen to two different pieces - one is a piece of historical fiction and the other is a poem by the Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman. You can choose to react to one or both in your journal. Then you can continue to write about your experience in quarantine (or write your own fictional letter to a friend). If you are running of things to write about, think about the fact that we only have one more journal entry left - what are your thoughts on that? How was the journaling experience? Have you done it before? Do you think you’ll do it again?
PROMPT ONE: Read this fictional letter from Scott F. Fitzgerald (the author of The Great Gatsby) to a friend when he was quarantined.
Fictional letter from F Scott Fitzgerald
PROMPT TWO: “Miracle of Morning” by Amanda Gorman- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x6wlPR83fizw6dRwwIdPBa9YRsyr8fqv8wBVkoKgKnA/edit
Quarantining is a weird new concept to me as I expect it is for many people too, and I think it's displayed wrong in stuff like modern movies and such. In most movies it seems that quarantine is a last ditch effort and such while in real life it is use as a preemptive measure to make sure not as many people are infected. I also guess I didn’t realize how long they have been around, I heard about them when Ebola was happening but I was too young then to really understand it
“Know that this distance will make our hearts grow fonder.”I liked this line because it’s what i've been thinking this whole time. I think after this quarantine has come to an end we will be grateful for what we have. We will cherish the time we spend with each other, hug people longer, be kind. Life is so short you never know what will become of it so be grateful for everyday every experience.
We are finding new things to do. As said in the poem, “Read children’s books, dance alone to DJ music. Know that this distance will make our hearts grow fonder”. We are all able to find some kind of happiness in this. Even though we feel alone, we can look outside and still see everyone in the same boat as you, the poem talks about that too. We feel alone, but we know we actually aren’t alone.
After reading "The Miracle of Morning" by youth poet Laureate Amanda Gorman I was very interested by what it meant. I realized that she is offering inspiration for people during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Her poem that she wrote and spoke inspired me and gave me comfort and courage just like she was trying to do to the entire nation. What I found cool was that just like Bill Gates Ted Talk about a future pandemic she wrote this poem way before the coronavirus situation started and it reemerged during this time of crisis.
This was an interesting experience and it made this class period go a little faster. But there is still one more left and I wonder what it is going to be about. Still, though I can’t wait for school to be over just so I can go back next year and actually attend school. Well, I guess I have to do my poem now so I have to think of one…. Roses are red, our sight can be endued, I want food. I’m proud of this one because I used a word that I didn’t even know until now well that is everything that has happened lately so till next time I guess even though it will be the last time.
I miss you all with all of my heart. I think about everyone almost everyday. I think about what we would be doing right now and just imagine us goofing around in class. We definitely took being at school with each other everyday and hanging outside of school constantly for granted. Whether it was being in the classroom listening to the teachers talk for hours or being at lunch with you guys it would be awesome to be back in that building by everyone’s side.
Nothing seems to change until there is a huge event, and maybe lives are at risk, so why not use this time of set back, to resprout from our roots better and more level headed. This is a perfect time for a drastic change in life, and remember this not as a fearful mass loss of life, but a long lesson of mortality. We will not live forever, which can be an excuse for not doing the right thing in the present, or a reason for making a better future today. Think as if the future depends on you, because when it comes down to it it does.