Photo Essay

Picture of myself in what appears to be an Uber (taken on February 6th of this year, as I have not gotten in an Uber since the pandemic began). This wasn't actually supposed to be a picture of myself, as I only intended to check whether or not I had something on the right side of my face; I didn't, and it turned out to be a pretty good picture. It looks somewhat contemplative. I'm looking out the window, wondering what the future has in store for me. Little did I know, a worldwide pandemic would begin in just over a month.

Poorly taken picture of me having complete the original Super Mario Bros that I later sent to my friends. This was at the beginning of both the pandemic and my aptly named "Mario Marathon", in which I played each main-line Mario game to see if they were really as good as I had remembered them being as a child.

This picture was another poorly taken picture of me having completed another Mario game that I later sent to my friends. This time, it's Super Mario Sunshine: the game that was and still continues to be my favorite game of all time. I love the movement in the game and the heavy emphasis of detailed exploration. Coincidentally, a tree fell on my house the morning after this picture was taken, forcing my family and I to rent a new one using our insurance. I'm still in the rental house today.

Really cool sandcastle I saw while at the beach with a friend's family. Apparently this person's friends had made it for him as a surprise for when they had gone to the beach earlier that day. It was a really nice thing to see, especially with all the stress my family and I were under, as the this was only 2-3 weeks after the tree had fallen on the house.

This was taken on Sugarloaf Mountain in late July. At this point, my family and I had moved into the rental house and things were going quite smoothly. The hike was the first time I had been able to see friend (not including the beach friend) since the tree incident occurred.

This photo was taken during a three-day camping trip I went on with six other friends from August 22-24. I really like this picture, as it perfectly reflects the contemplative and sentimental mood of the trip. We were all about to go into college. Some of us were moving into dorms while others--like myself--opted to stay indoors. Regardless, we were about to enter the most turbulent semester of school we had ever experienced.