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Lauren Minyoung Yoon

Letter to My Favorite Person on Earth

Dear Mom, I love you from the moon and back and words cannot describe how much I love you. You always have my back when I feel like falling over and you always encourage me to go on farther. You are my star, my streetlight, and my lamp. You make everything brighter and more hopeful. I’m always grateful that you are here to listen to my stories and give me advice. Days when I feel like giving up, you motivate me to take a step farther. I know you understand me the best and know how to make everything better. Love is an amazing thing, really. I’m able to trust you without second-guessing myself and I can express myself freely without feeling judged. I’m forever grateful for your guidance. Mom, you’re my best friend, supporter, companion, and soulmate. No one can ever replace the love you have for me and the faith I have in you. Through your help, I was able to grow from an immature little girl to the person I am now. I want to continue my journey with you forever. I’ll always support and love you just like how you do for me! I love you, my favorite person on earth, my best friend, my mom. Love,  Lauren     

A Day in the Life of a Sixth Grader

7:15 am- When my alarm goes off, I always wonder if I could just throw it on the ground, then go back to sleep. Well, I can’t do that, actually, because my dad is my alarm and I would be in trouble trying to throw him at the ground. 7:15 is the worst part of the day. After the alarm goes off, the quiet, peaceful house starts to wake up: my dad yelling at us to wake up, my little sister screaming at me to give her clothes (which I don’t have), my mom going through her makeup desk wondering which mascara she should put on, and me trying to find my favorite hoodie.   7:30 am- My hair is all sticky and oily and my mom screams at me to take a quick shower. I know not to argue because if I do, I have to look sticky, smelly, ugly, and oily when I go to school. When I’m in the shower, I instantly regret it because it’s soooo cold. But you can’t just get out of shower when you’re already wet. So I just stay in there for five minutes and then get out and runnnn to my room for warmth.  7:45 am- What you are probably imagining is a lovely and fancy breakfast full of warmth and happiness. Well, if that’s what you are thinking, you are wrong. My breakfast goes like this: my little sister complaining that she has way too much food, me arguing with my sister, my mom telling my sister to just eat, and my dad screaming at us to be quiet. That’s how my breakfast goes. And because of my sister, I don’t think I can eat properly with my eardrums half missing.  7:50 am- I do a quick double check just in case I forgot my iPad. And if I do have my iPad, I check if I have my science folder. If I don’t have it, you never want to know what my science teacher would say! She would say: “Honey, remembering your folder and your homework is part of your responsibility. You will get a zero if you forget. Don’t be sad because this is your fault, not mine.” And then I make sure I have my pencil case because you never know if anyone’s going to lend you a pencil. 7th period- SPANISH TIME! I love Spanish. Not because I can speak it very well. But I enjoy the class because my Spanish teacher is so kind. She rarely gives any homework and lets us play a fun game on Fridays! I also do extra Spanish on Tuesdays, which is awesome! I also have a friend in both Spanish classes, and he is interesting and funny. When we were learning the Spanish word “cero,” which is “zero” in English, he said, “Zero. The meaning of life.” It was hilarious. I think that he is one reason why I can survive 7th period!  9th period- Have you ever had a nightmare? Well, I bet you do. Let me tell you my nightmare: gym. Gym drives me crazy. I really wish that they made gym optional. Gym makes me wish I was invisible for 80 minutes. Yes, I have some friends who make going to the gym easier. But you can never get away from my gym teacher’s yelling: “Get away from your friend, Lauren!” or “Put your mask on before I send you to the office!” or “Lauren, do the jumping jacks! They are not that hard!” Following all those instructions drives me crazy! 10th period- If you had a nightmare, there are always good things too, right? And my good part of the day is woodworking! Woodworking is so much fun. You get to cut, paint, polish, sand, and file. First, you choose what you want to do. Then you cut, file, and sand. You make sure the wood is pretty and smooth. Then it’s the best part! You paint your wood. There are millions and millions of different colors. Salmon pink, light blue, purple, orange, cream yellow. There are so many of them! And you lastly, do your polishing. That makes your project extra shiny. Tutoring- I do a lot of online tutoring. Some of them are not that bad. But others are horrible. You have to sit in front of the computers forever! The teachers give a bunch of homework. There is not much to describe about my tutoring except the word boring.   Homework time- You always have to do homework, right? Well, about 7:00-9:00 p.m., I have to do my homework. I always don’t do it for two hours. Sometimes I have a little homework and sometimes I have a massive amount of homework. It’s hard, but it’s worth it.  Rest/Bedtime- Finally! After the stress of going through the whole day, why not treat myself a little? This time of the day, I call my friends, watch TV, or play with my sister. It’s my free time and my bedtime too. I cross my fingers in hopes that I don’t have a lot of homework for this time. Then I go to sleep crossing my fingers (again) that my dad wouldn’t come too early and scream at me to wake up all over again!

Back to School in the Pandemic

“You must be…” the principal said. Through my nervousness I said, “Lauren,” even though my friends at my old school knew me as Eunice. Seems to me that I still can’t believe I just moved to Chicago from my life in California. It was my second time moving to a whole new place, and I had mixed feelings about it. This was all so sudden: me, going to a new school and starting as a sixth grader. The way people looked at me and the tall glass building where kids were pouring in—I was excited, nervous, and happy. I took a glimpse at my schedule, smiled at the girl standing next to me, and walked into the building with my feet heavy as a house.    As soon as I walked to my homeroom, I started to regret being so confident. I saw my teacher and gave a nervous look. She told me to sit down and I obeyed her without a second thought. Then a girl looked at the girl behind me and shouted, “Hey! Wanna hang out after school today?” The girl behind me simply nodded and smiled. I wished I was the girl behind me. I wished I wasn’t feeling so nervous and the butterflies would calm down. Our teacher gave a short simple look at each and one of us and she told us to write down our schedule. Our teacher had short brown hair with a T-shirt and shorts. Sporty look. I wrote down my schedule and tried to look at the bright side.  A few weeks passed by and I started to get used to the school. The classes, my friends, and even the system. It was hard and itchy when I wore my white mask to school for seven hours straight. Even though we had breaks, it wasn’t long enough. I also hated that I have to stay six feet away from each other. I wish I could hug my friends, be near them, and even share food with them. Here comes the worst part of all: lunch time. Usually, lunch would be full of dancing, gossiping, laughing, playing, or reading: without a mask. But now, lunch is like, “You eat fast, and put your mask on!” It’s the worst. Masks hurt, make your breath slow, and make my glasses fog up. I miss the old days when I would sit inches away from my best friend, gossiping about boys. It seems like it’s never going to happen again, never. Even though it’s really hard to be in-person and get used to everything, I would rather risk my life than do remote learning. I’ve done remote learning before. It was the worst. Okay, I have to admit that I was being a bit lazy about my work when we started to do remote learning in March. But there were other difficulties like poor connection, not being able to see and understand clearly, or even make any friends. My friends do remote learning and they said that they miss the old days–when they played with their friends. I, for one, feel thankful that I am going in-person. There were a handful of kids who were in remote learning who didn’t understand how to do their work so they nearly didn’t do anything for class. Also, when it comes to friends, once again, I am thankful. I made a bunch of friends. They are nice, kind, and friendly. I think that if I was in remote learning, I wouldn’t even know them by now. And I would have felt absolutely lonely. So, maybe, I am lucky that I am in-person after all.  Right now, we have remote students and in-person students. Maybe friends are separated from seeing each other and I miss my old lunch time when I would gossip, hug each other, and share sweets! I think that when Covid-19 is over, I can be inches apart from my friend sharing sweets and gossiping about boys and girls, and I would even hug her when we meet each other in school or before leaving school. And most importantly, I wouldn’t have to sanitize every period or even wear the itchy, white, disgusting mask. I would probably get to see a smile on everyone’s face and I think I would be glad to see it. Even outside of school, I would probably get to travel with my friends and I hope for that day to come even if it would take 10 years for it to be over.