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My Digital Poster: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vMqarcKG7FmWKOtGlDPVl-dwzhYq5ZdC7d5fKbqjfxw/edit#slide=id.ga66feb6c95_1_0

This year was the worst yea I’ve ever been alive. On my website, I talk about how music influenced my life this year and how it helped me escape. The transition from Middle school to high school all while doing it virtually is what I also talk about and how the year 2020 has affected my mental health. The artist I chose the mention: BTS, SZA, and Ariana grande have helped me tremendously through these times and I’m happy I get to share this project with you.

https://raegan.carrd.co/

Do you have a clue on how I feel? 2020 is one of the worst things that could have happened to me or any teenager. 2020 was supposed to be the year that I was supposed to find my true self, others too. Some of us were 8th graders going to 9th grade, some of us were 12th graders going to college or just trying to make a lot of money. STOP, can you hear me!! Can you hear us!!

2020 has me broken, I don’t even feel as though I’m myself. Im am currently a 9th grader, yes I was one of those students starting a new school virtually. It’s hard. People say everything is going to be ok but it’s not, the world is different now. Our “President” has put the United States in shock. The police that are supposed to be protecting us, as people but no they are killing people like me. Yes, Im black and after all the deaths (George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Walter Wallace Jr. etc.) George Floyd died because I white officer had his knee in his neck!! Breonna Taylor was shot in her own house because the police didn’t want to announce themselves. Walter Wallace Jr. was shot and killed in Philly by a white police man because they were scared, why did they have to use the gun? If they have tasers. I’m scared to be in my black skin. All the protests that turn into looting. The COIVID-19, QUARANTINE!! Are you sure you want to know how I really feel? I’m tired, stressed, I just don’t feel like me. It’s been a lot, a little too much for some people like me to handle. I mean we have a new President. At Least we got Trump out of office but this is going to cause more problems. Trump supporters have been laying low but they are coming up with something and I know it’s not going to be good. I just hope the world can become a better place. It’s hard to live in a world where everyone isn’t treated equally.

2020, I haven’t been able to see any of my family which sucks because family means everything to me. The friends that I did have I don’t talk to them as much because they all live far from me. I have to work on weekends so even if I wanted to hang with friends I couldn’t, but at least I get to travel to Houston, Texas to visit my mom and my brothers.

This is how I really feel. I’m scared. How do you really feel? Are you scared?

Artist’s Statement I completed this essay in my room, late at night on 11/12/20. I wrote it on my computer using google documents. I created an essay because I had a good idea in mind and didn’t know any other way to convey that idea other than an essay. The essay I wrote connects to the idea of the contest by showing how I and my life have changed due to covid-19 this year.

I started this project once it was given to me. at first, I was not sure what I wanted to do then it came to me a comic of my life in 2020. I would sit outside in mother nature to get ideas and in many other parts of my home. I chose to do a comic because I thought that it would be way better for everyone to see my point of view instead of reading my point of view.

I created this piece on my laptop at my house in Philadelphia PA. For this piece, I wanted to make a descriptive piece of writing that show what the past months have been like. I didn’t want to make some regular piece of writing though. the more I thought about the it the more I realized that several main words came to mind when I thought about the year of 2020. Pandemic, Tension, Laughter, Focus, and relief.

This writing relates to the theme of being a teenager during 2020 because it reflects some of the day to day experiences that I had. To write this I would write a paragraph about something that I remembered, or that had happened sometime that day. Each paragraph was written on a different day for I wanted my mindset on different days show in my writing. For example you may see that some paragraphs are sad/dark and others are happy.

The second piece that I created for the contest is a sonnet poem that I made about my nephew and our relationship. A sonnet poem has 14 lines divided into 4 quatrains and a couplet, which I followed to express my feelings towards my nephew. The poem has many emotions portrayed in it that represent my feelings very generously and I feel a range of emotions throughout the poem. The first emotion that I portrayed in this essay was love. This is love for my nephew and how much we care for each other. This is represented by a light purple color. The next emotion portrayed is family. This is the feeling of being there for one another and knowing we will stay together through whatever troubles we face. This is represented by a light blue The final emotion that I showed is anger or hate. Sometimes me and my nephew don’t get along, so we fight and argue all the time. This emotion is represented by a light red. When I first heard about the New York Times project, I wanted to do two things. First, I wanted to make something informative and personal, like an essay, and secondly I wanted to create an interesting writing piece, like a poem. I wanted both of the pieces to be about the same thing, so both writing pieces are about my relationship with my nephew. I created this piece by thinking of what I wanted to create. Once I had that figured out, I formed my piece and tried to find the right words to use that made sense for my emotions and followed the rhyme scheme I wanted to use. I went back many times and read through the poem to make sure it was good and portrayed what I wanted it to. It was kind of difficult to find something creative that I would be able to do, but I made something that I am proud of that is special to me.

Artist’s Statement:

Hi, I am Anh Ngo. I created this piece of art reasonably recently, being honest as a project for my English teacher. When I started, though, it’s not because of the grades. I wanted to draw these pictures out so that in the future, I can look back and have evidence of what happened in our world. I will try to save this, as this could also be a piece of history of the world. I know that these pictures are a bit strange and biased, but I only have one purpose when I drew these pictures, and that purpose is to show what it looks like through the lens of a musician during this time. I have no doubt that there are other people who are project is very similar to mine (and in fact, even better), but I wanted to tell my own story and how I looked at it. For example, in July, I drew about how I participated in a music summer camp, entirely online. Now, I know that not everyone has a music camp online, but I wanted to tell a story of a person from someone who does and what it felt like. To be honest, I don’t exactly have the best drawing skills, but I do try as much as I can to describe what it looks like from the point of view of a musician. Oh and also, another thing I wanted to point out: A lot of other people, especially those from Wuhan, have been affected by COVID-19 starting from December. Since this is from my point of view, I will only be starting the pictures in February, since that was when this whole mess started to affect me and my family. I would also like to say that I chose not to have color to reflect the fact that this year has been dark. Now, I know that my pictures may not be as glamorous as others, but I will try as hard as I possibly can to help bring the point of view of a musician through these challenging times. Thank you.

This written piece is a display of how I try my best to put my relationship with my nephew into words. We are close and to me, he feels more like a brother than a nephew. I wanted to write an essay to show the foundation of our relationship and how it has strengthened and changed throughout 2020. As we all know, it has been a very difficult year with many trials and tribulations over only 12 months, but I wanted to write about how my relationship with my nephew has survived this difficult year. I created this piece during October and I immediately thought of writing about my nephew and me in 2020 and the transition of feelings throughout this year. I created an essay to show my feelings about him, but I also created another piece to convey my thoughts and feelings uniquely. I wanted to create this specific type of piece as an elementary way to show how I feel about him and the way our relationship has altered throughout this year. I have not faced many challenges this year, but I have faced the very arduous task of living with my nephew every single day. My nephew and I go through many hardships dealing with one another every single day, but we will always get through the trials that face us together. The theme of this project is how teenagers are growing in 2020, and my project relates to the theme of being a teenager during this year in the fact that I have to handle and deal with my annoying younger “brother” while going to online school. It can be hard to deal with him, but in the essay, I convey my thoughts as best as I can. I created this essay by first, thinking of what I wanted to create. Then, I put all of my thoughts and feelings into one space that helped me format the way I wrote the essay. I went through many processes to improve my writing and make the pieces interesting, but I am pleased with the results of my planning and development. It was hard to find one thing to write about that was personal, but in the end, I found a great topic that was applicable and riveting enough to read.

Coming of Age in 2020 2020 has been a crazy year for all of us. Lots of bad things have happened, so I’ll be talking about my experiences from this year. A lot of events took place that stuck with me, so I decided to create an art piece to show my take on the events of the Black Lives Matter movement, The Election, and Covid. So I’ll be explaining that through my work.

In the upper right corner, there is Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. Many black people have died this year due to police brutality, but that’s not new. Every year a lot of black people are killed by police. I’ve always been hurt by that but after George Floyd, it really struck a chord for me. For a lot of people actually. His death was the last straw for the black community and allies. Life as a black person in America is scary. I worry about my life whenever my family and I are pulled over because of the amount of deaths by police officers that happens. I shouldn’t feel that way, no one should, but that’s just how POCs are treated here. It needs to change, but no matter how many times we march for justice, we somehow rarely ever get it. It’s painful to know that. The red drops represent the blood of black Americans that are shed every day.

To the left is Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The elections were always important, but this is the first time that I’m paying attention to since I’m old enough. I’m worried about who will win. My rights are on the line during this election. If Donald Trump wins, woman will lose the right to safe abortions and Planned Parenthood. Not to mention, the LGBTQ+ rights are also on the line. Same sex couples would lose the right to adopt a child, the right to marry and more. Also, Trump is racist, sexist, and has 26 sexual assault/rape alllegations. We can’t have him in office anymore. He’s done so much damage to so many people and will continue to if he stays. It’s clear to say that I want Biden to win.

At the bottom is corona. I missed a lot because of it. I didn’t have my graduation or any of my 8th grade trips. I didn’t get to say a proper goodbye to anyone. I also didn’t get my yearbook and I most likely never will. But, I’m grateful I didn’t lose any loved ones to covid like so many people did. This year has sucked, but it’s almost over, so let’s keep our heads up.

Where I created this was in my head, the questions I asked were what I would’ve thought to ask myself if I was in lock down. These questions are made for everyone, since everyone is different. I created this was with my friends, I wanted to do a person to person interview, but unfortunately due to COVID 19, that wasn’t possible. Mental health relates to this usual year because everyone was battling great loss in the country. Love ones were at risk of getting the most contagious viruses, not to able to see your friends or family either. Dealing with wearing masks, doing mostly everything virtual, that’s a lot for the mind. It’s important to make sure that were mentally doing okay this this crazy year, so many ups and downs through the year, we need to be positive about it! So that’s why mental health is so important when these stressful events happen, it’s important to say, “Hey I’m here for you”.

This piece of work was produced over a span of a month, from end of september to the end of october. I didn’t have to travel anywhere to create my work, I was able to use the pictures that I had taken over quarantine. I also didn’t have to take any new pictures. I used google slides and WeVideo to create this piece of work. I first put all the pictures I had on slides then I filmed myself presenting the slides. I created this piece of work because I wanted to show the good things in 2020 that happened in my life. I wanted to show that the good outweighs the bad things that happened. This piece of artwork very obviously relates to your theme of being a teenager during 2020 because i’m a teen and I talked about things that I did this year. I experienced it all.

This year has been really hard on all of us. During this time in quarantine, Many people have been doing so many different things to cope or to keep themselves busy to not worry too much or be bored. Some people like being inside more than others and some people even like it better than not being in quarantine, but I think for most people I know this is not the case. These past few weeks of November there have been a rise in COVID cases where I live which is scary but I understand why. I’m not saying that it’s smart or the right thing to do, but I understand where it’s coming from. I would have probably done the same thing if it weren’t for my parents (who are on the older side). I try to keep myself distracted while I’m not talking to people so I don’t get super lonely, but the things I do seem really pointless and there’s not much of a sense of fulfillment when I complete them. One of my hobbies that I do enjoy and that I do get fulfillment out of is drawing. So I decided to draw how I feel and what I do with visual images to show what It’s like for someone like me to be in quarantine. This drawing is a watercolor and pencil drawing of my room. I chose to make it a really purple theme because I think purple is a sad color, not as sad as blue but more a peaceful kind of sad. It shows how quarantine has really made me think about being alone.The yellow coming in from the window and the hanging moon are symbolic of how my sleep schedule is so messed up. My sleep schedule was never that great to begin with, but over quarantine it’s gotten so bad that I sometimes sleep during the day and am awake the whole night. I’ve heard that I am also not the only one thrown off their sleeping schedule. I believe that many people are struggling to keep pushing through quarantine and don’t have a solution yet. I don’t have that solution. But just know that there’s others who are feeling the same as me and I’m not alone in this.

I made this project in my office, aka my bedroom. When I heard about this project from my English teacher I immediately knew I would write about my problems with 2020. My project is about my own experiences being a teenager in 2020. I don’t really have much to say in this artist’s statement. Though I wish the word limit for the project wasn’t so low. I think I could’ve written more descriptively. But anyway thanks for the chance to express myself in this essay. I hope you enjoy it.

I started to write this piece sometime around the end of October. I worked on it in my home because I don’t go to in-person school anymore. I wrote it on a laptop often with my dog’s snout getting in the way.

My writing relates to being a teenager during this year because nowadays most teens that I know have strong opinions about my topic which is racial injustice and police brutality. I thought sharing my experience would show people that teenagers are aware of police brutality and the broken justice system. We teenagers are angry with how police are handling things. We want to see things change.

I don’t want to live in a world where as a person of color I have to keep my hood down, my hands out of my pockets and my eyes on the ground. That is why I wrote this piece.

So for this project it was kind of hard for me to spend time. I usually worked on it during English class and only sometimes after. I think the reason I had bad time management was because of work from other classes and a little bit of procrastination. Other than not working on it, this project wasn’t too hard. I did have some difficulties writing it though. The biggest problem was the word limit. I had to cut down lots of words because I did not know there was a word limit. I had about 900 words before I cut it down to 450. I wrote all of this in my room at my desk. It was a perfect place to write it and I felt very relaxed.

I decided to write in essay form because that was probably the best way to express myself. I could write everything that happened to me with words to express my feelings and emotions. It was hard to keep it under the word limit because so much has happened this year. I basically put everything that was important to me though. I am very happy with how this turned out because it gave me the opportunity to write my feelings and it gave me a better understanding as to how this year has been. It definitely helped me relieve stress by talking about this year.

In conclusion, This project helped me see the bad side of this year but also the good side. I had a lot of happy thoughts when writing this because it made me remember early quarantine. It’s odd to feel “nostalgic” about the early months of this year but I do. I am happy with this project and I hope other people like it as well. Thank you for this opportunity.

School has always included a lot of social activity. Rock climbing, on the other hand, is more of a solo sport because, while I work with teammates, I only rely on myself when I’m on the wall.

When COVID hit, school transitioned to online, and I lost touch with a lot of my classmates. As an eighth grader in a K-8 school, my last real school day with the classmates I’d been with for nine years came and went without any of us realizing. Our big eighth grade trip to Costa Rica, which we’d all been looking forward to since kindergarten, got cancelled. While normally I would have celebrated graduation next to all of my classmates following meaningful traditions, I instead spent the day squished into my living room couch in front of a screen with only my family.

Climbing was almost the complete opposite. An activity I’d always done for myself became one of my only ways to see people face-to-face. Though my climbing gym shut down, I was able to spend time rock climbing outdoors safely with friends.

During the summer, I played digital games with my friends, went to zoom calls with my family, participated in remote camps, and even had an online summer institute for my new school. But through all of this, climbing was a constant, and a way to see people in-person.

I created my project on Adobe Spark. This layout makes it easy to weave pictures and text together. It controls the photos people look at so they see one at a time and it is clear what text goes with which photo. I used images I took during the pandemic, but I wrote this piece specifically for this submission.

Recently, it’s been easy to focus on only the bad. Yes, I missed out on the last three months I’d ever have at my school, my entire summer was upended, and I had to venture into a new high school remotely. But I was still able to do the sport I love and use that activity to see my friends. Through these hectic and overwhelming times, climbing has truly been my rock - no pun intended.