If you thought senioritis was bad after returning from spring break in previous years, just think about how bad senioritis is for college seniors who were sent home for the rest of the semester due to COVID-19. After hearing that classes were resuming online for the rest of the year, mentally it was difficult to get back into the mindset to study and focus. It was a huge dissapointment to leave campus knowing that we were never going to return. Graduation was cancelled or “postponed” to a date later to be announced which pretty much feels like graduation is canceled due to the fact that some seniors such as myself have jobs lined up after school ends which will prevent them from attending future graduation ceremonies. We never got to experience Senior Week, enjoy our last spring outside with our friends and finish our academics strongly. Doing work from home is more than challenging. Each student has a different learning environment that they went back home to. For me, senioritis has hit hard. It is hard for me to focus at home. I feel I am struggling to do my absoloute best in my classes due to the lack of connection to the actual learning atmosphere Marist provides. Typically I could lock myself in the Library and focus on work for 8-10 hours a day, every day for the last few weeks of school. Now, its hard to find 30 minutes of peace and quiet around my house. Chaos is not an easy thing to focus during and I am not sure how the school expects everyone to be doing their absolute best during these extraordinary circumstances. I am just looking forward to being done with school work and I am tired of college.

As the coronavirus continues ruining plans for everyone, I am beginning to look forward to my next vacataion. One place I have in mind to vacation at is Houston, Texas. The reason I am interested in visiting Houston is because that is one of my dream cities to live in. I have lived my entire life in Connecticut and as I have grown older, I began to realize that Connecticut is not where I want to spend my entire life. Personally, I want to live in as many palces around the U.S. as I possibly can in order to live my life to the fullest. To start this decision process, I feel that visiting Houston, TX would be a good start. I would be able to see the city and get a feel for the environment. My next place to visit would be Charlotte, North Carolina. North Carolina has been a place Ive wanted to visit since I was a kid. Charlotte is a promising environment for someone my age looking to enjoy life while dive into my career. These would be the two places I’d vacation after the COVID-19 pandemic is finished so that I can see where I would like to have a fresh start in my life.

If you thought being stuck at home for over two months was horrible, try having no sports to watch on top of it. Sports are the thing that most people look forward to each season. The NBA season was just coming to an end and the playoffs were looking to be more entertaining than ever before. Baseball season was just beginning, my favorite season of all, and now opening day has been pushed back to an undetermined date. The NFL still does not know how they will be affected, whether they play without fans or end up postponing the season for a while. The whole COVID-19 pandemic has nearly stopped the entire world in their tracks. Who would have thought that the entire world would have came together and practiced social distancing to face this pandemic as well as they have. As difficult as it is for people to stay in their homes, through the use of modern technology and the constant support of others, we are managing this sitation as best as we can. Yet, a world without sports has brought sadness to all. The very thing people looked forward to each day bringing joy and excitement to all has paused. The entire world looks forward to the day sports are back in action.

Over the past few weeks I have been balancing a lot on my plate. Between COVID-19 sending all college students back home, to finding an apartment in a new city, to continuing to do schoolwork while mentally being checked out as a senior. It’s hard as a senior to go through something as extravagant as this. The last month of school is supposed to be the most exciting time for seniors. Having everything canceled and then trying to have seniors try their best to do all their work from home is a lot harder than it seems. Each person goes back to their home environment that they have escaped from for nearly four years. The difficult task of trying to readjust not only to a new way of living in society but also being back home with family can be challenging to most. In my case, I had to find an apartment to live in while my mother moves out of the place I called home the last 21 years of my life. My sister just moved out in February, my dad lives down in New Jersey and I am on my own. I was expecting to face this delema at the end of May but this whole pandemic threw everything out of wack. Considering all the last minute scrambeling, I think I’ve handled things well. As hectic as life has been, I have tried my best to do all my work for classes on time. Sometimes I have been a little late on assignments but I’m trying my best with what I’ve got. The pandemic has certainly flipped the world upside down especially for myself.

The scene that I am analyzing from “Finding Fanon 2” is the opening scene where the two characters begin falling from the sky. Both characters are identical except for their skin color. One is black and one is white. They appear out of nowhere and begin falling from the sky landing into a new and empty world. The white character lands in what seems to be the back yard of a suburban neighborhood while the black character lands in the middle of the city. These are the stereotypical areas in which these races of people are typically shown to be living in. At this point, the narrator speaks about how the characters know deep down within themselves that they do not belong there. This begins their new journey into the virtual land of opportunity to find the place where they belong. This new land is the interpretation of Fanon’s inner desires for a fresh start away from colonization and lack of freedom that he spoke about in his works. Both men begin their journey to find each other in what appears to be an abandoned island. Emptiness surrounds them, as they are the first to enter this new world.

This scene is significant in comparison to the message that Fanon was trying to promote throughout his life. Fanon wanted equality, and to show the impact of colonialization on the natives. Fanon also wanted to free those who suffered from colonization and to help with the mental repercussions caused from these instances. These men dropped into a new virtual world where they could start over with those who think and act the same as them. It represents the psychological escape from reality to a world where they could alter it any way they wanted. Trapped in the real world, they escaped into this alternate universe to live out their dreams in a way the never thought possible. The freefall was their detachment from reality into their alternate universe. Once they hit the ground, they had a fresh start, just as Fanon desired for his followers to enjoy in their lifetime.

The film, “Finding Fanon 2” utilizes the Grand Theft Auto 5 in-game video editor to interpret Frantz Fanon’s lost plays. Frantz Fanon was a politically radical humanist whose practice dealt with the psychopathology of colonization and the social and cultural consequences of decolonization. The movie starts off with two men; one black, one white, dressed in identical brown suits, with white shirts and ties. The men are falling from the sky, into a new world where they are completely equal. They land on opposite sides of the island, to which they then search for each other and begin their journey across the island. Throughout the entire film, the narrator begins what seems to be reading a manuscript of one of Fanon’s lost plays.

            Fanon spoke of equality, language, gender, race, religion, social formation and more. He wrote in academic journals and highly profound newspapers where he shared his radical vision of anti-colonial struggle and decolonization for his readers globally. This short film takes his views and puts it into the perspective of the struggle for equality. The two men are equal, identical in almost every way except skin color and their struggle to formulate and continue their friendship in their new virtual world.

            Using this virtual world, based upon Grand Theft Auto 5 game play, allows viewers to see the long journey both the characters took to find each other and then travel throughout the map. These visuals are accompanied with a consistent wind sound in the background to give an eerie feel that grasps the viewers attention to not only pay attention to the visuals but listen to the narrator as well.

            The visuals show the different ups and downs that the men face. First through falling out of the sky, then to walking through the abandoned city in order to find each other. It seems as though they are the only two like minded individuals in this new virtual world where they share a commonality with one another. Their travels go through different forms of terrain representing the challenges of society and the different battles Fanon was facing throughout his lifetime.

Other Source used: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/frantz-fanon/

Some of the best things I have found to take my mind off of being stuck inside during this quarantine are:

1. Do a puzzle
2. Pick up craft supplies and do some projects to make your home more decorative
3. Home improvement projects such as; paint your room, build a fense, make a deck, etc.
4. Binge watch Netflix like never before
5. Learn a new language
6. Catch up on all those books people have said are really good but you never had the time or desire to read
7. Learn to meditate or do yoga to relieve stress
8. SLEEP
9. Learn how to cook new recipies
10. Think of a side hussle to make extra money off of when this quarantine is over

As a senior, leaving for spring break and learning that there will be no return to campus was one of the most dissapointing and difficult tasks I have ever had to adapt to at such a fast pace. I went from having my dorm to return to each day and my friends to see to coming back to my home, packing my belongings, helping my mother move out of my house, moving myself out of my house, searching for an apartment and making sure I finish my schoolwork to graduate. On top of all this, I had to look for a work to support myself which was nearly impossible as a global pandemic is occuring. Society has nearly been put on hold. The only stores open for business are grocery stores and home improvement stores. Everyone is home, but no one can go anywhere. For me personally, this has been difficult to adapt to. I am always on the go, doing something either working, hanging with friends, helping family, going on adventures or doing projects. To basically be stick inside has caused me slowly lose my mind. Although mostly everyone is in the same situation as me, each person is battleing their own problems.

How it feels to work in the office some days.