How 2020 Went For Me

2020 has brought many major challenges. Not only was there a global coronavirus pandemic, but there were also record-breaking temperatures and fires. I started my first year of college online and met many people along the way. 

How the first half of 2020 (January to June) went for me can be found here, so in this post, I'll mainly be discussing about some of the major events that I experienced during the second half of the year.

July

Coco Movie

During the Fourth of July, my family and I watched the Hamilton musical for the first time. (I didn't watch the musical live, but I watched the recording of it.) The musical tells the story of Alexander Hamilton, including Hamilton's experiences during the American Revolutionary War, becoming the Secretary of the Treasury by president George Washington, marrying Eliza Schuyler, his affair with Maria Reynolds, and his duel with Aaron Burr. I personally liked the singing and rapping in the musical because it made the musical entertaining and interesting to watch. Shortly after watching Hamilton, I helped compile videos for my music group's fourth virtual performance video, which can be found here on YouTube. About a week after that, my family and I watched the movie Coco, where a boy called Miguel is deeply passionate about becoming a musician and idolizes the musician Ernesto de la Cruz, but his family forbids any music to be played. While I was slightly scared of some parts of the movie (such as seeing the skeletons for the first time), I thought the movie showed the importance of family members being there for each other and remembering family members as they pass away. Towards the end of July, I attended my UC Santa Barbara Freshman Orientation via Zoom (it couldn't be in person due to the ongoing pandemic). Despite my orientation being online, I was able to meet new people, learn more about UCSB, and choose my classes for the fall quarter.

August

An image of the Chinese drama I watched 

Anthony with his birthday cake

On August 2, Anthony, my younger brother celebrated his 9th birthday. Although my family could not have a larger celebration for his birthday due to the pandemic, we were still able to enjoy his birthday. During mid-August, the Bay Area suffered a record-breaking heatwave that lasted about a week. Palo Alto, which is where I live, reached 103ºF on one of the days. In addition to the extreme heat, there was lightning on one of the nights. While the lightning was accompanied with some rain, it also led to multiple fires around the Bay Area, which negatively affected the air quality in the Bay Area. 

From the beginning to around mid-August, my mom wanted me to watch a Chinese drama called I Don't Want to Be Friends With You (which is 我才不要和你做朋友呢 (wo cai bu yao he ni zuo peng you ne) in Chinese), where a high school girl and her mom do not get along very well. However, once the high school girl travels 20 years into the past and becomes friends with her mom, who was around her age 20 years ago, she is able to understand her mom better. I initially didn't like the drama that much, but as the episodes progressed, I thought that the show was interesting to watch. 

From around mid-August to early September, I took an online edX course called Exercising Leadership: Foundational Principles, where I learned about different aspects to leadership, including knowing more about what leadership is, when leadership is necessary, and leadership becomes more dangerous if isolated. My music group's (Polar Bears Music Group) fifth virtual performance video was published during mid-August.

September

I promoted my music group via Instagram by encouraging people to join Polar Bears, submit performance videos for the next virtual performance, and describing my positive experience as a Polar Bears Music Group member. I helped compile videos for that performance, and the video can be found here. Additionally, my music group decided that it would be better to have virtual performance videos every 2 weeks instead of every month and so we had another virtual performance that took place later in the month. 

During early September, the Bay Area (as well as the rest of California) suffered an extreme record-breaking heat wave. Woodland Hills hit 121ºF, the highest temperature ever in Los Angeles County. Meanwhile, in the Bay Area, there were several places that were 110ºF and above. While I personally saw that the highest temperature for Palo Alto during that heat wave was 107ºF on September 7, it appeared that Palo Alto hit 108ºF the day before. Shortly after the heat wave, Palo Alto and the rest of the Bay Area experienced orange skies as well as significantly cooler temperatures (mostly 60s and 70s) compared to the triple-digit heat just days before. While temperatures did become warmer in a few days after experiencing orange skies, the temperatures were not record-breaking. However, during late September, the Bay Area once again experienced record-breaking heat, although the heat wave was not as hot as the one that happened earlier that month. Palo Alto did reach 100ºF, though. Additionally, the Glass Fire broke out in the northern portion of the Bay Area, which led to hazy skies and unhealthy air quality.

Promoting Polar Bears Music Group via Instagram

During September, I became more acquainted with other UCSB students by attending socials. One of the socials I attended was 99Rising, a virtual club fair featuring Asian student organizations at UCSB that took place during the evenings of September 28 and 29. Through those club fairs, I was able to learn more about those UCSB student organizations and join the ones that were the most interesting to me.

Among Us

I finally created a TikTok account during September (although I am not very good at it). I also started playing Among Us, a game that can accommodate up to 10 people. In Among Us, there are crewmates and imposters (1-3 depending on the amount of people, though I never played a game with 3 imposters). Crewmates have certain tasks to do, while imposters try to kill the crewmates. Once a crewmate is killed, he or she becomes a ghost. If crewmates see a dead body, they can report it and the people vote out who they think the imposter is. Crewmates win if they kill all of the imposters or if they all finish their tasks before the imposters can kill enough people, while imposters win if the amount of crewmates that are still alive equals the amount of imposters that are alive.

October

Classes for fall quarter at UCSB officially began during the beginning of October. The classes I enrolled in were Geog 3 (Oceans and Atmosphere), Hist 17A (American People), and Math 4A (Linear Algebra w/Applications). All of my classes were online due to the pandemic. For all my classes, lectures were pre-recorded, while sections (groups of students within a larger class) were live for Geog 3 and Hist 17A. For Math 4A, there weren't exactly sections, but TAs (teacher assistants) held office hours during the section times. There were weekly quizzes for all of my classes. Towards the end of October, I had my first midterm for Geog 3 as well as my first essay for Hist 17A (a primary source analysis).

I began participating in several UCSB clubs and organizations, including TASA (Taiwanese American Student Association) UCSB, Data Science UCSB, SASE (Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers) UCSB, and UCSB CKI (Circle K International). I attended the general body meetings for those clubs/organizations, as well as some of their events and programs. For TASA and Data Science UCSB, I participated in their mentorship programs. TASA's mentorship program is also called the Big-Little Program, while Data Science UCSB's mentorship program is also known as Big Data Lil Data. For both TASA and Data Science UCSB, I applied to be a mentee (which is more commonly known as a "little" in the TASA mentorship program). For Circle K, I participated in some of their service events. The service events that occurred in October involved transcribing various documents. For many of the clubs/organizations that I participated in, I was able to meet many new people and connect with some of them via social media (Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc.).

In October, the August Complex Fire between Eureka, Chico, and Mendocino County had burned over 1 million acres, which is the largest fire in California history. The total amount of acres burned in California this year surpassed 4 million.

2020 Stats on Fires

Heat waves continued to occur in the Bay Area during October. Palo Alto had temperatures well into the 90s during early and mid-October. For instance, Palo Alto hit 95ºF on October 1.

Because I was already 18, I could vote in the presidential election for the first time. I mailed in by ballot to a designated ballot drop box. I decided to vote weeks before the election because I wanted to ensure that my ballot would be counted.

In addition to having a virtual performance, my music group had a live performance on Zoom, which happened to be on the same day as my mom's birthday (although the live performance was in the afternoon, while my family and I celebrated my mom's birthday during the evening).

November

During election day, due to a large amount of mail-in ballots, the election results were not immediately announced. At first, it looked unclear whether or not Joe Biden or Donald Trump would win. However, given the fact that most mail-in ballots were for Biden due to Trump being against mail-in ballots, Trump's early leads in some states ended up with Biden winning in many of those states (such as Pennsylvania and Georgia). I even made a TikTok related to the election, showing how close the races in Pennsylvania and Georgia were. Even though Trump demanded recounts and lawsuits in several states, Biden still won those states, and most lawsuits were dropped or dismissed. Biden ended up winning the election, and I'm glad that he won because Trump has demonstrated poor leadership in handling the coronavirus pandemic.

Around mid-November, I began selecting courses for UCSB's winter quarter during my first pass time (a period of time where I'm able to select courses). Although I at first wasn't able waitlist Writing 1 (which was a class that I had to take), I figured that I could do so by linking the class with another class I had on the schedule so that once a spot in Writing 1 was available to me, Writing 1 would be added to my schedule, while the class I linked Writing 1 with would be dropped. In a few hours after selecting courses, I was able to get Writing 1 on my schedule. During mid-November, I had a take home midterm exam for Hist 17A that consisted of responding to certain prompts by describing the historical context and significance. I also had my second midterm for Geog 3. 

In Circle K, I went to service events that involved identifying animals. I met with my TASA "family," which consists of my big (my mentor), sibs (who are also the littles (mentees) of my big), and anyone else that is related to my big and sibs (such as sibs of my big and their littles). We met via Zoom to chat and play some games. For SASE, I applied for their mentorship program, although pairings will be decided next quarter (winter quarter).

My music group published a virtual performance video in November that can be found here. During early November, my family and I celebrated my dad's birthday.

December

I had my second pass time to select courses, where I added another course. However, the lecture time that course had conflicted with the lecture time of one of my other courses I chose. I wasn't quite sure what to do, but I eventually decided to email the professors of those classes. One of them replied that lectures would be live but recorded and so attending them isn't mandatory, while the other replied that lectures would be prerecorded. I also recently had finals for Math 4A and Geog 3 as well as a final essay for Hist 17A, though I was finished with them by Wednesday night. 

About a week before I began my finals, I helped compile the video submissions for my music group's next virtual performance, which can be found here. I also noticed that much of the Bay Area had temperatures in the 70ºF range (which is warm for December). Although that only lasted a few days, a few temperature records were broken. In Palo Alto, the temperature hit around 75ºF during the warmest day (December 8), while Palo Alto's high temperature on Accuweather was 77ºF on that same day.

Looking Forward

2020 has been a long year with many ups and downs. While 2020 was a difficult year, there were quite a couple of good moments that came out of it. While I can't expect 2021 to be much better than 2020, I do hope that things will get better. After all, Biden is going to be inaugurated soon, and he seems to have a clear plan of improving America in many different ways. 

The Future Climate of the Bay Area

Over the past couple of years of living in the Bay Area, I have noticed more record-breaking heat waves, especially during the warmer months of the year. During the September 2017 heatwave, many places in the Bay Area exceeded 100ºF and broke temperature records. Specifically, I remembered Palo Alto hitting 109ºF, while San Francisco shattered its all-time record high temperature by reaching 106ºF. I am deeply concerned about these heat waves because they increase wildfire danger. During 2017 and 2019, the North Bay region of the Bay Area experienced severe wildfires that damaged structures and led to evacuations. In 2018, the Mendocino Complex Fire that occurred north of the Bay Area was the largest fire in California history. These wildfires worsened the air quality in the Bay Area, and I often wore a mask so that I would not breathe in the smoke. It seems that the future climate of the Bay Area – along with the entire state of California – is quite ominous.

Today, I stumbled upon a Climate Central article that shows the average summer high temperatures of 1,001 cities in the U.S. by 2100. According to this article, by 2100, summers in Palo Alto (average summer high of 81.14ºF) will be like summers now in Concord, North Carolina (average summer high of 88.29ºF).

By 2100, Palo Alto's average summer temperature is projected to increase from 81.14ºF to 88.29ºF, a difference of 7.15ºF.

In the table below, I included data from the Climate Central article on how summer temperatures are projected to change for many places in the Bay Area.

Bay Area Future Summer Temperatures

Bay Area City/Community	Current Average Summer Temperature (ºF)	Predicted Average Summer Temperature in 2100 (ºF)	Average Summer Temperature Change (ºF)
Alameda	71.38	78.66	7.28
Antioch	88.21	95.58	7.37
Berkeley	73.08	80.49	7.41
Brentwood	88.27	95.58	7.31
Castro Valley	76.62	82.99	6.37
Concord	85.78	93.58	7.8
Cupertino	82.87	89.89	7.02
Daly City	67.57	74.98	7.41
Danville	83.75	91.31	7.56
Dublin	85.57	93.22	7.65
Fairfield	87.22	95.22	8
Fremont	77.9	85.26	7.36
Gilroy	86.5	93.87	7.37
Hayward	74.97	82.27	7.3
Livermore	85.37	93.22	7.85
Milpitas	80.89	88.29	7.4
Mountain View	78.64	85.84	7.2
Napa	83.08	90.86	7.78
Newark	77.07	84.43	7.36
Novato	80.29	87.64	7.35
Oakland	72.36	79.61	7.25
Palo Alto	81.14	88.29	7.15
Petaluma	81.55	88.99	7.44
Pittsburg	87.19	95.22	8.03
Pleasanton	85.15	92.53	7.38
Redwood City	76.39	83.59	7.2
Richmond	72.21	79.61	7.4
Rohnert Park	80.82	88.38	7.56
San Bruno	70.77	77.94	7.17
San Francisco	68.61	76.17	7.56
San Jose	81.82	89.11	7.29
San Leandro	73.63	80.98	7.35
San Mateo	74.48	81.54	7.06
San Rafael	77.45	84.88	7.43
San Ramon	84.88	92.53	7.65
Santa Clara	79.97	87.12	7.15
Santa Rosa	80.62	88.09	7.47
South San Francisco	70.29	77.59	7.3
Sunnyvale	78.82	85.91	7.09
Union City	77.59	85.1	7.51
Vacaville	91.67	99.63	7.96
Vallejo	78.53	86.22	7.69
Walnut Creek	84.36	92.05	7.69

Based on this information, it seems that places in the Bay Area are projected to warm up from 6ºF to slightly over 8ºF by 2100, which is quite a drastic change.

How 2020 Has Been So Far

It's been a wild year for me. From getting acupuncture on my injured right thumb to my school being closed for the rest of the year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 has been far from normal. Here's some major events that happened to me so far this year.

January

New Year's Instagram Post

To celebrate the new year, I posted on my Instagram account (@jackieofcal) a picture and video of fireworks in San Francisco. In addition, I went hiking around Mountain View's Shoreline Park with my brother, mom, grandma, aunt, and uncle. One week later, I started second semester senior year, and I had an acupuncture appointment for my right thumb because I injured my thumb last December. I was frustrated that I wasn't able to play the piano due to my injured thumb, so my mom decided that I should try having acupuncture for my injured thumb to allow it to hurt less and heal faster. After my first acupuncture treatment, I noticed that my right thumb was able to move more, which made me feel better. I had some more acupuncture treatments afterwards (until early February), and I felt glad that I was able to play the piano once again. The acupuncture treatments involved some needles that were put into the injured area of my thumb, but they didn't hurt that much. Later in January, my family decided to celebrate Chinese New Year by inviting several guests over, including my younger cousin Justin and his family in San Jose as well as one of the acupuncturists who treated my thumb and his wife.

February

Around mid-February, I went hiking at Fremont's Mission Peak with my family. My brother and mom hiked for a bit, but my brother did not feel like hiking anymore. My dad and I continued hiking, though, and after a couple of hours, we managed to make it to the top. Some pictures from my hike are included on my Instagram (shown below). During late February, I participated my high school's elimination game (but only high school seniors could participate).

March

While I got a few college decisions earlier (I got accepted to Santa Clara University in December and SJSU in February), most of my college decisions came around March. I got accepted into Cal Poly SLO on March 4, UC Riverside on March 11, and UC Davis on March 12. On March 13 (which happened to be on a Friday), I received my first rejection letter from UC San Diego. On March 17, I got accepted into UC Santa Cruz and waitlisted by UC Santa Barbara. I got waitlisted by UCLA on March 20, rejected by UC Irvine on March 24, and rejected by both UC Berkeley and USC on March 26. Once I received all my college decisions, I narrowed down my college choices to UC Davis, Cal Poly SLO, UC Santa Barbara, and UCLA.

Aside from college decisions, on March 13, I saw news that my school would close for 4 weeks because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic (but school eventually ended up being closed for the entire school year), which I had mixed feelings about. During the week of March 23, some of my teachers began using Zoom to teach lessons and help answer questions. The Zooms were effective for the most part (aside from occasional audio problems), but I missed physically learning in a classroom because I'm able to concentrate better and have more motivation in a classroom than in my bedroom. 

April

On April 11, I celebrated my 18th birthday. While I was only able to celebrate it with my family due to stay at home orders, I still had a nice birthday. Additionally, I was preparing for AP tests that were going to occur in May by looking over lecture notes and doing practice problems and tests. I still had Zoom meetings, but now all my teachers were using Zoom for lessons and/or questions. My music group (Polar Bears) also posted the first virtual performance video (we decided to have virtual performances because of the stay at home orders), which can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1Y5GMiRW2E. Towards the end of April, because I was not admitted off the waitlist from UC Santa Barbara or UCLA yet, I submitted my required enrollment deposit to UC Davis.

Celebrating my 18th birthday (aka adulthood)

May

For the second Polar Bears Music Group virtual performance video, which can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hNRfMWDAPk, I helped compile all the individual performance videos together on iMovie. While most videos were easy to import to iMovie, I had to download HandBrake, an open-source transcoder for digital video files, to import a few of the videos to iMovie.

Less than a week I submitted my UC Davis required deposit, I received an acceptance letter from UC Santa Barbara. I felt happy seeing the confetti on my computer screen when looking at my acceptance letter, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to UC Santa Barbara since I still wanted to wait for UCLA's decision. Ultimately, I decided to go to UC Santa Barbara instead of UC Davis because I knew some more people from middle and high school that were going to UC Santa Barbara than UC Davis. Additionally, the UC Davis login portals weren't very easy to navigate: I sometimes was confused which password to use and had to change my password. UC Santa Barbara is a beach town, while UC Davis is more of an agricultural town.

When I had my AP Calculus BC exam, although I submitted photos of my work to both of the problems, I received a message at the end of the exam that stated that at least one of my responses wasn't received. As a result, I had to request for a makeup exam (which occurred in the beginning of June). However, I was able to successfully submit my work for my AP Macro exam (I typed my work on a separate Google Doc).

On Memorial Day, my family went on a morning hike in the Palo Alto Foothills Park. We decided to go hiking in the morning because we knew that it would be very hot in the afternoon (it hit around 96 degrees that day).

During May, I continued to have Zoom lectures for all my classes. It can be difficult to learn at home because my mom yells at my brother for playing on the iPad instead of going to sleep. While Zoom lectures do allow me to learn and I am still able to get work done, I miss getting to see my classmates and teachers in person. My nostalgia for simpler times is shown in an Instagram post consisting pictures of myself, friends, and family during the past (around 2008 - 2015).

June

Graduated!

During the beginning of June, I did the makeup AP Calculus BC exam. This time, there were no issues in submitting my work, and I felt more confident in my responses. Two days after my makeup AP Calculus BC exam, I had an unofficial high school graduation, which was a car parade to celebrate all the graduating high school seniors around my city. It was a really great experience, as I was really delighted to see people cheering for me as I waved in the car. Nearly a week after the car parade, I had two of my wisdom teeth removed. For the first few days, I used an ice pack to reduce the swelling due to the wisdom teeth removal. Currently, I don't feel much pain from my wisdom teeth being removed, but I still have to apply some treatment around the area. Last Sunday, my music group had an end-of-the-year party that was held via Zoom. We played two Kahoot! games relating to music and skribbl, an online drawing and guessing game (basically an online version of pictionary). It was really fun getting to see and chat with many of my fellow Polar Bears members. Additionally, the third Polar Bears virtual performance video can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJTqVAznX9c. This month, my dad wants my brother and I to learn some coding basics as well as help cook some food (including noodles and vegetables). While I am able to find code online to use and learn, there are still some parts to coding that I don't quite understand (i.e. trying to explain the code behind creating an online analog clock). I also created a Twitter account mainly to keep up with the news and a WeChat account mainly to chat with some family members living in China.

College Decisions: Where I'm Thinking of Going

Two days ago, I received my last few college decisions. While I got rejected by a couple of notable schools such as UC Berkeley and USC, I did get waitlisted by UCSB and UCLA (although it's not very easy to get into UCLA if being on the waitlist). Additionally, I got into all of my safety schools, which includes Santa Clara University and UC Santa Cruz. Currently, I'm thinking about going to UC Davis or Cal Poly SLO as well as the aforementioned schools I got waitlisted by.

UC Davis

A photo of the UC Davis campus

I chose statistics as my major for UC Davis. UC Davis is between 1 and 2 hours from where I live, and my family knows more people who go to UC Davis than Cal Poly SLO. According to U.S. News, UC Davis is ranked #39 in National Universities, and College Factual ranked the school at #2 on 2020 Best Schools to Study Statistics in Far Western US. When visiting UC Davis last April, I liked how environmentally friendly the campus was, as there were many people who were riding their bikes. My UC Davis campus tour guide mentioned that bike theft is common on campus, although one can lock his/her bike to prevent it from being stolen, and students helped each other out when studying for final exams. The website Niche.com gave the professors at UC Davis an A rating.

Cal Poly SLO

A photo of the Cal Poly SLO campus

For Cal Poly SLO, I also chose statistics as my major. Cal Poly SLO is approximately 3 hours from where I live. According to U.S. News, Cal Poly SLO is ranked #4 in Regional Universities West, and College Factual ranked the college at #7 on 2020 Best Schools to Study Statistics in Far Western US. When visiting Cal Poly SLO last year during June, I liked the variety of recreational activities that were offered, and students often seemed to interact with each other. The college also offers a hands-on learning experience. However, most of the dorms didn't look too attractive, and Niche.com gave the professors at the college a B rating (although this ranking may not be representative of the statistics major in the college).

UC Santa Barbara and UCLA

A photo of the UC Santa Barbara campus

A photo of the UCLA campus

I chose statistics and data science as my first choice major for UC Santa Barbara and statistics as my first choice major for UCLA. UC Santa Barbara is between 4 and 5 hours away from where I live, while UCLA is over 5 hours. According to U.S. News, UC Santa Barbara is ranked at #34 and UCLA is ranked at #20 in National Universities. However, UCLA is more selective, with an acceptance rate of just 12% for fall 2019, compared to UC Santa Barbara's 29.7% during the same term. For UCLA, there is an optional info section, which I hope to get advice from my college counselor on what I should state. College Factual lists UCLA at #3 and UCSB at #4 on 2020 Best Schools to Study Statistics in Far Western US. I toured both UC Santa Barbara and UCLA last June. UC Santa Barbara is close to many beaches (my UC Santa Barbara campus tour guide stated that it took 42 seconds from where his dorm was to get to a beach), the recreation is good, and many artists perform at UC Santa Barbara. UCLA has a small class size, nice dorms, and is located in a safe area of Los Angeles. For both UC Santa Barbara and UCLA, Niche.com gave the professors an A+ rating.

Conclusion

It's definitely not an easy decision for me to decide where exactly I'd like to go for college, but hopefully I'll be able to come to a decision in the next few weeks.

The Pros and Cons of Closing School

Yesterday, I was informed that all schools in my school district were going to be closed for 4 weeks (from March 16 to April 10) due to the ongoing coronavirus cases. While the district does not plan to implement online learning, there will be flexible learning options provided. Currently, in a poll I posted on my Instagram story regarding the school closure, 78% of the people voted for while 22% of the people voted against the decision to close schools. Personally, I have mixed feelings about the closure.

The poll I posted on my Instagram story

The Pros of Closing School

• There's more time to sleep. I personally feel that I don't sleep enough during school nights and so it can be hard for me to focus during class.
• Schoology is where all of my teachers post assignments and lecture notes, so I can still keep up with the work they assign when staying home.
• I don't have to worry about tests. I often don't do as well as I hoped on school tests, especially in my math class (AP Calc BC). By closing school, I don't have to worry about any test anxiety I can get from any problems that I'm not quite sure on how to do.
• There's more free time. Since I'll mostly be staying home when school is closed, I can find more time to do activities that I enjoy, such as playing the piano.

The Cons of Closing School

• School will resume on April 13, which is less than a month from AP testing. Unless College Board decides to cancel or at least postpone AP testing, I don't know if I'll feel prepared to do well on my AP tests (particularly BC calc).
• I heard that nearby school districts (e.g. Menlo Park City School District) plan to implement online learning, whereas my school district does not. I would personally prefer having online instruction because although there may be difficulties (such as faulty Wi-Fi connection at times), it is the closest the school district can get to in-class instruction when schools are closed.
• In Audio Music Production, one of the classes I'm taking this year, all of my projects are done on a computer in the classroom. Closing school would hinder my ability to finish those projects, although it is possible that the teacher might change the guidelines to the projects or postpone the due dates to them.

Overall, closing school is definitely a big change in my school experience since it's the first time I've had to deal with school shutting down. Such a change will take a great amount of time to adapt.