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.