The Monthly Blog- Jonathan Byrnes

    Writing a blog is difficult. Us bloggers must write a passage that is thorough, well written, has no errors and is creative. I don't know about you, but I struggle with blogs. I usually don't know how to translate my thoughts into coherent sentences that are appealing to a reader, how to start my blogs, or even what to write about. We are given one month to write a blog before publishing it, and we receive a new topic to write about each month. This month is different though, we were told to write a blog using something we have done in class.

    So I went and did the most logical thing I could think of; I went into the classroom and scrolled through the classwork looking for something to use. I did that for hours, clicking through each and every link trying to spark an idea. But sadly, none came to me. I spent a whole day thinking about what can I write about, a whole day looking at what others are writing about, a whole day reading others' posts. Still, nothing came to me. Not to throw shade or anything, but I noticed that a lot of people were writing about their modern-day heroes and I thought to myself: "I could do that, but what makes mine any different than anyone else's post. What will make mine stand out?"

    I thought and thought for hours until I eventually gave up and took a break. I'm not one to give up so this is saying a lot. My brain couldn't get over the fact that it couldn't come up with a topic. My brain is always thinking, always moving from thought to thought, and yet I still couldn't come up with a topic to write about while using something we have done in class. Then it hit me. What do we every month for class? We write a blog post.

    I know this is a little bit of a stretch, but we write blog posts and then engage in conversations with other student's published work. We haven't written our blogs during class time because there simply isn't just enough time, but I would say that the "Tales of Tenth Grade" blog is something we have done in class so far. So with that, I plan to use this blog to write my blog post for this month.

   So far this year, I have completed three blog posts just like everyone else. My September post was about my thoughts about the school year and, comparing where we are now to then, I would say improvements have been made. Google meets have been updated with new features that allow us to work in groups and I and many others aren't facing as rough technological difficulties. Things have improved with virtual learning from when we started school back in September but, there are still some problems. For example, there has now been a new rule implemented that all students should have their cameras on during class unless otherwise instructed by the teacher. I know that this rule is disliked by a wide range of students and I dislike having my camera on in some classes because I feel like no one needs to watch me take notes or try to figure out a math problem. Some may say: "How is having your camera on any different than being in school?" This is honestly a good question that I can't answer. I don't have an answer because I don't know how to describe the severely different feeling of being in school virtually versus physically in school.

    Anyways haven't you had enough about school? I feel like that all we talk about nowadays. Some new news for you is the locust swarms in Africa. If you read my current even blog back in October you would have a good idea of the toll these small but deadly animals have. To give you a quick recap, countries in Africa have been hit by locusts (a large grasshopper) in late December 2019, a second deadlier wave following in April 2020, and now the fears of a third wave have been brought to light. Again a locust swarm that's 247 acres large can eat the same amount of food as 35,000 people in 1 day. Imagine that but multiplied by thousands. Imagine your food being destroyed by deadly grasshoppers during COVID-19. Imagine this for about a year long.

Locust Swarms February 2020

Locust Swarms December 2020

    These swarms have been battering East Africa for months on end and yet it isn't good enough to be put on American television because it doesn't deal with our people, the election, or COVID-19. Not much has changed since my last blog post in October and this is a big problem. People are suffering every day because of these swarms, yet people don't know that some of these countries are facing their worst outbreaks in 25 years or even 75 years.  Click Here to Donate at Action Against Hunger

    Current events are good because they shine a light on events that would go unrecognized every day. But, who doesn't love some creative writing? To be honest, I'm not a fan of creative writing, and when I saw that as the topic for November I got a little sad. I'm not the most creative person you'll meet. Ideas take a while to come to me, especially good ones. I settled down to write my next blog post about Thanksgiving from the perspective of a potato as he got picked up from the store to being eaten. Writing that blog post got me out of my comfort zone.  

    Let me wrap it up for you because I have written a lot already and well the only thing left to talk about would be my December blog post except you kind of just read it. This blog post is something completely different. I have never done something like this before and I hope that you enjoyed reading this blog as I recount my previous blog posts.