When I was in highschool, back in the early 2000’s, I knew exactly what I wanted to do career-wise. I’d meet with my guidance counselors and they’d ask the same question every time, “What do you plan to do after high school?” I would always give them the same answer. “I want to go to school for Cosmetology.” The counselor would say, “But are you sure? You should try to take the SAT anyway even though you don’t plan on going to a regular college.” I’d fight them with a stubborn no but eventually I took the SAT anyway, just in case. I followed my dream and went to Cosmetology school after high school. 

My Cosmetology program was a two year program for adults at night. My first year was chaos. My instructor was an old-time barber that was stuck in the 80’s. He wanted us to learn roller-set after roller-set and perming, nothing up-to-date. As a class, we began to realize that he really wasn’t teaching us anything to pass our State Board Testing. Even during our class time, he had no idea about the information that he was relaying to us and sometimes couldn’t even pronounce the words in the textbook! This was hard for all of us to digest because we were paying a lot of money to go to school for this and we had a test to take eventually and with him as our teacher, there’s no way we would succeed.    

We attempted to go to the head of the school and complain but every issue we brought to the table would get squashed. Nothing we said was taken seriously and was thought of as being blown out of proportion. After many complaints and many tears, the lady in charge finally decided to listen. One day, while completing our 150th roller-set, all the stylists were on the floor of the student clinical room minding our business and completing our work. Our instructor on the other hand was half asleep in the back of the room and watching Deal or No Deal on a television. This was the perfect time for him to get caught. The principal walked in to check up on things and found him in his half sleep-coma. After that, he was fired.

The following school year we were given a new instructor who had a prominent following at a well-known local hair school and had been in the field for some time. Although she butted heads with many of the students, I thought she was great. She had to teach us double the amount of information in one year rather than two since our previous teacher taught us nothing. She had a lot of weight on her shoulders and so did we. There were about 15 students in that class and 14 of us went to test day. We didn’t give up, even though we were nervous as hell. All of us passed that test. The day that I found out that I had passed The State Board of Cosmetology, I was thrilled. I had accomplished my first major goal in life after a long, tireless battle. 

In 2008 I received my beauty license and after a few different hair job endeavours, I finally landed a salon position in 2009. I worked at that salon for eight years and became the confident stylist that I am today. In August of  2017, I left on maternity leave and was planning to return after having my daughter. During my leave, I realized how much I did not want to go back. I love doing hair but honestly, I realized the setting that I was in was very toxic. My manager was very difficult to work with, there was always some type of commotion going on, and the customers took a toll on you. Working in a customer service type position is not easy. Not to mention, hairstylists work nights, weekends, and some holidays. I just couldn’t bear the idea of not being home at night to have dinner with my new family or not being able to put my child to bed.

This was a very hard decision for me to make. Doing hair is part of who I am, my first passion, the thing I always said I was going to do, my first accomplishment. I was afraid that leaving the workplace would deplete my skill. During this time, I decided to complete my substitute teaching training. Once that was complete, I started substitute teaching a few days a week to get back into working. Before I had my daughter, I was going to school for education while working at the salon, so substituting was a great plan. 

I ended up getting a permanent position at a school for a little over a year and doing hair at home. I eventually left the school because the pay wasn’t great and I wanted to do more for my future and the future of my family. In January of 2020, I decided to head back to school to finish my education degree. As hard and time consuming as it is to go to school and as difficult as it is to do that while being a mother, running a household, etc. I feel like I’m finally doing something for myself and I feel so full. 

Hopefully, I will persevere, get through my schooling, and obtain my degree. Most people work on one career in their lifetime and I’m on my second. I try to remind myself of that and be proud of all that I have accomplished. As my husband says, I’m an overachiever.  

During this time of the Covid-19 pandemic, the quarantine time has caused my mind to wander. I have been thinking of all the things I would like to do when this isolation is over. We really learn to realize how lucky we all are when your freedom is taken away. Normally, our lives are so easily filled with the things we want and the things we love at the drop of a hat. Now, we can’t see our loved ones that we normally visit, we can’t go out to restaurants, movie theatres, and so much more. Due to these restrictions, I keep compiling lists of activities in my mind such as fun places to take our daughter like the beach or the zoo. My husband and I have decided that when this is over we want to explore our state of New Jersey better. There are parts of NJ that are scenic and mountainous and we’ve never been there. We could take a ride to Peddler’s Village, a cute little town with quaint shops. Philadelphia is right next door and I’ve realized that there are museums and historic landmarks that I haven’t even seen; we’ll have to conquer that too. 

Speaking of traveling, my husband and I decided, a little over a year ago, that we would like to travel to all fifty states within the United States. We have been to several states together that we can mark off our list. In order to accomplish this goal, we plan to travel to two states every year. Last year we traveled to Vermont and Connecticut and this year we went to Tennessee and North Carolina. This plan is so fun because we love to find the gem that is gleaming or hidden in every state. I truly believe that every state has something interesting within it to see or do. To help in our traveling endeavours I have done some research on every state and one interesting activity or sight to see while there. I am going to share the list with you all. My research was done through a website called: Atlas Obscura.

• Alabama– Spectre Set Ruins- The set from the movie “Big Fish” that was left abandoned on an island. Some of the buildings from the set still stand and you can go visit it.
• Alaska– Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis
• Arkansas– Crater of Diamonds State Park- You can bring your umbrella, pitch a spot, and dig. Any diamonds you find, professionals will examine them for you, give you the diamonds name, and you get to keep what you found.
• California– Redwood National and State Parks
• Colorado– Paint Mines Interpretive Park- Natural formations from sand and clay in beautiful colors.
• Connecticut– Yale University- Really beautiful buildings, city atmosphere. We’ve been here!
• Delaware– Marian Coffin Gardens- An abandoned house that is dilapidated but it is surrounded by beautiful gardens that are kept up and you’re able to walk through.
• Florida– Bioluminescence- In Cocoa Beach Florida there is a lagoon you can sail out to, run your hands through the water, and see the plankton light up the water creating a powder blue color. We got to do this!   
• Georgia– Head over to Savannah for ghost tours, beautiful moss trees on Jones Street, the most beautiful street in the US, or go see the School Bus Graveyard in Alto, Georgia.
• Hawaii– Punalu ‘U Black Sand Beach- This beach is covered in black sand from the basalt that washes ashore from volcanoes.
• Idaho– Lionhead National Water Slides- Nature provides water slides due to rock formations.
• Illinois– OZ Park- A park and playground dedicated to the movie The Wizard of OZ.
• Indiana– New Harmony Labyrinth Maze- An actual maze cut out in a field that you try to find your way through.
• Iowa– Fenelon Place Elevator- Take an elevator ride down a hill or you can always visit Field of Dreams!
• Kansas– Monument Rocks- This is called “the Stonehenge of Kansas.” 
• Kentucky– Mammoth Cave
• Louisiana– The Singing Oak- An Oak tree that is decorated with wind chimes. The wind chimes are painted black to match the shadows of the trees so that you can’t find them easily. The point is to sit under the tree and listen to the music of the chimes.
• Maine– The many lighthouses. Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse is super cool because it is out in the ocean and you have to walk along rocks to get to it. We did this!
• Maryland– Ocean CIty is always a blast! We did this!
• Massachusetts– Mapparium- A huge glass globe.
• Michigan– Kitch-iti-kipi- A fresh-water spring.
• Minnesota– Wabasha Street Caves
• Mississippi– Windsor Ruins- A mansion lost to fire and parts still remain standing.
• Missouri– Glore Psychiatric Museum
• Montana– The Berkeley Pit
• Nebraska– Chimney Rock
• Nevada– Valley of Fire State Park or Vegas. We’ve been to Vegas but would love to go back to see the scenic areas like this park. We did this!
• New Hampshire– Attitash Mountain
• New Jersey– We live here!
• New Mexico– White Sands National Park- Go sledding in the sand! The sand literally looks like snow!
• New York– Upstate New York is scenic and beautiful. We did this!
• North Carolina– Blue Ridge Parkway is amazing! We did this!
• North Dakota– Salem Sue the huge cow and Enchanted Highway where different sculptures mark the side of the road.
• Ohio– The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
• Oklahoma– The Center of the Universe where you can apparently stand in the center.
• Oregon– Crater Lake- The deepest lake in the US
• Pennsylvania– So much beauty and history! Right over the bridge for us! We did this!
• Rhode Island– Cliff Walk- Walk a scenic beach with mansions in the distance. I’ve been here but my husband has not so it doesn’t count towards our plan.
• South Carolina– Pearl Fryer’s Topiary Garden
• South Dakota– Mount Rushmore
• Tennessee– Forbidden Caverns- a cave walk and a show looks interesting. We’ve been to Knoxville, TN and we did a lot of hiking and Ijams Center. We’ve been here!
• Texas– Hamilton Pool- A clear natural pool.
• Utah-Bryce Canyon- Beautiful canyons in colors of red and orange.
• Vermont– Hubbard Tower in Montpelier is in the middle of nowhere with great views. We’ve been here!
• Virginia– Richmond, Virginia is very historic with lots to see. We’ve been here!
• Washington– Hall of Mosses- A park filled with moss trees.
• West Virginia– Cass Scenic Railroad- Take a ride through the mountains.
• Wisconsin– Schoolhouse Beach- A sandless beach filled with stones and apparently one of the very few like it.
• Wyoming– YellowStone National Park and Devils Tower, from the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 

Before the Coronavirus hit the United States, I saw the damage it was doing overseas. I was nervous and some people I spoke with would say things like “Oh, it’s nothing to freak out about, More people get struck by lightning each year…,The flu is a bigger issue.” I tried to let my worries subside but thinking of my family’s sake, I decided to look into what a pandemic kit would contain. I searched on Pinterest and found items such as cleaning products, masks, gloves, canned goods, other non-perishable foods, toilet paper, and other essential items. I decided to make a dollar store run and grab a few of each thing just to stock up and make myself feel more prepared. While shopping I thought to myself, the people in here can probably tell that I’m shopping for a pandemic; I think the excessive canned goods and bleach would give it away. I brought everything home, put everything in the proper place, and labeled a box “Pandemic Kit” with all my extras inside. 

A few weeks later we were emerging to spring break time at school. The news was becoming heavily filled with Covid19 information and things were quickly changing. Ideas of social distancing and shutting public facilities down came to be but nothing was set in stone. My University decided to extend spring break for an additional week to prepare for what could come. The days before spring break made me feel a little uneasy and nervous because my family and I had planned to go on a road trip to Tennessee and later to North Carolina during my time off. Knowing that we were going to be traveling while major changes were happening fast was nerve-wracking. Normally when you go on a trip, you’re excited and thinking of all the things you plan to do while away. For me, I was trying to look forward but I also was trying to be precautious and smart.   

We loaded the car with our normal gear but this time we included the sanitary wipes, hand wipes, hand sanitizer, and the pandemic kit. We drove to Knoxville, Tennessee, it took us about twelve hours to get there. We stopped about three times. Rest stops were still open, people were still gathering, you would just see signs to wash your hands and not touch your face. It was more of a warning period than the actual crisis period. We played as smart as we could. We did not take our daughter into the rest stops but would rather change her diaper in the car, thank goodness she’s still in diapers, and let her run around or eat outside. If we went inside the rest stops, we were quick and took the measures that were needed. Once we arrived in Tennessee, I was so impressed at how clean our Airbnb was but of course, I sprayed and wiped as a precaution. 

We had many plans while we were in Knoxville but due to our concerns about the virus, we were hesitant to fulfill those plans. The first night we were there we ordered food for takeout even though people were still allowed to eat in the restaurants. We chose to eat at the house partially for safety reasons but also because we were exhausted from our twelve hour drive. As the days went on in Knoxville, the number of cases were rising in every state. Restaurants began doing takeout only and much of what we had planned began to close or cancel. We wanted to take our daughter to the Knoxville Zoo, go to the Sunsphere Park, and do other tourist type attractions. Despite everything being shut down, we made the best of our time there and still had a really good time. It was a bummer to miss out on the activities we wanted to do and to miss out on the culture of Tennessee but there was no other choice. We were in Knoxville for five days and it’s funny because I don’t feel like we were really there. It felt like we were having a stay-cation in someone else’s house but we did have fun.

While in Tennessee, things were getting bad back at home in New Jersey. We were getting updates from family and my sister-in-law demanded we come home. Our thinking was that the virus was in Tennessee, it was in New Jersey, it was everywhere. No matter where you would go you’d be at risk so why not stay on our vacation and try to enjoy it. That was what we ended up doing.

We left Tennessee and headed for North Carolina. We stayed in a town called Swannanoa that is right outside of Asheville, NC. The couple who owned the Airbnb that we were staying in were very open with us about how things were developing in their state and they wanted to make sure we felt comfortable. They assured us of leniency in cancelations and if we had any questions or concerns, to just let them know. The owners made sure to thoroughly clean the cottage we stayed in and even left us extra cleaning wipes. In NC, they were doing takeout only at restaurants but the county we were in only had one case of the virus at that time, so they weren’t on lock down. All of our tourist attractions got canceled in this state too, including a beautiful train ride we had scheduled that went through the Great Smoky Mountains. Our daughter loves trains so we were excited for her to experience this, hopefully another time. 

Luckly, the part of NC that we were in was extremely scenic. We were within the Great Smoky Mountains and there was so much to do just in nature. We hiked one trail that went through the mountains and led to a waterfall. Our daughter, Alora, did great. She would hold our hands and work those little legs through the wilderness! When she got tired, one of us would pick her up and keep on our way. There were some people on the trail and because the virus situation was becoming more of a thing, you could notice the awkwardness. Out of kindness, a family would step aside to clear the path so that we could get by and we would do the same. 

Another day we took a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway because we wanted to hike another trail that we read about. The Parkway goes up the mountain, a mountain that is 6,643 feet, and we managed to reach past the 4,000 foot range. Let me just say, that drive was the most beautiful and terrifying ride of my life! I was driving the car and my husband was trying not to look or say much about the huge cliff next to my door because we were both freaked out. Some areas were without guardrails and there were tunnels randomly carved into the mountain rock with signs that would say, “Turn your lights on!” The road itself was a 40MPH road and the locals would ride your tail the way someone does on New Jersey roads. It was wheel clenching. There are outcrops in the roads where you can stop, park your car, and gander out at the abyss of beauty. Beauty doesn’t even describe it.

We made it to our hiking spot, a trail called Graveyard Trails. The area actually burnt down in the 1920’s and the trees never really recovered. The area got its name due to the decrepit trees and the tree stumps that look like tombstones. It was a moderate level hike and a really cool one at that. Signs warned you when you began to watch out for black bears and what to do if you come in contact with one. Apparently you scream and make a ton of noise, I guess to scare them off and make it known to others that you need help. Within this hike there was a gorgeous stream and some really nice man-made walkways to help ease your walking. When the hike was over we were not looking forward to the drive back down the mountain, my husband took over the wheel that time.

The fact that we were able to hike while in NC was something we were so grateful for. It made us feel like we actually did something on our trip and that it wasn’t a complete waste. We got to enjoy nature, spend time in the sun, gather as a family, and we truly enjoyed it.

We were sad when our vacation was over and felt like leaving the mountains was leaving our peace. We were leaving the calm of nature, beauty of the mountains, and headed back home where war was breaking out. Everything was different while we were down South; it was calmer, the stores were stocked, and the cases were less. We were so glad that we decided to stay on our vacation and just breathe. We told ourselves that one day we hope to travel back to that part of the country and experience it for what it truly is and definitely do more hiking! We joke about how much we love the mountains, we always seem to find ourselves there and that one day when we’re old and grey, maybe just maybe that’s where we’ll be. 

• 

Antarctica, a fascinating place in my eyes. A continent that is not inhabited by many and leaves us with a plethora of unanswered questions. The thing is, apparently the temperatures in certain parts of the Antarctic are rising and this is causing glaciers to melt which in turn could cause parts of Antarctica to potentially disappear. In a recent article from a source called Common Dreams titled Record-Breaking Temperature of Nearly 65℉ Logged in Antarctica as Scientists Sound Alarm Over Rapid Ice Melt, talks about this exact fear of ice melting and record warm temperatures that scientists have never seen before. Readers might encounter this article directly through the Common Dreams website, on social media, or through a science platform of some sort. I found this article by going to Google and typing in “recent studies on Antarctica.” Once results came through, I clicked “News” underneath the search bar and it revealed studies on my topic of choice. In reading the article, I have decided to fact check a certain statement that is located within the article. The statement is “…Researchers…found that temperatures reached 64.9℉ (18.3℃)–the highest temperature logged since scientists began recording the continent’s temperature in 1961”(Common Dreams). Let’s take a look at what I discovered.

    First, I dived into move one. This move involved a beginning search through Duckduckgo. I entered the name of the article and searched within Snopes and Factcheck.org, nothing came of this. Next, I tried pasting the actual quote into the Duckduckgo search engine. My first few results included sites that I am not familiar with, the site I got my article from, and Wikipedia. I clicked on the Wiki link and was taken to an article about Antarctica. Zoning in on the climate section of the article, I discovered a quote that mentioned, “The Northern Antarctica recorded a temperature of 20.75℃ (69.3℉), which is the highest recorded temperature in the continent on 9 Febuary 2020”(Wiki). This temperature is slightly higher than the temperature stated in the quote from the CD article and it also mentions a different date. The Common Dreams article claimed that it happened a few days earlier. Wikipedia received their information from two sources: BBC News and The Guardian. The second source, The Guardian, was also mentioned in my original article.

    Now that I discovered some information on Wikipedia and the sites that they referenced, I can go upstream to move two and dig deeper into my statement. Since I am not familiar with The Guardian and I don’t know whether to trust it, I decided to take a snippet from their headline of their article since my article from Common Dreams mentioned them. The Guardian’s article is titled Antarctic temperature rises above 20C for the first time on record. I typed in “Antarctic temperature rises” into Duckduckgo and found a Washington Post article titled, Antarctica Just Hit 65 Degrees, it’s Warmest Temperature Ever Record. Knowing that there is an article from The Washington Post claiming similar information as my original statement, it brings my statement closer to the truth.

    After finding some validation, I am able to move onto move three where I look a bit more closely at the website Common Dreams and the author of the article. I made way over to Google and searched www.commondreams.org-site:www.commondreams.org and discovered some information from Wikipedia. The Common Dreams website is a non-profit US based website that publishes news, editorials,  and periodicals. Another source called Media Bias Fact Check states, “Overall, we rate Common Dreams left biased based on story selection and op-eds that typically favor the left. We also rate them high for factual reporting due to proper sourcing and clean fact check record”(MBFC). I also searched the domain name on ICANN but there was no impact factor listed. In searching for the author, I went onto Google Scholar and typed in her name- Julia Conley. There were no results there but in going back to the Common Dreams page, she is listed at the bottom as “key staff” and in her biography they mentioned some other platforms she has written for such as PBS Weekly News.

    In conclusion, It seems that this statement is most likely true. The articles I did find supported the claim in some way, usually to the full extent. The source from which I found my article has no negative reviews but some positive ones from Wikipedia and a fact checking site. The biography on the author from the Common Dreams website holds some information on her but it is hard to trust that information because it is coming from the site that wrote the article. I feel fairly confident that this information is true based on the information I was able to find.     

The Penguins might be moving…= (

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— Oscar Wilde.