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Don't Catch You Slipping Now, Look What I'm Whippin Now

What comes to mind when you hear, “The American Dream”? Freedom? Opportunity? Wealth? Fame? While the American Dream was once about affluence and materialism, it is now considered to be the hope that any American has the opportunity and freedom to earn success if they work hard enough. This means that race and economic class do not play a role in achieving happiness. Success is when you achieve your goals, which means you consequently feel happiness. While many may gain wealth, they may not feel happy. Many are unable to achieve either. Nostalgia (a particular affection for the past) and materialism (the tendency to prioritize physical possessions over other aspects of life) are both large factors in The Great Gatsby and Between the World and Me . The corrupted, materialistic Dream of gaining wealth without happiness is demonstrated well in The Great Gatsby , and the fact that many Americans (specifically African Americans) are at a great disadvantage towards achieving the American D
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Journal Entry #10

How have your thoughts toward school changed? To be honest, my thoughts towards school have definitely become more negative. With finals being canceled, grades not allowed to go lower (with the exception of incomplete), and lots of content being cut out of the class curriculums, I have somewhat given up on school. I do a lot less work, not to say I don’t put effort into classes still, but it is much less than before remote learning. I just hope that we will be able to get through these rough times and get back on track in time for the 20-21 school year. 
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Journal Entry #9

What, if anything, does your family need today that you intend to buy or that you may not have enough of? There aren’t truly any items we need right now, because one, we are lucky enough that we can afford groceries, and two, the grocery stores around here are usually well stocked. We weren’t worried about hand sanitizer or toilet paper when there was a lot of panic buying. At the beginning of each week, our family also tries to plan what we’re going to do for dinner each night. Sometimes we find that we’re missing certain ingredients or have run out of stuff, but we don’t have noticeably less stuff during this time than any other time. 
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Journal Entry #8

Name one thing in nature you have noticed/discovered in the last week. One thing I noticed in nature recently was a cardinal. I was sitting outside on our back porch with my dog, when the cardinal swooped across the backyard from one tree to another. I always stop to take a moment to look at cardinals because of how rarely I see them. They don’t stay in one spot very long, or at least that seems to be the case when I’m around. 
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Journal Entry #7

Have you reconnected with anyone? Since my dad has the “premium” Zoom or whatever the subscription is called, he likes to host meetings with family. I usually go to something our family calls “happy hour”--everyone (that lives on the North Shore) that is on my dad’s side of the family comes together for dinner once every weekend. We couldn’t get together in person, so my dad invited them all to a Zoom. We’ve done that a few times which has been nice. Also, last night, we had a Zoom meeting with several family members from my mother’s side, including family from Arizona, Iowa, and Texas. This was a lot of fun because many of the family members had not seen each other in years and we had a lot of laughs.
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Journal Entry #6

Name an instance of money arising as a topic for you. How has your attitude toward money changed, again on a personal or social level?  During the week of February that all the juniors took the ACT, I opened up an ETRADE account. This is because I wanted to get some experience with real-life stock trading. This ended up being one of the worst weeks to start investing in stocks because it was the worst day for the stock market since the late 1930s. This made me view the stock market in a different way, because once I lost money on buying stocks, I’ve tried to invest in a way that predicts it will go down, which has been unsuccessful. This made me change my view of money because I realized that the stock market often does not reflect the true condition of the U.S. economy. The economy has halted, companies are failing, millions of workers are being furloughed or becoming unemployed, but certain corporations are being bailed out by the Fed. The amount of QE being given out to shady
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Journal Entry #5

How are you feeling about spring? I don’t know if I recall a stranger spring. Not strange because of the pandemic, but because of the weather. I remember running around the Skokie Lagoons last week on a sunny day with temperatures above 90 degrees. However, it has snowed twice since that day. It also hasn’t been that great of a spring because I have spring allergies (such as pollen), so I usually get a sore throat and sneeze a lot after I go outside for a run. This isn’t that bad of a reaction though, because in past spring seasons, there were days where I would frequently have to use a tissue box every class period of the school day. I’m glad I haven’t had to experience that this year. Therefore, I’m optimistic that this spring will get better, and that the snow will become less frequent. 
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