The town that I live in is pretty boring and there is normally not much for my friends and I to do. The person I hangout with the most when I’m home is my friend Rachel, she’s like a sister to me. Whenever we hang out neither of us can ever decide what to do because there aren’t many options. A lot of the time we go on drives or watch movies and it’s pretty boring, but we don’t really get sick of each other’s company. We go to different schools so when we are home we’re always together. Since quarantine has started we have been two minutes away but not allowed to be near each other. 
After a month of being stuck in the house I really was starting to lose it. Especially at my age it’s hard not seeing any of my friends in person especially when I’m used to seeing them all the time. Recently we have started to see each other but in a social distance way. Talking over facetime is not the same as talking face to face even if we have to be six feet apart. We have been seeing each other pretty often now by meeting in our cars and sitting in our trunks to talk. We have been going to the parking lot of the high school we went to and parking our cars across from each other so there is plenty of room between us but it has been keeping us sane being able to see each other in some way.
My friend’s 21st birthday was the other day and unfortunately she didn’t get to celebrate the way people normally celebrate when they turn twenty-one. Normally one would go to the bar at midnight but with everything being closed that can’t happen. So, we got the fire department and police officers to do a drive by parade with us and make her feel special. She has a pretty big backyard so afterwards a couple of our friends sat spaced out with masks on and spent a little time together social distancing.
Although it hasn’t been fun to see my friends this way, it is at least some way to get to see them. It’s been nice spending a lot of time with my family of course but I really do miss hanging out with my friends. I never thought I would miss barely doing anything when I hangout with my best friend but I would much rather be bored with her than bored by myself. It’s crazy how much we take advantage of little things like watching netflix with your friends. It honestly has taught me not to take anything for granted anymore moving forward and has given me a brighter mindset.

Being stuck in the house without a wide variety of things to do, has me doing a lot of thinking. Questions have been going through my mind like, when will we go back to normal life? Are things going to be normal right after quarantine? This pandemic is definitely an event that will be remembered and it could change the way we live our lives from now on.
The other day I was talking to my dad about another COVID-19 update and he said to me “who knows if people will ever shake hands again.” That really got me thinking about the little things in life that we take for granted. I also started thinking about how many germs really are around us that we don’t notice until something like this happens.
There’s so many little things in life that we do everyday and take advantage of. We don’t realize stuff like this until we are locked in our homes during a pandemic and can’t be near other people. I am used to seeing my friends almost every single day and now the only way I can see them is on facetime. If I knew the last time I saw my friends that I wouldn’t see them for a while I would’ve hugged them a little tighter. If I knew the last night with my roommates before spring break was actually going to be for good I would’ve had one last movie night with them. I went away over spring break and as I was away things with the coronavirus got worse and I didn’t realize that until I was home and I have been home ever since. It’s the things that make life normal that I miss right now.
Until now, I didn’t think about how many germs are everywhere like I do since this pandemic started. Everywhere you go now you have to wear a mask and I wash my hands more than I normally would. Whenever you go to a store everyone has to be six feet apart and when you check out there’s glass between the customer and employee. It’s scary to think about the amount of germs everywhere which is why everything has to be closed right now and why we have to social distance. 
When I first went into a store during the pandemic, I thought it would feel so strange wearing a mask into Target because that’s not normal. However once I was in the store, I felt like I would’ve felt more out of place if I wasn’t wearing one. That made me think, is this the new normal now? All of this is starting to feel more normal the longer we are in quarantine and it’s pretty scary. 
I really hope life will be relatively normal again and I hope it is sometime soon. I have so many things in the future that I am looking forward to and hopefully I get to do them. A lot has been canceled already but eventually I hope things can go back to normal. 2020 was the year everyone thought things would start going well and I would say it definitely took a turn for the worse. My mindset right now is to expect the worst but hope for the best. Keeping a positive headspace is important right now so that is what I try to focus on.

Being stuck in the house all day everyday for the past month so far has not been fun. With not much to do and nowhere to go, it’s easy to be lazy all day. Although, being lazy gets pretty boring, and it doesn’t make you feel too good. When quarantine first started I had just gotten back from vacation so I didn’t mind being stuck in the house relaxing. School had been a lot right before spring break and once I was home I was finally able to catch up on some sleep, and just get time to myself to watch Netflix all day. 
After about a week of that, I got pretty tired of it. I felt so lazy not having a routine and just lounging around all day. It’s been easy for people to not do well with their mental health during this time of being locked in our houses so I’ve learned how important it is to do something that I enjoy everyday during this to keep myself happy and positive. 
I’m the type of person that doesn’t mind their alone time. In fact, I actually really enjoy being by myself. Although I love being with people most of the time, I am trying to find the positive in this situation and take advantage of taking more time for myself than I usually do.
A typical day in quarantine has consisted of me waking up around noon. Yes, noon. My sleeping schedule has been pretty off but than again it always is. I haven’t been going to bed until about 2 am everyday so I sleep in until noon. Then I normally lay in bed for a while because it’s not like I have to get up for anything! Once I’m tired of going on my phone I get up and shower. Taking a shower in the beginning of my day wakes me up and makes me feel nice and fresh. Being stuck in the house all day and laying around on the couch can make you feel gross sometimes so taking a shower in the morning is the perfect way to feel more like a person everyday.
After I take a shower I make myself an iced coffee. I’m not the biggest coffee drinker but I just recently started going to Dunkin’ Donuts and getting an iced coffee. Because of COVID-19 I haven’t been outside of the house and even though drive thru’s are still open, it’s not worth it. So I started making iced coffee at home and it’s been so fun and I enjoy having it in the morning. I’ll make myself some food and normally go back upstairs to my room to start doing some school work after that. 
School has been a struggle during quarantine because it’s hard to stay motivated when I am not physically going to class. Of course I do enjoy taking an online course sometimes, this is nothing like that and not actually going to the classroom can make it easy to get distracted and not stay on top of things. Balancing all the work from 5 online classes is a lot harder than I thought it would be and nobody signed up for this. However, since I know it’s a lot I make a to-do list everyday of work that I need to get done which has been helping me stay on top of my work and turn it in on time. 
Even though I have homework to get done I always make time during my day to do something for myself. Even if that is doing a craft that day (the other day I tie dyed a sweatshirt) or learning Tik Tok dances. This helps me not be miserable all day and drown in homework. 
At night time is when I normally will video chat of some sort with my friends or maybe watch a movie. Not being able to see my friends even has been really hard. I’m always around my friends at school especially and knowing that all my friends from home are also home from school but I can’t see them really sucks too. 
My days have been pretty calm and not too exciting but I try to do something new everyday or make something the highlight of my day-even if it’s small. This time is so crazy right now and staying home and making ourselves happy is the best thing we can do!

While dealing with COVID-19 and having to quarantine I have finally adjusted to everything and get used to this new “normal” for now. Keeping up with school work has been difficult as it has been very different than what I am used to. Staying in bed all day is an easy thing to resort to during this quarantine. However, staying in bed all day on your phone is different then being comfortable in bed doing work all day. I have definitely taken advantage of not having to do much while I am stuck in the house all day while also keeping up with my responsibilities. 
I’ve never been the type of person to have to sit at a desk to get my homework done. As long as I don’t have any distractions I can do work just about anywhere. Although I would rather be comfortable while I work. Some people say that they can’t get anything accomplished while sitting in their bed but I think the complete opposite. I have always loved my alone time and being independent so being in quarantine of course hasn’t been fun, but I find that I love being alone sometimes. On top of that, I have loved doing school work in my bed. I love my room at home so it has definitely been my happy place during all of this and it’s been my little nook to get work done.
I have a full size bed so I like to lay out my laptop, planner, and any notebooks that I need and begin my day of work. I always make a to-do list for the day with what work I want to accomplish because taking classes online has been a lot different so I have had to really try to keep on top of things. 
I think it really depends on the person and the type of learner that they are but I find that doing work in bed while I am most comfortable is what I like. In fact, I’m writing this sitting in my bed right now. Another thing that I love is just having the string lights around my room on to set the comfortable tone around me. This is something so simple and easy but it is something little that I have loved and appreciated while going through this quarantine.

Starting off my research about knock off marijuana vapes I found that they have been making people sick. The article that I found was from dispensaries.app which then led me to a more specific article about a lung disease outbreak from these marijuana vapes. I searched on duckduckgo.com then and found a wikipedia article for move 1 about the 2019-2020 vaping lung illness outbreak in the United States. I found that there were 2,711 confirmed hospitalized cases and 60 deaths in this past year. Because of these knockoff vapes, exposure to the chemicals is what’s responsible for the outbreak. Cases were first found in Illinois and Wisconsin however, there have been cases of this prior to 2019. Going even more upstream for move 2 I found through leafly.com an official news release as a source from the state of California addressing the danger of vaping cannibus. A warning was issued stating that seven cases had been found in California alone in the year 2019. Looking for trusted work for move 3 I found that the Los Angeles Times was the most reliable and recent article I could find from September 2019. I trusted this source to get valuable facts about knockoff vapes because it started to become a big issue in California.

In Los Angeles, California there are so many shops on the streets and unlicensed dispensaries that sell these marijuana vapes because it is legal there. However, people are using legal companies packaging and putting illegal substances in them for people to buy. The chemicals that are used in these vape carts are infecting cannabis markets in California with untested harmful cannabis oils. Popular brands are being used for this so they are recognized and bought on the streets rather than legally. Huge legal brands like Kingpen are putting down millions of dollars to get different packaging for their company to stop being mislabeled. Some companies have even put a section to report fake cartridges on their website and fired a former federal prosecutor. Basically, empty cartridges are delivered from China, which are then filled with THC oil with propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, MCT oil, and possibly more harmful chemicals. It has been found that illegal counterfeit marijuana vapes have been seen all over the place as well as states that are legal and actual cannabis conferences.

Users are fooled to believe that the cartridges that they are buying are safe because they are made to look like legitimate companies even though they are counterfeit. This is also detrimental to the legal companies because their name is on the labels that are making people sick even though it’s a knockoff. The California Department of Public Health has now gone under investigation because of these fake cartridges to figure out how to stop these knockoff vapes from being made and sold. Many legal brands are working to fight off the counterfeiting of their products and have something done about it. Brands like Kingpen are spending millions of dollars on their products to have them completely redesigned to further stop this from happening. There are also future plans to enable an anti-counterfeiting program that will allow users to verify Kingpen products that have been bought from legal dispensaries. Also added, has been a code for the products to be validated by customers. In 2018, lab testing became mandatory where hundreds of products were flagged after failing the state lab testing.
Due to the toxins in these cartridges, seven people were first reported having pneumonia like symptoms in California. After continually using these knockoff products, users have complained of shortness of breath, severe coughing, tightness in the chest, occasionally vomiting and some ended up in the emergency room. It was said that in these cases, the lungs were inflamed on MRI’s and full of liquid. As more people got sick, it was put together that all had smoked a vaporizer bought off the streets at pop-up shops. However, after much research, the ingredient causing these health problems has yet to be discovered. The first death due to vaping in the United States was reported from Illinois on August 23, 2019 after receiving a severe lung disease. As of most recently, in January of 2020 there have been 60 deaths reported that are caused from vaping. Some states have even reported cases where there isn’t adult legalization in the state. 

A video that I found through rollingstone.com specifically mentioned that it has not been confirmed that the THC in these cartridges is what is causes people to get sick which is the scary part. It’s the chemicals that were illegally put into these products that are sending people to the hospital with severe lung problems. In the recent months, an 18-year-old boy complained about the same symptoms in Long Island, New York and within 48 hours, his symptoms worsened and he was sent into ICU. His mother later found a vaporizer cartridge with TKO Extracts labeled on it. This is a licensed company located in California however, the product that this young male was using was found to be the counterfeit version of the company. Shortly after, another male came up with completely different symptoms because users may react differently. The patient had lost so much weight in only two weeks that the doctors believed it was cancer. After some testing, the doctors confirmed that he had been using vaporizer cartridges with THC in them that had not been purchased legally.

Further looking into the research that I have already found about marijuana vapes coming across as knockoff from licensed companies I have found that they are also making people sick. The fake marijuana vapes are infecting the cannabis markets in California because people are recreating legal vape brands and replacing them in Chinese factories without testing the possible harmful cannabis oils.
I even found some evidence by doing research about a young boy who was hospitalized complaining about chest pain, nausea, fever, and shortness of breath. His mother later found a vape cartridge that was confirmed to be a counterfeit product of the original company TKO extracts legal products. Problems similar to this have been arising across the United States with 193 potential cases of a severe lung illness linked to vaping.
People believe that these vape cartridges are safe because they are made to look like the original company so people are believing that they are safe even though they aren’t. Companies have had to hire prosecutors to help them deal with knockoffs of their products to save their companies. This could be detrimental to the companies as well that are selling safe and legal products simply because people are using empty cartridges from these companies and putting their own products in them.
So many cases of lung illness have come from these fake cartridges that it is now under investigation by the California Department of Public Health. Investigations are still in works to figure out how to stop these knockoff cartridges from being sold especially in the state of California since marijuana is legal there.

After doing some research I have come across that there are marijuana vapes that have risen concerns for licensed companies coming across that they are knockoffs. There are shops in Los Angeles, California that are selling marijuana vapes that are fake which has infected the cannabis market in California. This has happened because of people recreating legal vape brands, replicating them in Chinese factories without putting the possibly dangerous cannabis oils through testing. The result of these knockoff marijuana vapes are people believing they are safe because they look like the legal brands and they end up not being safe.
Studies have shown that hundreds of people across America have been affected by these knockoff vapes being sold on the streets. There have also been seven deaths reported from these marijuana vapes in California’s Tulare County. Health officials haven’t figured out what is causing breathing issues due to these vapes but other symptoms like vomiting have also been reported. It has been reported that most of these vapes are purchased from pop-up stores and other illegal sellers. It has become such a big issues that brands like Kingpen, is now investing millions of dollars to change the design of their vapes to differentiate from ones that aren’t legal and have been mimicked. Some companies have even gone as far as to hire a federal prosecutor to help the company deal with fake copies of their products. Companies are worried because people are buying their products, filling them with something else, and then selling it as the brand they got it, which clearly is not the original and legal product.
The way that I researched this topic was first looking and some recent studies in duckduckgo.com. After finding that there has been a lot of research of marijuana products I decided to type that into snopes.com. I was them directed to a short article that redirected me to apnews.com. This article was long enough to give me all the detail I needed to reflect on for my fact check. I chose to research about this topic because I have heard speculations going on a lot about marijuana and I know it is not legal in every state, New Jersey included. Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to do further research on and I knew I would find a lot of information on this topic.

After doing some research through vox.com about if the democratic primary was rigged or not, I found that there was evidence that Hilary Clinton had rigged the nomination process through the DNC. Donna Brazile-former chair of the Democratic National Committee walked her statement all the way back with Elizabeth Warren when they then found that there was no evidence about the nomination process being rigged. 

I also did some research through wikipedia and found all the results from the 2016 democratic party presidential primaries. Hilary Clinton was considered the speculative nominee in June of 2016. She was later confirmed in July that she was the democratic nominee for the 2016 presidential election for the United States. 

The way that I did my research for this political meme was by typing in “was the democratic party rigged” into duckduckgo.com. I clicked on the first article I found and then looked for a wikipedia article as well. I did not find much information about this topic but found enough to know that the democratic primary was rigged.