Annie Henegar
Full Moon, Blackouts, and Spooky Weather. Halloween week. This past week was by far one of the spookiest weeks I have experienced in my life. The week started off with crazy rain and winds. It caused a blackout on Franklin and in the Graduate. It made chapel hill feel like a ghost town. The fact that the week started like that was obviously a sign that this week was going to be a spooky one. Not only did we have a blackout last week but we turned in our feeder 3.1 and started to work on feeder 3.2. In class on Thursday, we had a class workshop and in that time I read over Campbell’s feeder and she was writing about Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat” which went along with the spooky theme of the week. It just seemed that there kept being more signs that this was Halloween week. Feeder 3.2 is very helpful for really getting a better understanding of what I want to do for the unit 3 project since I can really go in-depth about “The Yellow Wallpaper” which is the short story I picked. Doing this project I have really enjoyed going more in-depth on this short story because I read it when I was in high school and I remember it being very interesting and having a lot of symbolism with mental illness and I find that to be a very interesting topic.
Outside of class apart from the Blackout on Franklin, it has been a very interesting week. It was the first week that really felt like fall since almost every day was actually quite chilly and quite spooky. On Thursday the winds were insane and it was raining like crazy during the day since hurricane Zeta was close and somewhat hitting us. Not only did the weather reflect the spooky nature of the week the moon did too. It was pretty much full the whole week and then on Halloween, it was a blue moon that was extravagant and unlike anything else I have seen. I have personally been able to make a good schedule for myself where I try to complete as much homework as possible by Tuesday afternoon so then I only have to attend the class for the rest of the week and I don’t have to worry about being behind on my schoolwork. This has been working pretty well other than the fact that I sometimes lose motivation for my classes since when they are asynchronous I feel like I can just do them later. Other than that I have been able to make friends and make sure I am taking care of myself by getting outside so I am able to balance the stress of school and still being happy and doing things that I enjoy.
The most upsetting thing about this week was UNC’s loss to UVA in football especially since it was on Halloween. Not only was that sad but also this was the first and hopefully last Halloween with COVID. I know that this year trick or treating was very different from normal. I have two younger cousins who were very lucky since their street decided to do it and have a socially distant Halloween pizza party for all the kids. It is just sad to see all of these things having to change or be canceled because of COVID but the fact that people are finding other ways to make things work is wonderful to see.
Lastly, it was daylight savings which were wonderful to get that extra hour of sleep but the sun is going to be setting earlier and shorter days so that is a little bit sad. It is also coming to the end of the semester and hopefully, with the end of the semester coming students will be able to do well on exams and with the break coming hopefully that means a cure to the virus and the hopes of a new semester that is somewhat back to the way life was before COVID. Those might be high hopes but at this point, I cannot really be disappointed anymore so one can only hope for the best.
Picture Citation
“What’s the Origin of Jack-O’-Lanterns?” Mental Floss, 15 Oct. 2018, www.mentalfloss.com/article/12865/whats-origin-jack-o-lanterns.
