Recently, I began searching for a new podcast that fit my interests, as I had to attempt to say goodbye to my previous podcast about the human body: The Body Awake. Although it was very difficult saying goodbye to Liam and his wonderful podcast about the human body, I had to part ways and search for a different topic. I searched high and wide for podcasts that really caught my attention until I went to the garage to take out the garbage.  I saw my hockey stuff and said to myself, “now that’s a podcast I would listen to!”  I started searching up hockey podcast until I came across one that was known as The Hockey News.  It met all the criteria that I thought made a podcast good:  the hosts have a good sense of humor and were interesting to listen to, the topic was about something that I like, they uploaded consistently, and they had very interesting debates about certain aspects of the game. It was after I listen to the most recent episode that I decided I was going to stick with a podcast that talk about a sport that I recently got into.

In the most recent episode, uploaded on February 4 of this year, Matt Larkin and the rest of the crew discuss hockey (obviously).  More specifically, they talked about the most recent trades, rumors, discussions and outrages across the National Hockey League. This week especially is a good week to have a podcast on, as there was a lot of activity that occurred recently. To start off the podcast, they jump right into last week’s big trade between the Florida Panthers and the Pittsburgh Penguins; which sent Nick Bjugstad and Jared McCann off to Pennsylvania while Derick Brassard and Riley Shanahan coming down to the sunshine state. With Bjugstad and Brassard being the more important players of the trade, this suggests that Florida is looking to flip Brassard to another team for an even bigger trade now that they have more cap space with the departure of Bjugstad’s contract. Interesting to see what Florida will do in the coming days with the possibility of going after Columbus Blue Jackets’ goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.

Speaking of the Blue Jackets, after they discuss briefly interviews with certain players and fantasy hockey pickups of the week, they discuss the likelihood that Artemi Panarin will not negotiate for a contract extension with the Blue Jackets before the season ends.  This suggests a possible trade that might occur before the trade deadline, but the more important question they discuss is where will he go?

after a few fan questions are answered and the hot take about how 2018-19 New York Islanders are a bigger story than the 2017-18 Vegas golden knights,  they wrap up the podcast  by including the rumors of  a potential offer sheet  4 Toronto Maple Leafs forward  Mitch Marner. Marner, being the fourth overall pick of the 2015 NHL draft, has 63 points in 52 cans per season and is likely to increase that number above 75 by the end of the season. It would seem barbaric to try to give him away to other teams when he is having outstanding performances night after night at the age of 21. However, with the new five-year contract extension of Auston Matthews with an 11.5 million dollar AAV, the Maple Leafs are not going to be able to afford Marner once his contract expires. Moreover, if they choose to resign him, they will not be able to afford the rest of their team, taking them from a Stanley Cup contender back down to the basement of the league.  As hard as it might be for leaf fans to see Mitch leave the organization for another team, it is for the best.

If you do not follow hockey at all or have no clue what I just talked about, that is understandable. I did not know who any of these people were before I got into hockey. But besides all of the discussions about players some of you may not have never heard of, it is still interesting to listen to since a lot of the topics reveal a lot about the players, teams, and owners’ goals, morals, objectives, and more. Is also interesting to see what professional sports League through an economic or a philosophical or psychological lens to see how the game itself in a league affects everything. There is different paths you can take to lead to more discoveries and more questions about other things. It does not necessarily have to be all about hockey. However, the thing that I find to be most interesting is how a rubber puck, pair of ice skates and a stick can affect so many people around the world and how one game can have so much influence on people.

After watching the Netflix film “Bandersnatch“ in class, there were a lot of times where I thought I made the right decision and was satisfied with it at first, but  quickly realized I should have went back and made the other decision. There are also other points that made me think to myself: “what the heck is going on?” .This film is the first-of-its-kind, allowing the viewer to interact with the story line and make decisions for the character that can certain narratives based upon those decisions. The outcomes could have little impact to down on the story line, from weather the main character should a certain cereal the weather him or another character should jump off a balcony.

While watching, I found there were many different messages and meanings placed throughout this movie.  However, the message that I thought to be the most prioritize in the story was how technology affects us so much nowadays that it literally controls our everyday decisions to the point where we have no conscience thought these decisions. As   the viewer, we control all of the decisions that Stefan makes whenever the choices arise. We control things such as what he ate for breakfast to whether he would take drugs or not to whether he would be or chop up his own father. Although it may be fiction, Stefan does these actions without a trace of consciousness or self-awareness once the decision is made. He does not think back and say oh I probably should have done this. Not only does this affect Stefan and the characters in the story, but this also affects us as of you or for being in control of these decisions through technology. Like how Stefan was so obsessed with trying to make his game, we are so obsessed with checking our phones each and every day and letting our phones even make some decisions for us,  such as where should we eat for dinner or what should I buy. We become so obsessed with social media or Netflix or some kind of entertainment that I bet our family and other things distract us from what we are currently doing interrupt many people, like Stefan, to the point of anger and frustration.

Additionally, I read over some reviews of the film and found an interesting remark that was made by an article called “The “Bandersnatch” Episode of “Black Mirror” and the Pitfalls of Interactive Fiction”. In this article, it concludes, “We can explore various courses of action before settling on our preferred route. There are few such chances in life, where we live with our choices and their repercussions. In its way, “Bandersnatch” offers an antidote to regret” (New Yorker). Why this may offer an antidote to regret, it is not at all realistic as ignores many of the moral aspects of decision-making in reality. In philosophy, there are three different categories in ethics:  virtue ethics, deontology, and consequentialism. All three of these schools of Ethics relate to the different parts of a decision. Virtue ethics relating to the morality of a person’s character, deontology to whether the action is right or wrong under a series of rules, or consequentialism relating to the consequences of an action. Most of us have to make decisions on a daily basis and follow one of the three schools of Ethics without even realizing it. However, this antidote to regret could potentially be harmful in teaching morals. I view it as if a young person read this article and reviewed this as an antidote to regret, and then they would be dependent on things such as these when they make a wrong decision and regret it. This way they can go back and change their actions when in reality, they have to learn to adjust their moral principles and learn from their mistakes based off their previous consequences of their actions.

Besides the fact that “Bandersnatch” is on Netflix and was created in the postmodernism era, there are quite a lot of postmodern characteristics that are found in this film. The first one being hyper reality. Hyper-reality means that there is an inability to tell the difference between what is real and what is not. In the film, Stefan, along with the viewer, cannot tell whether a current scene that is occurring is real or not when he wakes up 2 seconds later implying that it was a dream. Then minutes later, something very unrealistic happens yeah we tend to grasp as reality. An additional postmodern tenant that I found in this film was Meta-fiction, or when the author abandons traditional techniques to highlight certain things about text. in this case, instead of reading or watching a story that was already planned ahead of time with one ending, we as if you were have the ability to choose what can be done in the story with multiple different outcomes and endings resulting from it. In addition, there are instances where the characters reference things or include irony that the reader gets but the characters do not. The characters also break the fourth wall, or make it appear as if they are directly talking to the viewers through the screen. These combinations of post-modern tenants make this film unique in the approach it takes for its story structure and truly makes it one of a kind for our time.

Overall, I really enjoyed watching “Bandersnatch” in class over the past few days. I really thought it was interesting how some of my classmates would take certain approaches and whether I would follow them or choose to make the opposite decision. I believe it reveals people’s moral character and the ethical principles that apply to them based off the decisions made throughout the story. I truly enjoyed the film itself as I thought it was unique to have an interactive plot where it intrigues people to watch it repeatedly to try to get the different endings that are based off your decisions. I honestly hope that Netflix continues to create more content like this as I find the interactive things much more entertaining than just an ordinary TV show or movie. Great job Netflix!

Below are the notes that I took in class as well as the reviews and critiques I read about “Bandersnatch”.

Links:

• Black Mirror’ Bosses Unpack the Multiple ‘Bandersnatch’ Endings

• ‘Black Mirror’ Interactive Film: Inside the 2-Year Journey of ‘Bandersnatch’

• The “Bandersnatch” Episode of “Black Mirror” and the Pitfalls of Interactive Fiction

• Choose Very Carefully: a Review of Black Mirror – Bandersnatch

Very recently, I had just finished reading a book titled metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. It is quite a rather interesting novel as the story follows a man named Gregor Samsa, who discovers one morning that he has transformed into a bug. Throughout the majority of the story, there are many themes of isolation and loneliness that Gregor undergoes as his family slowly begins to reject him as their family member Due to his appearances. Although I have never per say been isolated because I had the looks of an insect, I can relate to the hardships he faced when being confronted with isolation.

I remember when I was a little kid that I had undergone certain things in my life that no other kid my age has gone through. It was always hard trying to relate to others about certain things since they have never experienced it or never even heard about it. I definitely felt very isolated as I didn’t really have an abundance of friends until later in elementary. It was definitely difficult to try and build an understanding bond between some of my classmates and I definitely felt very alone. Besides my family, I didn’t really have anyone at school my age to comprehend who I was.

Yet unlike Gregor’s circumstances, I eventually began to build some bonds between my classmates and had a good amount of friends by 3rd grade.  Gregor’s outcome from this period of isolation was more Dire. And Gregor’s situation was a lot sadder as he eventually went back up into his room and died after being told that if you really was Gregor that he would have left the house a while ago to not be a burden to the family. My situation was obviously less Solemn than his as I did not die from sadness and isolation or else I wouldn’t be writing this post.

But Gregor probably would still be alive if he just made the effort to find somebody that accept him for who he is. I know it must have been hard to find someone given the fact that his appearance is very revolting to most and there’s not much self-esteem when your own family reject you as a person, but there is always somebody who is willing to like you for who you are. If a character such as that was implemented into the story, did the ending would have been a lot different. If only Gregor listen to the song “Lean on Me” by Bill Withers, he would maybe still be alive and happy as a bug.

Recently, I finished reading a New York Times article that talked about a particular woman’s recent passing. The more I read, the more I continued to find out how much she has done for a lot of women today thanks to her. Her name? Nancy Cappello

The article discusses the recent passing of Nancy Cappello, a woman who discovered that she had stage 3c breast cancer in 2003 from an ultrasound despite having her mammogram six weeks earlier. Her doctor said that it was undetectable in her mammogram due to her “dense breast tissue”, which she never heard a doctor say to her before. She later discovered that if she was told she had dense breasts and scanned them for any lumps or tumors, she wouldn’t have even needed chemotherapy.

Since that day, “she began a campaign to require fuller disclosure to women about their mammogram results and the limitations of the test” (New York Times). Also, she has started a campaign called “Are You Dense?” to bring awareness to this issue. Today, all but 14 States now require a more detailed disclosure of the results of a woman’s mammogram and inform them if they have dense breasts, as well as to take actions to do further examinations. Because her tumor was growing for about 4 or 5 years supposedly, she was diagnosed with blood cancer in late summer of 2018 and was scheduled for a bone marrow donor to be cured but declined rapidly in hell and eventually passed away due to complications of the cancer what she got from chemotherapy. She was 66.

Nancy (middle) being presented the Susan G. Komen Promise award in Farmington, Connecticut 

But I become aware that we should not sit and gloat, but look back and be proud of what she has done. Her actions have required all these doctor in each state to do further tests to tell if a woman has breast cancer or not. Recently, my mother was actually diagnosed with breast cancer in early January and had a double mastectomy in March. It was not something I was expecting nor I would ever been prepared for. When I heard the words cancer, my mind immediately just shut down and couldn’t comprehend what was being told to me.  I wasn’t ready to lose my mother and father within the span of 11 years. I still needed her in my life.  I want her to see me graduate, get married, and start a family. I wasn’t ready for her to be taken away from me.

My mother and myself last Christmas along with my cousin Grace

Thankfully, because of what Nancy has pushed for, doctors were able to catch it very early staged and safely remove all of it. My mother’s able to continue raising me and loving the one she holds so close to her heart. It’s fascinating to think how one life that is taken from this world results in millions of life saved.

So I say to you Nancy, thank you. Thank you for saving my mother and many other mothers across the world. Without your work, I don’t know where she’d be right now.

In Tuesday’s class, we listened to a very interesting song called “Vincent” by Don McLean but performed by Josh Groban. We listened to the entire song and then were told to write down the kind of mood we felt it portrayed and what literary devices it was using in order to give it that mood.

I found the mood to be very uplifting and tranquil at the intro of the song. But as I could seem to listen to the lyrics, I found it was a deeper meaning and more dark than the song may sound like.  Talking about Vincent van Gogh and his famous painting a starry night. The songwriter appears to be a big fan of Vincent Van Gogh and his work but feel that people do not appreciate him as they should when he was painting and that he should see now how his work has become so famous.

I find that there was a lot of imagery in the lyrics of a song in order to “paint” The Listener a picture of Vincent’s painting and his story. He describes a lot of the scenery in the painting like the Blazing flowers or the fields. Mainly just the highlights of the beauty in nature. And typically, flowers symbolize peace and love. So it appears as if this starry night that he painted made him at peace and love the view so much that he decide to paint it. It would appear as if this Vincent van Gogh seem to be a pretty normal person right?

Nope! I did some more research into his backstory and turns out he suffered from a lot of mental issues throughout his life and has been in multiple psychiatric hospitals. He actually committed suicide at the age of 37 and painted a starry night from the view of his window in his mental hospital room. I also did some more research into some more symbolism and found that night sometimes represents death or Loss of faith. So while the painting seems to be very beautiful and calming, it’s back story is a bit blacker than it is blue.

The song also seems to use a lot of sympathy for Vincent, as well as a lot of praise for what he has become. there are a lot of lines where the song goes And how you suffered for your sanity And how you tried to set them free They would not listen, they did not know how Perhaps they’ll listen now”, Where it appears the song writer is suggesting that the people who didn’t listen should be ashamed of themselves and perhaps now they’ll pay attention.

One final thing I noticed about the song is that it appears that the songwriter seems to think very high of Vincent Van Gogh and his work; almost a bit too high. It almost seems as if the songwriter worships Vincent almost as if he were a god of some sorts. The songwriter continues to say things along the lines like if only they could see you now and shame on them for not seeing the beauty in you. He almost sounds like a priest or a deacon of some sorts, standing in front of the alter praising and acknowledging this wonderful being that has performed unimaginable things. And by the looks of all of Van Gogh’s work, I never would have imagined a painting of that quality could have ever been produced. I guess you could say he “Goghs” above and beyond.

After reading Frankenstein, I couldn’t have possibly imagined that someone would try to attempt what Victor did in real life. But after reading The New York Times’ “Doctor’s Plan for Full-Body Transplants Raises Doubts Even in Daring China”, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I didn’t actually think that some doctor would try to attempt this, at least, not in my time. But as I continue to read it, I found it to actually be quite interesting and quite possible in the near future.

The article is about a Chinese doctor named Dr. Ren Xiaoping of Harbin Medical University and his goal to transplant Wang Huanming’s head onto another body, who was previously paralyzed from an accident. He is now a quadriplegic. However, this kind of research and procedure is not going to happen without causing a lot of controversy among the medical profession all across the globe. Many doctors believe that China is “pushing the ethical and practical limits of science” (Tatlow 3) and could possibly be done in the near future. Dr. Xiaoping’s  procedure consist of removing the two heads from two bodies, the patient’s and a Corpse’s, connecting the blood vessels of the donor body to the recipient head, putting a metal plate in the neck to stabilize it, and bathe the spinal cord nerve endings in a substance to Aid regrowth and  suture the skin. But doctors say that it is impossible to put the spinal cord nerves back together with the head. Dr. Xiaoping has performed this experiment on mice, but they have only lived one day after the surgery. As he continues his research into getting Wang’s head on a new body, him and his family know the risks and are willing to take them.

Back in 1818, when Mary Shelley wrote This Book, I can imagine that the people reading this we’re horrified at the description of the creature and thought it could never be done in a million years. But with the technological advancements in medicine and science, we see that we are getting closer and closer to completing operations and Miracles that we would have never thought of a hundred years ago. But it really just blows my mind that there’s the potential in a few years that a human being’s head can be severed and put on to a deceased person’s body with full control over it. Who knows what might happen in another 50 years or so when it comes to medicine. Maybe we’ll be able to genetically grow humans for all I know! This is why I love medicine:  there’s the infinite research and development of experiments that might turn out to be beneficial to society, but some may go too far like Victor did and make it turn out to be  pass the ethical boundaries that are bestowed. All I can tell you is if I become a doctor like my parents and my entire family did, I’ll definitely not be a Victor.

Since the school year has started, I’ve been taking both honors modern fiction and philosophy, both very interesting and fun classes that I don’t mind attending while I’m in school. In fact, they’re actually quite enjoyable. But never in any scenario would I have imagined that philosophy would somehow be connected to English class. Two months into the school year and that has already changed.

After reading Frankenstein, I began to see how some things that were taught to me in philosophy w’re being shown in the text in multiple points throughout the story. I realized that some things in my philosophy class I was learning, such as skepticism, empiricism and rationalism, started to bleed through the pages and reveal itself to me. The creature was born as Tabula Rasa (which means clean slate in Latin) and gains knowledge of humans through A Posteriori knowledge (which falls under empiricism). Because he gained knowledge after experience, this led to him becoming violent towards humans and eventually being the cause of the deaths of Victor’s family members.

Also, at the start of the year, we learned about logic and being able to point out fallacies. In the book, there are many instances that didn’t make logical sense and I believe there were one or two fallacies that I cannot remember off the top of my head. But without philosophy, I would have been completely lost for so much longer than I was. With the help of philosophy, it was able to help me further understand the book then someone who didn’t take this class did and expand my critical thinking of the book and of philosophical questions. My English class helps me in philosophy as it aids me in understanding complex words and difficult vocabulary as most of the philosophers that we read have written things in the Greek Mythology time period; which had very complex writing pieces. With the help and understanding of this complex vocabulary, it makes the readings in philosophy easier to understand.

In a way, these two subjects of school are kind of like a mixture of drinks you decide to put together for some reason but it actually turns out to be quite good,  As both things collaborate and work together in order to produce a better product. In my case, both of these classes are helping me produce better work and understanding of difficult texts and developing my writing and analysis skills. I’m actually very glad that I took philosophy this year as I quite enjoy a good challenge of thinking critically and analyzing texts carefully in order to extract their meaning. It may be frustrating at times, but so is every other class and school itself.  so next time you’re at a Starbucks or some kind of food place where you’re trying to work on your English homework or some kind of work, I would recommend ordering the philoso-coffee with a splash of English if you’re having a hard time with your assignment. I heard they really work! Oh, and don’t forget the cream and sugar.

        After the Socratic seminar that was held last Wednesday, I thought that I was able to get my point across that I found while reading Frankenstein about the book’s Illustration of the acquisition of knowledge and the impact of the Novel’s frame. However, if there was more time for each individual to speak, I would have been able to get my point across that deals with to what extent Victor and the creature are considered monstrous.  

     The creature would be considered monstrous by many do to his disturbing appearances and actions that he committed, such as murdering William and Justine.  Yet it would be Victor who would be the true monster as he was the one who created the creature and ultimately lead to the creature’s path of mayhem. That’s the creature was created by Victor, he was brought into the world as tabula rasa ( clean slate),  mean that he has no morals or knowledge of anything due to his lack of experience. But as the book continues, the creature develops morals and knowledge through his experiences (A Posteriori knowledge) with humans and nature.  at one point in the story, when the creature admits to the father of the cottage that they are only friends and his children walk in on the creature, Felix grabbed a stick and began to hit the creature until he ran away (97). After this experience and a previous experiences he had where humans were violent and rude to him, he developed knowledge of humans after his experiences that humans were bad and cause him pain, thus, he wanted to kill humans since they caused him that pain. This leads into what Reed had mentioned any Socratic seminar, where Victor and all of the other humans in society rejected him for his deformities and appearance, would cause the creature to develop this hate for humans and ultimately strangled William (102) on Instinct rather than on thought since is natural notion is to remove the thing that’s causing pain.

Although the creature is monstrous for the murders of all of Victor’s family members, Victor would be considered the true monster as it was his fault for all of the deaths in his family. Because of his obsession, he took people’s body parts out of their final resting places and put them together for his own self benefit and enjoyment. Most people would frown upon this. But because he was clouded by his obsession and temptations, he overlooked this. In a way, he carried his family’s body parts and put them together to form one disaster that would ultimately be responsible for all of the deaths, including his own. Because of all the murders that the creature bestowed upon him, he went through this endless suffering of melancholy and guilt, which eventually led him to his death at the end of the book. Although he was maybe not directly evil, The creation of the creature for his personal gain ultimately resulted in his personal and endless suffering throughout his mortal life led to many deaths as well as his own, which can be seen as he is the murderer of his family and himself through another and as most normal would consider murder to be evil and wrong/monstrous. This relates in a way to what Liza said about how Victor is more monstrous because of his selfishness, which made him feel unloved (36).

After reading the novel Frankenstein and speaking at the Socratic seminar about it, I not only felt that it improved my understanding of older language and vocabulary that may not be used as frequently as today, but I also felt it has improved me as a reader by making me take my time whilst reading and really forced me to pay attention to every single little detail it presents. I first found the reading very difficult to understand and had myself rereading pages three to four times, which would only make me more frustrated and prevent me from understanding it more. But as we continued, I felt it less challenging to understand the book and only found myself reading it once or twice if I needed to double check something. well it may not have been the most entertaining book I have read in my entire life, it still is a very decent fictional book that has only help me improve as a reader and a writer.

After digging through some of my older books that I previously read, I found a book that I used for my independent reading from Sophomore year and reread it over the summer. The book is titled Moneyball, and I find it more intriguing and entertaining the more I read it. The author, Michael Lewis, does an remarkable job in his use of his writing style in order to compel an interesting story that opens the reader’s eyes on specific topics. For this book, Lewis emphasizes his ideas on statistical analysis and maximizing the benefits at the lowest cost.

For those who aren’t familiar with Moneyball, it is about a former MLB player named Billy Bean, who was once a top prospect in the game and was expected to do tremendous. He did not have the greatest of careers and became the General Manager of the Oakland A’s. From there, he used a new way of scouting players who were considered flawed and turned them into a great team at a very low cost. It combines the true story of this man’s rise to success as a General Manager with the new era of scouting systems and economics of baseball to form a excellent yet informative story.

What I found to be really effective as I read the story was Michael Lewis’s ability to input the ideas of statistical analysis and economics into the story without putting too much in and making the story itself seem uninteresting. The great amount of imagery that is shown throughout the entire novel and research that was put into it by explaining every little detail shows how he was able to get every fact on the analysis without forgetting about the story. It incorporates this with the story itself to create a balance between the two and make one great story. Without the imagery and descriptions of what these scouting systems were and how they work, it would be very difficult and boring to follow the story.

Additionally, the diction that was used to write this book was another reason why I enjoyed reading it so much. Lewis uses such simple words to describe his story, that it is extremely easy to follow along with story without getting confused by all of the numbers and player names. He takes all of the large business words that most people who aren’t familiar with the finance world and turns them into this simple and smooth language that everyone can understand and enjoy while reading. He even broke down the game of baseball itself and put it into simple terms. So if you’re one of the best workers on Wall Street and have no idea what a baseball is, or visa versa, then you can read this book and know exactly what it’s about without even rereading it! Without it, I don’t think that it would be as successful and known if it didn’t have this simple language if everybody but finance people and baseball fans could only understand it.

Whether you like baseball, business, both or neither, the simplicity of the language and the incorporation of all of the topics can turn out to be a great story that actually happened, and can put your mind out of the ballpark.

Places where you can purchase MoneyBall (if interested):

•  Amazon:
• Barnes & Noble:
•  iTunes:

Over this past weekend, I arrived home from a commitment I had and immediately resumed the film Good Will Hunting where I left off on my TV as soon as I got to my room. After about 10 minutes, I paused the movie and went on my computer to see what other movies Robin Williams had been in other than this one. As I was about to click on the list of all the movies he had partaken in, I noticed there was a list of quotes he made right next to it. As I clicked on it, it took me to a website with all of these Robin Williams Quotes. From there, I began to look through and saw here was one quote that popped right off the screen that made me really think about what it said.

“Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.”

–Robin Williams

When I first read it, I thought “Yeah couldn’t agree more”. But as I really looked at it, I was really dumbfounded as to how true this really was and had to put down my computer for a second. I felt I reacted so strongly to that as I realized how true his quote was and how it applied to me personally. People could be fighting a physical battle like abuse or cancer, even mental battles like depression and phobias.

When I saw the words “fighting a battle”, I thought of my mother, who recently discovered she was fighting an illness that she never knew she had gained in the past year. Luckily, doctors were able to identify it quickly and take care of the problem with surgery. Now, she’s as healthy as always. But I never really told anyone about it (except for now) and always kept it private. It really made me open my eyes and not only view it as how people don’t know what my family or myself are fighting through, but what I may not know about somebody else that they could be undergoing. And when I read those last three words, I took it to heart and promised myself I would try to be as kind to everyone as I possibly can. Because I may not know what someone is going through, even if they don’t show it. I’m not them. I don’t know their story. And I can’t imagine the struggle they’re facing, no matter the battle.