{"id":9437,"date":"2020-05-01T12:03:15","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T16:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/?p=9437"},"modified":"2020-05-01T12:03:15","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T16:03:15","slug":"hope-when-we-need-it-the-most","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/2020\/05\/01\/hope-when-we-need-it-the-most\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope When We Need It the Most"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Jacqueline Blyudoy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">March and April 2020 are two months we will all remember for the rest of our lives. As the international death toll rose at alarming rates, national leaders across the globe closed their borders and ordered citizens to stay at home with no estimate of when this nightmare will be over. As of April 25, the US death toll has surpassed 50,000. At this point, everyone either has or knows someone that has a relative who succumbed to COVID-19. It is fair to say that we are experiencing \u201chistory textbook content\u201d firsthand. We will have some interesting stories to tell our grandkids about \u201cthat once in a lifetime experience\u201d during which we couldn\u2019t leave the house for two months and counting.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As college and high school graduates are notified of milestone cancellations, weddings are postponed, and more, it is easy to lose hope. However, American citizens have found beautiful ways to shine light during a time of darkness and document these moments on social media. Unfortunately, Aries and Taurus season babies have had to celebrate their somber birthdays at home without extended family and friends. However, loved ones have tackled this problem with a touch of creativity: they draw posters, gather gifts and balloons, and drive-by their house. Numerous videos have circulated showing people honking as one car after another passes by with a special birthday individual glowing in awe. In addition, those turning \u201cthe big 21\u201d and hoping to spend their birthday in Vegas are surprised with a makeshift bar by their lovely parents\u2013turned waiters and bartenders. Families have still managed to share heartfelt milestones. Another popular video shows a recently engaged lady standing outside her grandfather\u2019s nursing home window pointing to her new ring. Lastly, during Passover and Easter, families used video platforms to see one another as they performed their rituals and ate a grand meal. While they could not be there physically, they connected spiritually.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">These instances of kindness and teamwork truly show how even in the worst of times, we can all come together to support one another. While the future is unpredictable, the American population is indestructible\u2014when we unite, we face the fight. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jacqueline Blyudoy March and April 2020 are two months we will all remember for the rest of our lives. As the international death toll rose at alarming rates, national leaders across the globe closed their borders and ordered citizens to stay at home with no estimate of when this nightmare will be over. As&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":703,"featured_media":9438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1596],"class_list":["post-9437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation-and-world","tag-opinions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/703"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}