5 Questions with OA Senior Esmee Silverman
Q: What is your favorite season?
A: To all my fellow Pisces babies, I must apologize for my non-winter response, but I have to say spring. The weather is sunny and not too hot, flowers come out, birds chirping. I always enjoy going out with my friends during the spring and enjoying the local parks and outdoor spaces available.
Q: Where do you see yourself a year from now?
A: I will be completely honest when I was a freshman I didn’t think I would make it a year from then. Now that I’m here, I’ve learned to value life and understand that every day is going to present something different, but at the end of the day, you can make it better. I see myself optimistic like usual a year from now. I see myself engaging in ideas and critical thinking with some of the most intellectual people in the world at college. I see myself making all my ideas into reality with the countless projects I’m working on. Most importantly, however, I see myself happy. I see myself being content with life, and I see myself having the drive and motivation to do all the things I want to do.
Q: What are your New Years resolutions?
A: My New Years’ resolutions are mostly activism related with some personal goals thrown in there. Activism wise the most prominent one definitely has to be starting up the New England GSA Coalition. Making sure every student has access to a Gender Sexuality Alliance is something I’m super passionate about, and this coalition would make that dream, a reality. Speaking at pride has been up on my list also. It would be a dream come true and I feel like I have enough connections and experience to be able to. Speaking of connections, I’ve made a lot of friends over quarantine, and I’m drawing up plans to visit as many as I can towards the end of the year pending COVID restrictions. I’ve also been working on increasing my activism brand through Instagram and making myself known in the LGBTQ+ community. Personally, I want to learn Hindi, go vegan for a month, and finish my mmovie script I’m working on.
Q: What are your thoughts on your current work load?
A: The current workload (especially in an online environment) in my opinion has been way too much. We are in the middle of an unprecedented mental health crisis, suicide rates amongst teenagers are up, people are going hungry and getting kicked out of their homes, and school administrations seem to only care about the laws requiring students to do work 5 days a week. This workload takes ni account into two things: students having other classes and students having lives outside of school. Teachers who schedule assignments to be due at 2:30 are honestly insane. For students who do clubs and other activities, or for students who have other teachers with 2:30 assignments, this time is just not feasibly possible. I’m someone who does multiple clubs and organizations outside and inside of the school, and I find myself missing my 2:30 deadlines all the time due to having meetings and classes. The American education system doesn’t care about students or their mental health. If they did, they would have cut a day off the school week, gotten rid of standardized testing, and given overall less work to students who are already going through copious amounts of stress and pressure.
Q: How are you feeling right now?
A: Stressed but optimistic. As I alluded to earlier, I am part of many different activities outside of school, including 2 projects I am starting up. The workload is imaginably abundant and strenuous, especially during the weekdays. Despite this, I always try to stay optimistic (as I naturally am). My projects are going smoothly, I’m recruiting people for one and scheduling activities for the other, and I have many more ideas I’m working on starting up! Overall optimism reigns supreme, and I’m ready for what 2021 has in store.