My Life in WordsTea and coffee drinker. Fan of several 80s, 90s bands, and recently Josh Groban, Celine, and Sarah Bareilles.
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Only a few years ago saying "Have you ever lived through a pandemic before," is one question that seldom surfaced. The Spanish flu although considered a similar scale exposure, occurred prior to 1930’s in the beginning of the 20th century. With more than 3 billion of vaccines administered today, the infection numbers have dropped considerably, however new cases still are being discovered daily.
There is a debate about the effectiveness of vaccines. Both sides argue really well the pros and cons. The argument is that these vaccines are newly developed and can cause various abnormal reactions in humans. For the ones who are for vaccines, the argument is that it prevents serious infection and allows the body to acclimate and build anti-bodies. This choice is a matter of personal belief and a personal choice. Of course the government recommends the regular schedule of vaccines. As a Volunteer to Riddle Hospital I had to have vaccines in order to participate in the volunteer program, a few years ago. Same with the volunteer program at the local Hospice nursing home. Some tests had been institutionally done, and others are state regulated. However, it is still our choice and power as consumers and volunteers to explore vaccines or not explore them. There has not been long-enough data released about the long-term effects of such vaccines. Organizations like VAYERS at CDC show that reactions do occur, and not to be ashamed if some allergy happened. Prior to this year the sars-virus vaccines were not federally mandated. Does that leave us as guinea pigs of the first round of the vaccine? Perhaps. The cost of breath has become staying a safe distance away from others, daily hygiene practice, and wearing a mask when around others who may be unvaccinated. The CDC recently had mandated regular hand washing during previous months. December of 2021, my state of Pennsylvania had the highest rate of new cases at peak number of 10, 563 but now in June 7th, we are to a lower number of 746 cases. According to John Hopkin's, one of the good news is that Governor of Pennsylvania, has signed HB 1459 into law, on Jul 23, 2020 which establishes a mental wellness and stress management program for first responders who experience post-traumatic stress injuries or traumatic brain injuries on the job. Also Chester Country residents are seeing 96 percent recovery rate, with majority of cases being in the age 20-29 group, followed by 50-59 age group, 30-39, and 40-49, with 808 dead being reported county wide, as of today, June 7th.
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In high school I spent countless hours after regular classes in our creative writing club. We would read poetry and listen to the muse in hopes of finding those elegant connections between silence and spoken word, to scribble down something of significance for our creative writing magazine. Although, it was not as popular as Theater, Sports, or TV, we had a simple and modest home in our teacher's classroom after school. So many wonderful memories of us as we sifted through poetry and short stories written by our classmates. A great process and a privilege, for me since I was an immigrant and learned English since a young age. Yet being a non-native English speaker, I naturally excelled at English and writing, and simply enjoyed it. English is my second language and I have learned it from 4th grade onward how to write compositions. We had a brilliant teacher who really inspired us students to put pen to paper and create various written pieces. I had a few brilliant teachers including Mrs. Kravchuk. My friend Tatiana and I took her Creative writing courses during 11th grade. Below is a photo of us from that time. Possibly from our class night at the Philadelphia Aquarium. Those were the good old days! In my experience as a news writer and editor, is that writing takes time and so does editing. Good writers know that the craft is a process, and can vary depending on the deadline, access to sources, and word count required. Similar to seamstresses, a writer has his or her initial material and tools to excel in the craft that is writing for an audience. A short paragraph can be written in minutes and revised fairly quickly, but a longer articles need slightly longer writing times and preferably a few hours to construct, evaluate, revise and edit. Having served for newspaper, and magazines as a writer and designer, I've had success with writing on deadlines. Each article became like a beloved piece of clothing that I had sewn, and sent into the world. If you've found my page, perhaps you have a document that needs editing, proofreading, translating or revising, or perhaps you are just browsing around. Learning to write, proofread, and edit is a worth-while journey. Thanks for visiting my humble site. Olga Dvornikova, BA Journalism, PR, Advertising Temple University In 2006, and even in 2014, saying "Have you ever lived through a Pandemic before," is one question that was as distant as Mars is in my thinking. For most of us, Gen Y, Gen X, the only approximate reference to pandemic-level events prior to 2019 happened on other continents, or during hurricanes. With the exception of 9/11 bombings, where hundreds of thousands of people died in the span of a few hours. I am still am in the shock of my life when I view the numbers about the virus sars-cov 19 totals.
When I were a college student, we wrote about the differences of vocabulary in newspapers. Not that the newspapers sugar coat or censor in any way, but the common knowledge is that the newspaper should be able to be read and understood by a 7th grader. Of course, that is not the case, because in 7th grade, who really had time for reading news all day long? Most of students had school, possibly an after-school-program or sport, and then sitcoms like Boy Meets World, about Corey and Tapanga, or Saved By The Bell, about life of Zach and Mario, or Tostitos commercials to keep them busy. Since I’ve recovered this account from some strange circumstances, all I can say is that dialects of various countries have various vocabulary for medical terminology that represented illnesses, outbreaks included. Did you receive a virus shot when you were little? Well the proper word for it is a vaccine, but during the majority of time between 2019 and 2020 all we did was debate the benefit versus adverse reactions to it. For a long time I really saw no point in the vaccine. Was I supposed to inject it myself or were they going to provide a nurse? How will it affect me? Will I also survive or die like that person on YouTube and you know the ones if you were alive during this 2019-2020. But if you somehow missed it it was usually medical workers who somehow got affected by the adverse effects, which was very strange to me. Did anyone in 2006 know what the West Nile virus is? Not specifically. We knew where the Nile river is and the Egyptian pyramids are. And that’s our 7th grade training not diagnostics which, in all fairness, even our biology teachers in high school seldom mentioned. How was I to know that a fluorescent cactus plants would lead to longer life or not. In 2006 the level of outbreaks that they do today, simply did not exist. So although our world in 2021 includes futuristic Star Wars and Yoda, futuristic science technologies like the SpaceX flights to Mars, and NASA, and the International Space Station(ISS), the ground level information and terminology often depends on the dialects spoken in that region. During the pandemic 2021, I had a glimpse of popular Philadelphia sitcom and specifically my region's dialect portrayed on TV, and to my shock and disbelief most people seemed to agree that "water" is pronounced "woder" and other such dialectical nuances. Perhaps due to my immigrant upbringing, I missed that kind of nuanced pronunciation. Since we did live in other regions of the states. Because the British English that was my teacher, said the "tee" sound is not rolled like a "duh" sound. Most likely I will never pronounce it "dialectically," unless really requested. However, the title of this post was aimed at promotion of literacy and vocabulary building and not letting students down with the Mars, Sputnik, and Nasa homophones or too many jokes about nature’s actual sounds from Disney’s Tarsan. Although it’s also a teaching method, perhaps. |
Writer & EditorThe author has written for a scientific and regular publication. Speaks more than one language. Recently she started learning about meditation and art therapy practices. She is proud of both her creative and journalistic writing and pr work. Archives
June 2021
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