about me:)

hey universe,

my name’s iva and i’m an eighth grader from vermont. yea, that small state that is known for bernie sanders and having more cows than people. but it’s great, other than having an almost entirely white and old population, it’s a great place to live. especially when you’re a kid. there are infinite fields to dance in and infinite flowers to make crowns out of. it’s a magical place to be a kid.

but i’m not actually from vermont, i’m from philly. i wish i could break out into the fresh prince of bell air’s theme song but i wasn’t raised there, but i was born there, so that has to count. but i still visit there a lot and it’s a great city. i do miss it a lot, though.

nowadays i spend most of my time sleeping, in school, watching an insane amount of soccer, drawing, worrying about the future of the world and trying to make others smile. but i also really enjoy sailing!

aside from those things, i love star/constellation watching, eating gelato and strawberries, swimming in canadian lakes (don’t ask why, they are just better), petting dogs, eating tacos, practicing my french accent, and listening to the harry potter soundtrack.

so yea, i’m an odd duckling but i have a lot to say and i want to make the world a happier place, so i hope you enjoy my blog.

see ya later alligator,

iva:)

 

post election thoughts

the night of november 8th was exhausting. i was laying on the couch with my family, eating chips and laughing at the npr commentators and how anxious they seemed. i was not aware that for the next four years, i would find nothing about the election funny.

now, to be clear, i was a bernie guy! i loved bernie, and even though at this point i knew he wasn’t an option, i was still secretly hoping for a miracle. but, since it was between trump and clinton at that point, i was all for clinton! anyone but the burnt sweet potato who wants to take away human rights.

the morning of november 9th i wanted to crawl up and disappear. i remember seeing my mother look so distraught and tired. she looked like she wanted to move immediately. my baby sisters (who aren’t really babies at all) were devastated, but not in the same way, my mother and i knew what was coming and we knew what our country was going to become.  i couldn’t explain how sad my town was that day, everyone had their heads down and everyone seemed out of sorts. it was sickening to see.

that night i couldn’t stop crying, the thought that everyone who wasn’t a straight, white, cis, male would suffer made me want to curl up and die. and the worst part was, i knew that this had already been the case for a long time, and i had been fighting it for a long time but i realized how much worse it was going to get. to most people who are a minority, this time is very scary, it almost seems as if we’re going to go fifty years back, and that is a truly terrifying thought!

it’s been a few weeks since i wrote the beginning of this, and now i’ve had some time to reflect… this is terrifying, we have a narcissistic man who believes that he, a white, straight, cis, male is entitled to women’s bodies, acts as if immigrants are the worst people out there, even though the vast, vast majority of this country are immigrants, and doesn’t believe in lgbtq+ rights as our president elect.. on top of that, this country is not in good shape, people don’t agree on the current political situation and many people are very concerned for their safety, and they have every right! we have a whole city in this country that doesn’t have clean water, flint michigan is being deprived! oh, and what about standing rock!?? native americans have been here, on this land long, long before us! and yet, we’ve never seemed to have a problem taking from them… but then, we get angry at new people coming into our country and trying to make a living. none of this makes sense, none of it. our country needs healing, our world needs healing, and most importantly, the people of this world need healing.