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How to Build A Lasting Community in 3 Months: An Introvert's Guide in 2022

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     No introvert   likes being lonely. Our batteries get charged from being alone and they get spent from participating in large social gatherings. But being alone and lonely are two very different things.      When we switched to  learning online last year , I was excited to have more alone time and by the end of the year, I couldn't remember the names of more than half the people in my classes from in-person . So I made a promise to myself that I would join some clubs and build true connections with people.      But I couldn't think of any clubs at our school that I would be any good in, as most are skill-focused. Now, that would be fine if I was in grade nine, but I wasn't exactly in love with the idea of being that  eleventh-grader being taught the ropes by someone younger.     And that was what sparked the idea of the ASL Club. And that moment of celebration and sharing my ideas with my family only lasted about 10 minutes. I started envisioning what it might look lik
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It's Virtually Singing in ASL!

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    What if I told you that Deaf people can sing? Mute people too! And I know what you're thinking. Don't you need to be able to talk in order to sing?  Well, Deaf and Mute people can do that too; you just need to expand your definitions of "talk" and "sing". With body language and facial expressions, professionals and those fluent in sign language create song interpretations that can convey even more emotion than spoken words and tone. But what about a small group of teenagers who've been learning ASL one hour every two weeks for less than three months?          As per request, the last two ASL Club meetings for the semester were going to be focused on learning a song in ASL. We had voted in favour of Just The Way You Are by Bruno Mars and everything was set for us to get together for a fun time after the third day back to school. And then, in true COVID fashion, its case counts in Ontario started to rise with dramatic flair just in time to send scho
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We Hunger Youse A Happy Christmas

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      With only seven more days of school to go and culminating projects in full swing, the ASL  Club had its most fun meeting yet.     Two weeks before, I had compiled a Holiday-themed vocabulary lesson, and scavenged the internet for the signs required to sign the first few verses of, " We Wish You a Merry Christmas " and, " Have a Holly Jolly Christmas ". A member had asked if we could sign a Christmas song before the break, so I decided to give them the option to choose from a list of at least two songs. In the end, I probably spent about four hours prepping for this meeting...but who's counting?      So when I handed out the Human Bingo sheets at the beginning of the meeting today, I was feeling conservatively optimistic that this was going to go pretty well. I had learned from the previous few weeks to not be overly hopeful or cynical about meetings, and I think I've found a nice happy medium.      After that, we did a quick reflection activity so I c
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Boring Does Not Equal Bad

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    After all the mistakes from the past four meetings, I meticulously prepared for this week's, in hopes that it would go without a hitch. I had created the slideshows well in advance, I reviewed the slides the day before, I printed the vocabulary sheet I would need for the end-of-class game, and I had even downloaded the slides onto a USB in case the wifi was down (this was a serious possibility as the school wifi had been completely down more than twice in the past couple of weeks).     But as I rushed over to Ms. Nguyen's room to grab the projector at 2:45, I couldn't stop myself from expecting something new and unexpected to go wrong.     By the time I had wheeled the projector cart to the Student Lounge, there were about eight people waiting outside.      I still can't believe how many people are in the club. Considering that most clubs in our school have about 10-15 members, I think we're doing pretty well!     After fiddling with the projector for five minut
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