DiscoveryDigest

Fitzgibbon. She explained her daily challenges with how her mind processes tasks. “ADHD definitely impacts every aspect of my life, on a daily basis tasks affect my process of getting things done,” said Fitzgibbon.“My brain breaks things up into a million tasks from one singular task, so it makes it hard to be productive and get things done.”

Fitzgibbon clarified that this is her personal experience with her own ADHD and that it can be very different for others like her.

“I didn’t fit the stereotype of a kid who couldn’t sit still,” said Fitzgibbon.“What people think is the ‘norm’ of ADHD isn’t necessarily true, it can be presented in so many different ways and has different patterns for every person.”

Understanding that everyone’s minds work differently is really important to be aware of.

The term ADHD is thrown around and misused a lot in our society today especially with the younger generation.This article is to inform and support the people who live their everyday lives with the hyperactivity and distractions that come with it. But ADHD can be a superpower and something to be proud of as well.

Or should I like, start over and do it all in one night? Like, you kind of start panicking right before deadlines.”

According to McBride, sometimes stress can have positive impacts too, pushing students to focus and finish their work.

“Stress makes me care about projects I wouldn't normally care about or, like, don't consider myself to be passionate about,” said McBride.

“For me, stress too, is like a good sign…it means I care about the assignments I'm doing, and I care about what I'm doing at the school,” said Knight.“Like, when I make something I'm not gonna just make it because I have to, I want to make it because I care about it. My perseverance to just, like, be good at things pushes me through my brain and I'm just like, I got to finish it at least.”

“I always have something I need to do, or I could be doing. But whether or not I feel stressed just depends on my mood, or just, like, what my workload for that day is,” said McBride.“The point where I have to manage my time is always the point where I'm stressed out and I can't manage my time.”

“I feel burned out if I put in a lot of effort and something over and over again yet I don't feel like I'm getting anything from it or like I'm actually enjoying doing it,” said Knight.“It's kind of just like, if I keep doing the same process and not getting the response I'm looking for, it kind of feels like insanity—and you just kind of end up feeling like why am I even doing this in the first place?”

“I feel burned out if I put in a lot of effort and something over and over again yet I don't feel like I'm getting anything from it or like I'm actually enjoying doing it,” said Knight.“It's kind of just like, if I keep doing the same process and not getting the response I'm looking for, it kind of feels like insanity—and you just kind of end up feeling like why am I even doing this in the first place?”

Given the clearly dramatic impact burnout has on students' mental health, what can be done to manage it?

Knight shared her strategy for dealing with burnout.

“Make a plan… write out to-do lists from most important to me to the least important and don't listen to what everyone's saying,” said Knight. “Everyone tells me to eat the frog and just start with the biggest thing. I need to start with the small things in order to feel like I'm not overwhelmed with things to do.Just do whatever works best for you, and you may not know what that is at the time, but you don't know if you don't just try things out and, like, force yourself to be motivated into just trying something. It doesn't have to work well. I know my notes are always scattered because I'm scared to get it right. So, just jump in.”

Editor’sNote:Thisissuehadafewproductionissues,allofwhichwerecenteredaroundspringbreak startingduringtheproductionofthepaper.Weappreciateyourpatienceandwillstrivetowardsamore completeandcleanproductforthenextissuefromtheDigestteam.

COVID-19thenvs.now

HowhasCOVID-19changedforstudents fromwhatitwas,towhatitisnow.

By:IvanFrazee

Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) became a global pandemic on Dec. 12, 2019, over three years from today. It has changed a great deal, especially for students. But how much has it really changed?

At the start of COVID-19, Clark County public schools closed down, and students didn’t attend in-person school, they were taught through online learning. They would join Zoom calls, do assignments online, Making it so students had a lot of responsibility over their education, which ended up in many students learning less than they needed to for school.

Eventually, when students did get to go back to school, in 2020, Discovery High School (DHS) had a four-day schedule, with a break day on Wednesday. Students had to stay six feet apart from each other when without mask, while three feet with mask. There were many rules put in place to ensure the safety of students at this time. Comparing this period of time to today, school is completely normal for students—few kids still wear masks, and most don’t wear them. No rules surrounding COVID-19 are put in place at this point. Although advised not to, even if you have COVID-19, you are still allowed to come back to school the next day and continue class as usual.

DHSMarchMadness sparkscontroversy

Sometournamentplayerswereunhappy withthedodgeballrules

By:TerrenceGillespie

During March, Discovery High School (DHS) hosted a student-led event called March Madness, where students of each grade form teams to compete in a competition that can be a variety of games.This year’s theme is dodgeball, where many rules and regulations have been negatively received by players.

Eight teams of five competed in a large elimination-style tournament.

Of the rules, those that most players agreed upon were: hitting someone in the head doesn't count; catching a ball gets an ally back in play if they’re out, while the person who threw the ball gets out; and if the ball hits the wall, it will not be able to send a player out until it is thrown again.These rules were gladly accepted by most, however, one of the rules that players disliked was the way that they had to win.

A standard set of dodgeball rules indicates that eliminating all opposing players would net your team a victory.The win condition that made many tournament participants reportedly upset is that players had to get as many wins as they could in a 20-minute time frame. Even if a team won once, they had to start another round and try to win again until the timer was up.

The reason many players disliked this is that they could finish a game right before they have to go to

Mia Autumn, a junior at Discovery High School, has continued to wear a mask despite the ending of the mandates.

Autumn said, “I wear a mask most places if crowd density’s high I’ll keep it on.” Autumn wears a mask in crowded areas, or anywhere with a large amount of people. She usually doesn’t wear a mask around friends, otherwise, she’s often found wearing one.

“[COVID-19] cooled down a lot, vaccines help a lot, but like, COVID never ended, and I like not having gotten it,” Autumn said. “Since even the less deadly more recent strands of COVID still can cause long COVID, so.”

Harvard says that long COVID, or, more formally, post-acute sequelae of COVID-19, is a longer term symptom of the illness COVID-19. Long COVID class, causing them to be late or face elimination from the tournament. Interviews with three Discovery High School students showed some bias depending on their team. can be sort of like an extended COVID-19, possibly causing damage to the heart, lungs, and brain, like brain fog, making it so you have trouble thinking or concentrating.

One student,Adam Barton, said that he disliked the timed gameplay because he believes the format almost made him lose a match. He stated that the game being a best-out-of-three-style matchup would’ve better secured his team’s victory.

CarterAnderson was another student that interviewed. He stated a majority of the same opinions as Adam, but his hatred of the timed rule was expressed on a whole other level. “It’s sh*t,”Anderson said.

Anderson and Barton’s team had gone through many tough times and struggles during the games, potentially influencing biases.A student from one of the senior teams, Demetri Smith, thought that the rules shouldn’t have changed.

“At first, the rules were completely messed up—but it is too far [into the game] to change the rules,” Smith stated.

Another rule of contention was the substitute players. Some thought that teams should’ve had some set aside, while others thought that anyone should be able to become a substitute player.

In practice, anyone was eligible to become a substitute member for any team.

“I think it’s cool that so many people that couldn’t enter for multiple reasons were able to play a game or two so that they could join in the fun,” Smith said.

These symptoms can continue for three to six months. However, it really depends case by case, it can just be a much longer illness process, or you could think the illness left your body, then it could come back a few weeks after you’ve recovered from your previous symptoms. Most commonly, the symptoms of long COVID are worse than your original symptoms. But just because something like Long-COVID might happen, it only could happen if you get COVID-19. That prompts the question, has COVID-19 really gone away? For many at DHS, that’s hard to say.

Some students were upset about some of the substitutions that teams made, as they chose to invite seventh and eighth graders during DHS’ March Madness.Their point of contempt was that these students didn’t attend DHS, but OMS, a separate middle school located on the same campus.