2020-05-07

Thursday, May 7, 2020

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

inside

Interest in pet adoptions spikes amid coronavirus

NEWS

Online courses Students discuss the impact of long waitlists for online spring classes >> SEE PAGE 3

Animals become quarantine companions to many across the nation

OPINION

Emotional ending Michigan lecturer speaks on her experience concluding a tumultuous semester >> SEE PAGE 4

ARTS

‘Midnight Gospel’ Netflix’s new show reveals the tension between having philosophical discussions and living those discussions out >> SEE PAGE 6

MICHIGAN IN COLOR

Enriching education Four Michigan men and their work to bridge educational and professional disparities

>> SEE PAGE 8

SPORTS

Self improvement Adrien Nunez leaves no stone unturned in his quest for improvement

>> SEE PAGE 10

INDEX Vol. CXXIX, No. 112 © 2020 The Michigan Daily

NEWS .................................... 2 OPINION ............................... 4 ARTS/NEWS..........................6 MiC......................................... 8 SPORTS................................ 10

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LEAH GRAHAM & SAYALI AMIN Design by Maggie Wiebe

Ann Arbor businesses hit hard by no in-person spring commencement MAGDALENA MIHAYLOVA For The Daily

Every year in May, thousands of families pour into Ann Arbor to celebrate the University of Michigan’s yearly spring commencement. Although this year’s spring commencement was virtual, there are plans to have an in-person commencement next spring.

For Ann Arbor businesses, spring commencement is just as important for their livelihood as it is for the graduating class.

Popular restaurants tend to be fully booked months out from spring commencement, hotels are packed with the arriving families and the streets become full with visitors, who stop into local businesses to browse, eat or drink.

Andy Labarre, the executive vice president and director of government relations for the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Regional Chamber of Commerce, remarked on spring commencement’s impact on local businesses.

“It’s a big weekend,” Labarre said. “You tend to have big parties, you tend to have all your spots filled and folks tend to be celebratory — so, frankly,

they’re buying and drinking a lot more.”

Slurping Turtle, an Ann Arbor restaurant on East Liberty Street, usually books its first tables for spring commencement as early as the start of the school year, with a more constant stream of calls starting in January. Michael Persa, Slurping Turtle’s director of operations, commented on the early preparation most families make.

“We’re fairly new, we’re only five or six years here,” Persa said. “But last year, I think by March, we were 90 percent booked.”

2020 Public Policy graduate Ethan Ramer is from Livingston, New Jersey, and made reservations for his twelve expected guests well before the University’s announcement that spring commencement would be canceled. He said making reservations was difficult even a year in advance due to the high demand with spring commencement.

“My family and I booked six hotel rooms one year in advance (in May 2019) and had five restaurant reservations booked when restaurants started taking reservations,” Ramer said.

“When we called a lot of the

restaurants were already full.”

His family was planning on staying for multiple days, so they booked tables or got on the waitlist at popular spots like Zingerman’s Roadhouse and The Gandy Dancer, among others, most of which took deposits or noted their credit card information. Ramer said the restaurants refunded all deposits made.

Spring commencement weekend is crucial for most businesses. For some, it may even dictate whether they stay open or not – even without a global pandemic. Labarre compared what this weekend means to the summer time, when large labor conventions in the area draw a significant amount of revenue for Ann Arbor restaurants.

“There are some restaurants on Main Street in Ann Arbor where, if they have a bad week during convention season … that can be make-or-break for the year,” Labarre said. “You look at it like the equivalent of half a week gone, and not just any standard half-week, but rather one in which they’re going to make a significant amount of their budget.”

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Managing News Editors

When LSA junior Cat Groenke returned home to California after campus shut down, she came home to a new dog.

After their previous two dogs passed away, Groenke said her family was looking for a new pet. A friend referred them to a Facebook post about Arya, a mutt rescued from Mexico.

“My mom had put our family on a list with a bunch of humane societies for a pet adoption or a pet foster, but because of COVID there weren’t really any available because everyone and their mother is getting pets,” Groenke said. “So the way we got Arya, she was on the streets of Mexico … There’s a foster organization that one of my mom’s friends follows on Facebook … (She) saw the post and said that looks exactly like the kind of dog the Groenke family needs. Within a day of her being posted, my mom was like ‘OK, yeah’ and went down and got her.”

Groenke’s family was already in the market for a new dog, but the COVID19 outbreak has sparked an interest in adopting pets across the country, as stay-at-home orders keep people at home with an abundance of free time.

Nationally, there has been increased interest in pet adoptions and fostering.

The Humane Society of Huron Valley has served Washtenaw County for more than a century. HSHV altered its operations in response to the pandemic, though adoptions are still taking place. Tanya Hilgendorf, president and CEO of HSHV, clarified

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2 NEWS

Thursday, May 7, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Jill Biden hosts Nurses Day event Hospital employees talk working conditions, government leadership FRANCESCA DUONG

Summer Managing News Editor

On Wednesday afternoon, former second lady Jill Biden held a virtual roundtable in recognition of National Nurses Day. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and nurses from health systems in Detroit and Ann Arbor spoke at the meeting.

Nessel began the conversation by highlighting the work her office is doing to ensure nurses and their families have all the protections they need. She mentioned price gouging as a major issue, specifically on goods households need to prevent the spread of COVID-19, such as disinfectant supplies.

“We are seeing worse incidences of price gouging than we have ever seen in the history of our state, and it is not an exaggeration,” Nessel said. “Typically we get about 80 price gouging complaints a year. In the last month we have gotten over 4,000.”

The Michigan Department of Attorney General is also working to combat COVID-19 scams and enforce Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive orders, Nessel said. She explained that the office is working on issues she never imagined, such as ensuring proper sterilization techniques for personal protective equipment.

“The first time I ever ran for office at all was in 2018, so I don’t have a great frame of reference in terms of how things are supposed to work during a time of national emergency, but this can’t be the right way for our nation to operate during a crisis of this nature,” Nessel said. “We have to do better than this.”

Biden shifted the conversation by declaring her appreciation and gratitude toward nurses and her rationale for hosting the discussion.

“Michigan was my very last travel day and since then, like so many Americans, I have been at home,” Biden said. “We’ve had to figure out how to run a presidential campaign when you can’t fly

or have a bus tour or even visit peoples’ homes … as I thought about who I wanted to hear from and who I wanted to meet with, I thought of the people who aren’t home right now.”

Michigan Medicine nurse Katie Oppenheim, chair of the University of Michigan Professional Nurse Council, described the discrepancy between nurses’ current public image and what nurses are actually going through.

“When people think about terms about how they describe nurses, people say we’re ‘strong,’ we’re ‘smart,’ we use evidencebased practice or skill,” Oppenheim said. “But right now I see immense moral distress among our workforce.”

Oppenheim emphasized she has never seen anything like the COVID-19 pandemic before.

“I have been a nurse for 42 years and worked in Cambodia in a refugee camp and I’ve traveled the world in a lot of different capacities,” Oppenheim said. “It is extremely challenging for people to get through these times, pay the right attention to the patients and take care of themselves because of that moral distress. It is something I never thought I would see outside of working in a refugee camp.”

Tennessee registered medical assistant Gwendolyn JohnsonSmith acknowledged that despite the greater resources and compensation of nurses in the United States compared to third-world countries, leadership could have done better to support the crisis.

“We are looking for a stable hand in leadership that will push international laws that people can listen to,” Johnson-Smith said.

“We want someone that can make America an example for the rest of the world … third-world countries should be able to look at America and know that our leaders mean business.”

Biden responded to JohnsonSmith’s calls for leadership by iterating what her husband’s administration is planning to implement if elected in November.

“One of the things he has already said is he would have an office of

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Hijacked Zoom call class raises concern

Design by Christine Jegarl

Videoconferencing security and privacy is questioned KRISTINA ZHENG Summer News Editor

During the final minutes of the last online lecture for Public Health 318: Food Literacy for All, the call was hijacked with hate images and racial slurs against African Americans for roughly a minute before the instructor ended the call.

Summer news editor Kristina Zheng talked to students and instructors of the course to hear their reaction to what the FBI has titled “Zoom-bombings” in which hackers infiltrate calls.

Public Health student Madison Fishler logged onto Zoom on Tuesday evening for her final class in Public Health 318: Food Literacy for All. As the class was wrapping up, the call was hijacked with hate images and racial slurs against African Americans for about a minute before the instructors ended the call, Fishler explained.

“I was taken aback,” Fishler said. “I’m Caucasian, but I was still very hurt and impacted by this.

It was very weird to me. I kind of felt disgusted, kind of sick to my stomach that this was happening.”

Since schools across the country have transitioned to online learning, the videoconferencing platform Zoom has become a popular tool for students sheltered at home.

However, while more and more students log onto Zoom, concerns

with its security and privacy have only increased.

The FBI issued a warning on March 30 regarding “Zoombombings,” an interruption in which intruders disrupt video calls with threatening language and offensive images. According to the warning, the FBI has received reports of Zoom-bombings nationwide.

Fishler felt the security breach was unexpected, given how recent these Zoom-bombing incidents have occured. She said the security breach also made her feel uncomfortable with using platforms like Zoom.

“It made me feel like my privacy was intruded,” Fishler said. “I would like to see the school using better platforms, but also who would have known? This Zoom-bombing has only been happening since this COVID situation.”

Cindy Leung, Public Health assistant professor, and Lilly Fink Shapiro, University of Michigan Sustainable Food System Initiative program manager, are both leaders of the course. Leung and Fink Shapiro said the class was designed as an academiccommunity partnership, in which guest speakers in a variety of sectors engage with students about the crises and opportunities in today’s food system. They said a unique feature of the course is the ability of community members from Ann Arbor, Detroit and areas across the state to join and engage with the class.

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NEWS 3

‘U’ honors class of 2020 online Videos from speakers and performances shared virtually to celebrate new graduates IULIA DOBRIN

Daily Staff Reporter

Long online course waitlists frustrates community

Design by Christine Jegarl

Students express concerns about graduating on time

SAINI KETHIREDDY Daily Staff Reporter

Remote learning has given all University of Michigan students the opportunity to take classes this spring and summer without residing in Ann Arbor. However, for Public Health junior Maddie Malvitz, that meant 50 students in front of her on the waitlist for Chem 230.

Malvitz, on a pre-med track, had been planning to take Chem 230 this spring before COVID-19, but since the class has filled for both the upcoming spring and fall semesters, she had difficulties with the rest of her course planning.

“I emailed Angie Cox (the undergraduate program coordinator in chemistry), and she said, ‘Even if you get on the waitlist (for Pchem), you probably won’t get into the class because there’s 50 people ahead of you,’” Malvitz said. “I just got into the School of Public Health, and I have required classes to take (in the winter semester) only offered at one time, and it’s stressful to fit Pchem in with that.”

Malvitz worries that if she cannot fit Chem 230 into her schedule next year, she may have to postpone taking the Medical College Admission Test and applying to medical school.

“There is a lot of planning for when people take (the MCAT),” Malvitz said. “It just sucks that there’s so few options (to take Chem 230) and the University isn’t able to accommodate your classes.”

LSA junior Sesilia Kammo was also originally on the Chem 230 waitlist for the spring, but decided to replace the course with Physics 135 because 34 students were ahead of her.

“I definitely think it was a lot more stressful because I’ve taken STEM classes before and the waitlists have never looked like this for them,” Kammo said. “I was number 35 on the waitlist and it wasn’t a very realistic place to be in and I’d rather take a class I’m more likely to get off the waitlist for.”

Students from a variety of majors spoke to The Daily about facing limited class capacities and long waitlists. According to the LSA Course Guide for spring and summer, EECS 203 has 52 students on the waitlist; MATH 214 has 16 students on the waitlist and PHYSICS 235 has 30 students on the waitlist, among others.

LSA junior Ainesh Shintre is

double majoring in economics and film, television and media, and planned on taking spring courses for the additional credits he needs to graduate on time. Shintre said he was originally waitlisted for FTVM 352. He said the Department of Film, Television and Media decided to open a new section to accommodate the long waitlist.

“The classes just filled up faster than usual,” Shintre said. “… I really wanted to take this class during this term, so I’m glad they opened a new section for us.”

Since classes are conducted online, Kammo said it can be difficult for students to understand why courses cannot accommodate more students.

“I also don’t know how the number of students affects the professor and all that,” Kammo said. “From the student’s perspective, it can be hard to understand because there is no physical seat constraint.”

LSA senior Jonah Eisenberg said many students confuse the capacity of the class with the physical capacity of a lecture hall holding a set number of students.

He said the capacity actually is in place for the instructors and Graduate Student Instructors to have enough time to interact with

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On Saturday, the University of Michigan held online commencement activities in place of the cancelled Spring Commencement due to COVID-19.

The online activities included a recorded message posted on the commencement page from University President Mark Schlissel, Interim Provost Susan M. Collins and the deans.

“Yes, these are turbulent times,” Collins said. “But smooth seas do not make the most skillful sailors.

You are ready to put your many talents to work in a world that truly needs your energy and your ideas.”

Former Vice President Al Gore and American playwright Dominique Morrisseau, the previously planned commencement speakers, gave speeches, and alumni and coaches created congratulatory videos.

“I do believe these are the times that show us who we are and what we’re really made of,” Morrisseau said. “I look forward to seeing how this is going to impact you all, the future, a generation of future global citizens and how this will inspire you to make amazing global impact and change — positive change — that this world is going to need.”

There were also recorded performances by the Michigan Marching Band and the Men’s and Women’s Glee Clubs.

In an effort to bring the celebration to social media, a “virtual maize out” invited people to post pictures wearing maize and blue with the hashtag “#MGoGrad.”

Themed Facebook frames, Snapchat lenses, Giphy stickers and Zoom backgrounds were created as graduation-themed methods for the campus community to interact through social media platforms.

Schools, colleges and other groups across campus also shared links to their graduation celebrations on the commencement page.

LSA had a recorded message from

LSA Dean Anne Curzan, as well as links to departmental celebrations.

“When I think of you, the graduates of 2020, the words that come to mind are resilience, care for each other and for this remarkable place that we call LSA and commitment to your education,” Curzan said. “You all have grit and you get to know that as you move forward.”

The School of Music, Theatre & Dance had a message from Music, Theatre & Dance Dean Dave Gier, along with an interactive digital program showcasing work from graduating students. There were faculty and alumni congratulations, as well as a performance of “The Victors” by graduating musical theatre students.

The Ross School of Business was one of the few groups to hold a livestream event in celebration, which was recorded and posted for those who could not attend live.

The event was held via Zoom and included speakers such as Michigan alum Brad Keywell, founder of Groupon.

“We are here as one family, connected, and that’s what really matters,” Keywell said. “Even though we can’t be together in person, what we’re doing is reflective of the Michigan way. We are taking lemons and we are making delicious lemonade.”

Despite all the online content and certain departments holding live events, there was no holistic live component to the commencement celebrations put on by the University, which some students found disappointing. LSA senior Lizzy Irvin viewed some of the videos Saturday morning, including the video posted by Curzan, and planned to watch more of the videos with her parents in the evening.

“I think they did a good job with what they covered,” Irvin said.

“But, I wish there would have been

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4 OPINION

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SABINE GABARON | OP-ED

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NEIL SHAH | COLUMNIST

O

The temptation of socialism

n Sunday, March 8, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., held a campaign rally on the Diag at the University of Michigan in advance of the March 10 Michigan primary.

10,000 people were in attendance at the rally, which consisted of speeches from local, state and national-level officials, and finally from Sanders at the very end. The content of the speeches touched on progressive national issues, the Sanders campaign platform and a uniform call to action for widespread national reform. The speech Sanders gave specifically spoke to issues like Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, eliminating student debt and making higher education tuition-free, among other topics. Sanders also talked about a metaphysical “arc of justice” from Civil Rights Activist Reverend Jesse Jackson to U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., mentioning that many people had been imprisoned or had died in the name of “(seeking) justice.” His speech was revolutionary in tone and the content was rife, as you’d expect, with emotional and political rhetoric that created audible and visible excitement among his supporters.

Indeed, the crowd was quick to react with cheers when he proclaimed that he’d enact socialist policies upon his inauguration to the White House.

I spoke afterward with supporters to gauge their impressions of his delivery, the overall spectacle of this campaign event and of (democratic) socialism itself. One supporter, James, said Sanders’ support for the Green New Deal won him his support; another supporter (and friend), Humza, pointed to Sanders’ advocacy for Medicare for All

as the central issue that earned him his support. These two prospective voters and vocal Sanders supporters also noted that climate change was a big motivating issue for them. I also asked them about Sanders’ self-proclaimed “democratic socialist” moniker: James claimed that it shouldn’t be such a scary word, and Humza believed that the word “socialism” has been contorted to such extents that it is now meaningless and means whatever you want it to mean. I also asked another friend and unabashed Trump supporter, with whom I attended the rally, about his thoughts on socialism: “I think socialism is evil because it deprives individuals of the right to own their own labor and property, as well as their freedom from state-control over their lives.”

Between this small sample size of Sanders and Trump supporters, there is a clear disparity on the matter of socialism, linguistically and politically.

Therefore, it is worth examining why this ideology appeals so much to young people.

A good place to start is the definition of “socialism.” According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, socialism means “any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.”

To put it more simply, it means giving the government more power. If you ask the most famous young socialist in the country, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, what it means, however, you’ll receive flowery rhetoric in response: “I believe that in a modern, moral and wealthy society, no person in America should be

too poor to live.” Socialism is an ideology that has historically left millions powerless and in poverty to the whims of governmental officials: however, attach the word “democratic” and it is suddenly the mechanism required to solve these problems. This conundrum begs some questions: Why are so many young people — fans of Sanders and AOC — attracted to socialism? Is it the emotional resonance of instituting a top-down effort to alleviate hunger and poverty and other societal problems?

Is it the utopian idealism of universal equality that endures despite the historical failures of this ideology? Or does some version of youthful ignorance justify this widespread support for socialism?

Certainly, there’s a romantic quality about the concept of institutionalizing a system that is fair and equitable, that levels the playing field in some manner so that the top 1 percent of 1 percent cannot amass obscene amounts of wealth. According to Deidra Nansen McCloskey, professor of Economics, History, English and Communications at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the “romantic ideals” of socialism make it a “cherished identity” for youth. Young people personally connect to the utopian ethos of socialism because it connotes an improvement upon society, leaving people better off than before.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com Neil Shah can be reached at neilsh@umich.edu.

I

I feel so empty this morning

feel so empty this morning. No Zoom meeting with students to look forward to, no preparation. Classes are over.

I had to say goodbye to 55 students on Monday and Tuesday, in four different classes. I thanked them and praised their hard work, like I usually do.

I dressed up, put makeup on, did my hair, wore my favorite earrings, tried to find within me a happy face for one last time in front of the camera. Days of putting on a smile, trying to bring positive energy to a virtual class while confronted with a full screen of sad faces, tired and worried. I wanted to honor them one last time.

At the end of class I told my students how proud I was of them for showing up to class every day. I congratulated them on finding ways to adapt to the craziness, for being engaged and connecting with each other. I told them, “No one will ever forget what you all have been going through and everyone will praise you for your strength and resilience, no matter how big or small. You should all be very proud of yourselves!” I also said I was sad for not being able to say goodbye in person, in a normal classroom. And some of them cried.

At the end of the day, I was emotionally drained. I closed my computer and started weeping in my kitchen for ten long minutes.

Nothing had prepared me for this — never would have I imagined feeling so sad on the last day of class. There were times in my 23 years of teaching at the University of Michigan that were difficult — health struggles, family deaths, catastrophic events in the news — but nothing had really prepared me for this.

I was on the phone with my mother on March 11 when the email came out. I had seen my students in the classroom that same morning. I was never going to see them again. Although I had expected the news, I was shocked by the reality of it all and stared at my screen, speechless, tears streaming down my cheeks, listening to my mother’s comforting words. My children witnessed my distress and at that moment understood what it meant for me to be a teacher.

The following day I started running a marathon. Hours of daily work, preparation and class time. Live sessions with my students to keep them engaged and speaking French daily. Tons of exchanges with colleagues via email, BlueJeans meetings, phone conversations. A wonderful sense

of community and collaboration emerged but I was feeling lonely and lost, afraid of what was coming ahead, uncertain about my teaching choices, doubting my ability to adjust. The situation was evolving on the hour, changes needing to be made daily. And yet students were showing up to class, doing all the work, adapting to their teachers’ new technology endeavors, trying to make sense out of this new crazy normal.

And all of this kept me going.

Preparing my classes, going to workshops, seeing my students every day and connecting with them virtually kept me sane and helped me forget the depressing reality. I learned so much about my students and about myself throughout those 40 days.

They shared their personal struggles, living situations and experiences, their worries and fears — I felt very connected to them. More than ever. We were far apart yet so close.

I lost a lot of control in my teaching and realized it was okay. I could not hear and listen to everything students were saying and sharing in breakout rooms. I will never know what really happened in all these virtual meetings, but it was probably empowering and simply reassuring for them to have their own private space. I envision that a sense of normalcy arose from speaking privately to classmates once again, even if the conversations drifted.

I am so thankful I live in a community that allowed me to teach remotely, provided me with the needed tools to make a somewhat smoother transition and enabled me to finish the semester for these well-deserving students who I will miss deeply. However, I have witnessed inequities in students’ resources and abilities to stay connected throughout the end of the semester. Socioeconomic inequalities have been exacerbated by the current situation, not only within different regions of Michigan, but also in the Ann Arbor area. We should all continue to advocate for a fair and accessible educational system.

Now I have to let go and conquer this void that I feel. I am confident I will overcome the sadness and the sense of loss. I just need the strength to confront the reality around me.

Sabine Gabaron is Lecturer IV in the Department of Romance Languages and Literature and can be reached at sgabaron@umich.edu.

Thursday, May 7, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

ISABELLE SCHINDLER | COLUMNIST

EVAN STERN | COLUMNIST

S

A

Sexism in the age of coronavirus

ince the start of the COVID19 pandemic, governors have had an integral responsibility to keep their constituents safe. From enacting stay-at-home orders to holding press conferences and advocating for their state to receive medical equipment, governors are working tirelessly to protect their states. While some governors, such as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine have received glowing praise for their actions and leadership, Michigan’s own Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has faced criticism and widespread protests. But this radically different reception is not due to differences in policy or competency.

Instead, it is an example of the pervasive sexism that exists within our political system.

COVID-19 has forced governors to make tough decisions in the name of public health. Whitmer has taken a sensible approach with the intent of keeping Michiganders safe. Yes, she has had to make the difficult decision to close non-essential businesses, schools and other facilities, but these closures were all to protect the health and safety of Michiganders. This was especially important given that COVID-19 has hit Michigan particularly hard — the state has the seventh-largest number of cases and the fourth-largest quantity of deaths in the country.

Despite this reasonable approach, Whitmer has faced considerable pushback. Over the past few weeks, there have been multiple protests in Lansing.

The most recent protest consisted of heavily-armed protestors who filled the Capitol in Lansing and demanded the stay-at-home order be lifted. In addition to being armed with guns and tactical gear, many demonstrators had confederate flags and sexist, inflammatory, anti-Whitmer signs. Additionally, the Republican state legislature opposed Whitmer by refusing to extend the disaster declaration. However, she ultimately extended the stay-at-home order using her executive power, prompting the GOP to threaten a possible lawsuit.

In examining this situation, one must ask why Whitmer faces so much flack for her actions. The measures that she has implemented are not unique to Michigan. Across the United States, many governors have implemented similar stay-at-home orders with similar restrictions. Clearly, the extreme reactions showcased by stay-at-home protestors are not about actions and instead about the leaders implementing these actions. Whitmer is a strong woman who has power that she is not afraid to exercise and it is not hard to see how her power and poise could be

threatening to misogynistic and closeminded individuals.

This is not the first time that Whitmer has faced sexism during this pandemic. Sexism was on display in late March when President Donald Trump referred to Whitmer as “the woman in Michigan.” This comment is an obvious example of the blatant sexism that female politicians face. Even if Trump had simply forgotten Whitmer’s name, he could have referred to her as the Governor of Michigan. Instead, he decided to assign to her the title of “that woman,” refusing to respect her position as governor and belittling the work she was doing to protect her residents.

This issue of sexism in politics is not exclusive to Whitmer. It has been a recurring problem throughout the country, especially in regards to governors’ races. Currently, there are just nine female governors in the continental U.S., a pitiful number considering that women make up 50.8 percent of the country. Twenty-two states, including New York, California and Florida, have never had a female governor. The lack of female governors can be attributed in part to sexism and sexist preconceived notions about women. Governors are the leaders of their state who have tremendous power and authority. Considering the backlash against Whitmer, women holding positions of authority can disproportionately anger people.

This is not to say that everyone who is angry about the stay-at-home orders in Michigan is sexist. This is an extremely stressful time and, for many communities that have been relatively spared by the virus thus far due to social-distancing measures, it may seem unnecessary to extend such orders. However, think about the governors of other states and the actions they have taken. If you agree with them, but not Whitmer, could this be because of the implicit sexist bias against female leaders that many of us harbor?

In this time of great uncertainty, it is important that we come together as one state and recognize the foremost priority of protecting our fellow Michiganders. Whitmer has been doing a tremendous job for the state of Michigan.

She has stood strong and resilient in the face of opposition in order to protect the health and safety of all of us. She should be lauded for her work just as we have lauded male governors across the country. This column is not about shaming others — instead, it is a call to action for all of us to recognize the biases that we carry and how they impact the perceptions of our leaders.

Isabelle Schindler can be reached at ischind@umich.edu.

OPINION 5

It’s time to end American reliance on China

s many states begin the difficult task of reopening after weeks of shutdowns to fight the spread of COVID-19, it’s become painfully clear that life will be anything but normal as we adjust to a “new normal.”

Across the country, college campuses may remain closed into the fall, with University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel remarking that fall 2020 is “unlikely to be a normal semester.” Millions of American workers have lost their jobs and countless small businesses will be confronted with the difficult decision to shut down. Meanwhile, new estimates suggest that the threat posed by COVID-19 — which has now killed over 70,000 Americans — is going nowhere.

But as Americans look forward to the dismal future, good is coming out of this nightmarish pandemic. Countries across the world are intelligently emerging from COVID-19 with new ways of life and new ways of doing things that will make societies better places in general.

Here in the United States, as we begin to make our difficult journey back to whatever new normal will await us, we have a lot of work ahead of us. But there’s one goal in particular that we must put at the top of our list: ending our dangerous dependence on China.

Since President Donald Trump was first elected almost four years ago, he has stressed time after time that our nation is far too reliant on a country halfway across the globe. With a population of 1.4 billion people, China has different goals, different interests and different ways of governing. Since COVID19 first emerged from the Chinese city of Wuhan and quickly paralyzed the world, many have started to believe the president and realize the inherent danger in depending on China — a great economic rival and American adversary — to produce American goods and control supply chains. It’s perfectly fine to be friendly with China and forge economic alliances where appro-

priate, but as evidenced by COVID-19, America desperately needs to be able to stand on its own.

For years before the COVID19 crisis, China increasingly gained control over our products, supply chains and industries, tightening its grip on American life and making us more dependent on its authoritarian regime than ever before. With promises of lenient regulation and cheap labor, American businesses have been f locking to China for decades, manufacturing products overseas at the expense of American economic progress.

America desperately needs to be able to stand on its own If the perils of our reliance on China weren’t clear a few months ago, they are painfully obvious today. In the worst moments of our battle against COVID-19, we have been constantly reminded of our dangerous dependence on Beijing. While most didn’t bother to consider this before the pandemic, the production of common pharmaceutical drugs Americans need is controlled almost entirely

by China. In 2019, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, 95 percent of U.S. imports of ibuprofen are from China. Meanwhile, 70 percent of U.S. imports of acetaminophen, along with over 40 percent of imported penicillin, originates from China. According to a recent Politico article, “A watchdog report last month by the U.S.China Economic and Security Review Commission and a recent congressional hearing warn that China hopes of surpassing the United States as the world’s biggest producer of pharmaceutical products.”

Additionally, FDA inspections of one drug production plant in Anyang, China, two years ago revealed “significant

deviations from current good manufacturing practice.”

If China’s near-total control of our medications doesn’t trouble you in the midst of an unprecedented global pandemic — when we need reliable medicine more than ever — there’s more. As I detailed in a recent column, one of the largest reasons this pandemic has proven so disruptive for Americans is because of our lack of personal protective equipment or essential medical equipment, such as N95 masks or ventilators. What is becoming more clear as we emerge from COVID-19 is that China is directly responsible for much of our trouble obtaining this vital medical equipment. In a recent interview, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said that China “cornered” the production of PPE during the pandemic and has since “profiteered” from its actions.

More than ever before, the COVID-19 pandemic has made clear that our increasing dependence on China is completely unacceptable. As we continue to invest in Chinese progress instead of our own, we continue to put ourselves at a profound economic risk, not to mention the dangerous medical implications of our reliance on China.

Beyond the direct impacts of American reliance on China during COVID-19, which gave way to severe medical supply shortages, our willingness to lean on Beijing has produced a cascade of risks that will stay with us until we are able to stand on our own. If the COVID-19 pandemic doesn’t convince us to change our ways now, China will continue to stand in the way of our health, economic progress and national security.

At a time when we are beginning to live life again, emerging from our homes and trying to adjust to normalcy after weeks in quarantine, it’s time to begin supporting American interests and progress immediately. Now, more than ever before, it’s urgent that we take COVID-19 as a lesson and end China’s chokehold on our great nation.

Evan Stern can be reached at erstern@umich.edu.

6 ARTS

Thursday, May 7, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Surreal sincerity in ‘Midnight Gospel’ SEJJAD ALKHALBY Daily Arts Writer

If you’ve spent any substantial amount of time worrying about lofty questions like the meaning of life, humanity’s purpose, or anything else you’d hesitate to bring up on a first date, then go watch “The Midnight Gospel” right now. This show is so weird and interesting that I wouldn’t want to deprive anyone of the experience of going into it blind. Just prepare some snacks, block out three hours, load up on your illicit substance of choice and enjoy the ride.

For the more skeptical, “The Midnight Gospel” is an animated TV show created by Duncan Trussell and “Adventure Time” creator Pendleton Ward.

It’s set in a strange dimension called “The Chromatic Ribbon” and follows Clancy (Duncan Trussell), as he uses his universe simulator to travel to other worlds and interview a new guest for his spacecast (space podcast) each episode. Most of the interview dialogue is pulled from Trussell’s actual podcast, “The Duncan Trussell Family Hour.” This means that the show is essentially Trussell as Clancy interviewing a real podcast guest as a made up podcast guest, but neither Trussell nor his real guest know that they’ll be portraying characters at the time of recording. This puts the creators in an odd position: it’s almost like they’re making a found footage film.

Having watched the show without knowing it was based on a podcast, the dialogue is integrated

TV REVIEW

into the story well enough that I never felt anything off about it.

Each episode wastes no time tackling all sorts of profound existential questions. The conversations happen while the guest is absent-mindedly completing some bizarre, action-packed task. The first episode begins with Clancy traveling to a version of Earth in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. His consciousness is shot into space, landing on Earth in front of the White House, where a group of protesters are advocating for legalized marijuana as everything around them deteriorates into a warzone. He happens to land directly on the president (Dr. Drew Pinskey, “Loveline”) of this version of the United States, who agrees to be interviewed for the spacecast. They quickly get into an insightful conversation about the benefits and dangers of marijuana and other drugs, touching on mental health, addiction, and philosophy. This, again, all happens under imminent threat of an apocalypse.

The President will, for example, be making a nuanced point about the medicinal properties of marijuana while nonchalantly shooting at zombies from the roof of the White House. Every episode is structured similarly, each ending with the world Clancy visits being destroyed as he safely returns home.

The show centers itself around this irony—the tension between abstract philosophizing and real action in a world that’s fallen into chaos. It manifests itself not only in the worlds Clancy visits, but also his own

life. As the show progresses, we start to see Clancy’s tendency towards escapism. He devotes all his attention to his spacecast while ignoring pressing issues in his own life. He’ll routinely discuss with guests the importance of kindness, forgiveness, and living in the moment, while completely disregarding these principles when he’s back home. The juxtaposition between the casual conversations and the chaotic environments in which they take place mirrors Clancy’s own inner conflict, and we see this play out in increasingly outlandish ways. “The Midnight Gospel” is full of irony, but never mocks the ironic situation in the way a show like “South Park” might.

Instead it attempts to earnestly reconcile the contradiction in a way that’s funny and sincere.

The art style of “The Midnight Gospel” takes cues from Ward’s “Adventure Time.” Each object in a given scene looks a bit otherworldly.

Whether it’s a fish with a human face, a dog-hippo hybrid, or a cult-like crew of feline servants, strange images saturate every scene, forming a captivating and disorienting composite.

Meanwhile, Clancy and his guest take part in a conversation that seems at first profound, but pales in comparison to the wondrousness going on around them. This setup invites viewers to pay attention to the wonder they might be ignoring in their own lives while reinforcing the ironic tension of the story.

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SUMMER SERIES

On environmental art TRINA PAL Daily Arts Writer

This piece is part of a series on “Art during COVID,” an exploration of art forms to keep our idle minds creative during this pandemic. With many of us at home, our minds have ample time to wander, wonder, and create.

This series highlights accessible and immersive art forms to both produce and consume during the pandemic months and beyond.

My favorite time to be outside is right before a storm. I watch the masses of clouds turning dark gray, the tree branches dancing, the ground whispering through the wind and I want to be right there when the anticipation finally spills over. It’s the first chapter of a story waiting to unfold. When the thunder and lighting do come crashing down, it’s as if the earth is telling us to pay attention.

On one particular November evening, when I was still in Ann Arbor, I had a friend come over for dinner. Toward the end of our meal, I sensed a storm coming and urged him to walk back to his house before it hit.

He said he’d rather wait until it did come and then walk back in the torrents of rain, just to feel the drops hitting his skin. “The rain is warm when it’s storming outside,” he said. It seemed so simple to just let the drops hit you instead of seeking shelter under hoods and umbrellas.

I wondered why I didn’t try it more often.

In my eyes, this pandemic is just another storm, a momentary pause that forces us to listen and pay attention to our surroundings. My last days in

Ann Arbor before moving back home held the same eerie calm reserved for those moments before a downpour. And just like the worst hurricanes, I remind myself that this storm will also pass. While we’re stuck in this intermittent and uncertain time, the outdoors, already my solace, has become my everyday refuge.

With it has come the conviction that our surroundings are more than just a place to be active or escape from the indoors. The spring terrain is overflowing with life and this pandemic is a wonderful time to experiment with environmental art.

As we wallow away in our homes, the earth appears to be rebounding. On my walk through the neighborhood today, I heard a woodpecker chipping away at an empty tree hollow, a blue jay perched on the uppermost branches of an eastern white pine and a dashing red cardinal hidden in a bush. The fleeting memory of a red winged blackbird I saw two weeks ago, swaying on the top of a wetland reed, still tugs at my consciousness. A robin has made a nest in my crabapple tree and the chicks are nearly ready to take flight, flapping their wings ferociously. The world is oblivious to the affairs of humans, likely happy to be undisturbed at last.

Sitting on my driveway, letting the sun warm my feet, has become my daily routine of seeing the world in a different perspective. Try planting yourself at ground level and sketching what’s in front of you, big or small. Sitting close to the earth is humbling — it reminds us of our roots and our destination, our link between life and death. Remind yourself that your creation doesn’t have to be

perfect, because your surroundings aren’t. There are rarely any straight lines in trees or symmetrical leaves on branches.

If you’re hesitant to sketch from scratch, collect branches, flowers and shrubs and use them as a template to outline your shapes. I like to become my own ecologist and create field guides in this way, creating entries for different trees or flowers that I encounter. I plan to revisit my failed goal of last summer — to create a book of Michigan trees using pens and watercolor. I live in one of the flattest suburbs of metroDetroit, but even my neighborhood lends itself to projects like these. Local trails, state and metro parks, many free of admission during the pandemic, are wonderful spaces to draw inspiration from as well.

Creating a time lapse of your surroundings, through paint or pencils or photos, can capture the moments of beauty even in the midst of a pandemic. My focus has been the robin nest in my crabapple tree that I spotted a month ago. Now, the three siblings have nearly outgrown their home. During cold spells, I watch the mother robin sit on top of her nest, covering the chicks to protect them from the rain that shakes the tree. During the bright daylight, the chicks crane their necks for food. I’ve taken to creating miniature watercolor paintings of the robin nest at these various stages, trying to capture the brilliant blue of the eggs and the burnt orange of the mother’s belly through paint.

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Thursday, May 7, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

SUMMER SERIES

‘Snowpiercer’ and the pandemic

FILM REVIEW

JACOB LUSK Daily Arts Writer

Not your ordinary romcom Netflix

ELISE GODFRYD Daily Arts Writer

Netflix’s catalogue hosts a large range of teenage romantic comedies, films usually based on archetypes who parrot dumbed-down lines about the “important” parts of high school without experiencing a lot of character growth. They’re short and predictable, and because their sole purpose is entertainment, they start to blur together.

But when a teen film goes beyond simple entertainment, it stands out.

This is what makes Netflix’s latest teen movie, “The Half of It,” so special and important: it takes the typical teen movie format and turns it into something more.

“The Half of It” seems like something we’ve heard before. It’s set in a small town in the USA, where people know of each other without ever really knowing each other.

The community values religion and conventionality; those who stand out are frowned upon. Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis, “Nancy Drew”) is a classic fish out of water, closed off to her classmates who she struggles to connect with. After some pushback, she agrees to help Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer, “Sacred Lies”), a sweet, simple boy, write a love letter to Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire, “The Art of Murder”), a classic faraway crush. Despite her own growing feelings for Aster, Ellie helps Paul try to impress Aster through the power of language and understanding, and all three go through a journey of connection that challenges their perceptions.

But even with the background of

ARTS 7

mild catfishing, there’s a lot about this film that is new: most importantly, representation. Ellie is a character we don’t see enough of in films and television: Whip-smart and musically talented, but also multi-faceted and introspective.

She’s one of the only people of color in her small town, and she speaks Mandarin at home with her father Edwin (Collin Chou, “The Matrix Reloaded”), whose struggles with English have led to struggles with employment. Ellie is well-read, and her way with words has led to her prolific essay-writing business.

She’s shamelessly intelligent (other than the fact that she only charges $10 for a three-page essay), but

The Half Of It Netflix

she’s always felt like the odd one out in her hometown, whether it’s because of her race, intelligence, sexuality or all of the above.

The film struggles with pacing at times, where time feels a bit too fluid. A lot of things seem to happen in a short amount of time, and parts of the story become confused and chaotic. That said, watching Ellie shed her walls and open up to people is wonderful to watch. Ellie and Paul connect over cram sessions, old movies and furtive meetings despite being polar opposites. Ellie is mature for her age and brusque with anyone who isn’t her father. Paul is the classic lovable dope, who claims to be bad

with words but occasionally drops gems like, “Isn’t that what love is?

How much effort you put into loving someone?” Despite being the subject of a love triangle and occasionally seeming a bit too good to be true, Aster is refreshingly fleshedout; Aster and Ellie’s connection as they ponder life and love is undeniable, even if Aster doesn’t know the truth of who’s writing the letters.

The connections between characters are the heart of the story. Ellie and Aster connect over their love of literature and feeling out of place.

Paul and Ellie’s dad connect over their struggle to articulate their thoughts into words. And Ellie and Paul connect over the simple matter of having someone to talk to and ponder their place in the world.

“The Half of It” is a teen movie that defies the genre. Regardless of any issues with pacing, the story created by director/screenwriter Alice Wu (“Saving Face”) is uniquely real and relatable. It’s a story that deals with conflict, whether it’s the reconciliation of beliefs or dealing with the subtle racism of being one of the only people of color in a small town. It’s an LGBTQ story that hinges on identity that doesn’t feel strong armed or unrealistic. The colors of the setting may be muted, but the language of the script is beautiful and vibrant, with lines that you want to hold close and moments that come satisfyingly full-circle. The film is not exactly a romance, but it is a film about love in various forms, about friendship and connection and finding the people that make you feel more complete.

You’ve got three big reasons to revisit 2014 sci-fi epic “Snowpiercer.” Firstly, as is the raison d’etre of this notebook series, movies to do with the apocalypse are pretty timely right now. Secondly, it’s directed by none other than Bong Joon-ho, whose Oscar domination this past February was so iconoclastic and bombastic that conservative South Korean politicians who once vilified him as unpatriotic and “Parasite” as a “commie flick” are now proposing building a statue and museum in honor of Bong in his hometown of Daegu. Oh, and thirdly, it’s on Netflix.

Admittedly, for an entry in a series titled “Scenes from an Apocalypse,” “Snowpiercer” doesn’t contain that many scenes from an apocalypse. The disembodied voices of pre-apocalyptic newscasters exposit about pre-apocalyptic politics. A trio of planes jettison a noxious-looking white substance into the atmosphere. And that’s about it. The rest of the film fast-forwards 17 years to a Snowball Earth and a “rattling ark,” the eponymous train Snowpiercer.

In post-apocalyptic films like “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind,” the apocalypse is ancient history. In “The Road,” it’s a more or less irrelevant detail given the atavistic dog-eat-dog circumstances.

In “Children of Men,” the catalyst for the film’s sterilizing doomsday is entirely unknown. But in “Snowpiercer,” it’s all spelled out: it was us. No two ways about it. First humankind polluted the heck out of the world and threw the climate all out of whack. Then, in an attempt to reverse what we did, 79 countries shot some sort of cooling agent into the sky, causing the entire planet to freeze over and all life to be extinguished. That is, all life without the good fortune to a receive a ticket to board the train.

The coronavirus pandemic has thrust us uncomfortably close to an apocalypse film. We have a deadly virus and incompetent governments. We have guns sales skyrocketing as people prepare for the worst. We even have some

people talking about stringing up their neighbors and “eating ass” … and no, not as a sex thing. One thing maintaining that thin separation between reality and the silver screen is the movies’ failure to predict that some people would protest their right to get eaten by the zombies. Truth is truly stranger than fiction.

But what “Snowpiercer” reminds us is that, before the pandemic forced the impoverished to starve and the more well-off to bake bread, we were already in the middle of an apocalypse, albeit one that moves at a much slower pace (hint: it’s the climate crisis) and that the dystopia may already be here (hint: it’s capitalism).

The passengers of “Snowpiercer” aren’t all grateful to have gotten the golden ticket to circumnavigate the globe for the remainder of their lives. Some no doubt are — the passengers who live near the front of the train enjoy steak dinners, bathhouses, nightclubs, string quartets and even sushi twice a year. For the ones who live near the caboose, it’s the Polar Express from hell, but they don’t even get Tom Hanks.

One character describes the first few months aboard the train, when there were too many mouths and not enough food. Miraculously, like the fish and loaves of the Bible, a veritable cornucopia was produced: “One by one, other people in the tail section began cutting off arms and legs and offering them.”

Instead, they have Chris Evans, starring in the film only two years after his debut as the exuberantly optimistic, muscle-bound Captain America. In “Snowpiercer,” Evans dons a woolen cap, scruffy beard and world-weary face as Curtis, the leader of a revolution. With his second-in-command Edgar (Jamie Hill, “Rocketman”), grieving mother Tanya (Octavia Spencer, “Ma”), security specialist and drug addict Nam (Song Kang-ho, “Parasite”) and Nam’s clairvoyant daughter Yona (Go Ah-yung “A Resistance”), Curtis must travel the length of the train from the tail-end all the way to the near-mythical engine in order to pursue justice and enact reform.

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8 MICHIGAN IN COLOR

Thursday, May 7, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

How four men fill the racial gap where the institution fails GABRIJELA SKOKO Managing MiC Editor

Societal consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have entirely altered the world of academica.

This speaks to the way of life for all students, but particularly students of color and underrepresented students with fewer resources to accomplish their educational goals, or even go to class. However, these racial and class disparities in education are present throughout all of history, and yet there exists no functioning resolution within the institution.

“Those that have raised graduation rates for low-income students have often relied on wraparound services, addressing the needs of the whole student,” Vimal Patel, senior reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education, wrote “That includes caring for their financial and mental health, and creating a network of support with cohorts, early interventions and extra counseling. A ‘high touch’ learning environment, as many advocates call it.”

On March 20th, local organization Building Successful Bridges announced on Instagram a project in which they would offer

$200 to 5 different University of Michigan students to aid their transition back home amidst the hectic rise of the COVID-19 pandemic. The genesis of Building Successful Bridges first began in 2016 when incoming freshmen Kingsley Enechukwu, Darrell Tubbs and Nando Felten and nearly ten other young black men connected over their noticeable detachment from the educational and professional development which had been abundantly provided to their new peers. Soon after, the official team and founders would be LSA students Tubbs and Felten, and Ross students Enechukwu and Kendall Van Allen.

“We all had similar experiences in the sense that our school didn’t really prepare us for college and the transition to college, or [teach us] ultimately how to be successful there,” Enechukwu said. “This was the beginning of Boys Seeking Billions which sought to provide success coaching to underrepresented minorities and communities to ultimately give them the tool kit to enter high paying industries.”

COURTESY OF KENDALL VAN ALLEN

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XOXO, a not so white Gossip Girl

KAREN RASKIND MiC Blogger

Even before quarantine, I consumed a lot of media content everyday. From Instagram to Netflix binge-watching, I have spent unimaginable hours mindlessly scrolling. I bet that accounts for a lot of college students, as social media platforms and Netflix serve as a distraction or a way to unwind from the stressors of daily life. However, I think especially during these times of social distancing and quarantine, we cannot ignore how the media can contribute to body and image insecurities due to the sheer amount of content we are consuming and, overall, the severe lack of representation which comes with it.

Like a lot of young girls, I used

CREDIT MAGGIE WIEBE

to be (and still am) obsessed with “Gossip Girl.” When you’re only thirteen or fourteen watching this

show, you have these fantasies about being like Serena or Blair and having their impeccable style.

I thought they were so beautiful and definitely tried to take some inspiration from them.

What I didn’t acknowledge, however, is that by trying to be like them, I was basically trying to uncover the more white part of me. Being half-Asian and halfwhite, I always felt some pressure to decide which identity I was going to embrace, and felt a little self-conscious about my Asian side growing up. I would deny that part of my identity, saying things like, “I’m ‘not that Asian,’” or “I’m ‘fake Asian.’” To be honest, I also felt like it was easier and, quite frankly, better to be white. And seeing Leighton Meester and Blake Lively nearly four hours a day on TV only affirmed that I should definitely embrace the white side because they were what I began to associate with beauty.

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MICHIGAN IN COLOR 9

An immigrant’s Pursuit of ‘Happyness’ NOOR MOUGHNI MiC Columnist

NETFLIX

Wu schools Hollywood with just representation in ‘The Half of It’ CHERYN HONG

Managing MiC Editor

On May 1, Netflix released a bildungsroman film entitled “Half of It,” written and directed by Alice Wu, who is known for her previous film, “Saving Face,” which is also known for its Asian-American and LGBTQ+ representation. The narrative of the film follows the “Cyrano de Bergerac” storyline, as Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) is a senior in high school in the small rural town of Squahamish, who runs an essay writing business.

She is approached by Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer), a kind-hearted football player, who doesn’t have a way with words and requests her help writing a love letter to popular sweetheart, Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire).

To be frank, Netflix has produced very poor romantic films when carrying the goal of representation, such as having a catfished romance story with a plus-sized protagonist, “Sierra Burgess is a Loser,” but I gave the company a pass when “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” was released as it featured the half-Asian character to be the one fought for in a love story.

However, after watching Wu’s masterpiece, I have come to realize my affinity for “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” is shallow, as it is an ideallic, heterosexual, whitewashed fantasy in which I could relate to in no manner, besides the small axes of similarity between half of the protagonist’s ethnicity and mine.

Asians are rarely seen on the movie screen and when they are, they are portrayed with stereotypically Asian attributes, which tend to make up their identity, who they are and what role they play in the film. All of which is why I tricked myself into loving movies

who threw me a bone in regards to AsianAmerican representation—there is no range of selection for me to choose from—and so I settle with what I can get, to the point where I allowed tokenism to make me believe Hollywood was finally changing. And it was Wu who shattered my low expectations.

I was tired of constantly seeing the dorky, quiet or overly-achieving Asian because that is all viewers see them as, no depth or deeper understanding. But this movie and Ellie Chu were a breath of fresh air, because even though Ellie is indeed quiet and reserved, this stems from her character and storyline rather than her racial profile. More than that, Ellie is an intelligent and beautiful writer, who is stuck in Squahamish with her father who is still ridden with grief from the passing of his late wife. Another aspect of her growth is this relationship between her unemployed-immigrant father and the adversity he experiences due to language barriers.

But the crucial and integral observation I made is that Ellie being Asian doesn’t have any impact whatsoever on the movie’s plot. It shapes dialogue and how characters interact with each other, but her ethnic background doesn’t play a role in her relationships or the ups and downs of her character. That being said, the movie also doesn’t shy away from who Ellie is. There are subtle notes of how her identity impacts her character from other white protagonists, as there are school bullies who make fun of her last name, cooking scenes of Chinese cuisine, conversations with her father who doesn’t speak fluent English, or even when Paul’s mother calls her his “Asian friend.”

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“Don’t ever let somebody tell you you can’t do something. Not even me... You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it.”

“Pursuit of Happyness” has always been one of my favorite films. Chris Gardner’s determination to earn a better life for his family inspires me to never give up on my dreams and the sacrifices he makes for his son never fail to make me cry. Since I first watched this movie I felt a strong connection to Gardner’s story, but it wasn’t until recently, when I revisited “Pursuit of Happyness” with my mom and dad, that I realized why it provokes me to feel the way I do.

My mother immigrated to America when she was 22. After surviving years of civil wars, bombings, homelessness and extreme poverty in Lebanon she decided that if she ever wanted to have kids, they couldn’t live a life like hers. This decision meant she would have to leave her entire life behind — her family, her friends, her education and her career goals — all so the kids she imagined having could live a better life. She made this decision while aware of its consequences.

She knew what it was like to have the sound of bombs in the morning replace the sound of an alarm clock buzzing and didn’t want her children to know that feeling. She knew what it was like to sleep on the floor in an abandoned school because the homeless shelter she previously lived in had been bombed.

She didn’t want her children to go to bed each night wondering where tomorrow’s bed

would be. My mother’s pursuit of happiness was in giving her kids a better life than her own. A life in which survival was not their priority.

My father emigrated from Lebanon to America when he was six years old. His father found a job in an assembly line at the Chrysler Motor Company and he toiled away each day trying to make ends meet.

Even with all this, my grandfather’s job was not enough to support his eight kids, so my father had to work at a young age. As a 12-year-old, he spent his weekends landscaping his neighbors’ lawns, his evenings working at a pizza shop and his mornings distributing leaflets throughout his neighborhood. My father knew what it was like to live an impoverished life and he didn’t want his children to know that life. He knew what it was like to have the responsibility of providing for your family before reaching your teenage years and he didn’t want his children to feel that burden. He spent the first 20 years of his life saving money from various minimum wage jobs and when he met my mom, he made the brave decision to go to law school with a weekly salary of $100 in hopes of establishing a successful career so that his children would live a life far from his own.

My father’s pursuit of happiness was in giving his kids a better life than his own. A life in which survival was not their priority.

My parents have sacrificed so much for my siblings and me. My mother left her entire life behind and moved to a different country while my father worked endlessly, trying to escape the shackles of poverty. Whenever I watch Chris Gardner in “Pursuit of Happyness,” I am reminded of my parent’s struggles.

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SONY PICTURES

10 Sports Adrien Nunez’ battle back to relevance Thursday, May 7, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

JACOB KOPNICK Daily Sports Editor

Last season, on Nov. 12, Adrien Nunez was thrown to the wolves.

Following a wrist injury to freshman phenom Franz Wagner, Nunez — a sophomore that barely sniffed the floor the season prior — was thrust into a starting position.

A guard with daunting range and 3-point shooting ability, Nunez was billed as a solid force in Michigan’s offense throughout his career. It was the other side of his game, though, that left people worrying From the early minutes of Nunez’s tenure as a member of the starting squad, this flaw became widely apparent — perhaps at no more obvious moment than in midNovember, his second start, against the Bluejays.

The game began with both teams sporting young rosters and nobody really knowing what to expect, but Creighton set an aggressive tone early and targeted Nunez.

Bluejay guard Mitch Ballock sat at the top of the key with the ball in his hands and Nunez across from him.

Ballock drove to the hoop. It would be the ultimate test of Nunez’s on-ball defense, less than a minute into his starting role.

Ballock sped past Nunez and got an easy two points at the rim. “(Ballock) blew by me, and I was like, ‘Oh, snap. I need to get this together,’” Nunez told The Daily.

“That was the moment I was like, ‘Oh, I really need to work on this.’ Just getting comfortable in that position.”

From that point on, Nunez’s battle with defensive consistency proved to be an arduous one.

The rest of the season, Nunez’s defense — among other things — did not improve to the point where he would see consistent minutes for the Wolverines.

As the games left in the regular season dwindled down, so did Nunez’s playing time. Wagner returned to the lineup and Nunez returned to the bench. Some games, Nunez would only see a handful of minutes, playing the role of an offensive specialist. Others, he wouldn’t see the floor at all.

“Yeah, it’s tough, it’s a change, going from nothing to a lot to not a lot again,” Nunez said on Jan. 8.

“I’m just working everyday. Working before or after, gaining (coach Juwan Howard’s) trust to really put me on the court.”

Nunez took it in stride, though, not allowing himself to fold in

frustration.

Howard saw potential in Nunez.

The kind of potential that makes a coach dig to find the crux of his player’s deficiencies and hammer out inconsistencies. In Howard’s mind, the best way to dow that came during particular drills in practice.

Unlike other coaches Nunez has played under, Howard’s mentality on how to run drills in practice is simple: You run it until you get it right.

“That was a big thing,” Nunez said. “He made sure I was getting it.

For some coaches, if a player doesn’t get it the first time or second time, they move on, but … I could mess up 10 times, he’d make me do it over and over and over again until I got it, which showed how committed he was to getting me better.”

“That was a big aspect, and it’s a big trust thing with coach now because I know he’s invested in me.

He’s gonna stop practice for me just so I can get the drill.”

Nunez wasn’t the only player singled out like this, and some take to it more than others. Sometimes, it can fan the flames of that player’s frustrations and insecurities. For others, though, this crucible of performance shores up faith in the coach and their aptitude for the team’s array of concepts.

“I want to be coached,” Nunez said. “I’m not gonna shy away from that, and I feel like that is a good quality to have, just wanting to be coached. … There are definitely guys who will get frustrated when he would, not pick on you, but make you do the drill over and over again.”

Nunez used his coachability as his north star throughout the season, and eventually that guiding light led him into Howard’s office at the beginning of February. Between the repeated drills and lack of consistent play and playing time, something still wasn’t clicking for Nunez.

He needed help. Enter associate head coach Phil Martelli.

Martelli is a veteran coach that spent 24 years as the head coach of St. Joseph’s. Initially sorted into one of five players Martelli was tasked with keeping track of academically, Nunez had already established a rapport with him, one stretching back to Martelli’s initial recruitment of Nunez in high school.

But after discussing how he can improve with Howard, the pair struck up a new kind of relationship.

One based on growth and film study.

Jenny Lessard — Nunez’s mother — knew her son and Martelli’s paths would cross again. She just knew it.

Through much of his senior season at Bishop Loughlin High School in Brooklyn, NY, Martelli made his recruitment of Nunez to St. Joe’s personal. Through one stretch the summer before the guard’s senior year, Martelli visited 13 of Nunez’s games in a row. He wanted him in Philadelphia, bad.

Then, Nunez broke the news to the veteran coach: he wouldn’t be coming to the City of Brotherly Love, instead pursuing a postgraduate year at St. Thomas More Prep School in pursuit of other offers.

Nunez had moved on from the Hawks, but that didn’t stop Lessard from texting Martelli with a seemingly divine piece of foresight — “Our paths will cross again.”

With an extra year, Nunez’s recruitment took off and he secured an offer from coach John Beilein.

Two years later, Nunez and Martelli reunited in Ann Arbor, continuing the relationship forged in Brooklyn.

“I recruited (Nunez) very hard coming out of high school, it was just a joy,” Martelli said. “It was ingenious by coach Howard to put us together, not that the other guys would’ve done just as well, but we were in a good place starting out. There was a trust there.”

That progress started with Nunez making one simple concession: He didn’t know how to study film.

Sure, like any player, he had watched plenty of film, but what the sophomore was saying was that he didn’t know how to see it. He didn’t know how to watch all 10 players on the floor at the same time and have the wherewithal to ingest what was happening and why.

“Anybody can watch film,” Martelli said. “I think a player watches himself, but you have to watch, and I mean it’s not rocket

science, but you have to be able to see the whole play even when you’re not involved with the ball.”

The film study with Martelli has continued into the unexpectedly abrupt postseason with the coach sending Nunez game clips and inspirational sayings.

Watching film, running drills over and over, for Nunez, it’s all part of the mental aspect of the game. He knows he can physically do what’s required of him because he’s done it before at some point or another.

He just needed to do it in front of thousands of people.

Through nearly all of his in-game appearances, Nunez knew something was off. He was uptight, worried to death about whether he would make a mistake or squander his quickly vanishing playing time — it was a selffulfilling prophecy of failure.

“I didn’t have that mentality to just act free like the way I was playing before,” Nunez said. “I was so worried about either getting taken out or making a mistake, I was so focused on that that it kinda crippled me in that way.”

Since stepping into Howard’s office to tackle this mentality problem, Nunez has done nothing but try to loosen up and make the most of his time on the floor and, simply put, have fun. The Brooklyn native is even using all of his newly found free time in the coronavirusrelated quarantine to reflect and find a solution.

One outlet for Nunez to step out of his comfort zone comes from the popular app TikTok. The social media platform is used for a variety of goofy videos, and Nunez had adopted it to show himself dancing or expressing comic concepts. Currently, Nunez has 41,000 followers and nearly 700,000 likes on his posts.

“People think I’m fooling around, but that’s taking me out of my comfort zone,” Nunez said. “It’s something

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Junior guard Adrien Nunez is working on improving his defense and confidence.

that I never liked, to be showy. I never liked to have the attention. I’ve always been so reserved and tense trying to do everything right, but now I’m acting like a goofball in front of thousands of people, and just being loose, that’s a big thing.”

Largely due to his lack of success this past season, many people speculated Nunez’s name would be first up in the transfer portal.

With his first recruiting class, Howard made it clear the quality of talent coming to Ann Arbor would only rise, and Nunez struggled to fit into the rotation even with plenty of opportunities. But when the pandemic hit and the season ended, the decision to stay was a no-brainer for the sophomore.

“I definitely talked a little about it with my parents, but nothing really serious, like, ‘Oh I wanna stay here,’ I didn’t want to pack everything up,” Nunez said. “I know that if I can make it here, I can make it to the next level. Even if I kill at another school, it wouldn’t be the same, so I just decided to stay.”

Buried in his decision to stay is the idea that this will be the sophomore’s first season having the same coach and system from the year prior in nearly five years. Going from high school to prep school to Beilein to Howard has meant a lot of different systems and learning curves. A creature of routine, Nunez is more confident with a year of Howard’s plays under his belt.

Now that begs the question: What will Nunez’s role on the team be in the seasons to come?

Nunez wants to be known as an all-around player, not just a shooter.

That means tackling his weaknesses, including on-ball defense, being able to come off screens and playing off a shot fake.

One aspect he personally wants to tackle is his ball-handling abilities.

With point guards Zavier Simpson and David DeJulius leaving the program due to graduation and transfer, respectively, the vacuum at that position is one of the biggest question marks for the team. Nunez could be ins+++trumental in filling that void.

The bottom line for Nunez, though, is self-awareness. He knows what he needs to work on and is not shying away from the challenge.

So perhaps the next time Nunez steps on the floor in a maize and blue jersey, he won’t be watching an opposing ball handler fly past him on his way to an easy bucket. Through relentless practice, film study and self-awareness, Nunez will flash a smile after showing the product of his trials and tribulations.

Thursday, May 7, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Sports 11

Guard Cole Bajema enters name in transfer portal JACOB KOPNICK Daily Sports Editor

After one season, freshman guard Cole Bajema is potentially departing Ann Arbor as he submitted his name to the transfer portal, a program spokesperson confirmed to The Daily.

After not seeing the floor much during his first year in college basketball, Bajema has decided to test the transfer waters and land a spot at a program where he may be able to scrape together a larger role.

In his one year at Michigan, Bajema averaged just 2.6 ppg in 3.7 minutes per game. Making the most of his time on the floor when he could, Bajema typically highlighted his ample on-court playing time with a late-game 3-point bomb.

Going 4-for-7 from 3-point range over the season, Bajema showed promise as a deep threat.

As Michigan coach Juwan Howard’s first recruiting class is set to unpack their bags in Michigan’s dorm rooms, it is tough to imagine

Bajema would have seen a dramatic uptick in his minutes during the upcoming season. Though there are question marks at the guard positions with a hodge podge of names swirling around as to who will replace Zavier Simpson and David DeJulius at the point, Bajema’s name still sat pretty low on those lists.

It is hard to speculate over a potential ceiling for the Lynden, Wash. native since he so rarely saw the floor. Only playing against low to mid-major foes in the beginning of the season or at the end of blowout games, Bajema was never really subject to the thralls of Big Ten regular season competition.

If Bajema decides to leave the program, this will leave the Wolverines with two open scholarship spots for next season and a whopping six spots on their roster for the 2021 season. Just a few weeks ago, two more of those scholarships were made available due to Isaiah Todd’s decommitment in favor of the G League and five-

star recruit Joshua Christopher’s surprise decision to not commit to Michigan in favor of Arizona State.

While the Wolverines still boast the top recruiting class in the Big Ten despite the loss of the two highly-ranked prospects, depth will now be a big question for Michigan as it scrambles to fill roster spots with high-quality players.

If Bajema does indeed depart, he will leave the other lone freshman in his recruiting class — Franz Wagner — to advance to his sophomore year as the only member left of his class. Wagner himself made headlines a few weeks ago by deciding to stay with the Wolverines instead of pursuing professional opportunities in the NBA. In his one year, Bajema did show potential for growth but struggled to find a home in the rotation.

Perhaps another program can offer that coveted spot where he can flourish into an offensive-minded weapon at the guard position.

Daniel Dash contributed reporting to this story.

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Freshman guard Cole Bajema added himself to the transfer portal Tuesday

Ruiz first of ten Wolverines selected in 2020 NFL Draft ARIA GERSON

Daily Sports Editor

Ten Michigan players were selected in the NFL Draft this weekend, the second-most of any school.

That stat is a bit misleading given that just two of those players — center Cesar Ruiz and linebacker Josh Uche — were selected in the first two days of the draft. Still, the Wolverines were one off their program record of 11 players drafted, set in 2017. They also continued their streak of 82 consecutive years with at least one player drafted, tied for the longest in the country with USC. Michigan’s offensive line was the star of the show. All four players in the draft — Ruiz, tackle Jon Runyan and guards Michael Onwenu and Ben Bredeson — were drafted, a testament to Ed Warinner’s work with the unit after his hire in 2018.

Ruiz, one of the Wolverines’ two early entrants, was drafted 24th overall by the New Orleans Saints.

Bredeson went in the fourth round to the Baltimore Ravens while Onwenu and Runyan were selected

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily

Center Cesar Ruiz was the first of ten Michigan players selected in the 2020 NFL draft, going to the Saints in the first round

in the sixth — the former by the New England Patriots and the latter by the Green Bay Packers.

The rest of the offense, however, had a disappointing showing.

Donovan Peoples-Jones, once a five-star recruit, fell all the way to the sixth round before being selected by the Cleveland Browns.

Quarterback Shea Patterson and tight end Sean McKeon went undrafted, though McKeon has

since signed a free-agent deal with the Dallas Cowboys, according to 247Sports.

Uche highlighted Michigan’s defensive picks after being selected in the second round by the Patriots.

In Foxboro, Uche will join Onwenu and former Wolverine defensive end Chase Winovich.

None of Michigan’s other defensive players were projected surefire draftees, but four of the

five saw themselves drafted. VIPER Khaleke Hudson was selected in the fifth round by Washington, while defensive end Michael Danna went later that round to the Kansas City Chiefs. Safety Josh Metellus and linebacker Jordan Glasgow were both sixth-round picks, with Metellus going to the Minnesota Vikings and Glasgow to the Indianapolis Colts.

Defensive back Lavert Hill

somewhat surprisingly went undrafted, but signed a free-agent deal with the Chiefs shortly after the draft. Hill nearly went pro last season but decided to return to school; his fellow corner David Long was a third-round pick in 2019.

Neither Glasgow nor Danna were invited to the NFL Draft Combine, and with Michigan’s pro day canceled due to COVID-19, both were somewhat surprising selections. Like his brothers, Glasgow completed his rise from walk-on to the NFL. Meanwhile, Danna, a graduate transfer from Central Michigan, made the most of his year in Ann Arbor. Just one other school had multiple draftees who were not invited to the combine.

Overall, the draft was a mixed bag for the Wolverines. Despite a large number of selections, most came in the late rounds and Peoples-Jones’ in particular was indicative of untapped potential.

But Michigan also showed its ability to turn unheralded recruits — such as Glasgow, Metellus, Hudson and Danna — into draft picks.

12 Sports

Thursday, May 7, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Schoonbee’s Olympic dreams on hold LANE KIZZIAH Daily Sports Editor

Jessica Schoonbee is bored.

She gets up around 7:30 every day — sleeping in compared to her typical rowing schedule at Michigan.

She has an iced coffee and toast with peanut butter for breakfast.

She tries to squeeze in a workout either before or after her online classes, still only half the amount of training she does during the school year.

In another reality, Jess would be finishing up her sophomomre year by taking finals in Ann Arbor and gearing up for another Big Ten Championship.

Or she’d be ramping up her practice schedule for the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Switzerland.

She’d be in a boat on Belleville Lake, training every day for the chance to bring home a national title at the end of the month.

Instead, she finishes her peanut butter toast and sits down at her computer.

When she’s done with her school work, she tries to keep herself occupied, spending time with her family and running — she even dyed her own hair a couple weeks ago.

That’s the routine she’s developed since returning home to Johannesburg in the middle of March, when her rowing career, her Olympic dreams and her life were put on hold because of COVID-19.

Last May — just before Big Ten Championships — then-junior TaylaMay Bentley picked up a call from Roger Barrows, the head coach of the South African National Team. He had a question: did she and Jess want to compete at the Under 23 World

Championships?

Both women had competed for the Junior National Team in high school, but because of their collegiate racing schedule, they didn’t think they’d get the opportunity to race for their home country again until after graduating.

Jess and Tayla-May spent all year rowing in an eight and didn’t have any experience in a pair. The regatta was in less than two months — it would be a shot in the dark, but they’d dreamed of racing on the international stage again. They couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

They finished out the collegiate season — winning the Big Ten Championships and coming in third at NCAA Championships — and returned to Ann Arbor to start training in the pair.

From then on, all they did was row.

They woke up in the morning, went to practice at Belleville, came back to watch TV for a couple hours, then got up to go to afternoon practice.

Transitioning from rowing in an eight to rowing in a pair isn’t easy.

Maintaining balance in a smaller boat is more difficult, and racing in a pair typically takes longer.

Still, that wasn’t their biggest obstacle. Because Jess and TaylaMay were both used to rowing on the port side, Jess had to switch to starboard. In rowing, that’s practically the equivalent of waking up one day and deciding to be lefthanded.

But they came back day after day.

They had a single, unwavering focus: get on the podium at U23s.

Day after day, they got faster.

Before they knew it, they were sitting at the start of the A Final of the Under-23 World Championships next to Russia and Greece, the oddson favorites.

DESIGN BY JACK SILBERMAN

“I was just adamant that someone was playing games with us,” Jess said. “That we weren’t actually that fast.”

But it wasn’t a game. After months of training and planning, a lifetime of dreaming and hoping, for this moment, Jess and Tayla-May came in second on the international stage.

The original plan had been to stop after U23s, but the second-place finish opened up new possibilities for the duo. They had speed. And the Senior World Championships, the first chance for Olympic qualification,were in a month. If they kept training, there was a good chance Jess and Tayla-May could qualify for the 2020 Games.

But that meant more money, more practices and more international travel — not to mention the huge commitment of training for the Olympics if they qualified. The Olympics was their dream, though, and they never thought they’d have the opportunity at such a young age.

Again, they took the leap of faith.

They kept up their routine for another month before the regatta.

But as the race got closer, Jess started to notice a stabbing pain in her side. She iced it and went to the team doctors, but nothing helped.

She thought she had fractured her rib, but she couldn’t tell Tayla-May before the race. So Jess kept rowing despite the pain.

In the end, whether it was the rib or their lack of experience in the pair, their hopes of qualifying at the Senior World Championships were short lived. Teams had to come in the top-three of the quarterfinal to stay in contention to qualify. Jess and Tayla-May were fifth, by a healthy margin.

They had a choice to make. They could fly back to South Africa and keep training throughout the year for another chance to qualify in May at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta, but that would mean they’d have to take the year off school. It would mean graduating a year late and missing a season the Wolverines were poised to dominate, with no guarantee their decision would pay off. Only two more pairs would qualify — it would be a long shot.

Jess talked the decision over with her parents and coaches, but, in the end, it was her older brother Kyle — who’d already qualified to row at the 2020 Games — who tipped the scales.

“My brother said to me, ‘You haven’t been in the boat for that long.

You switched sides; you fractured

your rib; your rib’s gonna get fixed; you’re gonna get a lot faster. You’re going to qualify,’ ” Jess said. “So I decided I’m just going to give myself a shot.

“I was extremely nervous. It’s really hard to put all your eggs in one basket.”

Jess and Tayla-May moved home to South Africa, rented an apartment and got back to work with the National Team. While Tayla-May trained out on the water in a single, Jess did what she could while she waited for her rib to heal.

She spent some time with her family in Johannesburg. She watched “Jane the Virgin.” Sometimes, she’d get on the erg, an indoor rowing machine, to see if she could row.

Yeah, still hurts.

She tried to get her body moving any way she could — lifting and squats mostly — but even a heavy breath induced shooting pain. So mostly, she waited.

Jess waited until a day in November when she was finally cleared to get back to training. Back to rowing. Back on the road to Tokyo.

She left the doctor’s office and headed back to the apartment she shared with Tayla-May. Jess made herself dinner and settled onto the couch when Tayla-May came in with eyes bloodshot from crying. She was also on her way back from the doctor’s.

The same day Jess was cleared, Tayla-May was told she’d injured both of her hip tendons. She likely needed surgery, keeping her out for the foreseeable future and making it unlikely she’d be back in time for the Olympics.

The national coaches asked Jess if she would stay to train in a single and try to qualify by herself in the spring.

“It was really hard, because I did want to give myself a shot at the Olympics,” Jess said. “But a big part of it was that Tayla-May and I had started this journey together, and I didn’t want to end it without her.”

After months of training and racing, thinking and decisionmaking, injuries and recovery, it was time to go back to Michigan.

Jess flew back to the US at the end of December for the Wolverines’ training trip in Florida. Even though she was disappointed how her Olympic quest had ended, she was ready to throw herself into Michigan’s season.

Last year, Jess stroked the Wolverines to the Big Ten Championship title and a third-place finish at the NCAA Championship.

This year, their sights were set even higher. With four rowers and the coxswain returning from last year’s

boat, Michigan believed it could go for gold — something the Wolverines haven’t done in over 20 years.

“Everyone was so focused on getting better technically,” Jess said.

“We knew that we could win this season, which was something that we didn’t know we could do last year.

Previous to this year, we were almost too scared to want it really badly. You could also feel that we were almost scared of losing or failing. And I think this year it was like all that’s out the window — it doesn’t matter, we’re gonna win no matter what.”

But two weeks before their first scheduled race, all the rowers were called to the training center. Jess started to get a bad feeling. Classes had already been moved online due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and most other conferences had already canceled the rest of their seasons.

Michigan coach Mark Rothstein was on a conference call when the team got to the practice room.

They sat down, trying to prepare themselves for whatever was about to happen. Rothstein came in, still on the phone, and sat in a chair at the front of the room with his team staring back at him. He handed the phone to assistant coach Liz Tuppen and explained to a silent audience that their season was over before it had even begun. Complete silence fell over the room.

There would be no Big Ten Championship and no NCAAs — no chance to build on last year’s success.

For Jess, it was one more premature ending in what had been the most unpredictable year of her life.

May isn’t going to be the month it could’ve been for Jess. She’ll never know whether she would have qualified with Tayla-May or how the Wolverines would have done in the postseason.

For now, she’s at home, establishing a new normal after a year that has been anything but.

About two weeks after she got home, it was announced the Tokyo Games were being pushed back to next summer.

She still dreams of going to the Olympics, but there are so many factors to consider. She has no idea what the selection process would look like or how it would fit in with Michigan’s season. She doesn’t know when she’ll be allowed to train, or even what the next school year will look like.

After she heard the news, Jess checked her phone, and saw she’d gotten a message from Tayla-May. When she read it, she couldn’t tell if it was a joke: Should we go for it in 2021?