This Week, Crammed: Week Ending 11/17/19

Olivia Seltzer and her savvy news crew sum up the weekly events that shaped our world…

What went down:

The Hong Kong protests kept escalating. We’ll remind you: initially, these protests took place on the weekends and avoided schools — but this week, they continued on past the weekend, with protesters establishing their bases at multiple universities. At one school, protesters barricaded themselves on campus for three days while police fired tear gas on protesters at another school.

Over in Venice, the Italian city faced its worst flooding in over 50 years. Not a typo. High tide reportedly peaked at over 6 feet, with the flooding damaging multiple historic buildings. 

Meanwhile, at least two students were killed at a Southern California high school after another student pulled a gun from his backpack and opened fire. The suspect then turned the gun on himself. No word yet on a potential motive. 

In other news, Australia can’t catch a break. As dozens of deadly bushfires rage across the country, Sydney’s apparently running out of water. Not good, mate. 

Speaking of which, the US dealt with record-breaking cold, with temps at 18 in Memphis, 25 in New York City, and 11 in Columbus. The weather outside is frightful. 

Oh, and Facebook said ‘good news! Sort of’ and revealed that they’ve shut down 5.4 billion fake accounts this year alone — compared with 3.3 billion in all of 2018. Reassuring. 

What’s up next:

Temps are expected to start upping this week across the US. In other news, Twitter has its mind on politics. This week, the biz’s new ban on political ads goes into effect. What else is making headlines: the next Dem debate is slated for this week. Breath, bated. Oh, and this week, look out for National Unfriend Day and National Pay Back Your Parents Day. Should be fun. 

Why you should be feeling inspired:

Meet Eitan Bernath. He’s a 17-year-old food blogger and chef who’s made two appearances on the Food Network — including competing on “Chopped.” (Yes, really. Yes, we’re jealous.) 

What made you start cooking? And was there a time when you wondered if cooking was truly what you wanted to do?

I started cooking when I was eight or nine — I would go to a lot of restaurants and I loved eating the food there. I would then ask my mom to make these same meals at home. My mom, being a more traditional Jewish home cook, invited me to try to cook them myself. And that’s when I fell in love with cooking; not just the eating part, but also the whole creative aspect to it. 

How are you able to juggle between being a high schooler, a chef, and a business owner?  

It’s definitely not easy. It’s something I had to learn over the years. I’ve been doing this for five years, and I’ve now learned how to balance them. It’s all about compromising.

For example, when I get out of a class early, instead of going to the lunchroom to hang out with friends, I’ll go to the library and answer emails. Also,, if I get a free period I’ll do some work or edit a video. I also wake up every morning around 5am to do work before school starts. It’s all about sacrifice, but I still make sure to get enough “friend” time and things like that. 

Being 17, how do you deal with people thinking you are too young to run your own business and be a chef? 

In my opinion, if someone thinks I’m too young to work with them, well, “Thank u, next,” to quote Ariana Grande. I only work with people who understand that my age doesn’t define my work. Overall, if my age is a problem for them, I simply do not work with them.

What is the biggest lesson you learned from losing “Chopped”? And how did you motivate yourself to get back in the kitchen?

The biggest lesson I learned was self-confidence. It was quite scary when I lost. I had a viewing party at my house and the whole community and much of America watched me lose on national TV. Most people were supportive, but there were still people at school making fun of me. It taught me to be more confident, knowing my worst and understanding the fact that, if the judges chose to eliminate me. it didn’t mean that I wasn’t worthy of what I was doing. You can gain from a loss. I used that loss as a platform to build a whole career. In my opinion, I lost “Chopped,” but I won overall. 

What advice would you give to our readers looking to launch their own business? 

I would say start now. Of course your first post — your first anything — is never going to be as good as your hundredth. Start now and don’t worry about your first work not being as incredible as you want it to be. You have to start somewhere. So just start and then improve from there. 

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