Quarantine Diaries

Oh be careful what you wish for. At the beginning of the spring semester, I remember telling another teacher when I was feeling particularly overwhelmed, “I just need everything around me to stop, so I have time to catch up before anything else can get added to my plate.” I didn’t mean it quite so literally.  Usually the Friday before spring break means everyone is a little distracted and e...

This past weekend I celebrated my 18th birthday in the confines of my home. It was raining, and all I could do during the 5 a.m. storm was think about how I was 18 years old. I was an adult. And for my gift this year, the universe handed me an entire pandemic on a silver platter.  If I am being completely honest, on that rainy Saturday, I was awake from midnight  all the way until 11:59 p.m.. I ...

So we’re all stuck inside. I flip between relishing in social-isolation and pining for attention from anyone who isn’t part of my immediate family, considering we’re all pushing each others’ buttons. I’m torn between marveling at the scope of this pandemic and feeling like Bill Maurry in “Groundhog Day.” I want so desperately to use this precious time to do what I’ve never had the ti...

It’s been three weeks since I’ve been back in town from my spring break vacation to Colorado, and ever since then my life has not been the same. It feels like the last time our world was relatively normal was forever ago, but in reality, it’s only been a few weeks. When I got back from Colorado, I isolated myself in my house for fear that I might have caught something while travelling, but luckily, ...

Ever since school has been called off, I have worked diligently to get my digital work done. I wake up early in the morning, so I can get it out of the way and not have to worry about it for the rest of the week. It usually does not take very long for me to get it done as it is not that much work. In addition to my assigned tasks from school, I have also worked on many other things. I have made a co...

Personally, I have always found that trying to see the positives in situations will get you through life, and the COVID-19 pandemic is no different. I’m a high school senior, and I’ve been looking forward to this year since I started public school. Though it hasn’t gone exactly how I planned, I am still trying to find the positives and not consider this ending to be a sad one. Prom is can...

I woke up this morning and my first thought was “I get to go to the store today.” I get to.  If it had been any other morning, I would have been annoyed and trying to get out of it only to cause a fight with my mom, but today, I’m excited. I just want to say this for all of us: we’re all waiting to get back to exactly how our lives used to be before quarantine, before coronavirus. Maybe we ...

Right when you feel like you have everything planned out, seeing your future unfold before your eyes, a global pandemic breaks loose and crushes your dreams. Being a junior in high school is stressful enough already, let’s just throw COVID-19 in there to spice things up.  When school got canceled at first I could not have been more relieved. It was the break we all needed from SAT and ACT pr...

I'm a relatively introverted person, so I haven't really been affected by social distancing so far. I'm an avid hobbyist, and I don't typically have a problem keeping myself entertained, but coming up on four weeks in, it's gotten to the point where I’m having to get creative.  At first, I was pretty happy to stay at home and read all day, and to a certain extent, that’s been true. I've fo...

It’s surreal to be stuck at home because of a pandemic that is raging across the world, killing thousands and infecting even more. COVID-19 feels like something out of a science fiction movie that has all of a sudden turned into a vivid nightmare, haunting  me even when I’m awake.  As a student, I’m coping with the transition to online school. It’s overwhelming when I get notifications of assi...

Looking back to the beginning of my senior year, I never expected a global pandemic to break out and completely turn my life upside down.  I have mourned all the things I will never get to do, things I have looked forward to all my life. My senior prom, senior skip day, graduation and (truly) the last day of school. To say I was devastated was an understatement. In the first couple of weeks I w...