Student Reflections Part 12 – Bellarmine College Preparatory

My students are sharing more stories as part of the global project “A Day in my Life: living under the Covid-19 Pandemic.” We hope you and your students enjoy reading them!

To see all reflections shared so far go to the Educate Magis Covid-19 page

 

A Day in my Life: Joseph, 14, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

“Coronavirus has affected the country I live in greatly. The whole country is currently in a state of shelter in place and no one is allowed to go outside unless completely necessary. Coronavirus has closed down most stores, restaurants, and other forms of public gathering places to keep everyone safe. Although this is the correct decision in my opinion, it has still placed many people out of work and forced them to struggle even more for money. Coronavirus has placed my school in a state of lockdown, and we attend class over Microsoft Teams. Since we’re aren’t physically in class and at home, it has been a minor challenge for me to focus in class and stay attentive with what I’m learning. Having classes at home helps me fix my sleep schedule and get enough rest every night. I don’t have to wake up early to get ready and commute to school anymore. Also, by being home every day, I’m able to get closer with my family and I get to spend a lot more time with them.

Our society should learn to be more grateful for what we have and to be more careful. Many people have aided in spreading this virus by being irresponsible and going out in public and putting people’s lives at risk. I’m concerned that many more people are going to suffer because we haven’t found a cure yet. Although many people have recovered from the virus, a small percent of those infected have died and more will if we can’t find a cure. I hope that we can find a proper cure to help those in need and prevent any more deaths.”

 

A Day in my Life: Joseph, 15, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

“The coronavirus has affected me in ways I did not imagine. Right now, my country (USA) is leading in cases for COVID-19. Most citizens are stockpiling and bunkering down in their homes. The government advises not to go outside unless it is necessary. This has affected my routine greatly. First off, I do not wake up as early as I would normally. In addition, I am not working out that much. This is because at Bellarmine College Prep, the school I attend, has an indoor weight room that I would go in every day. However, now that it is not available, I use the weight room I set up in my garage months ago. It works just fine, but it is hard to stay motivated and get myself to work out. Keeping on task with assignments is also difficult since at home I tend to procrastinate a lot.

The gifts and graces of this situation is that I am getting more sleep, which is the result of me not leaving the house. This good because I am able to catch most of the hours of sleep, I missed during regular school days. This coronavirus situation has really got me thinking about how we would prep for something like this again in the future. My theory is that if there is ever another outbreak, we would cancel flights sooner and if a case ends up in the country, we would bunker in our homes right away to contain the contamination as soon as possible. I believe that once this whole thing is over, everyone will be able to understand how being outside is essential to us and we should not just stay inside everyday of our lives.”

 

A Day in my Life: Joshua, 14, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

“My life and the lives of others will never be the same after this. COVID-19 has shaken all of our world’s upside down. In my country, U.S.A, as of March 2020 we are still under “shelter in place” and might have to be longer than all of us have been expecting. Most of us were expecting only a 2 week “shelter in place” but as of right now we will not be returning to school until May. These changes have impacted my life drastically for the better and for the worst. For me, I need a quiet space to work, now I am able to have a very quiet space with no distractions which allows me to get my work done twice as fast. My sleeping schedule has been a lot better to. Instead of getting up at 6:30 A.M, I am allowed to get up at whatever time my classes begin. Even though there are some positives about the COVID-19, there are also many negatives that go along with it. For example, I miss the human interaction. I miss seeing my friends every day and having the face to face interaction. I also miss seeing my teachers. In class you get a whole better understanding of the topic rather than just listening to them on the computer. I also just miss the everyday conversations that the whole class use to have.

Some of the gifts and graces that have been given to us is the family time. With this I am allowed to have a lot more family time. I am able to become more closely with my family. We get to go on more family walks, play more family games, and just to have more quality family time. Usually during a “regular week”, we just usually have dinner together and that’s about it. Now we are able to just have some nice family time that we don’t get during the week. Another gift and grace that we have been given is the offer of being able to have a shelter and food and family during these hard times. Some people don’t get to have the chance to have food, shelter, and/or a family to be with during these hard times. Other people, like me, have a family to love, food that I can have, and a shelter to “shelter in place” in.

For me I am sacred and relieved for the future that lies ahead. I am scared because we don’t know the future for us. We do not know if COVID-19 will return and we do not know what the future holds for schools, public places, etc…. I am also relieved because, for the most part COVID-19 will be gone soon and I am very hopeful that this will not return, and our normal lives can be returned. I am also very hopeful that since we just had a big pandemic, we will not get another for a very long time. Our society should learn that, we know how big a disease/ sickness could get over a matter of a few weeks. We should know now that we should always be prepared for any disastrous thing that could come our way. My concerns is that some people, including the elderly, are still not getting that this is a big issue and we all need to stay away from each other. For example, my grandpa still does not get why we are all staying at home and the need for “sheltering in place”. My other concern is that once this shelter in place is over, many people will try running out again and we will be back where we are today. My hopes for the future are to be able to go back to our real normal lives, but I know that this will never happen. My other hope is for everyone to see all the destruction we have created and see what we could improve on the next time, if this happens again, so we could “flatten the curve” quicker. COVID-19 has affected all of our lives and I hope that this could change for the future for us and our future families”

 

A Day in my Life: JP, 15, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

“To me, the COVID-19 pandemic seams surreal. I as though I am dreaming, and soon enough I will wake up and things will go back to the way they were. Nothing like this has ever happened within the lifetime of my parents or anyone else close to me, and so I’ve never heard real-life stories of something like this happening. I think that because of this, my brain seems to not be able to actually process what is happening. On one hand, it is everywhere. I now have online school (distance learning) and I wake up and go to school in my room. I look through my email and there is an update about it. I turn on the news and that’s all anyone is talking about. In my religious studies class, almost all of our prayers are related to it. I call my friend and that’s all we talk about. I go on a walk (which luckily, we’re still allowed to do) and all I see are people avoiding one another. Occasionally, people will be standing 6 ft apart, chatting about it. I get home and I can’t go visit a friend. It is very hard to escape from it. However, on the other hand, I feel like it’s not even happening. Although I know some people directly with unconfirmed cases, and some people indirectly, some of whom have died, it still feels far away. I don’t directly know anyone who is badly suffering from it and this has made it hard for me to really feel like it is taking ahold of society.

Over the course of this pandemic, I have had many mixed emotions. When this was just starting, when there were still under 100 people infected, I saw this as just another story on the news. But in late January, my dad started to become worried about it, and some of that worry spread to me. That was when I started to take precautions about things such as handwashing and touching used surfaces. This was about the time when I felt the most anxiety. As things progressed, I wasn’t as worried compared to by initial reaction, I think because I had built up a expectation for it already. Then, within a week in mid-March, a lot happened very quickly. School got canceled and there was a shelter in place ordered. These greatly affected my day-to-day life in a profound way. Now, I don’t know what to think. How long is this going to last for? Is a vaccine coming any time soon? How careful should I be? These are questions that I have no answer to and this makes me not know what to think. For now, I all do know is that God has everything under control.”

 

A Day in my Life: Julian, 15, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

“The county I live in is the United States. Ir is currently one of the biggest coronavirus hotspots in the entire world with around 15,000 people getting infected yesterday alone. This has had a major impact on my life in many ways. First off, all schools across the nation have been closed due to the virus and along with the school sports. Sports and school are a huge part of my life and now I have to sit in my home all day and try to stay healthy. In addition to school sports being closed, out of school sports are closed due to the virus.

Although I have way more free time, it just feels like it’s not right. Many challenges have arisen from this situation as well. Since my school is almost entirely online now, I have way more exposure to screens. By the time I go to bed, my eyes are bulging, and it becomes really difficult for me to sleep. The second major problem I have is muscles tightness/soreness. Due to no sports activity when I sit around all day and get up my legs become really tired and have almost no feeling. My last problem is having almost no human interaction. Having no school and no sports and not going outside means that I have about zero face to face contact with people outside of my family.

There are actually quite a few gifts and graces from this situation. First off, the carbon footprint of the world has gone down drastically, in addition many animals are returning to habitats that they couldn’t be at before. Some graces that come from Covid-19 are more face to face time with my family, although sometimes it can be rough. Looking at the current situation I realize there may be a few more months of boringness ahead, but if we stay safe, we can get over these hard times. I think that our society should learn how to become more connected and realize that we are all one people. If we can react and adapt to situations quicker, problems can be solved quicker as a result. My concern is that people will continue to go outside and spread the virus. This concerns me because this means more months of quarantine and seclusion. My hope is that we have a normal summer and that we can return to school in August.”

 

A Day in my Life: Justin, 15, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

“As of right now, California is on what is called a “shelter in place.” This means that one should seek shelter and safety in one’s own home. This also implies that one can only leave their house if one has a specific reason to do so. This could be to go to the grocery store or a hospital. These changes have taken control of almost everyone’s lives in some sort of way. It has affected my life greatly and has given me many challenges such as more screen usage, less human interaction, and physical activity. However, I have gotten some gifts from this which are spending more time with my family, isolation from others so I can focus on what really matters most to me and being able to see the world from a different perspective.

I now have to look at screens to learn. Every day is always filled with screens but now, the rate at which I am on them has boosted greatly. While I do interact with people online, I do not actually have lots of real human interactions with anyone but my family. My normal routine consists of either going to the gym or rugby practice. Without both of these, it is quite the challenge to find things to do to stay at the competitive level that I once was at. However, I persevere each day and find more things to do so that I may be the best person that I can be in this time of crisis.

Only being able to spend time with my family for any real interaction is not all bad. I have tried to make the best of this by trying to start new hobbies with them. For example, my Mother and I have started watching a television show and my Father is helping me pick up boxing. I have also been able to do a lot of thinking. I think about what will happen in the weeks to come and when this terrible virus goes away. I have been able to see how society reacts to a pandemic like this and I have learned that all precautions should be taken seriously at a time like this.”

 

A Day in my Life: Kasdan, 15, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

“The Coronavirus has impacted my daily life immensely. My day begins with online school. School was cancelled about 2 and a half weeks ago, and online school just doesn’t feel the same. You can’t see your friends and it is harder to focus and learn. Since laws are not that strict in my country, I am able to skateboard to a field near my house and play soccer every day. I am able to skateboard on the streets that are usually packed with cars because there are literally no cars in sight. After this, I try to work out in my room, and I find myself getting creative with exercises every day with the equipment I have. After this, I have dinner with my family, which is actually a gift in this situation because I usually don’t get to have dinner with my family because of soccer practice and homework. During this time, I have found myself spending a lot more time with family. We walk our dogs together, we talk to each other more often, we eat every meal together. These are things I won’t get back once this all ends, and I am trying to make the most of it. I also find myself with a lot freer time during the day. I don’t have to walk home from school, I don’t have to ask my mom to drive me to soccer practice, I don’t have to wake up early every day. Although this whole thing may seem like a negative thing, I have been trying to look at the positives and make the most out of the situation.”

 

A Day in my Life: Kenny, 14, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

“Hi, my name is Kenny and I am a student at Bellarmine College Preparatory. As a lot of people know, the pandemic of the Corona Virus (Covid-19) has affected many lives. Because of the Corona Virus, many schools, including my school, had to shut down and have classes online instead. At first glance, online schooling sounds fantastic and has no bad side, but the overall effects can change us as students.

Some pros including more sleeping time and more time with friends and family, but the cons can be unhealthy habits from not going outside or just laziness. I live in the U.S. and the situation with the Corona Virus has not been getting better. Even though safety procedures have been made, that won’t save us completely. I still think that with enough hard work and if we have each other’s back, we will be able to fight back against the virus. One thing that I find very concerning is that before the Corona Virus, no cared to even think about sanitization and clean habits. For example, some people barely even washed their hands, but now, they do everything in their power to hog items like toilet paper and hand sanitizer. They even hog non-perishable foods. Many soup kitchens need canned goods to feed people, but the Corona Virus has blinded the people into only thinking about themselves. I think that we need to learn to stick together as one and help each other. Corona Virus can be beaten. It is a serious matter, but it is not something impossible to overcome. There had been so many other pandemics that we were able to overcome, such as the Bubonic Plague, Influenza, HIV, and many more, so why can’t we stop this one as well.”