Reflections Submitted by My Students as Part of Global Project: “A Day in my Life: living under the Covid-19 Pandemic”

I am delighted to share the following reflections submitted by my students as part of Global Student Stories Project A Day in my Life: living under the Covid-19 Pandemic. My students look forward to reading their peers’ reflections from other Jesuit schools around the world.   

Thank you for sharing. Fear will not have the last word, but love and hope will!


A Day in my Life – Written by
Andrew, 18, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

I’ve been trying to make the most of the time I have at home. During my normal COVID-19 free day, I often find myself complaining that I don’t have time for this or that. As a result, I’ve been recently trying to focus on certain skills during my time at home.

For one, I’ve been seriously trying to learn the guitar. I bought one for my birthday thinking that the hole in my bank account would inspire me to actually practice. It worked. And now that I’m stuck at home, I’ve been spending even more time in my room learning songs and jamming out.

Another skill I’ve been working on is reading. I’ve never been a reader. In fact, up until this year I’ve hated reading with a passion. However, I always associated reading with intelligence. Thus, I set a New Year’s Resolution to read 12 books this year, one for each month. I was already falling behind in January, but with this lockdown I’ve been able to catch up to my quota. It’s not yet April and I’m already on my fifth book! Even more, I’m genuinely enjoying reading for the first time.

As far as my typical day goes, I’ve been waking up at around 7:30AM as opposed to my previous 6:30. It’s crazy how much one extra hour and make me feel so much more energized! I’ll cook myself some breakfast and then “go” to classes. One challenge during my time at home is spending all this time with my dad. I love him, but we tend to butt heads, and that’s become even more frequent as of late. Anyways, after school I’ll usually do homework or go out to my backyard to exercise a little. After that, it’s back to homework, studying, guitar, piano, or reading. On occasion, I’ll hop on my PS4 and play some video games with my friends.

I know this pandemic has made many peoples’ lives tougher, and I pray for them. I also pray for those who are using this chaotic time as an opportunity for self-gain. I find that extremely selfish, and I wish we would all just help each other out in this time, even if that means staying out of each other’s ways for a couple weeks. That being said, I don’t feel that there’s much I can do just staying at home. So, I’m just trying to make my time at home as productive as it can be. Time is a blessing, and I’ve been blessed with tons of it lately. Therefore, I plan to use that time to be with my family and to better myself in any whatever way I can.”

 

A Day in my Life – Written by Constantijn, 18, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA 

The rise of this crisis has been bad for everyone. However, my family has found a really bright diamond in the restrictive rough. My brother is a college football player, and my father works in another state. Given this, our house mostly only ever feels the presence of my mother and myself. Because of the unfortunate circumstances, my whole family is under one roof again.

Of course, this is not all good. Being stuck in the house has been taking a toll on my sanity as well as the sanity of my family. I have noticed that I am quicker tempered than usual, my parents are more easily frustrated, and my brother is taking full advantage of his break from practice.

I miss freedom. I miss people. I miss life as it was. I know that I, along with almost everyone else under quarantine, will emerge from this with a newfound appreciation for life. I will cherish all the time I have left with my friends in the bay area. In person, I will thank everyone who has helped me and express love to everyone I feel it for.”

 

A Day in my Life – Written by Dylan, 18, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA 

As I sit here reflecting upon the coronavirus and how it has impacted my senior year at Bellarmine College Preparatory, one conversation I had with a former Bellarmine alumni circles in my head as I try to make sense out of all that has occurred.

The summer before my freshman year I attended a football camp run by former Bellarmine football players. I remember vividly how those former Bells told me to embrace every step I take on the Bellarmine campus. That even when it gets hard whether it be in the classroom or on the field and I start to dread going to class to recognize the blessing it is to attend such an amazing school and especially during my senior year to take time to embrace the brotherhood and soak in those last few moments of such an amazing community.

Unfortunately, the coronavirus has prevented me from that opportunity those former Bells told me to take advantage of and I can only sit and ponder what I might be missing out on. As a second semester senior I was looking forward to seeing all my friends getting into college and celebrating with them on a daily basis at school as we walked from class to class and ate lunch at the tree, we hung out at for all four years of high school. I was looking forward to the baseball season of my senior year and playing my heart out during what would be my last at bats and times in the field playing competitive high school ball.

Yet despite all these unfortunate opportunities and experiences that were seemingly taken away from me at the blink of an eye, I have come to realize that lamenting all these losses gets me nowhere. I have realized that I have lost certain opportunities as a senior, but I have been presented with yet another opportunity to find the bright side of this situation and overcome it. I have been given the opportunity to spend time with my family more often watching nostalgic movies from my childhood. I’ve had an opportunity to spend time with my brother playing one on one in the front yard as we find something to do besides sitting on the couch playing MLB the Show 20. A theme I have found in this situation is opportunity, whether it be lost or gained, and I think that overall I have learned a great deal about being grateful for the experiences I have and to never take anything or anyone in my life for granted.”  

 

A Day in my Life – Written by Evan, 18, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA 

It has been quite a shift in the events of my everyday life throughout the past 3 weeks. I am a senior captain of my high school’s lacrosse team, and I am miserable since the cancellation of our season. I spent most of my time playing or training for lacrosse and without being with my team or holding myself to a certain standard I do when I am in season, I feel like I have fallen into a slump.

My mom is an elementary school teacher and we have been able to spend a lot of time together since we are sheltering in place and not allowed to leave our house except for “essential outings” which include going to the grocery store. My brother goes to school about 6 hours away, in Los Angeles, and he is staying down there in his apartment with his roommates. However, my sister is exactly 2,679 miles away from my family since she lives on the opposite coast. I won’t be able to see my dad who lives in Napa Valley around 2 hours from me because the CDC doesn’t want us to “cross-households” in order to limit the spread of the virus.

The Santa Clara County in San Francisco’s Bay Area of which I live in is one of the hardest places hit in by the virus. This has caused chaos to ensue throughout the economy both locally and globally. I live in a small town of Los Gatos and as I drive through the downtown area on one of my rare outings that I take daily, I see nobody around. That results in a lot of small businesses in my town to have to be shut down because they can’t stay open and pay rent or other bills.

If I had to take away some positives from this situation, I am delighted to see that the Earth has been able to heal a noticeable amount in the past month. Around the world we saw the smog in the sky clear especially over cities in Asia which produce a lot of pollution. Also, you can see the Eiffel tower from London because the smog has cleared which I think is pretty cool because those types of things are what bring us together as people and as a global society. “


A Day in my Life – Written by
Jack, 18, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA 

Zach: “I cried. We found out right before our 4-by-4 relay. So I ran that race knowing it was my last race. I ran the best damn 400 I’ve ever run. And I sat there after for like five minutes. Doing nothing. Just taking it in. Your brother is super bummed too.” 

Me: “I just don’t know what to do right now. I sat in my room for half an hour just thinking. Cause I don’t know if I’ll ever get back in the Bellarmine pool. Like, I could have just ended my season with a busted shoulder and a fleeting hope of CCS.” 

These were text messages that I shared with my friend Zach after we both received the news from our school that we would be pursuing a remote learning policy, effective immediately, until March 30th. That date has since been pushed back until April 20th and is subject to change. He had just finished his last track meet of the season, which had turned into a time trial, after their opponent, Junipero Serra, made the decision to not attend, after they had canceled in-person classes earlier that week. I had already completed a normal Wednesday practice on the swim team and had already made my way home. 

In less than a moment, everything that we had been working on had been stripped away from us. For Zach, it was his last Bellarmine meet. For me, it was a chance at competing at the highest level I would have the opportunity to race at.

People say it’s okay though. “The quarantine isn’t mandated to last until then. You’ll still get to race for Bellarmine one last time. You will still be able to race.” But most of us have accepted that we won’t. The time standards will remain the same, and I, with all my missed training, will not get them in time.

A large amount of us believes that we will not step back on the school campus as students but rather as alumni. My career at Bellarmine is effectively over. There is no more 2020 Bellarmine swim and dive team. That already ended, with a fleeting hope that we would get back in the pool together.  

 

A Day in my Life – Written by Jacob, 18, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA 

My world has been shaken from the COVID-19 outbreak, from school shutting down to all non-essential businesses being affected. It took me around a week to comprehend the surreal experience that this has all become. I have always heard of events that shaped the world, like the Spanish Flu epidemic, but never thought I would experience such an event. I believed that events like a pandemic where possible but outside my lifespan. 

I begin my day by waking up an hour early for school where I finish up any leftover homework, and I eat the same breakfast- Greek yogurt with granola- and promptly begin school at 9:30. I go thought my classes one by one trying to learn over the computer, but it all just seems pointless. After school, I walk the dog and workout for an hour anxiously waiting for my home gym to arrive as the gym is my temple, my place to think and let out stress. 

I was lucky that the virus just hit after my wrestling season, and I had the opportunity to say I have no regrets in my primary sport. Still, I just had my rugby season cut, which digs deep. The harshest impact I had on my life can be defined by my freedom and friendships.  

I am a very extroverted person meaning I genuinely enjoy being social with my friends and doing various things. Being cooped up inside makes me just feel like my world is closing into the boundaries of my house, and I hate this feeling. I finally received all of my college acceptance letters. Still, I sadly can’t visit my top 2 schools, how am I supposed to choose something that I have been preparing for my whole life without actually going there? On a positive note, technology helps me stay in touch with my friends, and that Is a blessing. Still, I fear I have created a lifeline to my technology that I previously didn’t have.”

 

A Day in my Life- Written by Jesus, 17, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA 

I have been confined within the walls of my house since March 11. I can feel the mental fatigue waning in me as I struggle to find motivation to wake up in the morning. I start off the day by rolling out of bed and putting on some sweats and a hoodie. After that I stroll by the kitchen and pick up the coffee my mom woke up early to make for me. As I pick it up, I thank her, and she responds with a warm smile. 

I begin to check notifications on my phone as I await my first class to begin. As my first period class ends, I finally start to feel awake and I make myself some breakfast during my free period. After my breakfast I continue with my classes and try my best to stay focused but regardless of which class I’m in, I usually doze off and start to daydream of how things used to be before the quarantine. 

As a senior there is a lot less stress second semester. Its that second semester that everyone in high school looks forward to. All the hard work you have put in the previous years, those late nights you stayed up to finish projects, research papers, or studying for a test. All those are just memories and you have the privilege of looking back and reflecting about what a long way you’ve come, and how for better or worse they are just memories. You begin to ponder about the new chapter you’re about to start in life…..and then it hits you, you still have a quiz for physics next period that you have to study for and how you’re barely half way through the day. 

I wait for it to turn 2:45, so I can finally get off the screen and do something, anything. I’m a very energetic person and my days before this consisted of practicing for soccer and then having weights after practice, 6 days a week. I leave my desk and put on some short and pick up my soccer stuff. I blast some music while working out up until I hear my mom scream for me to come inside and eat. After I eat I turn on the tv and watch some Netflix, only bad part is I’ve seen most of my shows and I struggle to find anything entertaining, so I go on my phone and text some friends or I’ll FaceTime a friend until it’s time to go to sleep.

 

See more reflections on the next article !