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: Nicholas, 15, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA
“Currently, in this crisis we have been first asked, then ordered to stay home and not go anywhere except for essential needs. My routines have been impacted in that rather than go anywhere, I simply stay home all day and night. It has been challenging in that it is very tough to get even basic necessities, because people have panic bought most of the supplies that were available. Really, the only good thing that has come from this is that I get to spend more time with my family.
To be honest, I fear that rather than bringing us together, this crisis will serve to only stratify our society and exacerbate the differences in financial security between people. I can only hope that our society will learn to protect those at the edges, it is they who are most susceptible to things like this disease. I do hope that it is possible for everyone to come out of this stronger, but we need to pay attention to the root causes of this crisis. Above all, I think that all of us need, not to accept what we cannot change, but change what we cannot accept.”
A Day in my Life: Patrick, 16, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA
“The Pandemic of the 21st Century
Attending the office hours to study for my several tests that I would have in the next couple of days, I was overwhelmed with stress and focus. I really hoped that a miraculous event of sorts could save my suffering. After studying, I walked over to the lacrosse field where I had practice. I decided to test my luck on finding some sort of lucky charm to save myself from the stressful reality of the tests that I would take soon. So, I went to a small patch of clovers and I looked for a four leaf clover. After looking for several minutes, a small four leaf clover appeared in my sight. I was surprised because I did not think that the legends were true. With my intention in mind I safely put the lucky charm away. Throughout practice, there was small talk of the coronavirus due to its exponential growth and spread to the Bay Area. We weren’t necessarily scared, but we knew something eventful would come soon.
And so it happened.
On that evening (11th March) during practice, a schoolwide email was sent out about the immediate closure of school. At first my friends’ emotions were mixed. Some were overjoyed, others were sullen because they weren’t sure what that meant for the lacrosse season (since we were not close to the halfway point of our season yet). On the other hand I was baffled, because I could not believe that the infectious pandemic would reach our area and that my intentions were somehow answered? With a prediction of our last lacrosse practice, our coach called for a small pickup game.
After practice, my phone exploded from the amount of texts and emails sent from my friends, school, team and family. “What does that mean for our academics?” “Well boys, we need to meet outside of school for our workouts together.” “When should we plan our next hangout date?”
The overall atmosphere at first was one of joy and free-spiritedness. However, that was somewhat crushed with the following days. At first, my county passed regulations to ban large crowds of 1000 people, but that number fell to groups of 10 or more. In addition, the regulation on isolation caused more panic and fear of the virus. I was supposed to celebrate my birthday with my close friends, but we were unable to meet together. The coronavirus caused mass hysteria and isolationism worsened it more.
Stuck at home with my computer and family has led to a complete change to my lifestyle. The tense environment with my family caused me to turn towards my electronic devices to keep in touch with my friends. Throughout this period, I was always talking to someone. And I believe that that kept me sane.
At the time of this journal, I am currently in the third week of isolation. My grasp of reality and time seem to fade as each passing day follows…”
A Day in my Life: Tristan, 16, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA
“Currently, my country has the most cases of coronavirus. This surprised me because I would think that places like China or other Asian countries would have more as they are the epicenter of the pandemic. It makes me question the policies put in place to prevent such an outbreak and what the citizens in my country are doing to mitigate the spread of the disease or how they are failing to do so.
Starting early this month my school has switched over to online classes using Teams. While being schooled at home is in some cases advantageous, I feel as if teaching and learning has only become more difficult. This is due to messed up sleep schedules, lack of attention, lack of effort, and confusion due to the sudden change. Although I have been able to spend more time with my family and relax at home which I feel has taken away the stress from many students.
I feel like many things will change after the commotion goes down, but I am unsure how they will change, hopefully for the better. I think society should learn to take quicker action against cases like Covid-19 and should learn to take them more seriously. I am concerned that the number of cases will only go up in my country and that my family may come into contact with it. I hope more people begin to take the pandemic seriously and learn that just because you may not be at risk of dying to Covid-19, many people around you are.”
A Day in my Life: Victor, 15, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA
“I live in the United States and the Coronavirus has affected my lifestyle. My whole state is on lockdown which means nobody can go outside. This has changed my way of life. I do not get up as early as I used to. I take school online and do not go outside. The streets are empty. I miss going outside, but I also hope this situation gets solved.
There have been many challenges because of Covid-19. The main one would have to be shelter in place. Nobody can go outside now, and it gets kind of boring. Another challenge is that a lot of people are losing their jobs. A lot of businesses are not open. Even though this situation hasn’t been good to a lot of people, it also has its up-sided. First off there is more time for family bonding. Another good part of being quarantined is that people don’t have to work as much and get kind of a break.
I feel like the world is going to be quarantined for a long time. I think people will be doing things online for a long time. Businesses are going to be closed for a long time. Our society should be more prepared in the future for epidemics. My Family was not prepared for it. I am concerned about people who are struggling and need help. I am concerned for the people who have Covid-19. This epidemic is going to change many lives. I hope people are safe and get help they need.”
A Day in my Life: Xavier, 15, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA
“The COVID 19 pandemic came as a surprise to most people around the world. We were maybe given a week to process that COVID 19 is a huge deal and tons of people around the world are being affected by it before our school was shut down and we were placed under shelter in place. It feels like the virus came out of nowhere and we did not have a lot of time to prepare for it.
With the coronavirus in California, most of the Bay Area has been placed under shelter-in- place which means we should only leave our house for necessities. We can still go on walks and go outside for fresh air though. Some personal challenges for me have been focusing on schoolwork and exercising. I was doing soccer and track before we went into shelter-in-place so I did not really have to think about exercise, but now that I am stuck at home for most days I have to think about what I can do to get exercise and be mindful about what I eat.
Some of my concerns for this outbreak is that it will last for a while and the track season might get cancelled. I am also scared of course for everyone that has been affected and I continue to fear for my grandparents especially. I am scared for my loved ones, my friends, and the people that are close to me and I hope that everyone remains healthy. I also hope that we will find a vaccine or cure for COVID-19 in the next few months.”
