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: Andrew, 18, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

There’s a Right Time for Everything

There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:

A right time for birth and another for death,

A right time to plant and another to reap,

A right time to kill and another to heal,

A right time to destroy and another to construct, A right time to cry and another to laugh,

A right time to lament and another to cheer,

A right time to make love and another to abstain,

A right time to embrace and another to part,

A right time to search and another to count your losses,

A right time to hold on and another to let go,

A right time to rip out and another to mend,

A right time to shut up and another to speak up,

A right time to love and another to hate,

A right time to wage war and another to make peace.

Right now, I think I am in the season to heal, search, and to plant. It’s the end of senior year, and I’m getting ready for college. Though I know Bellarmine does it’s best to prepare us for college, I still feel that there is more I can do to prepare for this jump into the next level of education. Thus, I think I am in the season the plant. I want to plant seeds now so that I can “harvest” them later. Maybe that means investing time into learning the guitar! Maybe that means setting a goal to read X-amount of books during X-amount of time. It could mean taking my diet a little more seriously so that my exercise actually shows results. Or, it could mean getting ahead in my biology books over the summer since I know that I will be learning that stuff again next year. Whatever it may be, I feel in the season of planting and preparing. That goes hand in hand with searching. I’m searching for ways to prepare myself; I’m searching for the best “seeds” to plant. What might I gain if I start learning the guitar? How will those benefits compare to the benefits of taking my diet more seriously? There’s only so much time that I have, so I can’t develop every skill there is to develop. So, I’m searching for the skills that mean the most to me, and the skills that I think I’ll use the most in my future. Finally, I think I am in the season of healing. I read in a book that one of the sources of happiness for humans is growth and improvement. It’s not easy to grow, improve, or to develop skills. Each require sacrifice, hard work, and (inevitably) failure. I’m a strong believer that failure is the ultimate teacher, and I know I’ve failed in many ways during my junior year. Thus, I think that I’m in the season of healing. I’m healing myself by searching for the right seeds to plant so that I can grow and improve.

I expect to enter the season of harvesting (reaping), constructing, laughing, and loving. I want to harvest all the seeds that I’ve sowed. With these skills, I want to construct. I don’t know what I want to construct; it could be constructing new relationships, or it could literally be constructing something using my abilities. Hopefully, I hope that whatever I make will be able to bring laughter or joy to others. And finally, that leads to love, which I think is self-explanatory. Laughter leads to joy, which can lead to love. I’m not entirely sure about all the details yet, but for now I definitely expect to enter a season of reaping, constructing, laughing, and loving.

A Day in my Life: Constantjin, 18, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

There is “a right time to plant and another to reap.” As a student at Bellarmine, I have always been told that second semester senior year was a time to reap the rewards of three years of planting. However, right now it feels like we are going through a famine this year. In the real world a slow season has to potential to be made up for. But for us, there is no next season.

It is easy to forget that in the real world a famine can be devastating. Lives are often lost and jobs disappear. A similar situation is happening now. It really puts a lot into perspective. It makes my complaints of missing graduation and prom seem irrelevant. Now, instead of calling this a famine, I will consider it an extended planting season. We have to plant the seed now for a meaningful summer. That means people have to stay home so we can get rid of this already.

Ecclesiastes 3:2-8

A Day in my Life: Devon, 18, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

This time has caught me and many of my friends completely by surprise. This passage is very interesting because it contrasts positive with negative on many levels. Unfortunately, the present time we are enduring entails many of the negative conditions listed, including death, destruction, crying, and lamentation. It is very eye-opening and scary to see how something as simple as a virus can tear down structure, tranquility, peaceful co-existing of races, stability, and life as we know it in an instant. With all of the chaos, racism, paranoia, instability, economic destruction, and death that the virus has brought I have realized how trivial it is to sulk about the fun times that my friends and I missed out on. Now is not the time. Although it is sad and unfair that we do not get to relax, celebrate, and be together, this problem is so trivial that it is drowned, out, rightly so, by the sea of suffering at this time.

Because these recent months have brought so much suffering and sadness, I anticipate that the coming months after the virus will involve community, healing, reflection, and mending before cheer, laughter, and reconstruction are able to occur. These times are very trying but we must hope for the best and stick together through the worst, which I believe is occurring at this very moment.

ECCLESIASTES 3:2-8

A Day in my Life: Dylan, 18, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

I believe that as I am living in the midst of the corona pandemic I resonate with the season “A right time to lament and another to cheer.” I believe that I have definitely lamented what I will be missing out on during my second semester of senior year. Little things like hanging out with my friends and bigger things like a graduation are things that are always on my mind and things that I wish I could experience. The pandemic seems to have taken away that rite of passage to college and in a way leaves me without a sense of closure as I embark on a new journey. However, I do know that there will come a time to cheer and to celebrate the journey I have been on in high school. It may not be the same way of celebrating as most seniors are accustomed to, but I am still looking forward to it nonetheless. I think this event has humbled me into taking celebrations seriously not just for myself, but for everyone. People deserve to be celebrated for their hard work and sure it may be cheesy and seem unnecessary at times, but it is the thought that counts. I want to bring that joy to people in my life from that point forward and celebrate their successes when I have the opportunity to do so because after this event, I have realized how important that is to acknowledge.

I believe that eventually as I go off to college and embark on a new journey in a totally new environment, I will encounter the “right time to embrace and another to part.” I believe that as I am preparing to leave, I must embrace all the people that have helped me get to the point of going to college especially my parents, my brother, and my childhood friends. I want to take the time to embrace the memories I have made and all the ups and downs I have been through because at the end of the day each of those events are what make me who I am. I believe that as I go to college it is important to leave home on good terms and with good memories in mind because my home will always be somewhere, I can go back to and find stability. However, I cannot linger onto the thought of home too long and must eventually part with it. I cannot be afraid to step into the unknown and to be challenged by a new environment, and I believe that by holding on to the idea of home and revolving my life around that I am hindered from being able to embrace the new environment and community I will soon become a part of.

Ecclesiastes 3:2-8

A Day in my Life: Ethan, 18, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

What Season am I in?

With quarantine in full effect, it is safe to say that COVID-19 has impacted my life in many ways. I am currently in a very interesting stage in my life. College is around the corner for me, and I will be going to school across the country. I saw this time that is currently being impacted, as time to spend with my loved ones before I leave. Therefore, I believe the current state I am in is “a right time to cry”. At this point, coming off of a rough 2019, I believe that this is the right time to “cry”. I saw this year as a period of self-growth, and it still can be, but as it looks right now, I am unable to truly experience things the way I would have wanted to. I never like to complain about not being able to go on the vacations that I had planned this summer, one of which being my senior trip, because I understand that for many people it would be a blessing to simply attend school. However, I am very sad that I will probably not be able to go to my Nicaragua service trip or any of the other trips I was supposed to go on.

Nevertheless, there is also a right time “to laugh”. I think this experience will make me appreciate life the way I know it much more when we return. It only makes me more excited for the future and all the experiences that come with it. I know that as long as I can stay strong through this process, I will come out a better person. I know that I will be able to do the things I love in the future and I will eventually be able to see the people I love as well. There will be a time to laugh eventually, and I know that when it rains it pours.

Ecclesiastes 3:2-8

A Day in my Life: Evan, 18, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

Personally, I am in a season of birth. With the cancellation of lacrosse and the spring semester of my senior year, I, along with the rest of my senior class, were forced to leave our bubble of Bellarmine early. This led me to do a lot of reflecting and forced me find motivation and work ethic from within myself, instead of from my teacher, classmates, and teammates. This has been a big change for me, and I struggle with staying focused when my goals are not as easily displayed in front of me. I am expecting to move into a season of letting to go to the life I have grown so accustomed to and my high school career. After this summer there are going to be a lot of goodbyes that are going o be tough on me. A good part of going through the roller coaster that is life is that we all have so many seeds to plant and so much room to make our gardens of life. We never have to rip out any of our plants because we can all exist and make each other’s lives better.

This poem puts things into perspective for me. Life is all about experiences and season. I truly believe there is a time for everything. All these different experiences and emotions shape our lives and create balance in the universe. Balance is what gives order to our world and how we interact with each other. I feel that it is necessary in life to have ups and downs because it makes us more grateful and reflective people. When times are tough, we think about what we can do to make them better, and when we are content with our places on this earth, we work to maintain that happiness and seek longevity. Something that this poem reminds me of is the song “let her go” by passenger that states, “only know you have been high, when your feeling low. Only miss the sun when it starts to snow. Only know you love her when you let her go.” These simple examples demonstrate how we think as humans. We grow accustomed to our circumstances and content with what we have. However, because of our ideals of consumerism and purchasing materialistic goods, we are always seeking more. Always wanting the latest video game or most expensive house or car. The way our society functions today reflects the idea that we can never be satisfied, which I think is far from true. This self-satisfaction comes from within us, not from buying things. Due to this fallacy that is commonly taught starting in our youth with things such as toys, people will fake their own happiness and lie to others, as well as themselves about their emotions. This causes emotional trauma and lots of backlash because the natural roller coaster of time that goes up and down is interrupted and interpreted incorrectly. What I mean is that some people are at a low time in their life, but since they do not want to admit it in an attempt to not display vulnerability or weakness to others, they act like they are at a high. This has a domino effect that encourages people to act like everything is always amazing and life is flourishing.

Ecclesiastes 3:2-8

A Day in my Life: Hudson, 18, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

I feel like at the moment I am in a place where I need to focus on growth. I have had much of what I looked forward to for the last 4 years ripped out from under me, and the whole situation has been very difficult for me mentally. I am the kind of person who thrives in a life of consistency and order and losing the order that I had built over the last couple of months has left me feeling stranded. However, I know that personal growth can only occur in times of distress, so I am choosing to use the hurdles that have been placed in front of me to better myself. I am going to commit to adapting to the new life of disorder and unpredictability the best I can, and I hope that I grow from the experience. In the past when my life has been turbulent, I have struggled to stay strong and believe in my own ability to get through everything. This current “season” is far from ideal, but I don’t think that an experience like this one will ever come again so I plan to grow and learn lessons that may not appear again.

A Day in my Life: Jack, 18, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

Quarantine is a weird time. I’m glad that I get to stay at home and get a break from all the schoolwork and sports that make up my normal life, but it’s also terrible because I want to go back to school as soon as possible. We always say we want to stay home from school on any given day, but once the option to go to school is taken away from us, we all want to go to school. Without school, over 50% of my normal daily routine is gone, and with it my drive to do anything. I have missed more assignments while out of school that I have while in school, just because I have n drive to do them. Motivation has left me and been replaced by a feeling of existential dread that doesn’t go away.

But the dread isn’t from the virus and that’s what scares me. I feel like I’m not reacting to the virus appropriately, and that I should be freaking out, but then I realized that I grew up in a world full of chaos so this is just normal chaos for me. 2020 has been a terrible year for all people, but at some point, it becomes normal, especially for those who have never known a world without all this chaos.

A Day in my Life: Jack 1, 18, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

It feels as though what should have been my season of spring to turn a new leaf and set out for new horizons has turned into an extended winter from Groundhog’s day. Day after day, I wake up to same grey and gloomy shaded sky as I stare solemnly at my screen for hours on end only to head straight to bed to try to rest from this inescapable existence all over again. What should have been radiant days of joy and celebration has turned into a circular callous trudge through eternal haze and fog. I can only hope that future hold where I can celebrate my past accomplishments from the last 4 years and hope to move on to college and strive even higher. As for now is the time for bemoan the troubles of the world and hold on tight for the time of tremendous celebration, as for the bible passage Ecclesiastes 3:4 put it best, “A right time to cry and another to laugh, A right time to lament and another to cheer”.

Ecclesiastes 3:2-8

A Day in my Life: Jesus, 18, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

There’s a Right Time for Everything

There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:

A right time for birth and another for death,

A right time to plant and another to reap,

A right time to kill and another to heal,

A right time to destroy and another to construct, A right time to cry and another to laugh,

A right time to lament and another to cheer,

A right time to make love and another to abstain,

A right time to embrace and another to part,

A right time to search and another to count your losses, A right time to hold on and another to let go,

A right time to rip out and another to mend,

A right time to shut up and another to speak up,

A right time to love and another to hate,

A right time to wage war and another to make peace.

Right now, I am in “a right time to search and another to count your losses,” I am trying to my best to look/search for the positive in this situation and to make the most of it, but it is very difficult. I am at a point where I am growing tired of doing the same activities and there being little variation of what my day consists of. I can’t help but become nostalgic about the times spent at school with friends and thinking of what could have been of my time as a second semester senior. I expect to be at “a right time to hold on and another to let go.” I am holding on to the memories that make me happy and I am trying to let go of the feeling of helplessness because in reality the change I can make about my senior year are unrealistic.

Ecclesiastes 3:2-8