Student Reflections Part 5 – Bellarmine College Preparatory

More of my students from Bellarmine College Preparatory have shared their 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: Billy, 15, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

After we got the message to “Shelter in Place” my family and I did not really worry about it. We were all a little scared but not that much. The shelter in place has changed my family’s life. We are doing work from home on a computer via Microsoft Teams. I really miss school because I miss interacting with my friends and not doing work on a computer all of the time.
My community has also been affected by the shelter in place. Before the announcement, everyone was walking their dogs and enjoying themselves. The next day however, it was literally a ghost town. There was hardly anyone out on the streets walking. Every hour or so, you would see a couple walking their dog together. Some of the challenges I face is with working at home all of the time, it is hard to go outside during all of the quarantine. Another challenge is keeping yourself clean. As a family, we wash our hands daily and we wipe down surfaces with a disinfecting wipe.

Some gifts are that my family and I are enjoying time with each other by playing Monopoly, cards, or a movie. I look at the world and see new opportunities with learning and being able to connect. I think our society should learn to stop hoarding toilet paper and be more thoughtful for there are people in need who cannot find access to their basic needs during this time.

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

The COVID-19 virus has undoubtably affected our daily routines throughout the world, either for good or worse. In some ways, I find myself liking our quarantine, as I can sleep in later, and have more time overall to do the things I love. Sleeping later has definitely impacted me a lot, as I have already grown half an inch, and I feel a lot more refreshed and prepared in the morning. Part of this refreshed feeling that I get however, can also be attributed to my extra time, which I spend playing hockey outside, and gaming. Because of the quarantine, I found time to do these activities, that otherwise I wouldn’t have time for. I feel like I escape from the world, and refresh myself when I do these activities, whereas otherwise I would be overloaded and stressed.

With all of these positive benefits, I often find it hard to find the negatives. However, when I think about my senior friends from the hockey team, that won’t have the same experience with their friends in their last few months of school they dreamed of, and the small business owners that heavily rely on us purchasing their food, I see that there are people suffering due to this virus. Some challenges that I face, are that sometimes I find it much harder to take school as serious and getting distracted more often.

The world we live in has definitely changed a lot due to this virus, and many people have become overwhelmed with fear. In our Hebrew Scriptures class, we discussed that ‘FEAR’ stands for false; evidence; appearing; real. So, these people that are hording the toilet paper are blinded by fear, causing them to become inconsiderate of those who are also in need. I feel, and certainly hope that after this pandemic is over, people will see that the hording actions were selfish, and will never do that again.

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

My typical day has drastically changed since the covid-19 outbreak. It has changed my daily routine and countless ways. Before this outbreak occurred, my daily routine consisted of me getting out of bed around six in the morning, going to school and after school I had Golf and speech and debate. Looking at my high school all I can think about is what will happen to all the seniors and the experiences they were looking forward to. While calm days are a gift, it is never a good idea for a family like mine which has an immense amount of adventure and has a love to travel to be forced to stay at home for a long period of time. The state of the world is weak. The world is separated in so many aspects it is hard to come together in such a short duration of time. Congress and our governmental system are slowly collapsing due to the fact we have never had an event as exponential as this. The way people are reacting to this virus reassures me that there will be less extensive devastation to our economy and our daily life. I hope all will stay safe and recover quickly.

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

I live in San Jose, California in the U.S. We are on a shelter in place lockdown. We are not supposed to leave our houses unless it is essential, like getting groceries. We are supposed to stay 6 feet away from anyone other than our family. This has put me into online school and left me in the house all day. It has affected pretty much everyone in the world, and I am thankful for how lucky we are. Some places can’t even leave their houses and it really scares me. I hope it doesn’t come to that for the U.S. My life has changed drastically. I can’t see my friends and I am stuck with my family all day. It has led to a lot of fights and tension which isn’t fun, and it just has been a bad situation. I try to get some exercise every day, but I just feel bad sitting around.

Overall, I think this will change our society forever. I think there is going to be a lot of changes that are going to be made to prevent this from happening again, and I am a little worried about everything that’s going on. It seems that we have it under control, but I am not really sure. It is a very serious disease that needs to be taken seriously that has affected the whole world. I am just thankful for how lucky we are that we can still leave our houses and have some freedom. I can’t imagine being locked in our houses for months. This is my experience with COVID-19.

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

Since this Coronavirus shutdown, I could definitely say that my life has taken a huge turn. Now that I just must stay home all day, it feels so weird and unusual. One of the weirdest things is seeing my family multiple times a day. On an ordinary day, prior to this crisis, my mom and dad are at work all day, and my sister and I are at school. Even though it has been difficult, I feel that this experience has made me a more productive and responsible person. I have helped more around the house doing chores, and online school kas kept me focused on my class work, rather than what is going on in the world now.

One of the things that I miss the most since this lockdown is basketball. I play on a travel team, and before this virus, I would go to training four times a week and usually had more practice or even a tournament on the weekends. Basketball was the only source of exercise I had during the week. Now that basketball is canceled, I have had to do some exercise in the house. Usually every day now, I am going on family walks with the dog and we even do daily workouts to keep ourselves healthy and in shape.

Another benefit from this situation is that we have three sit-down meals a day with the family. This is one of my favorite things about being home all day because I get well-prepared home-cooked meals that taste amazing rather than just a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch at school. I also like the fact that I get to spend more time with my family during mealtimes because for most of the rest of the day I am in my room isolated form everyone else taking my online classes. Another way we spend family time, is when we choose a movie at night to watch. Recently, we have really been making good use of our Netflix accounts.

Overall, this experience has been very interesting, and I am anxious to see how long this will be going on for. For now, I will be following my new daily routine under this COVID-19 shutdown.

A Day in my Life: CJ, 16, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA 

Firstly, I must start off by saying that I am one of the more fortunate ones, having been raised in a relatively protective community and endearingly privileged with a loving family. I specifically remember when the Coronavirus was first introduced to me, a topic of side-conversation developed by my dad and I as we discussed our day ahead. To me (at least then, that is) it was a completely foreign contaminant which would pose no danger to me or my family; for that matter, I had believed that this would be resolved in a matter of days by China’s local government. Nevertheless, this virus persisted, with each day bringing about some sort of unprecedented detail. An outbreak here, the death tally aggregating there – it seemed as if this what would have been easily resolved inconvenience was suddenly becoming more relevant, becoming more serious as the days progressed. Now I find myself sitting here in my chair typing up a reflection on my experience, reminiscing of the « good times, » the times where I could meet up with my friends, go outside and not have my sports restricted by the county, or simply go to Pizza my Heart. Those times seem…so distant, and it’s only been a matter of weeks!
My « takeaway » is this, and although it might seem a little trite it still rings true. You never recognize how good you have it until it’s taken away.

Likewise, I take these blessings I’m so fortunate to have as « givens » – I take them for granted every single day and it is only now when they’ve been stripped away that I realize their virtue. It’s sadly ironic, in a sense. I know you’ve heard this before but take it from me. Live every day like it’s your last. We’re called to be workers of God, and it’s about time we stand up and accept the challenge! Our responsibilities and obligations as Christians are on the line. Are we going to become negligent as the world turns its weary eyes away from the hurt and suffering or are we going to take initiative in our duty as soldiers in the Lord’s army and fight for what’s right, what’s good, and what’s just? The world needs people to act for and with others. I suggest we do so.

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

Since the outbreak my day is much more mundane. I wake up, shower do school and homework, then play on my phone and play videogames, then go to sleep and do it again every day. Currently, in America, most if not all schools are closed, and I know that San Jose is on quarantine. This is not only recommended but it is now prohibited to go around and expose others to the virus. This means that I cannot have friends over as often and has given me a fair amount of free time. I have spending most of it on videogames with friends.

One challenge I have is that I cannot see friends. I really miss them, and I just haven’t been as happy behind a screen. I also have not been getting exercise as much and that’s affecting my health. I currently have a strong pain in my upper back, and it makes exercise difficult. One of the gifts is that I can stay home. I really like online learning and am enjoying the time with my family.

This pandemic has personally made me a little scared about the future. While this virus is bad and highly contagious, it doesn’t affect some of the population in a serious sense but poses a risk to older people. I’m thinking if its this bad with only affecting some of the population, if a different virus was worse or stronger or more deadly all of this would be amplified and probably much scarier. I’m worried that we might not find a cure for a while, and I hope we can get over this pandemic soon enough.

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

I live in California, U.S.A., where there are currently 4,600 cases. The U.S. has become the country with most cases, for I believe are many reasons. One reason is the scale of the country. The U.S.A is much larger than Italy, or China. Another reason I believe that we have the most cases, is because of the youth how aren’t staying at home because they think they are not affected. It may not be them dying to the virus, but others, and their loved ones become at risk, which is very selfish. You can see in Florida the beaches are filled because it is spring break, even though they know it is happening, they choose to be ignorant.

I have been staying at home for my whole time, this has been challenging for many reasons. The first reason is that I can’t go to school, which has been a pretty big change, mostly a bad change. When there is school, there is a learning environment which helps me to stay on task and makes it easier to be focused with less distractions. While at home, I have a lot of distractions, which can be very difficult to resist sometimes. But it is nice, because I can wake up 10 minutes before my class starts, which gives me about an extra hour of sleep. Another reason staying at home is difficult, is the lack of exercise I’m getting. I find myself not moving, and not playing any sports. It is hard during this time to continue exercise, and that has impacted me because I feel like something is missing from my life. The last reason how this is challenging is because I like to be social and to see my friends. School helps a lot with that, during break, lunch and just a simple walk by friend makes my day a lot better. Here sitting at room, I only have interactions with my parents and brother, which can sometimes drive me crazy.

Some good has also come from the coronavirus. The first good thing that has come from this virus, is the environment. We see the environment getting a rest from our pollution and ways. Graphs have shown that the levels of Co2 have gone down since the shelter in place orders. Another good thing that has come from this situation, is the free time that I am getting. I am getting loads of free time, which I can now spend doing things I would normally just push aside and not do. The last good thing that has come from this situation is family bondage. Families tend to get closer during this time, eat together for dinner, have more interactions, and spend more time together. This is also an excellent time to resolve conflicts between a sibling, parent, or even a friend over the phone.

I am hoping that this situation clears up soon, and that everyone reading this is healthy and well, thanks for reading.