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: Jack, 16, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

« I live in the United States of America, where we are quarantined in are homes going to online school, and only leaving the house for food and exercise. This is extremely inconvenient, because I’m unable to see my friends, play sports, and go to school in person. Without these activities I have a lot more time on my hands, although I’m disheartened because I’m unable to do the things I enjoy. This has led to some challenges, like keeping in touch with friends and my ability to learn in school, which is much more difficult online.

However, this epidemic has come with a few graces like being able to spend more time with my family and having less stress from school since teachers have eased up to compensate for any issue’s students may be dealing with. This situation has given me a gloomy outlook on the near future as the number of cases rapidly rises, and the date which we will return to are normal lives is very much unknown. Furthermore, this crisis threatens many people’s lives, especially the elderly and will cause a major economic depression. Although, I believe it will serve as a great lesson for our country and the world. »

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

« Currently, the whole country of US is on lockdown because of the COVID-19 virus. On a normal day for me, since school starts at 9:30, I get to wake up at 9:00 since my “desk” is right next to me. I do my typical morning routine, which consists of brushing my teeth, going to the bathroom, eating breakfast, Etc. I log onto my computer and open up the apps that I will use for the day I also grab notebooks/ books for the classes that I have that day. When the first class begins, I go to the video chat to participate. I do this for each of the classes that I have that day.

During our break or lunch period, I typically do not really go outside my room. I sometimes stretch or squeeze in a quick workout. I also don’t eat till the school day ends. I feel that since my output of energy is lower, my input of energy should also be lower. Once the school day ends, I go downstairs, eat and rest for a bit, then go back to my room to do homework. I do homework till dinner time, then go eat dinner. After dinner I spend some time with my family, playing a board game or just talking. I either go straight to bed from there or finish up homework. That is a typical day during lockdown. »

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

« While the long-term impacts of the coronavirus might be incredibly troubling, on a daily basis, the scariest part must be how my daily routine has changed so dramatically in a matter of weeks. The shelter-in-place order, while certainly an effective decision for our government to make, has caused an immense shift in how I live my daily life.

Not being able to leave the house is a huge hinderance, and I knew, even on day one of online school, that this situation was going to be problematic and I would be forced to alter my daily routine. Some things that I started doing to help stave off the boredom have been to spend more time with my family and going on runs.

I find that spending time with my family, doing things like cooking, has allowed me to stay connected despite this situation. I have also started going on runs to make sure that I maintain some semblance of sanity despite not being able to leave the house for most other purposes. Both of these behaviors have been designed to ensure that I can continue to live my life in a seemingly normal way, or at least live in a way that seems relatable to what I would have done without a quarantine. Overall, while the quarantine might be tough, it is important to remember that we can do simple things to make it seem normal. »

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

« Covid-19 has changed quite a bit of my life these past weeks. Stores have closed down, school is online, and social life is more internet focused now. Some changes haven’t been so bad, while others not so much.

My country has put a lockdown order in my state, and I can clearly see its results. My dad, a doctor, has been having a lot less traffic getting to work every day, and every time we get groceries it usually takes a lot longer due to the influx of shoppers.

As for my school, we’ve definitely experienced huge changes. For one, school is now online, which comes with its own blessings and curses. I get to wake up a lot later as a new schedule makes the workload easier, but I do miss the clarity of regular classes. Along with that, turning in assignments has turned from a simple task to screenshotting or taking a picture of your work and submitting it online.

And as for my social life, Covid-19 has made all interaction with anyone except my family through online means. I mean, it isn’t that bad, and most of the interaction with friends is with video games. »

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

« A little under two and a half months ago, I was on Instagram, looking through my feed, when I noticed a post I had never seen before. It was a meme – a meme about an Asian woman eating a bat, and something about “corona.” I had no idea what it meant; I kept scrolling. Over the next two weeks, I scrolled over similar posts a few times. From context clues, I gathered that whatever disease the memes referred to was located in China and had begun killing people. It seemed so isolated and far away and, because of the meme format in which I received the information, almost laughable. For a little while, nothing interesting seemed to happen. There was little talk of any “corona” among my friends and I, other than the brand of course. The only thing we had on our minds were school, sports, girls and parties.

One day, it seemed almost overnight, everyone was talking about this new “coronavirus” pandemic. There were cases all over the country. People were dying. Others were panicking. Still, I tried to ignore what was happening. Everything seemed so far away. I knew no one affected by the virus, so why should I expect to? Then, administration sent an email to the student body asking everyone to make sure they had the necessary technology at home to perform remote learning, just in case. Ticket sales for our school play were halved so there could be a space between every person. Everything began to get a lot realer. The entire San Francisco Archdiocese closed its schools and began a short break while the teachers prepared for remote learning. Grocery stores began to run short on supplies because of hoarders. Public schools began closing one by one. Our president insisted everything was going to be okay, but it didn’t seem that way. On Wednesday, March 30th, around 6:45pm, my friend’s older brother walked into our lacrosse practice and told us Bellarmine was closing. I was in the middle of faceoff drills. So much for the season.

On Sunday, March 15, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, along with the majority of counties in the California, announced that, starting Monday at midnight, people would be expected to be on lockdown. And since that day, that is exactly what I have been doing.

The first few days of this lockdown were terrible. When I spend all my time in one place, everything seems to blend together. I was not motivated to do work, pay attention in class, work out, etc. I spent all my time on Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok. I couldn’t even watch Netflix or YouTube because I could not hold a long enough attention span. Luckily, Bellarmine scheduled late starts, so I was able to still get the sleep I needed. Over the past week, I have developed a strict routine that keeps me motivated. I wake up at 6:15, work out until 7:30, shower, begin classes, run after school, do homework, shower again, and finally go to sleep. This repetition brings a sense of structure to my life that was voided in the absence of attending school. And this is the way my life will go for at least another month. It will take a lot of self-control to motivate, push, and discipline myself throughout this period. I do not believe Bellarmine will revert to a Pass/Fail system, so maintaining my grades will become that much more important.

Though I face many struggles, I still have to remember that I could be worse off. The Seniors, of whom many will never have the opportunity to competitively play their sport again. The Juniors aiming for D1 and D3 scholarships will miss their final season for potential scouting, as commits occur before spring season senior year. Hundreds of thousands around the world have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and tens of thousands have died because of it. I am not scared of this disease – I have great lungs from hockey and lacrosse – but I am afraid of how it will affect my life and the lives of those I love. All I can do is follow lockdown rules, hope, and pray. »

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

« The Coronavirus pandemic has greatly impacted the lives of many of the citizens in my country. The virus has spread to all 50 states and is rapidly spreading in communities. While our scientists are unable to give an exact number due to the lack of testing and asymptomatic carriers, as of now the official number is greater than 140,000 cases. Of that, over 2,000 people have died. The Coronavirus is far more dangerous to elderly people but can still give younger people severe symptoms. Since the beginning of the pandemic, America has been greatly affected. Beginning with travel restrictions that stopped international travel and expanding into house quarantine the coronavirus alters our lives more and more every day. The ban on flights departing from China left many U.S citizens in China under quarantine before flying home and resuming quarantine. Besides people, the companies in America have faced many more problems. Stock prices have plummeted, and many people are unable to do their jobs due to the government temporarily closing down non-essential businesses. Sports and entertainment have been halted along with beaches and stores closed to encourage social distancing to stop the spread of the virus. Life will continue to be affected as we adjust to living through the current shelter in place, ordered by the Governor.

Key points and changes in my life

When the Coronavirus first started to be talked about not many people that I knew were very worried. The news made it seem like a mild cold that was slowly spreading through China. When the first deaths occurred, it seemed like the virus only affected the very vulnerable and weak, similar to a regular cold or flu that comes and passes every year. At this point, my school and home life had not changed at all. As days passed, more and more people continued to get it, and it started becoming more real. Now it looked more and more like it could be a problem where I live. My teachers began to discuss it with us and even talked about the possibility of switching to online school, which sounded weird but kind of cool. Sporting events and my robotics tournament which my team and I had worked the whole school year for were cancelled. Shortly after that on March 11th, we received an announcement that we would be no longer coming to school and would be switching to online classes. At the same time, our county went into enforced social distancing. This began our new reality of life while this virus continues to spread throughout our country.

My life

This is what a day in my life looks like after the spread of the Coronavirus forced a shelter in place order in my state of California. I wake up at 8:00- 8:30AM, have breakfast then go back in my room and watch tv until school starts at 9:30. Before, I would wake up at 7:00AM and start getting ready for school. Now instead of driving to school, I just log on to my computer and join my class. This is something that has made my life easier because I can wake up later and not have to worry about driving to school or being late because of traffic. However, online classes have brought some of my classmates problems because when one of our computers are not working, there is little we can do to fix it. My classes are very similar to how they were, which I am thankful for, because my teachers have carried on their normal lessons. The Pandemic has affected my learning less than I expected. I still attend all my classes and have a normal amount of homework and classwork. The thing I miss most is getting to see my friends and teachers during class and doing groupwork. I also constantly struggle to stay on task during online classes and stay off my phone. After school, I have a lot of extra time, since I no longer can go to my daily robotics build. I used to not get home until after 6:30PM every day, have dinner, and then start on homework. Even though I miss my robotics teammates and working in the lab, now I have more time to chat with friends, spend more time with family and more time on other hobbies, like cooking and gardening. »

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

« I live in California and right now we are in quarantine and all we can do is stay in our homes. The only way we are allowed to leave our homes is for food and exercise. I used to be an active person and now I just sit on my butt all day and do school and play video games. Because of the quarantine, I do way less walking and barely exercise.

A challenge for me is that I’m not getting any exercise. This is making me grumpy and tired. Another challenge is that my grades are slow crumpling and one of my ways of staying focused was by exercising. My school is doing remote learning, so I am on my screen all day and after a while it puts a toll on my brain.

There have been few gifts but one of the ones that are most memorable is that I’m able to spend more time with my parents and we are able to do more stuff together. I believe that we as people sometimes think that we are invariable and stuff like this won’t hurt us. I think that earth put this out here as a cleanse of the earth. We have been polluting the earth with waste, pollution in the air and people. 7 billion is a big number and the world is really compact right now with people. »

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

« Currently, America has the most coronavirus cases in the world. Though that high number is partly due to the country’s high population, we still live each day in fear that the virus will hurt us and our loved ones. The coronavirus outbreak has greatly impacted my daily life. I no longer go outside due to the Shelter in Place which the state of California has mandated. I rarely meet my friends except through online methods of communication. I often feel isolated from the world and afraid of what the future has to hold. All my extracurricular activities are on pause, too, as the pandemic halts face-to-face interaction.

However, despite these troubles, I am finding some benefits from this. I find the break from school a much-needed break from the business of school life. Strangely, I have been finding more time to exercise my physical health as well with the extra time that isolation gives me. Finally, I am thankful that this disease outbreak is enlightening people all around the world to be more aware of their personal health and cleanliness. However, I recognize that this state of quarantine is in no way sustainable in the long-term, and that it will bring significant consequences for the economy and societal structure of the world. For now, I just hope that the world can react positively to this pandemic and eventually find the means to recover from the crisis. »