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: David, 14, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

Many people say that the coronavirus quarantine is a way to test the quality of one’s social life. If this were an actual test, I’d fail badly.

In situations like the current, one with a healthy social life would be devastated, as the quarantine restricts the possibilities of social interaction and get-together possibilities. Not surprisingly, I feel the opposite.

People are often surprised when I say I have a very unhealthy social life; they say I’m lying and that there’s no way a Bellarmine student can possibly be disliked or socially challenged. I see it as the opposite—face-to-face classes and extracurriculars at Bellarmine taught me that to be a “man for and with others” is to put on a fake face and shut up as to not annoy the top-class elite students with my petty and useless opinion. Bellarmine has taught me that I can never be as good as anyone else, and therefore I should hide in the shadows and live as a “slave to the system” and to throw out the “leader voice” that I’ve been developing. Bellarmine has taught me that friends are useless and that my sole goal is to learn and overachieve. And, as an Asian, I fear the widely circulated stereotype that I’ll be thrown out of the house if I’m anything less than the Valedictorian.

I’ve never felt better since I started learning remotely. I don’t have to see anyone in person, meaning I don’t have to put on a face. I have no one to talk to, so I don’t have to shut out my opinion. This is how it should be: focusing on school and learning alone, not on societal burdens and expectations, and I feel blessed by God for this opportunity.

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

What has been happening with the Coronavirus in my country is causing lots of concern and panic about this epidemic on our hands. Santa Clara County, which is the county I live in, was one of the first to begin a shelter in place regarding the virus, keeping us inside our homes only to leave for essential needs like groceries and medical emergencies. This drastically effected my daily routine by our school shutting down and all sports being terminated as well. Therefore, I not only did not attend school but also wasn’t allowed to go to the gym anymore because all of them shut down. Also, my school commenced online learning where we attended live classes during our regular class times. This affected my body negatively and brought down my confidence a bit because I had lost a lot athletic progress due to not exercising with my regular routine. I still went on runs as usual, but my strength and endurance depleted and I gained about 7 pounds.

There haven’t been many challenges from this situation other than trying to keep up with my exercise with the lack of a gym and staying on top of school. The school part felt easier and harder at the same time because some teachers were assigning double the work online and some were assigning half of what we regularly do.

Not much has been a gift from the situations that our country has been put through but the biggest gift to me and my family is that we are all still healthy and no one has contracted the virus that I know. I am sad that lots of events have been cancelled like my great aunt’s 100th birthday party, which my entire family was going to attend. But precautions should be taken in order to stay safe and ensure that no more spread of the virus happens.

If we do not find a vaccine anytime soon, I feel that we could be looking at a more permanent home living situation or possibly must go outside in protective suits to ensure safety from the virus. More adjustments are ensured to be made such as my schools new schedule in transition to online learning. I feel that if this continues to get worse in our country, we could be looking at bigger problems not relating to just the virus.

I hope that soon the scientists and doctors who are fighting to stop this virus develop a vaccine that can globally be admitted and help the world be at peace again. I hope that all the world leaders can come together and unite to help man kind in times of distress and loss. Hopefully this virus does not stretch past more than a year and we can all return happily to our normal lives once again and be at peace.

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

Every day, I wake up, usually around six, the earliest at five and the latest at seven, to finish homework. Sometimes I go back to sleep because I think the homework will not take me that long. After having finished, I either eat breakfast or go back to sleep if I have time. I am able to have breakfast with my dad now, which before I couldn’t, because he would leave for work pretty early. After this, I start my online courses. I am usually pretty tired and haven’t completely woken up yet, so it takes me a couple minutes to get dialed in the lesson. From here to lunch, all I do is my online courses.

I both like and dislike online courses for a few reasons. First of all, I can sleep more, and school is also a lot less tiring. Before, I had to bike to the train station to take the train to Bellarmine, and the whole journey is surprisingly tiring. Because of this, I also had to wake up hours earlier than now. However, on the other side, I can’t see my friends and teachers anymore, and I am more or less stuck in my house after school and on the weekends.

Anyways, back to the schedule. Another thing that is great with online school is lunch. I was able to have lunch with my whole family at the same time every day last week, although I think this week’s schedule change will change that. After lunch, I then finished my online courses. Having finished, at around three, I would spend 30-45 minutes in my yard playing soccer or ping pong. Then, I would take a nap for around an hour. Right before dinner, I would start my homework. Although I usually already did this, I was still able to eat dinner with my whole family with the quarantine. After dinner, I would finish my homework, usually leaving some for the next morning, and go to bed.

Overall, one of the greatest parts of quarantine is family time. I get to spend much more time with my family, especially my sister and father, who previously were at college or at work. Some of the challenges of quarantine are staying organized, fit, and not too bored. I have a tendency to

be pretty lazy when I am bored, so it is definitely a challenge for me to clean my room, organize my day, and not just lay in my bed the whole day. I think society should step back and realize that all the consumerism in our world is really not necessary. Most of the stuff people buy today is really necessary, and I think people try to make an effort with global warming, but when it comes to buying things, they just forget about it. I hope that society can learn from this event, and that the world may recover from this virus. Personally, I am praying from my grandparents, who are both in the hospital with the virus, and are not doing very well.

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

I live in California in the US. The number of people who have caught the virus has been rising pretty drastically and is spread out through most of the country although the main epicenter is in New York. I live in the West coast but still in big cities so the virus can still spread really fast if we aren’t careful. Our government has issued a shelter in place for about two to three weeks now which means we have to stay home and can’t leave.

As for our schooling, we do online video chats with our teachers and fellow students. Normally, I have to wake up at about 7:15 in the morning and leave for school at about 7:30 to get to school before 8:15. It usually takes so long because of the traffic here but with the virus and the shelter in place I wake up at maybe 8:00 and get ready for school which is down the hallway and I’ll eat breakfast during first period. I get a lot more sleep and since the homework given is less as well, I am able to do a lot of it after classes and finish earlier afterschool so I have more time to do other things around the house like clean or practice baseball in my backyard. I’m also able to go to bed a lot earlier as well so that’s nice.

Although there are some good things that come out of this, there are a ton more bad things. For one, aside from practicing in my backyard and helping around the house, I am always looking for something to do that doesn’t include a screen because I get enough of that during school. Another thing is when we go to any store to find simple things that are always there, we find that the shelves have all been picked clean. We also can’t go out and eat at restaurants or buy anything that isn’t considered an essential so instead we have to order it online and wait several days for it to be delivered at our homes. I also feel like everyone is in a bad mood from being all locked up all day so everyone kind of does their own stuff.

My teacher, Mrs. Antonio, was saying one day during class that this crisis was no accidental thing because it isn’t a small thing, it’s world-wide. She said how God is probably letting this happen because he wants to teach us a lesson and try to bring us closer as people to unite because right now, everything is sort of falling apart with politics and real-world issues like global warming and this pandemic is a wake-up call from God to get us back on our feet and start moving along again.

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

With the corona virus crisis becoming more and more prevalent, lately, more and more things have been shutting down and people are supplying themselves in bulk of things like food and toilet paper. Specifically, in California, all schools are now closed and are not expected to reopen until May, but things make it seem like schools might be closed until next fall. With schools being closed and the directions to remain inside, my life and my typical day has changed a bit.

Typically, a normal day lately has been waking up ten minutes before online classes, having something quick to eat and then, watch the online lecture or do canvas assignments. Even though online school is more lenient and flexible than real school, it is hard to stare at a screen nonstop for six hours then sit on it for another two to three hours to do homework. This has caused me to become a bit drained, sometimes even more than real school. However, staying in my house a lot has let me think about social situations and other things a lot more and this has acted as an opportunity to “recharge” my “social battery” because lately it has been exhausting just to talk to my friends because of the high level of stress lately.

With my feelings and thoughts aside, I really hope we can contain and be able to control this infectious virus so we can go back to living our normal lives so that our economy can resume boosting more, and people can go back to their jobs. Another thing too is that I hope we can learn that bulk buying is unnecessary and just makes the crisis worst for older people who cannot order necessities as such online. It also causes more unnecessary panic, however, generally this shows our general population that we need to focus on better plans for unexpected outbreaks such as the corona virus. The United States spends a lot of money on the military but nearly enough on funding associations that will assure our security and safety during times of outbreak and havoc. In conclusion, I hope this teaches the general population not to repeat history and not to escalate things, and I hope everyone safely recovers from the panic and havoc this virus has caused.

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

During the COVID-19 outbreak, my days have been pretty monotonous- a dreary mixture of paranoia fueled eating, keeping up with my friends via video games, and arguing with my parents about homework. Come to think of it, sounds like I’m living the life of the average 15- year-old kid. All jokes aside, the effects of COVID-19 are apparent all around me.

I’m an American, and as of writing this, we have the greatest number of cases anywhere in the world. We are under a stay at home order, meaning we can’t go outside. All non-essential business has ceased. People have stopped making money and are having trouble paying for rent. Overall, there is a lot of suffering in my country. However, there is one beacon of hope- our optimism. We are fighting this virus as one collective force, as one Earth, as children of God. We are in this fight together. I know that we will get past this, and we will learn from our shared experiences. I hope that when this pandemic ends, we remember one thing: United, we can overcome everything.

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

The United States now has the most cases in the world. It’s kind of weird because I couldn’t imagine how my country could turn into a situation like Italy’s. Over the past few weeks my daily routine has drastically changed, and I one of the few who haven’t truly been affected by COVID-19. School, soccer, track, and piano lessons have all been moved online. I usually have to travel to all of these things, but now I’m fortunate enough to be able to access them from home. Some of the challenges is that there’s generally more schoolwork assigned by teachers. But another challenge is that I am on my computer almost all day, which isn’t that healthy.

But some of the good things are that I have a lot of spare time on my hands because I’m always home. Since school has been closed, I’ve been playing a lot more pieces on the piano, doing art almost every day, and hanging out more with my family. This pandemic clearly shows how unprepared we are and how naive we are about pandemics in general. When COVID-19 spread throughout China, me and my classmates weren’t slightly worried about it, we were almost making jokes about it.

But fast forwarding to now and to see how big of an affect it has had, it shows that we need to change. When we next have a pandemic, we need to take measures and act fast. The most ideal thing we can do is take constructive measures BEFORE the pandemic arises, whether that’s finding cures really fast or just controlling the spread of any disease. My only concern is that we forget about this pandemic and that we decide not to take measures in the future. My hope is that we as humans can learn from this experience and act on it.

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

These last few months have been some of the craziest times of our lives. Covid-19 is only starting to settle with some of us, and the situation is all to real for others. I have been lucky enough to live in a place that has access to food and other resources.

Even though I am relatively safe from Corona, hunger, and insanity, the lack of action from my government is worrying. I have been watching the rest of the world reacting to this pandemic more prepared then America has. Like I said earlier, my family and I have been healthy and safe. But I can’t help but think how people that are homeless or have jobs that don’t support them are faring through these times. I wish I could do more, donate food or money. Everyone seems to be treating this situation as ‘everybody for themselves’, but we should all try to support each other (while social distancing of course).

I have found myself getting closer with my family and getting to spend more quality time. I also have really missed going to school for all its academic and social aspects. Research has found that this lack of travel lately has reduced the world’s carbon footprint. I hope that after all of this, people will have a newfound appreciation for the outdoors and, however unlikely, that companies will work greener to keep our world cleaner.