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: Alex, 16, Bellarmine College Preparatory, USA

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, my typical day was been a mix of emotions and feelings. Some days I am happy that I can just relax at home, but other days I am extremely bored and worried about how this pandemic may affect us in the future or if there will ever be a cure. Overall, this entire situation has been weird for me so far because I have never experienced something like this ever in my life. This is the first time I have had online classes, Church via livestream, and the first time I have ever felt scared to go outside. These past few weeks have given me mixed emotions and throughout those weeks, the only thing that’s in the back of my head and probably all of ours is this virus.

When I first saw the email that we will be having remote learning at home, I was excited that I could go to school in my room and in my bed for extra comfort. Later, I realized how boring it is to just be stuck in your room, by yourself, staring at a computer screen. This also made me realize how much I miss walking around campus, seeing my friends/teachers and talking to them in person. The remote learning has been a big change and struggle for my daily life because now I am on the computer for almost the entire day. Not only that but, I must depend on technology and the internet for not causing technical difficulties during class meetings. Aside from the remote learning, I am most concerned about how long this outbreak will last and whether the cases of people affected will continuously increase. I am also worried about how long we should keep distancing ourselves. I hope those around the world are staying home, being sanitary, and cautious about the things they touch.

Although those days have been tough and boring, this enabled me to spend more time with my family. Because being in my room all day is extremely boring, it forced me to go downstairs and gain more family time. Being with my family brightens up my day whenever I feel down or bored during this situation. Relating to the changes of my daily routine, each of my family members, including me, have hand sanitizer right beside them. Before this outbreak, they did not have it beside them, which led me to think about how this pandemic has affected us. I think this outbreak has made started to make everyone take hand sanitizer and washing their hands seriously than before. In the future, I think public areas all over the world are also going to take cleanliness a lot more seriously.

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

Most of my country of the united states is quarantined. I live in Bay Area in California which has one of the strictest quarantines. I have left my home minimal times and only for brief periods of time. I haven’t seen any of my friends at all. I like going outdoors a lot, so this really bumps me out.

I continue to work out in my house and in my backyard. I feel like I am drifting from my schoolwork and that school has become incredibly more intense due to it being online and certain teachers giving unnecessary amounts of homework.

I am concerned about how dumb some people can be considering we are supposed to be quarantined in our homes and some people are traveling the world right now. Although the corona virus may not kill me or someone like me, it can harm someone I or they love. I think it’s very important to obey this quarantine to the max.

If this were to happen in the future, I think the world would be more prepared and handle it better. The people would take it more seriously as they have seen what type of damage a pandemic can do to the world we love. I hope a cure for the corona virus is found soon, as it would really help those in need of it.

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

Coronavirus has changed my life pretty dramatically in a short amount of time. I remember when coronavirus was only affecting China, and the idea of the virus impacting me was crazy. As the situation became worse, the school immersion trip to Taiwan was cancelled. I was extremely disappointed, but I thought that there was still little chance of it reaching the US on a large scale. However, now all the schools in my area are temporarily closed. There is a “shelter-in- place” order where people should only go outside for essential activities. At first, I felt like there was so much racism going on. Now, I just feel like it is everyone for themselves, with people hoarding food and commodities.

When my school first announced that the school campus would have a temporary closure, I was relieved. I knew that online classes would be challenging, but I also knew that it was the best way from spreading the coronavirus. Now, since I have class on my computer, I wake up much later than I would normally, and I have a lot more free time. All of the time I used to spend on transportation and after-school activities is now just free time. Even though I have tried to keep my routine relatively the same, I exercise much less and stare at my screen all day. It has been challenging to make such a sudden change. However, I am grateful to be spending so much more time with my family. It is a blessing to be able to sit and eat lunch and dinner together every day.

While I am concerned about the short-term effects of the coronavirus, I am hopeful for the long-term effects. America’s economy is going into a recession due to the “shelter-in-place” orders, and some businesses cannot survive with people staying home all day. Also, since America now has the most coronavirus cases worldwide, I fear that this pandemic will continue much longer than expected. However, I am hopeful that once this is over, the world will be better equipped to face pandemics. I also hope that this may change American culture. Contrary to most Asian countries, there is no culture of wearing masks to prevent sickness in America. I think that this culture of wearing masks is very important to the greater population and hope that Americans will become more willing to wear masks in the future.

I know that things may seem bad right now, but I know that we will get through this. And when we do, we will be stronger for having experienced it.

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

At the start of this Pandemic, I wanted to shut down school for a few days thinking it would be like a vacation. But now that this Pandemic has shut down my school for 2 months and counting, all I want to do is go back to school, spend time with my friends, and play baseball. This time on mandatory lock down has helped me realize how much I took for granted like hanging out with my friends and extended family. My day went from a jam-packed day with me coming home around 6 pm just wanting to eat and sleep, to not leaving my house all day.

A normal day during this lock down is relatively not eventful at all. I sleep in waking up a few minutes before my first online class because I just need to go to my desk. Then I will do my classes till lunch where I will eat lunch and play baseball with my brother. Then at 12:30 its back to school till 2:45. Then I will usually workout and go for a run which is what I look forward to most in my day.

Although this time seems very negative throughout the world, I like to find the good in things which surprisingly came easy. I have spent so much more time with my family helping my mom cook, watching a movie with my dad, or playing outside with my brother. This has brought me back to when I was a lot younger which does make me happy. Finally, my family has begun playing card games at night after dinner which I enjoy very much and without a doubt we would normally never of done that during normal life.

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

In America, the coronavirus is spreading at a rapid rate and currently all 50 states have cases of this pandemic. It is getting worse as more people are becoming vulnerable to coronavirus and spreading it to others. We currently have a lack of equipment and materials to test and help cure the coronavirus crisis.

The changes that have impacted my daily routine is that my school and numerous other schools have been cancelled. Not only is school cancelled, but numerous other extracurricular activities and sports have been cancelled for our safety. Although it is now easier to get to school, which is online, it is also harder to learn and socialize with others who would usually be in our physical classroom. However, some gifts and graces that arise from this global pandemic is spending more time at home with family members that would usually not be available during a regular and busy school schedule.

In the future, I hope that this coronavirus can be cured, however, I understand that it may be awhile before that happens. For the future, I also hope that our country will learn to be better well- prepared and equipped with tools to combat a serious virus like this when another virus inevitably spreads. Our society should learn that by working together and cooperating with one another we can solve a global pandemic no matter how severe it may be.

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

COVID-19 caught my country off guard. Our national government, state government, even our hospitals were caught with their pants down. I attend a private school where most of my classmates’ parents are millionaires, but my parents are not part of that group. My parents both moved here from the Philippines in the hopes that their kids, my brother and I, would have an opportunity at a better life and I would say they succeeded. With that being said, they are not wealthy, and money is not something we can throw around. The government ordered a shelter-in-place in my state. My mother works in the hospitality business as the assistant manager of a hotel. Business there is beyond scarce and it is painful. Her hotel is the only one in a five-mile radius that is open, but no one is staying there so the working staff, which started at 118, was reduced to 3 (General Manager, Assistant General Manager, and Manager of Sales).

Her hours there are long, she has to bring the work home, gets little sleep and being alone in the hotel depresses her. The only time she encounters her Co-workers are the first and last hours of her shift when the hotel transitions to the next manager on duty. Last week she told me that she was the only one there to sing happy birthday to her Manager of Sales, a person who lives alone because her parents both died years ago and a person who is unmarried. My mother was the only person who sang her happy birthday and she could not even hug her afterwards in order to maintain social distancing.

My mother’s hotel is not necessarily a cheap hotel, she hosted President Obama during his administration and business has been quite good. The city has started paying hotels a Per Diem rate ($258 per room) to host the homeless population that stay at local shelters and safe havens. The company that owns my mother’s hotel turned down the city’s offer, in order to preserve the safety and wellbeing of the employees. My mother told me that if they accepted the offer, that would have been enough to ensure 60 employees would be employed. Times are tough.

If my mother lost her job, I don’t think it would be the worst thing. 10 years ago, when I was in kindergarten, my mom was laid off because of the recession. It was one of the best years of my life. My mother always dropped me off and picked me up from school, she was present at all my events, and she would even help me do my homework and what not after. My mom is the strongest person I know and has a great ability where she pretends everything is fine even when the world is burning around her. She will survive. Here’s the problem though, not everyone is like her and a lot of people have it much worse. COVID-19 has destroyed too many lives.

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

A typical day has been like since the outbreak of COVID-19, is very hard. It is very frustrating and very boring, and also me being able to lose focus fast it is tough because you cannot go see your friends, you’re stuck in the house doing homework, and you cannot go gout to play sports. It is tough.

Also, a lot of things are changing for me. Such as online school, no basketball practice, no seeing friends, no going out and not able to go to basketball games. I understand the situation; however, I am a high schooler, you suppose to live your best life, but we stuck in the house doing nothing. I am happy that I get to hang with my family and spend time with them; however, I miss it. Going to school, playing sports, going out, I miss. This situation is terrible so I am trying to do the best I can to do social distancing and all that stuff.

Therefore, I want to say that COVID-19 is terrible and I hope that soon that there will be a cure to help all the people in the world, such as the poor, the sick, the wealthy, the ill, everyone. Because I want everyone including myself to go out and to with be with the people you love and care about and to be able to go have fun.

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

In my country, the United States, COVID-19 has hit very strongly, we just passed the 100,000 victims mark, making the United States the leader in cases in the whole world. Due to this, more and more organizations have shut down and more people are staying home. Where I live, we have been in house arrest for two weeks now, and some activities we could do like play tennis or go on walks are highly discouraged. Most of the tennis courts have shut down, as people tended to go to that as their main exercise during lockdown. My family is very fortunate, because there is a place where we live that is beautiful for going on walks and we know a place with a beach volleyball court that nobody goes to, so we try to either go on walks or play volleyball every day.

As I was told when I was a kid, “God has a plan, and from everything bad, comes something good”. The good of COVID-19 is still hard to see, but I have been spending with my family a lot more time than I would have normally, I get to talk to a lot of people I would talk to normally, and I have regained a lot of hobbies I had not done in a long time.

Finally, I think that the world is going to change a lot after this outbreak, because I feel that everyone is going to be more careful with what they do and what they touch. Precautions will probably be set to prevent a pandemic from happening again.