Day #5: Saturday, March 21, 2020

I began my first day of “spring break” at 11:30 am, waking up feeling refreshed and energized. I know, I know, that’s incredibly late but I have trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep. A benefit of this whole e-learning situation is that now I can just fall asleep when I am tired and wake up when I have slept long enough. Usually I go to school sleep deprived, like many teenagers do. 

I drifted downstairs in my pajamas (getting dressed under quarantine is a skill I have not yet mastered) and had some breakfast with my dad. Nowadays, my dad is the only person allowed in the kitchen to make food so we are not all touching the same things. We also disinfect doorknobs or sink taps daily. Some people may think this is a little overboard but honestly, I think most people aren’t doing enough. At my house, we are observing social distancing very strictly. Nobody has come in or gone out of our house in days, aside from walks every now and again. My dad is a stay-at-home dad so this was natural but my mom is part of a coronavirus response team as a healthcare professional. She has been working around the clock from home, calling her work and emailing doctors, from the time she wakes up until she sleeps. We found out yesterday that she will also be working in the clinics for about two or three days a week. I only really get to talk to her at night when she’s getting ready for bed. The social distance was difficult for my brother, who is fifteen-years-old and a social butterfly. Initially we let him have one or two friends over at a time as long as they washed their hands etc. and he was not allowed out. However, after about two days of this, my parents re-assessed the severity of the issue (which seems to be changing every day) and decided against any visitors. I get a little frustrated seeing other people my age out with their friends on social media. I don’t think anybody is above social distancing, especially when countless people all around the world like my mother are risking their lives to provide essential services for everyone else. This is hard on everyone but it will go by faster if everyone is contributing to solving this problem. Anyways, breakfast was consumed by coronavirus discussion yet again. A little depressing and anxiety-provoking but sometimes necessary, to be on the same page as my family. 

I went upstairs and finished reading the first part of a book. I have been reading sooo much lately and I love it. I will be doing some book reviews on the Clarion in the upcoming weeks so stay tuned for those. I sunk into my bed and watched Gilmore Girls for a few hours. This is also a form of procrastinating doing some leftover e-learning work for my AP classes. I feel a little frustrated by e-learning. I love school and I am grateful to have such a wonderful education with so many opportunities. However, the sheer amount of e-learning work I am given each day seems counter-productive. There is a lot going on for everyone and I don’t think e-learning deserves to add to the stress. I flipped through my assignment notebook and compared last week to this week, which was shocking. This week I had more assignments in all of my classes than ever before. If each teacher is assigning two things to do each day (or more!), that means I have fourteen assignments at least per day. I know this is likely the speed we would have been operating at in school but I don’t think that this is worthwhile for students. Education does not always happen inside a classroom. I think students should be spending this time focused on their health, hobbies, and spending time with their family. However, my teachers have all been so supportive and kind during this time. My math teacher has been posting audio messages and videos talking to us about our classwork but also just about how we are all doing. My former physics teacher sent out an email to our class asking us all how we are and if we wanted to set up a Zoom meeting to talk with everyone. My AP U.S. government teacher (now my social studies teacher for all of high school) and I emailed about our assignments but also book recommendations. Last but not least, Mr. Helgeson (the Clarion’s sponsor) has been organizing staff meetings on Zoom to update us on articles but also just to talk. My teachers have made this experience so much easier and they still feel very much a part of the lives of students. I eventually got around to doing my AP Government work and it wasn’t that bad at all. 

Then, I watched a teen rom-com movie that I had been waiting for time to watch and sat outside for a bit. I had one of my favourite Trader Joe’s dinners of Indian food, which was amazing. In the evening, I had time to group call with three of my best friends that live in different parts of the U.S.. It is very interesting to see how other states are reacting to this. One of my friends’ school got cancelled for this entire semester and I am predicting that this will be the case for RB. If that is the case, I will be pretty devastated by losing all the fun parts of senior year but I think that might be the safest thing for us to do. My friends and I talked for hours, laughing until my stomach hurt. We got off the phone super late at night but I wasn’t tired yet so I decided to watch yet another movie on my list! I must admit, I enjoy the freedom of scheduling my day as I please and indulging in hobbies I previously never had time for. My mother and I talked before she went to bed and she brought me a little smoothie she invented, which was delicious. After my movie, I fell asleep almost immediately and didn’t wake up once. 

Life in social distancing can be tedious and uninteresting but I think it’s the best decision to protect all of us. Time to enjoy some more movies and books and ride this storm out.