Coronavirus Journals

Friday March 20

Today I woke up at 8:40 and almost was “late” to advisory, meaning I almost signed in on Canvas too late. For breakfast, I had a banana and a muffin. Not that much different than a “regular” day. I went on a run, and it was hard to keep going because it was so foggy out. I think if it was sunny and blue skies, it would be way less eerie but something about the weather makes this much scarier. I saw a few people out, but not as many as I usually would. It was mainly people walking their dogs. I found out that the Trump Administration is moving tax day to July 15 in order for people to be able to pay because of coronavirus. This is obviously good for the families around the country that need the money right now because they aren't working, but I don’t know what 3 months is really going to do to help them. He also called an NBC reporter “terrible” for asking about his response to American fears. Anyways, for the past few days I’ve been watching Criminal Minds and it is amazing. I've also been reading Born a Crime which is also amazing and insightful. I remember that while in the midst of school, sports, and extracurriculares, just a few weeks ago, all I wanted was to sleep and relax for a few days. Now that I have the opportunity to sleep pretty much all day and do “nothing,” all I want to do is get back into my routine. I guess this is a “be careful what you wish for” moment. 

Monday March 30

Today was the last official day of Spring break, although I don't really think my schedule will change that much going forward. I woke up and went for a run again. One thing i've noticed is that since I cannot play my typical sport (water polo) I've been going on more runs than I ever have in my life. It is also because that is the only way I am allowed out of the house. The state of Illinois is on full lockdown and my parents are taking it very seriously. Today, I walked into downtown Wilmette and I was stunned at how little people there were. Usually, the town has no parking due to the local restaurants. But on the windows of Pescadero I saw a flyer practically begging people to buy their food for take out. On the Wilmette theatre sign, there were no movie titles, but an encouraging sign that said “To our first responders a standing ovation. As the challenge rises so do we” and I thought it was a great thank you to the healthcare workers that are putting their life on the line for us. That is my quote of the day.

Wednesday April 1

Today is April Fools' Day, and I think that is very fitting because this whole situation seems like a joke. I cannot believe that the state is on lockdown, I don't think I would have ever imagined this before. And I still cannot believe that I am learning my new spanish vocabulary and what parallel circuits are on Zoom. But, online school does give me the freedom to go back to sleep during my free periods, so I’m not complaining about that one. What I realized is that some people don't have the luxury of learning online, with tablets readily available, and wifi that will support their needs. This is a difference in New Trier and other schools, New Trier can go right to online learning with the iPads that they give to students in the blink of an eye, but some students across the country don't know when they will learn, or worse get the meals that they receive only at school. My mom woke up at 6:30 today to go to the grocery store before the crowds, but she said that it was still packed inside. She got a lot of food, some items that I haven't had since 5th grade, including gushers and cheeto puffs. I'm not mad at the food selection. 

Friday April 3

I am writing this blog outside because it is so nice out, and I just realized how different online school is from actual school. Usually, I would be spending 8 hours at school, and more because of water polo, and spending 3 hours at home doing homework. Now, since we don't have any “homework”, I have so much more time to do things that I enjoy, like sitting outside with my dog. This has given me much more freedom with my schedule, but it makes me miss the old days. It’s Friday, so usually I would be getting excited for the weekend to hang out with my friends and play in a water polo tournament, but now I am almost dreading it because I will have nothing to do. School keeps me busy during the week so now I will have to find other things to take up my time.

Monday April 6

Last night I reorganized my room so that my desk is under the window and overlooks my street. During school today, I only counted about 5 people walking by in 2 hours, but there were a lot of cars. It could be due to the gloomy weather, or people just want to drive around to get out of the house. When I was making my lunch today, I dropped cucumber on the floor and my dog picked it up and then spit it out, so I did what any logical person would do- I picked up the cucumber with a paper towel and threw it in the trash. However, I got a stern talking to from my mother because we have to ration our use of the paper towel since she can only buy one or two at a time at Jewel. This is definitely different from before the pandemic because something that I thought was just an everyday action (although my dog usually eats every drop of food, maybe he just doesn't like vegetables) is now something that I cannot do. This is a very small example but it made me realize I have to be more careful with what I use on a daily basis because we don't have an endless supply of resources. 

Wednesday April 8

Today I saw this quote “Your grandparents were called to war. You are called to the couch. Stay home.” I thought it was kind of funny because practically the easiest thing to do - stay on your couch - people still don't want to do and are going out to public places. For lunch, we had one of the classics from our childhood, hotdogs and mac n’ cheese. One thing that I like about quarantine is that my family and I all try to eat together at lunch and dinner. Outside of this, it almost never happens because of our busy schedules we don't find the allotted time, but now we have all the time in the world.

Thursday April 9

My brother bought a drone on amazon and he flew it to the Bahai Temple overlooking the lake. When I was watching the video that it took, I was amazed at the amount of people at the beach. Usually, Gilson beach would be packed and there would be dogs running around everywhere, but there was almost nobody there. I’ve been looking through my camera roll and there was a picture of my friends and I at the Chance concert all huddling because we were waiting in the line outside. The picture made me do a double-take because I haven't hugged anyone in about 3 weeks.

Monday April 13

We are running out of toilet paper so my mom and my brother and I are going to venture out to Costco to buy some food and necessities in bulk to reduce the number of times we have to go to the grocery store. I'm actually quite excited to leave because I haven't been out of the house in a while since I've been doing at home workouts. My quote of the day comes from Criminal Minds, which I have been watching recently, and it is “the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched." I think this is especially important right now, hope cannot be touched or seen but I can see it through a lot of people's actions right now. For example, kids making masks for themselves and their families and workers, and peoples appreciation for the healthcare workers.

Wednesday April 15

One of the questions was if my music habits have changed and I would say I am listening to way more music that I normally would. I have a lot of time now to relax in between classes and sit in my bed and listen to music. Something else that relaxes me is painting. I painted my door last week but I got tired of it so yesterday I painted it 3 different colors that match my room. It's a big time killer too, it took about 2 hours to do.

Friday April 17

Today I was late to advisory because I slept through my alarm. Usually, this would mean I didn't get to the classroom on time but today I didn't write a fun fact about me on the discussion page before 8:50. Recently I've been thinking about how badly I want to go out to dinner with my friends. When this is all over, going out to restaurants is going to be amazing. I used to get mad at the lines and if we had to wait for a table, but that just means more people in one place sharing a night together. I can't wait. Right now it is snowing, after last week being 60 degrees and sunny. Still a Chicago spring.

Monday April 20

I think that the place of art is more important in our lives today because there is much less going on around us so it gives us the opportunity to look closely at what is meaningful to us. For example I have been painting a lot more recently and it made me realize how much I love painting, although I haven’t had time to do it in the past few years. There are also no more sports, so many more people have found other ways to occupy their free time and it includes art. 

Wednesday April 22

My thoughts about the future have changed because I don’t know what I’m going to do this summer to make money. I am one of the 7 million that are not employed, although there are other people that need a job to support their families, which luckily I don’t have to do right now. I think my brother and I are going to start our own business refurbishing bikes (so let me know if you need a bike tune-up, whoever is reading this). Today I dropped off my dog for surgery because he tore his ACL and I was surprised the hospital was still open for cases that are not quite urgent. But this is the perfect time to do it because everyone will be home to take care of hi,  

Friday April 24 

Water polo is officially cancelled which is really sad. It used to take up 4 hours of my day every single day so it's weird not being able to go into the pool anytime soon. Sports used to take up a big portion of my time, from practice to watching Blackhawks or other sports games when I got home with my brothers. But now they are playing reruns of the Hawks Stanley Cup championship games so it is fun to go back to 2010, 2013, and 2015 to the days when we had no idea all of this was going to happen.