It has been quite a shift in the events of my everyday life throughout the past 3 weeks. I am a senior captain of my high school’s lacrosse team, and I am miserable since the cancellation of our season. I spent most of my time playing or training for lacrosse and without being with my team or holding myself to a certain standard I do when I am in season, I feel like I have fallen into a slump.

My mom is an elementary school teacher and we have been able to spend a lot of time together since we are sheltering in place and not allowed to leave our house except for “essential outings” which include going to the grocery store. My brother goes to school about 6 hours away, in Los Angeles, and he is staying down there in his apartment with his roommates. However, my sister is exactly 2,679 miles away from my family since she lives on the opposite coast. I won’t be able to see my dad who lives in Napa Valley around 2 hours from me because the CDC doesn’t want us to “cross-households” in order to limit the spread of the virus.

The Santa Clara County in San Francisco’s Bay Area of which I live in is one of the hardest places hit in by the virus. This has caused chaos to ensue throughout the economy both locally and globally. I live in a small town of Los Gatos and as I drive through the downtown area on one of my rare outings that I take daily, I see nobody around. That results in a lot of small businesses in my town to have to be shut down because they can’t stay open and pay rent or other bills.

If I had to take away some positives from this situation, I am delighted to see that the Earth has been able to heal a noticeable amount in the past month. Around the world we saw the smog in the sky clear especially over cities in Asia which produce a lot of pollution. Also, you can see the Eiffel tower from London because the smog has cleared which I think is pretty cool because those types of things are what bring us together as people and as a global society.

Zach: “I cried. We found out right before our 4-by-4 relay. So I ran that race knowing it was my last race. I ran the best damn 400 I’ve ever run. And I sat there after for like five minutes. Doing nothing. Just taking it in. Your brother is super bummed too.”

Me: “I just don’t know what to do right now. I sat in my room for half an hour just thinking. Cause I don’t know if I’ll ever get back in the Bellarmine pool. Like, I could have just ended my season with a busted shoulder and a fleeting hope of CCS.”

These were text messages that I shared with my friend Zach after we both received the news from our school that we would be pursuing a remote learning policy, effective immediately, until March 30th. That date has since been pushed back until April 20th and is subject to change. He had just finished his last track meet of the season, which had turned into a time trial, after their opponent, Junipero Serra, made the decision to not attend, after they had canceled in-person classes earlier that week. I had already completed a normal Wednesday practice on the swim team and had already made my way home.

In less than a moment, everything that we had been working on had been stripped away from us. For Zach, it was his last Bellarmine meet. For me, it was a chance at competing at the highest level I would have the opportunity to race at.

People say it’s okay though. “The quarantine isn’t mandated to last until then. You’ll still get to race for Bellarmine one last time. You will still be able to race.” But most of us have accepted that we won’t. The time standards will remain the same, and I, with all my missed training, will not get them in time.

A large amount of us believes that we will not step back on the school campus as students but rather as alumni. My career at Bellarmine is effectively over. There is no more 2020 Bellarmine swim and dive team. That already ended, with a fleeting hope that we would get back in the pool together.

The coronavirus started as much less of a real threat than it is now. I think it’s fair to say that most of the country was not worried about how it might affect us when we first heard about it. Now that it is in full swing in the United States, we are all now well aware of how much of a threat it is.

My life has been completely uprooted because of the virus. As soon as the potential for a state-wide quarantine became a possibility, my parents decided to move us out to our house in Paso Robles temporarily. Because of the slow internet here remote learning has become nearly impossible to do effectively. I find that I have a lot more time to myself which provides more reflection time which I will always welcome, but not having the option to be with others has been really hard. I hope that everyone around the world can recognize the danger that COVID-19 poses to us, and that everyone stays safe and healthy.