A typical day for me since the Coronavirus outbreak would start off waking up later since our schedule has been altered to start at 9:30 instead of the typical 8:15 and on at least two days of the week I don’t start school until 10:30 because my free period is first. But starting school later and waking up later also means that I’ve been going to bed later which I am currently trying to change so I can get back to my regular sleep schedule.

Across the country everyone is being asked to quarantine in their homes and only come outside their houses for essential reasons. My daily routine has changed because I used to go workout with my friend who is a trainer after school and now, I am not able to do that because gyms are considered as non-essential businesses to our daily functions. Luckily, I have weights at home, so I am still able to work out, but with added time at home I have been playing more videogames on Xbox. I have faith that this will be resolved with time but it is stressful to have to be in the middle of pandemic that drastically effects all of our lives and still try to continue on with normal activities such as school.

For me I was extremely disappointed finding out my school was shutting down. I was a leader of Kairos 152 and I was looking forward to giving the talk on Living the 4th. We found out that school would be shutting down and that we would have to leave the Kairos retreat the next morning. We only got through 2 of the 4 days of the retreat. I felt terrible for the retreatants whose experience was ruined by this pandemic.

After a few weeks of being stuck in my house I thought I would enjoy not having to go anywhere. It is quite the opposite. I miss seeing my friends and teachers and being at school in general. I feel like I am wasting days as I haven’t been doing much other that school working out and playing board games. Even though it is tough for many students and families I know that there have been harder times in the past. All we are being asked to do is sit at home and not go out. As World War II began high school seniors were drafted. Some of those seniors never came back home. I am sad about my senior year most likely being over, but I know that myself and everyone else can get through this to help those at risk and make the lives of health care professionals easier.

Well, it’s obvious that these circumstances are not ideal. However, I plan to make the most out of this temporary isolation from the world.

I start my “school” day by waking up around 9:25am, so that I am on time for class at 9:30am. I tried setting it for earlier, but I end up falling back asleep between the time of me waking up and the start of class. During my “free period,” or “lunch,” I go to the gym (my garage) to work out for about an hour. Since I am not able to play baseball at the moment, I am trying my best to stay healthy. I also throw with my brother outside about every other day.

Afterwards, I go to finish my school day. I usually ask to use the bathroom once in a while to reminisce on the good times. After the school day is over, I tend to wander around the kitchen for about 20 minutes, before doing some homework and half distracting myself on snapchat. I then play with the laser pointer I ordered on Amazon as an impulse buy of boredom.

I then watch YouTube for a few hours after telling myself I was going to go to bed earlier tonight. 4am rolls around and I fall asleep, to wake up the next day at 9:25am and repeat.

The coronavirus has changed the way we live. My sister had to come home from college in New York. My sister in Los Angeles is feeling sick. My parents have to work from home, and I have to go to school from home. Everything is closed. We can’t go the movies, to restaurants, to stores, or meet friends. We’re all waiting at home, so we don’t all give it to each other.

My grandparents say they have never seen anything like it in their lifetimes. Where I live and in more places around the country, we have to stay in our houses unless we have to leave the house for medical care or to buy food. So, I haven’t been out of the house much in two weeks. I miss everybody at school and missing the rest of my family. One thing we’ve started to do is meet up with my dad’s big family over the internet using Zoom. We did this for my grandpa’s birthday, and we could all see each other on the screen at the same time. Grandkids from all over the world were there, from Australia, New York, Hawaii and from all over California. It was pretty amazing and really fun to see all my cousins. It was a nice way to celebrate my Grandpa’s 85th birthday since none of us could be there.

The near future is uncertain for my country and all the countries in the world. In some ways, we all have a common enemy for once, the virus. Italian doctors were warning the world what was to come a few weeks ago and telling the rest of the world to prepare. This was different, since rarely does the world look out for each other. I’m hoping the countries of the world see what they have in common a bit more after this terrible disease has attacked us all. My country was not prepared to respond, so maybe we can be more prepared the next time this happens, because it will probably happen again. So, maybe this common suffering and challenge will make the world see each other as one thing, as one people. Not that our countries and cultures aren’t important, but that we can all help each other prepare to limit the suffering and unnecessary death that has surprised the world this time with this virus​.