Journal 4

I think it’s easy for all of us to get stuck in our own worries and feelings where we begin to complain about our own problems and how we can’t see our friends or leave the house which is normal, but I also think we shouldn’t be selfish during a time like this and be aware of what everyone is going through right now not just in your town, or your state, or even your own country, but the whole world.

This one father was talking about how he hasn’t been able to see his two year old daughter in two weeks. He hasn’t seen his daughter because he works at a hospital and doesn’t want to risk giving her anything. Others talk about how they aren’t afraid to die, but how they are afraid to get sick. Not seeing their loved ones is hard for them. I related to the second one a lot. From the day school was first canceled my mom stopped me from seeing my friends. It has been 25 days since I've seen them last. It's hard not seeing them. I went from seeing them every day to not being allowed to see them at all. I haven't been able to see my one year old niece either. My older sister and her husband used to stop by every weekend for us to see my niece and they haven't done that in almost two months because they are afraid of the virus.

It’s weird to try to think about how life will be when all of this is over. I wonder if everything will just go back to the way it was, or there will be some big permanent changes to our everyday lives. Today I learned that the governor and the Department of Education recommended that all schools stay closed till the end of the year. I’m not at all surprised by this, I saw it coming. I’m guessing our school will listen to the Department of Education.

It's hard to accept the reality that there's a national pandemic going on because where I live it's not that bad yet. However when I see the families and people that live in major cities and how they go about everyday life it's almost like a kick in the gut by how surprising it all is. Listening to people's fears definitely scares me a little, they have a point: what if the virus wont end for another 10 years, what if I grow up and live the rest of my life in this kind of society? For now i'm thankful that I live in Gray Maine even though I'd never think I would say that because when I look at the large families stuck in an apartment building I feel it would make the situation 10x worse.

All the views that were said in this documentary were really emotional, especially when they asked “What are you most afraid of with this quarantine" and one woman answered “ The thing I’m most afraid of is that the end never comes.” Instantly I couldn’t relate more. The one thing that did bring me joy is when the neighborhood could just step outside on their balcony and say hi to their neighbors and just talk. It makes you realize that you truly aren’t alone in these types of situations. When they say ‘we’re all in this together’ they really do mean it.

There’s no truly correct answers, everyone has their own opinions and it’s up to us to decide which ones we want to accept. I was… butt hurt in the beginning, thinking of all the negatives. I was angry at everything and it took me a while to figure out that there’s no other option than to accept what’s happening. We have to live with it and be as strong as we can be. We need to show strength and unity. For us to succeed, we can’t be tearing each other down, we need to come together. We’re not weak, we are not stupid, well, we may be a little ignorant, but we are not alone.

The 2nd documentary by the New York Times to me was an eye opening film. After watching it I could see that people were struggling, some were accepting, and some were just upright astonished by the extent of what was happening. Watching the film I could also see that there were a lot of people who were stuck 10, 20, 30 stories up and the only fresh air that they could get most of the time was from their small balcony. This in a way made me feel like people in Maine like me who are stuck at home are luckier than they are because we are able to go outside, go for runs, and enjoy the outdoors in these hard times but many people don’t have that option.

Everyones life is different from our own, but other country's were taking precaution and under quarantine lockdown like we are ,but in January, where it is April here. In January in America, this was not a big issue yet and they other country's had to deal with this issue for a longer period of time than America. I feel bad for some of the families and people because they have going through this longer than we have yet and they are scared. When this first started in America, it wasn’t so scary because we all thought it wasn’t going to be that big of a deal and then it spread quickly. Now other country's are coming out of quarantine and places are opening again, while we are in strict quarantine.

My dad will bring up, “well people in New York are dropping dead left and right” and I find myself having to reel him in. We live in Gray Maine, an area where people are pretty spread out, we are also surrounded by nature compared to a concrete jungle, it is not the same. I haven’t left my house in about 3 weeks! The scariest part is simply the element of the unknown, we have no clue who has it, whose immune, whose a carrier, etc. For students of GNG, the projection is, if Maine stays quarantined and abides by the Governor’s laws we should be okay to go back to school on May 4th, this is because we have slowed the curve enough.

I miss all the old things I used to do and being able to see my friends. I thought I would never say this, but I miss going to school, probably because of these online classes. I would much rather go to school and do work then do the online classes and I think this virus has given me a slight greater appreciation for school.