How have you been feeling during this time?

Um, [pause] I think it’s definitely been a mix of emotions [pause] for sure. I feel like as it is my senior year it’s been hard because [pause] there’s already this distance, because we’re social distancing, but I think there is this longing to be with my classmates, so I feeling a little bit [pause] I don’t know isolated [pause] and um a little bit sad, but also like it’s been a really good time to like reflect and spend time with family. Um my sister has been home from college so she’s also graduating senior, so we are kind of in the same boat. So it’s been nice to like spend time with my family and just be able to do things that I wouldn’t necessarily get to do if um we were going to schoo. So, yeah.

Have you found any creative ways to stay in touch with others?

Oh yeah. Zoom has become our best friend. Like we have been using Zoom a lot, having like themed get togethers. So we had a beach themed one, um which is just random and silly but um it’s been a nice way to connect with people, even people who are outside of my friend group. Um I think because we’re all kind of feeling this distance from each other [pause] and usually second semester senior year is when people tend to branch out a little bit outside of their friend groups, so it’s been cool to see like get in touch with different people who I wouldn’t necessarily talk to. [pause] Um, so yeah we’ve been having a lot of Zoom gatherings. Um, my dad and I went on a drive a couple of weeks ago and we just had a drove around and said hi to a few friends from the car, just got to wave at them. Also sending mail [pause], I’ve received a couple of letters with like friendship bracelets from friends, and um that’s been a really nice way to connect cause I think having something physical come in the mail is just really nice I think it’s it it’s exciting, it’s something like I don’t know it’s a way to detach from your cellphone a little bit, because we’re on technology so much. So um I’ve really enjoyed writing letters to friends, receiving letters from friends.

What do you think the new normal will be like?

I will say this, [pause] having wiped down all of my groceries [pause] I will never stop doing that. The amount of dirt that comes off on those wipes is crazy, and I I don’t know I just can’t imagine having before not wiped off my groceries. Um [pause] something like that I think that’s going to be a part of our new normal. [pause] I think [pause] cleaning the subway. Have you seen that there are pictures of like before and after of what the subway benches used to look like, I think that’s going to be a part of our new normal. I always washed my hands whenever I was travelling or you know coming back off the train, I always washed my hands before I did anything. [pause] Um, but I think that’s going to become part of people’s new normal, so I think definitely just being more clean and aware of the transfer of germs. Um, [pause] and I think also there is just some institutional changes that are going to have to happen, but that will be more of a in time sort of situation, um but the immediate stuff is definitely going to be [pause] washing our hands more often, possibly having to wear masks for a while until we get like a until we have a vaccine, [pause] um and ah cleaning my groceries. I will be doing that always [chuckle].

See more of Christina’s interview in the video below:

What are some of your positive moments you’ve had during social distancing? When have you felt the happiest?

I feel like I’ve just had more time to like find hobbies because before when we were in school I would have no time for myself or to figure out what I actually like to do when I have free time. But now I have time to paint, draw, read, run—things that I wouldn't be able to do if I was still going to school. I've also been painting my friends because I miss them and just like scenery… I’ve been getting really into nature recently because I don't see nature that often so I’ve been painting nature. I also try to breathe fresh air every day so I've been going on walks, going on runs, and it’s been easy to stay away from people because I kind of live in the suburb-y area of Queens.

Have you found that your relationships with your family and friends have changed at all during the lockdown? If so, how?

Well with my family I feel like we’ve gotten a lot closer but in a weird way. Since we’re always together we've gotten used to being with each other but we give each other space, since you obviously get tired of people when you’re with them 24/7. In terms of my friends, I feel like everyone is kinda getting lazy, and like, even for me, I feel bad, but I barely answer my texts. Yes I facetime my friends, but it’s not like an everyday thing, and like, we have to ask each other like, “Let’s facetime on Saturday,” and then we have to make it happen. Yes, I love my friends and I miss them a lot, but it’s not the case where I, like, want to see them every day.

How do you think Packer will change from coronavirus when we return?

I don’t think it will. Well, I mean, like obviously the situation outside of Packer will change, but Packer kids… we haven't really been hit with coronavirus as hard as other people. Most people are outside of the city, at their summer houses, not really seeing the effects of coronavirus. So when we get back, yes it will be a thing, and for a few months we’ll just revel in the idea of being with our friends, and that being such a novel thing…but after a while, that will just dissipate and for Packer, it won’t even be that big of a deal anymore.

What would you say that your typical day looks like in quarantine?

I try to keep myself motivated, so on the weekends, I wake up at 9 or 10, I chill, eat breakfast, do my normal morning routine, then do homework, and then after that, I try to go on as many runs as I can because it keeps me motivated and sane…then I come home, eat lunch, do more work, and then watch TV and go to sleep at like 3 [a.m.] I’ve been watching all of the old shows, I rewatched New Girl, I rewatched The Office, I recently finished Avatar: The Last Airbender…my favorite… it was so good. I finished Outer Banks. I’ve been watching every single TV Show that has come out in the past few months, since there’s almost nothing else to do.

See more of Rebekah's interview in the video below:

How do you think being in Brooklyn and in New York has impacted your experience during COVID-19?

In the first couple of weeks, there was a lot of agreement among people about social distancing like “we’re in this together” and everyone was banging pots at 7 p.m. [to thank frontline hospital workers], but recently, everything that’s been happening with the cops and the police has been really unsettling and disturbing. I know how people’s interactions with the police differ a lot, and I’ve been skateboarding a lot with my friend Isaiah who used to go to Packer and is black… We’ve been going into the skate park a lot even though it’s closed and gotten kicked out by the cops a number of times, but now, after seeing everything that’s happened… I don’t know. On his [Snapchat] story today, he took a video of 3 police cars where he was—which was not Brooklyn Heights or Lower Manhattan—and it’s not like they were coming around and handing out masks, they were coming to inspect that everyone had masks, and that’s something that I’ve seen in Brooklyn and social media has helped spotlight, but it even impacts my own friends. It’s kind of odd to say it out loud, but the interaction with the police if I was there with my friends could potentially be a lot better than if I wasn’t there, and it feels weird to say out loud but like… that’s just the truth of the situation. This would be going on regardless of coronavirus, like it goes on no matter what, but I think the coronavirus— where race and ethnicity shouldn't matter when it comes to medical treatment or handing out masks or reinforcing social distancing— has shown sharp contrasts between Lower Manhattan versus the Bronx or deep Brooklyn which has been upsetting, to say the least.

Have you been going outside at all during quarantine? What has been keeping you grounded and sane during quarantine?

I pretty much refuse to run because—I mean… I go outside to skateboard but I wouldn't even consider that exercise because it’s just what I do for fun, and it’s good because you can do it alone, and you don't really have to get close to people when you’re on the street. I've also been doing a lot of… like… in-house workouts... like I found a jump rope and so I’ve been doing that a lot in my living room… but it’s been fun.

I just think the happiest I’ve been is seeing progress through exercise or skateboarding just because like I’ve been setting goals for myself for skateboarding… like getting better at doing tricks. I also wanted to lose weight during quarantine and I’ve now lost a lot of weight and gotten stronger and seen progress which has kept me pretty motivated to do more. It’s been the best thing everyday when something gets easier or I can do something new in terms of exercise or calisthenics… that’s when I feel the happiest probably.

Do you think any aspects of your life will be permanently changed by COVID-19?

I don’t think things are going to change that much… I mean, they might… like maybe tomorrow morning when my sister gets her [COVID-19] test back and it’s positive, that could change how it affects me because if she has it, then my family most definitely has it, and like that could mean a lot. My perception of the risk of getting the virus has been pretty low because no one close to me has gotten it yet, but that could change at any moment, so…

I also think high school culture will definitely change… I just can't imagine a houseparty happening in the near future and that might not like a permanent change, but it’s interesting to think about how… how different it’s gonna be.

See more of Graham’s interview in the video below:

Have you been in constant contact with people during this time of social distancing or not that often?

Um I think , I honestly think my contact has been a little less with people in general. Um, like I don’t know, there are times where I’ve become a little less interested unfortunately cause you know its like now it’s getting a little better but you know as the weather is still kind of nasty and its still a little cool out it’s a little hard to get excited for anything and have the drive but I think recently I’ve been you know more more interactive with with certain people, you know I try to be at least.

As a junior, how are you feeling about the state of the college process?

It’s gonna, I think it’s going to be pretty different than it has been in previous years, well that goes without saying, um, but I think um like in terms of testing and stuff like that, I think more schools are going to go test optional, um and I think like a lot of it is gonna depend on interviews and different things like that, and unfortunately, I think, there’s going to be a lot of inequity within a lot of the schools when we hear who they accept I think a lot more schools are going to wind up accepting kids who can be able pay full tuition cause there probably going to be less kids applying applying to those schools unfortunately. So I think the landscape of colleges will look very different for this year and maybe we’ll see if more and more schools cut tests how that will change them also in the future.

How has your sleep schedule been and have you had any vivid dreams during this lockdown?

Um, my sleep schedule has be absolutely awful, probably during school nights, probably like 2:30 till like 8:58, um I’ll probably wake up like a minute before advisory just get my phone on, go on Zoom. Vivid dreams, I mean it’s been like I have some, but I wouldn’t say there’s anything notable or I don’t really think there’s true meaning behind about them, I just have some really random dreams that probably make no sense. But you know possibly going back to school next year, having to wake up at uh 7, oooh that’s going to be rough…I think for everybody.

What role should the government--city, state, and federal--play in dealing with this pandemic, these nationwide protests, and the underlying problem of police brutality?

I, I think in terms of coronavirus that the federal government should have had more response. I feel, I feel as if the lack of response from the White House was because, I think, the President was saying was thinking that if anything went wrong he wouldn’t he wouldn’t have to take the blame, that he would be able to blame the governors for not doing certain things. Like their whole thing on testing..like and, we were originally supposed to have, you know, a million tests by like the second week of the whole pandemic, as Pence said, but that was just not true, and was getting mad at states and then threatening to, you know, not fund them if they don’t treat him nicely; I think the lack of like an appropriate response from the White House, and just the true lack of leadership that there is in the country um really made things worse, and I think we’re being, now we are able to see the governors response and we’re able to see who are the true leaders really are within our society.

See more of Abe's interview in the video below:

How have you been feeling during this time of uncertainty, both in regards to COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protests?

Um… I feel like there are different, uh, very different things that are stressing me out and they’re like taking different orders in my brain. Um, I think that, a month ago, my biggest concern about the future was relating to um, college and testing and all of that. I think that more recently, um, like the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Aubrey and so many others, have um, brought to light, a lot of prejudices I hold myself and um, that circulate throughout my family that I don’t hold my family members accountable for … and so that’s what’s .. that’s what I’ve been thinking about a lot

What is the best thing that has happened during this time of social distancing?

Um … I don’t …know. Like I don’t think I have anything that was particularly good that happened to me. Like definitely not an event. I do be writing though... Sorry! This is a professional interview! Um, I’ve been writing more, I think that that a good thing that I’ve been doing and it helps me um destress and work through some of my thoughts because um, my home is not as open of a space for me to talk about uh, more like political issues than Packer is… like I definitely feel more comfortable with Packer with my friends, like mulling over my thoughts, and so writing has been useful for me.

What are your thoughts on remote learning?

Um, I think there’s stuff that I like and I dislike. Um, Zoom is a really awkward like way to communicate with people, there’s like a lag and it just makes me feel disconnected from others, more so than I would in a classroom. Um, I also appreciate the ability to like draw things up by hand, this is like specific to math and art a little bit as well, yeah, um, like those are ways that I destress and I don’t have access to that same, those same materials. Um. But I’ve also been thinking a lot about what a privilege it is to like, for all of us to have laptops. Like that is crazy. Um, for us to be able to carry out um, our education like despite not being together. That’s also crazy and a privilege. So yeah.

What do you think the new normal will look like?

Uh…. It’s hard for me to imagine ever being able to go back to like exactly what we were before quarantine. I think the standards of like, sanitization will change, I think that we’ll be a lot more reluctant to like, hang out in big crowds. But like in terms of my neighborhood, I don’t think much will change at all because I live in a super gentrified neighborhood with lots of parks, like predominantly white um ,and ,there are people who aren’t following social distancing measures and there are no repercussions for them. So um, yeah, I don’t think my neighborhood will change much. But I think like …we will …like I was watching Sex and the City with my sister, it that inappropriate?...All right, I was watching Sex and the City with my sister and Carrie Bradshaw was on the street, eating a hot dog and then she licks her fingers. And I was just thinking about that, like, those germs on her fingers? And it’s crazy that I even think that.

See more of Lea's interview in the video below:

Can you think of any aspects of your life that you think are going to have to change, either temporarily or permanently, after going through this experience?

Well I think the big thing is like physical contact that is definitely something. Like we don't really think about this, but when you spend so much time like inside and spend so much time thinking about the concept of staying six feet apart from people and um yeah, just like that concept of never being like physically close to people that aren't like your immediate family, that's definitely going to manifest itself in my life when maybe it is acceptable to be closer to people. I just know that like, I don't know, when I'm walking on- everyone has like a different degree to which they're concerned about social distancing. Like some people are fine with like walking directly next to people on the sidewalk and like just not always being six feet apart, but it’s something that's become like so ingrained my conscience that like I'll be walking down the sidewalk and like I’ll cross the street if there's someone like too close to me, like I get like really, almost like squeamish about the concept of being like too physically close to people and I just know that's going to be so strange when the whole six feet apart thing is no longer a guideline we have to follow. Yeah it's weird too because I feel like I'm at least with my friends, like so much of my relationship with my friends is like affectionate, like we’ll hug each other and that's like how we greet each other, it’s like how we console each other it's such a big part of my life to like be within six feet of my friends, so if we do go back to school in the fall and we’re following social distancing guidelines, it's definitely going to feel really different to not have that like aspect of like physical closeness.

How have you been doing mentally?

I think good... it's, it's weird because like I'll have my good days and my bad days. Like sometimes I'll just be like really positive and I'll feel like I'm trying to like make the best quarantine. Like I don't have to wake up as early, I can have more free time, I can like do more spontaneous things like if I want to go for a long walk or a long run or something, things that I just always said like I didn't have time for before, like that's kind of liberating. Um, but at the same time, like I’ll also have days where I am like really confused about like what's going on in the world right now and I would like wish I could be with my friends. And it's also upsetting to like see that of course it's it- like in different states corona is like better or worse. Like I know that like in Texas it's pretty much not a concern anymore. So it's so weird to see that like people I know in different states are able to like live their lives normally and its definitely- there's like a jealousy component there because I wish I could see my friends and I wish the things that like I would like to do in the summer, but it's just so bad in New York that I can't even compare our situation to other states.

Where do you think that need for the adults at Packer to initially invalidate our concerns came from?

Maybe it was, I mean I can't like it treat them as if they're not humans with their own anxieties and like worries. Um, they didn't have all the answers they could have been confused and worried themselves, I'm sure they were, and I guess nobody really wants to think that there's a global pandemic that's gonna to like consume our lives, that's almost something that would like lead a person to denial. Like if there is I mean I guess if it's not so bad that you have to confront the reality, there is the option to kind of like deny its gravity. So maybe that's what was going on. And it's also something where was so unprecedented, like even health professionals, like i guess we never really could have seen this coming ‘cause he hadn't handled anything like it before. And also we closed right before spring break so part of the reason we had those two weeks off was just spring break, like there's a possibility that Packer would not have stayed closed for those two weeks. Maybe we would have that one day off and then they would just like have us go back to school as normal. And just thinking about how that would like impact the spread of the virus in the city is like very scary. It is a lot to think about. I don't know, I just was so like confused about why we weren't doing anything. I feel like it's always the better option to be cautious, especially in situations where we don't have the answers and it just seemed like sanitizing the banisters and like putting snacks in individual packages, like how much was talking to do if we were all in crowds and we were all like hugging each other. I know there was a whole elbow thing but we were not staying 6 feet apart at all times.

See more of Heelah’s interview in the video below:

How have you been feeling during this time of uncertainty?

Um, at the beginning of quarantine, I definately felt you know, worried, especially when we were reaching like, the peak of the cases, um, but I think partially cuz of how like, it's, the corona virus has been handled, it kinda like, that worry kinda like went of went away a little bit, and then now with the protests going on I’m just like, that’s kinda like in the back of my mind right now, I’m really just focused on like, what’s happening um in the news and all of that.

How would you evaluate how the virus was handled?

Uh, I feel like we should have done more, um, from a, we should have done more um, way earlier, especially cuz, seeing as like, you know, America, and also looking at different countries, like, I mean New Zealand like locked down really early and they're like, like set right now. But, overall, I think we should run more testing, because, I mean, we don’t really have a lot of testing and I think that would help you know, help with people knowing if they should stay inside and not go out and all of that stuff.

Are the people in your neighborhood strictly observing social distancing and wearing masks?

Um, that’s only like towards the start of quarantine, everyone was really, you know, strict about going outside with masks and whatnot, but as you know, we are approaching summer and whatnot, people have started relaxing, people walk their dogs with no masks but you know, its like, it’s not like everyones wearing a mask or no-one is wearing a mask, it’s like pick and choose.

What is the best thing that has happened during Coronavirus?

Ummmm, I’d say just having free time. Like during the year, I have such a busy schedule that I don’t really get time to just relax at home, um, and just like chill and watch tv and you know, focus on school work specifically, I feel like I always have other things going on so I think that aspect where I’ve just been able to chill has been nice,

What impact do you think this will have on your generation?

Ummm, I think maybe when we come out of this we might be more appreciative of school and just like being with you know, your friends and family and whatnot um, because that’s definitely something I took for granted to just see my friends and my teachers and whatnot.

What do you miss the most from life before Coronavirus?

Um, to be honest, I miss school. I just like having a schedule and you know, just seeing all my fiends everyday, I really enjoyed that.