March 22, 2020
Journal #1:
How is the coronavirus affecting your life — physically, socially and emotionally? What changes have you, your friends, family, and community experienced? What has been the most difficult aspect for you?
The recent outbreak of the coronavirus has made a major impact in my life physically, socially, and emotionally. Physically, I am actually able to set aside time to eat healthier and workout more, which I personally do enjoy. Although I’d much rather be in school with my friends, I do like have some free time. Socially, I absolutely hate this. As much as I love seeing my family, I can only handle so much. I miss my friends so much, and talking on the phone with them is much different than talking in person. I miss being able to interact with my teachers and other peers. I feel like I’m isolated away from my friends and I really just want to see them. I am also not handling this very well emotionally. My emotions have been peaking, with me getting very upset and scared as I hear more and more about this outbreak. I am also a lot more sad recently. I feel like not being able to interact with people outside of my house is affecting my emotional being a lot. My mental state hasn’t been as good as it usually is, the main reason being the lack of social interaction I’m experiencing. I also feel like I’m going insane more and more each day. I feel claustrophobic 80 percent of the time and I’m sick of being stuck in my house. But, I know that this is all for a good reason and will be worth it once the virus dials down. For now, talking on the phone with my friends and going outside occasionally is the best I can do. The main changes my friends and I are experiencing are not being able to physically interact and talk to one another in person. My friend group is very close and we hang out very frequently. The major change is our plans of hanging out being stripped away. My family is also going through major changes. My mom and dad are both working from home, my brother and I are also home from school. My older sister’s college classes are online for the rest of the semester, meaning she is also home. The main change is that my immediate family is spending 24/7 together, but trying to stay out of each other’s way for the most part. My community is on lockdown. Most people don’t leave their houses unless they absolutely need to. Our community doesn’t seem too fearful, though. We have had less than 5 confirmed cases so far, which I think is pretty good. Everyone in my community is handling this pretty well. Although I miss my normal life, I’m glad everyone is respecting other people’s safety. The most difficult aspect for me is the sudden change of my life. Before this all happened, I was excited for our school play, school trips and just being in school. But in what seemed less than a week that was all gone. I realized how much I took for granted the little things in life. I miss the freedom of just being able to go to school and see my friends. I hope the Corona Virus goes away just as quick as it came.
March 30th, 2020
Journal #2
“Last week we focused on the difficulties that the coronavirus has had on you and your family, friends, and community. This week, think about the positives. What are some things that you have been able to do while not at school? Have you accomplished anything new? If so, what was it? Most importantly, what are two things that you are grateful for today and why?”
While I am not at school, I have been focusing more on myself. I take a few hours everyday to work on school work, but I don’t have much left. I like to make sure I eat enough food and that for the most part, it’s healthy. I make sure I drink enough water, too. I also make sure my house and room are clean. With the cancellation of school I now have time to workout too, and everyday I have free time. Although I’d probably rather be in school, I am getting a lot done and I feel very productive. I have accomplished a new workout routine, and I also started reorganizing my room. I’m also able to see my family a lot, which at some times annoys me, but usually they’re fine. I think the biggest thing I am able to do is practice driving. Recently, I got my drivers permit, and my parents have been taking me on long drives to get practice. On sunday I drove for four hours, and I felt really accomplished. One of the things I’m grateful for today is that my family and friends are healthy and safe. New York State makes up almost half of the CoronaVirus cases in the US. That is insanely scary and crazy. I’m so thankful that my family and friends are healthy. I miss my friends a lot, but staying inside is the right thing to do, to ensure the safety of my friends and family. The other day, I was sick with a cough, sore throat, and not a fever, but I felt hot with occasional cold chills. I got it from my sister who came home from college after being in an apartment where her roommates traveled out of the country. We don’t think it was CoronaVirus (thankfully) but we were definitely sick. So, I’m thankful that we are both healthy now. I still cough, but I feel a lot better. My sister is almost completely rid of the symptoms, so I’m very thankful for that. I’m glad that my family and friends seem to be doing fine and handling this whole experience really well. This is the first time in my life and my friends’ life that a pandemic has ever gone this far. We’ve had epidemics in our lifetimes, but a lot of them didn’t even affect our country. The second thing that I’m grateful for is the way our community is handling this. I genuinely expected people to be mean and sour about this, but when I’m grocery shopping, people are generally nice and not grabbing everything off the shelves. At first, it was the opposite. People were hoarding essentials, and took more than they needed. I’ve seen a lot of social media posts that show people taking more than they need, leading to other people having nothing to take. Fortunately, in Little Falls, our workers are doing a really good job at keeping our stores in stock. Overall, I’m really hoping this whole experience is almost over, so we can return to our normal lives.
Class of ’22
