John
“It definitely sidelined a lot of the personal progress I felt I was doing. Like, stepping up into not being afraid. I really felt like I was starting to find myself. And I was going to the gym a lot more, and I was having a lot of personal progress about finding out who I am. And then in March, it was Spring Break, and then we learned that there wasn't gonna be school for two more weeks after the break, and then it turned into no more school for the rest of the year. And then I had to cancel my gym membership, stay at home, barely go out at all. So it's definitely sidelined a lot of things I was looking forward to doing. And I feel like my life has kind of been put on pause, but it's understandable, you know, it's a global epidemic. And it's hard for everyone, but it's definitely had an effect on me.
“But I think I'm lucky enough to say there's not a specific challenge for me. My family has been doing well enough to survive during these months. But definitely just getting stuck inside, you know, no social contact at all -- it has been tough not being able to see my friends or my teachers, and having to do everything online.
“I think [for online learning] it really depends on what kind of learning style you prefer. For me, I'm a person that does well visually and with examples, so I don't really need much audio or someone speaking to specifically help me. If you just give me the notes and to show me examples, I can figure it out on my own. So I think I've actually been doing pretty well in this environment. But I know personally a lot of my friends have different styles of learning, and some of them have really struggled because they haven't had as much teacher help.
“For college applications, IB was supposed to help us by getting us into the process of doing all this stuff, but they've kind of -- you know, because everyone is distracted by other stuff -- they have kind of gone offline on that. So I don't really know. I've really been depending on my older sister, who has gone to college. That's been really helpful. So for me personally I've still been doing fine, but I can definitely see how people without older siblings may lose progress.
“The bad news has really just been stacking on and on. I’ve been finding hope in the weirdest places. Recently, the NBA bubble has restarted, so the NBA season is going on. It's just kind of fun seeing sports again, that's definitely something that's been good recently. Otherwise, honestly there's not much. I'll say that.
“I don't know if it's specifically because of COVID, but as of recent I feel like my perception of the world has really broadened, you know, with a lot more stuff coming into light like Black Lives Matter, and then a lot of stuff about antisemitism and like… being at home, I don't know, maybe it's because I'm older, I feel like I'm just getting to know a lot more things. Like the election that's coming up, I feel like I've been more involved in that as well. I feel like my perception of the world has certainly increased. But I don't know if that's just a product of me being older and more mature or if it's because I'm at home all the time. I’ve definitely been increasing my awareness using a lot of social media, like Twitter and stuff. I also strive to find like news articles to keep myself more informed. I use more liberal platforms like Reddit, so I can't say I'm completely informed, but I do read news articles from time to time as well.
“In some cases, I hope things do go back to the way it was. Where everyone was out in public. But there's so many things that have been brought up as well, so I can't really say that, because I hope that the police situation changes for one, and I hope that more people will become aware of all the issues. And not necessarily change our mindsets, but at least become more accepting of everyone else's mindsets. Actually, one thing I would like to change during this is that I feel like everyone being inside has drawn a lot more conflict, especially on social media. And a lot of that is good, but I feel like a lot of that has led to a lot more harm than good, especially with -- not necessarily Black Lives Matter, but -- there's been this, you know, “cancel culture” thing rising. I feel like a lot of people have been impacted very badly by that, and it has led to a lot of toxic mentalities. Hopefully going back to social environments will help people fall back from that.
“I'd say I'm lucky enough to not experience any of that [xenophobia]. I'd say the people I surround myself with are, you know, not going to do things like that, and then since I've been staying inside I haven't met anyone like that. But it's definitely been a bad experience for me. Both my parents work with serving other people, so they've had experiences with it. And you see it in the news, especially very early in the COVID situation there was an attack, at a Sam's Club I think, and it was just like a couple miles away. So there were definitely a lot more impacts of that. It was a bad situation I think. I feel like it's more people that have become aware of not doing those things. But maybe it's because the media hasn't been covering it as much.”
Quotes edited for clarity.
For John, life hasn’t changed much since the pandemic began. This was echoed by the Bellens, although their daily routine looks much different.
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