April 7, 2020

Today is Tuesday, meaning it is the second day of online learning. Yesterday went well; all of the assignments were fairly simple and straightforward, and all the Zoom calls went better than I expected. Yesterday was a day that actually felt somewhat normal, as opposed to some of the previous days. Today, I haven’t had too many assignments yet. I worked on a video for Mr. Schiff’s class, did my Language Arts work, and did some reading. It is so weird seeing how everything has changed during this time. I never would have thought that we would be doing school like this at the end of the school year. To be honest, I don’t think we will actually be going back to school on April 28th. Besides, the social distancing “rules” are supposedly going to be enforced by the government until at least April 30th. I honestly don’t know how I would feel about not going back to school at all this year; I just know it would be really weird. 

There are almost 1.4 million cases in the world right now. I try not to look at the statistics and news too much, but it’s hard. Especially when there is a number that big. There are over 1 million currently infected patients, almost 80,000 deaths, and almost 300,000 recoveries. The U.S. has over 385,000 cases, and Spain’s numbers are growing super quickly. China, the original epicenter, is doing really well, and Italy is getting better. New York has over 138,000 cases, and New Jersey now has over 44,000 cases. Oregon hit 1,000 cases, and we have 29 deaths. Lane County now has 30 cases, with one death. 

My family and I have been doing our best to keep busy. During the school week, we are doing school everyday for a while. Then, we usually go on a walk, eat dinner, and then we all do our own thing at night. I have been trying to read a lot as well. (Right now, I am reading Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, and it is really good so far.) I am glad to be back “at school” because it gives me more to do during my day, and it gives me more of a structure to my day, which is nice. I am really grateful for all the staff and teachers for all the work they have been doing because I am sure it cannot be easy.