May 4, 2020

In response to the prompts for today; 

The last time I went outside was yesterday afternoon. My family and I went on a walk around the neighborhood (social distancing, of course). It was sunny, but a bit cold. I feel lucky to live in a place where we can still go outside and go on walks.  Especially since some people cannot leave their homes at all. I honestly don’t know what I would do if I was stuck inside 24/7. There isn’t much from daily life that I have “forgotten”, but there are some things that I am looking forward to after this is all over. Some things that I vividly remember are; lots of homework, waking up early, not having much free time, etc. There are definitely some things that I do not miss from before COVID. Although, I mentioned before how I didn’t have much free time before, but now I have so much, and I am not sure if it’s better to have little free time, or way too much. Neither are ideal.

I am hearing so much news about COVID, as I am sure everyone else in the world is. I feel like it is the only thing anyone ever talks about now. We can’t escape it. The problem is, I don’t know what to believe. There is so much fake news out there, and COVID is no exception. I wish the news outlets would put more positive things into their news, instead of so much negativity. I wish they would talk more about people recovering/surviving COVID, or some acts of kindness people are contributing. But, that’s just my opinion. 

I think sharing what we are seeing/hearing can help others during this time. I think it is nice to hear about others’ experiences, and it is nice to know that you are not the only one experiencing this; it can make you feel less alone. Lately, the main thing I have been hearing is my little brother playing video games and talking to his friends through his mic; he is very loud. I also have been hearing a lot of construction because there are a lot of new houses being built around my house. 

We have been in quarantine for almost two months now, which is crazy to think about. On the one hand, it feels like this has gone by very quickly. But, on the other hand, it feels like I haven’t been to school, or really anywhere, in years. All of the days just blend together, and I sometimes cannot even remember what day it is. I haven’t even thought about what life will be like after quarantine; I just know it will be much different than before.

April 27, 2020

I think everyone would agree with me when I say that we all have things we miss and don’t miss from before the outbreak. Here are a few of mine.

I don’t miss getting up at 6:30 every morning and having to get ready for school. I don’t miss having 2+ hours of homework every night. I don’t miss having to wait on the rest of the class to be quiet; and then staying after class because of other people’s actions. I don’t miss the craziness and noise of the cafeteria at lunch. And, I don’t miss going to various events all the time; like appointments, sports practices, games on the weekends, etc.

However, I do miss having more of a structure to my day. I miss knowing everything that was going to happen that day. I miss seeing my peers and teachers everyday. I miss talking to people in real life, instead of over Zoom. I miss the time when I was going to finish out 8th grade in normal school, not over Zoom and Google Classroom. I miss the time when I wasn’t going to start high school after being out-of-school for almost 6 months. 

There are a lot of things that I miss and don’t miss from before the outbreak. But, I know this situation could be so much worse, and that we are all lucky to live in an area that has not been hit that hard. I also know that we are lucky to attend a school where we have school-provided iPads, and a staff that is doing their absolute best to create a new way of learning for us students. 

4/23/20

With the current situation we needed face masks for the family. My mom went to various stores but none were available. So she decided to buy a sewing machine to make masks for us. She watched YouTube tutorials and failed several times at first. After a week of practicing she could make one mask every 15 minutes. When she was done making masks for us she had leftover material. She shared the idea of making masks for people in her neighborhood group. She got an overwhelming amount of responses. Many people offered financial support for making the masks and offered to pay her for the masks. So my mom said, “Please don’t pay me but instead pay forward.” She suggested a non profit school called Bridgeway House. Bridgeway House serves the needs of children with autism and other related abilities by educating them and supporting their families. My brother goes to school there and he’s benefited so much from going there. We’ve seen him do better and be more successful. I help my mom in this project as well, by packaging the face masks, labeling them and writing a small note. In these times it’s important to support each other in whatever way we can. Even if that means making face masks! Stay home and stay safe everyone! 🙂

4/22/2020

My daily schedule for online school. Some times or things done may vary based on if I woke up late for the day or if I have more work than usual. 

6:50-7:00 – Around the time I get up. If I do get up before 7am, I lay in my bed waiting for the clock to turn to 7.

7:00-7:20 – Change clothes, fix bed, open curtains, wash face and fix hair. 

7:20-8:00 – Serve myself breakfast. Usually whatever my mom has prepared or sometimes cereal. I would watch T.V while eating if my mom is watching T.V as well.

8:00-8:10 – Brush teeth and use mouth rinse afterwards.

8:10-11:30 –  Go to my room, put on some music and get an early head start on google classroom work. I would usually do science work first and do everything else after. Sometimes I don’t start at 8:10, it all depends on how long I would take to get ready and how slow I would eat in the mornings. At 10 my mom would bring in a snack for me. 

11:30- 12:15 – Eat lunch and wash my dish.

12:15-12:27- Brush teeth again to get any bits out of my braces. Brush hair if messy and prepare for zoom calls. Continue to work on any school work that I hadn’t finished until zoom calls start.

12:30-1:15 – Log into zoom calls for 1st and 2nd period.

1:15-1:43 – Break time because I have no 3rd period. I would usually get myself a small snack and go outside if the weather is nice, watch YouTube  or continue to work on school work.

1:45-2:55 – login and continue zoom calls.            

2:55-3:15 – Work on any remaining google classroom work such as week long items.

3:15-3:30 – Eat snack in the kitchen.

3:30-4:50 – Finish any work that needs to be done. 

4:50-6:30 – Read a book, draw, go outside,help my mom with dinner, anything that gets me off the screen.

6:30-7:40 – Eat dinner with family.

7:40-8:00 – Get ready to go to sleep and watch the school daily announcements early.

8:00-8:55 – Get into bed and read a book. 

8:55-9:40 – Try to fall asleep.

April 20, 2020

Along with pretty much everyone else, my daily routine has changed a lot. I am the type of person that needs to have some sort of routine in their day, so having to figure out a whole new routine has been hard. It is still not entirely perfect, of course, but I have a pretty good routine down so far. Here is my daily weekday routine during self-isolation:

7:00 am: Wake up to my puppy running into my room and trying to get on my bed. After that, I try to fall back asleep for a little while; I usually don’t, though.

Around 8:00 am: Get up and get breakfast, make my bed, and get my stuff ready for school. 

Around 9:00 am: Start school.

9:00-11:30 am: Do work on Google Classroom.

11:30 am-12:30 pm: Eat lunch and finish getting ready for the day.

12:30-3:00 pm: Do Zoom calls

3:00-7:00 pm: During this time, my family and I usually go on a walk, eat dinner, and do things around the house (chores).

Around 7:00 pm: Around this time, we all start doing our own thing around the house. I typically watch a show or read. 

Around 9:20 pm: My little brother goes to bed, and I get ready for bed, but I stay up for quite a while longer.

4/20/2020

My daily schedule

7:30 – Wake up slowly and go downstairs for breakfast

7:40 – Make my own breakfast (usually something with eggs) then help clean up afterwards. 

8:00-  Go to my room and get ready for the day

8:40- Come downstairs and sit at the counter beginning to get everything ready to start online school.

9:00- Put my music in and start completing the daily assignments.

11:30- Go on a walk around my neighborhood with my family, sometimes our family friends join us.

12:30- Eat lunch and help clean up the mess.

1:00- Sit down at the counter and complete any assignments that I have not finished.

2:00- Watch Netflix

4:00- Eat a refreshing snack of fresh fruit.

4:20- Practice piano and search for new songs I want to learn on the piano.

4:50- Go play outside with my siblings. We usually ride bikes and compete in races.

5:30- Enjoy a yummy dinner.

6:15- Help with dinner clean up

7:00- Spend time together watching t.v. Shows (usually comedy shows ;).

8:30- Get ready for bed and brush my teeth.

9:00- Hang out with my mom, talk with her and we watch The Great British Baking show.

10:00- Go to my bedroom and try to fall asleep.

10:30- I usually fall asleep.

Repeat

4-14-20

Today has been a pretty good day. As of today there are 40 cases of covid-19 in the
Eugene/Springfield area, and 44 cases in Lane County. It’s been a nice and sunny week and I’ve enjoyed the cheery weather. Me and my brother have been riding our bikes around our backyard and doing jumps on our bikes. It was really fun having so much more free time. It’s going to be a really big adjustment to go back to school from having 6 months off of school. I’m worried that my summer swimming and water polo team will be canceled. I pretty much only do swimming during summer. For homeroom today I really liked reading people’s kind acts that they have done during these hard times. It’s a really cool experience to see all of peoples kind deeds they are doing for each other. I think that our world is learning the lesson of kindness through the Covid-19 outbreak.

April 13, 2020

Today is Monday, and it is the first day of the third trimester. So far, it is going well. I started two new classes today; Leadership and Health. The Zoom sessions went well and so did the assignments. Despite school going well, there are still a lot of hard things going on in the world. In response to the prompt for today, the hardest thing for me right now is my dad being a nurse. My dad is a nurse in the cardiovascular department at RiverBend hospital, and although he is not in an area of the hospital where COVID-19 patients would likely be, it is still strange seeing all the precautions he must take. He has to get checked for a fever before he goes into work everyday, and he must wear a sticker that has the date on it and “checked for fever” on it, so that people at the hospital know he is healthy. Also, the hospital is now limiting masks to only 1 per shift unless the worker is caring for a possible COVID-19 carrier (I am not sure if this is only in the emergency room, or if it is everywhere in the hospital). Nonetheless, I am still very grateful that my dad still has a job right now, because I know there are a lot of people without jobs. To be honest, no one can really win right now because if you don’t have a job, it creates a hardship in terms of money, but you are at less risk of the virus. But, if you have a job, you are still earning money, but you have to put yourself at risk for the virus. It is definitely a lose-lose situation.

April 13

I am honestly starting to get kinda stressed. I know that these are stressing times but all of the school work given to me could eventually start to pile up on me. For science, I’m getting at least one whole activity to do that takes about 35 minutes because I like to really think about my answers. Then in my Social Literacy class we are going to be doing at least 3 projects in total over the course of the school year remaining. Then there is health class which will probably also have projects to be done. Then there is math which is the subject I think I will struggle in. I think I’m only stressing since I’m used to all of the things we would get done during a regular school day and have the remaining work be done as homework. Also it’s only the first day and I just have to get used to this new norm of how school is going to work for the time being. Other than that, I’m doing pretty well although I’m also worried about my only grandma who lives in South America and we can only contact her over the phone. I don’t know her health state but I really don’t want her to get sick since my family isn’t able to visit her often.