The Story of Quarantine, and Still Continuing

Going from a full semester of school, to being halfway into the second, to find out you will not be going back till junior year, was a little interesting. It started right when spring break started, there were already many casualties from the virus, and us in Minnesota were working on whether we would close school for two weeks. At first thought like many other high schoolers, we were happy. We didn’t have to wake up early and go to school. We did not have to do any schoolwork for two weeks. It was like paradise.

Then it sunk in. We became bored, and we wanted to see our friends. We realized staying at home with no school sort of showed us we needed it for the social aspect. Those who did not need school for friends were then affected when we were put into quarantine. Or basically the stay-at-home order. I would say unlike some of my close friends, quarantine has been exceptionally hard. Having a dad as an essential worker for school, and my mom also an essential worker changed our rules. I will honestly say many of my good friends have been able to leave the house and hang out because their parents are working and they have their license to go places. My parents cracked down on seeing anyone. Overall I have seen one person in under an eight foot radius, and that was for work. Things have not only changed for me, but my family. We have noticed when we are all at home, all six of us will get pretty crazy. Only two weeks with each other and we were all crabby and moody. We started to notice that being at home all the time, we were running our groceries trips out the door. We were and still are spending a lot more money on groceries.

The ways my family and I have stayed in touch with my grandparents and cousins is either group FaceTimes, or Zooms, at least once a week to catch up with everyone and check on them. My friends and I usually stay connected gaming online and through texts, and Snapchat. I would say my friends do the same, and certain individuals, like I have already stated, feel there is no stay-at-home order and they would freely hang out with others. It was and is still difficult because you feel like you are left out but the bigger picture is so much more. And there is so much more reason why we should not get together. They will make their choices and I will make mine.

Some of the ways I have been helping my community is helping build a deck, for example. It gets my mind off my life and focuses on spending my time helping others. There are definitely many things I am missing out on this long journey. Some of the main ones are actually getting paid every month at my job, and actually working is something I have missed. Another thing that is obvious is seeing my friends. My social life plays a huge key in my mental health and I am seeing it decrease the more we have to stay home. Some big challenges are knowing what and how I should spend all this extra time. Usually when I have extra time I would spend it helping my grandparents, so not being able to do that is hard. Another challenge is the idea of the unknown. It is really scary as every day that I wake up, I know we are still stuck inside and we do not know how it will end.

The coronavirus or COVID-19 is still in our lives and affecting lots and lots of people. We need to stay strong and help not only protect ourselves, but protect especially others we care about and others we may not know. We need to stand against it together. Thank you.

—Ryan

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