This is the optional extra credit assignment given to students at Garden Grove High School in Orange County, CA to complete over Thanksgiving Break. For context, these students are juniors who experienced school closure during their freshman year, spent their entire sophomore year over Zoom, and did not set foot on campus again until the first day of school this year. Garden Grove High is a Title One school that serves a population where 65% of students are identified as economically disadvantaged. The ethnic/racial breakdown of the student body is: 50% Hispanic, 41% Asian, and 6% White.

Time can only tell what the future holds in front of us. Two years into this pandemic and time had drained, some having more in the hour glass than others. Cherish the times where you are able to do your favorite things with family. When the time strikes, the unpredictable occurs without a warning in sight. Never take advantage of items in your possession. Never make complaints. Never compare your life to others. The human body is unpredictable to even the highest honor of physicians, be attentive towards loved ones. Most importantly, cherish your own circumstances; there will be days of sorrow and days of joy. Live life to the fullest before your time has reached the gotten of the hole.

I first knew this when one of my friends texted me. She told me to check my email and when I did, the screenshot above told us that we were not going to go back to school until after Spring Break. It was a Friday and it didn’t occur to me that we would have online school. So I just assumed that we had no school at all, like an extended break. However, we got some more follow up emails saying how we still had to do classwork and such. (This is when I started checking my email daily) Back then, I had limited access to technology and I didn’t want to bother my parents too much; so I had to work with what I had. But then the date kept changing. It was extended to May, then to the rest of the school year. And the first half of this year. It was extremely distracting to learn from home, it felt like my siblings became ten times more annoying, we had to be more careful with cleaning/sanitizing and had to store more food/supplies. I didn’t leave the house for a couple of months and I barely talked to my friends. I did get to try more home cooked meals and it was easier to prepare in the morning. Many political and racial things began happening like getting justice for hate crimes (ex: BLM protests) and unfairness from police officers became relevant. When George Floyd got murdered, it caused a bit of controversy between my family and I, specifically my mom. My mom claimed that he was a criminal so she said the police officer was just doing his job; while I said that it still wasn't right. We kind of ignore that topic now.. A new president was also nominated and it was the first time people had to mail in votes. The new president wasn't official until two weeks after counting the votes. There were people that raided the White House and the 45th president of the USA got banned from many social media platforms. Since he was upset about not being president again and sort of hinted at people attacking the capital. Many people hate and like this man. Mostly hate. After about a year, scientists and doctors were able to create a vaccine that successfully blocked out covid. So many people are getting vaccinated and the public is beginning to reopen. Going to school in-person (late March 2021) had less distractions and I’m actually learning. We're still doing safety precautions and lots of sanitizing.

This is the assignment given to my high school juniors at GGHS in Southern California to reflect on their semester of quarantine. Assignments with the #gghsapush and #GGHS hashtags should be related to this assignment. GGHS serves approximately 2400 students, and has an approximate demographic breakdown of: 50% Latino, 39% Asian, 7% White, and 4% other. 66% of the student body is identified as socio-economically disadvantaged, and 23% are identified as English Learners. The school has been on Distance Learning since March 16, 2020.

During the pandemic, I got really into music and started practicing daily for many hours since it was so enjoyable. It was also convenient since the pandemic has been here for a while, so it passed a lot of time. This experience is important to me because I've become extremely passionate about music, and I really want to dive deep into vocals and be able to sing well. I believe that music is a way to really express myself especially at a time of a pandemic.

Since March 2020, my life has taken a complete turn. For my past high school years, I’ve constantly been in the pool playing water polo or swimming. In an odd way, I have built a connection with the water. It’s become a part of my day, a part of my life, and I took it for granted. I thought I would get to feel the adrenaline and the nervous wreak on game days when our season came, but it never did. As someone who was always in the water and active throughout the week, it was a change of scenery when we had to stay home because of the severity of the pandemic in California. Not being able to play my sports represents my high school experience as a junior because everything feels out of place. Most of my days used to revolve around practices and games, and not being able to attend these felt strange. This might be a minor inconvenience, but this little change threw me off guard. I had to find other ways to adapt to the situation and learn how to organize my days so that they could resemble one similar to before everything happened. I’m sure there are also many others who feel very unmotivated during this time of unrest. I, too, fell into a hole where I lost motivation because there was nothing to look forward to and I feared that things would never go back to normal, but I eventually adapted to this new reality because I realized that I could not predict the future. In a way, the lockdown was an opportunity for me to improve myself and take on new hobbies I have always been interested in. I started to cook more and even tried baking!

I guess anyone in pre- or post-Covid-19 pandemic would find me crazy when I say I would like to try and sleep in the street given the chance. One thing I take out from this pandemic is that even though I can’t leave it, I absolutely despise my bed. Oh yes, I am talking about my bed, the object that shoulders my tiredness; and the sheets that keep me warm and cozy at night. But also because of that warmth and coziness, that I had been late to my 0 period class three times in just one semester. For the record, in my entire life in America, I had never once skipped or arrived late to any class, even when I had to wake up an extra hour and bike along the freezing cold mornings to get to school. Now I understand what my family means about the danger that lurks behind idleness. It is not common for me to be at ease in the mind, especially when time is not on my side. But when my mind tells the alarm clock to snooze for another 15 minutes or so because I can quickly get up five minutes before class instead of 2 hours back in the old regular pre-pandemic school day, now that is trouble. Flashback to being in my Medical Core class and studying the histories of pandemic at the time, I somewhat already know we were going into quarantine very well soon because well, let just say, humanity never learns from history mistakes and also because the United States’s healthcare is already a dead end. I’m not going to further criticize the horrible leadership of our soon-to-be-impeached-twice president. But remembering back to the life before the pandemic, I proudly shake hands with my past-self for knowing how to enjoy every moment in life. That day when our school principal sent an urgent quarantine message, I was on my way home carrying a bag of snacks that probably lasted me for a week after hanging out with my friends on our usual Friday afternoon, before being cooped up in the room for more than a year, possibly more. It’s laughable now that I remember the exciting and joyful reactions of spam messages from my friends in all different group chats and compare them to how desperate we all want to escape to hellish quarantine and return to school. My friend was joking around on how I was different and I was because I was never fond of the idea of being stuck at home and knowing that a fluid borne, respiratory disease was sticking around for some time caused me to have anxiety. I hate being at home, not because I’m an extrovert but because that place frightens me, but I am not going any further into that. I am so used to my bed and huge four walls surrounding my rooms, along with family members that I’m so sick of everything. Being on my bed in exchange for those motivational times that I spend walking or biking home or playing sports in my school means that I gain weight despite skipping meals, being non proactive, being tired out by every small thing and being distracted from school. Being on my bed also means that all my free time is spent contemplating life, which is good but mostly bad. In a way, in these uneasy times, it always brings out the worst in people’s mentality, unfortunately, not excluding me. I guess all those extracurricular activities, school works and all the sporting things I do are ways that keep me distracted from my innermost thoughts. But when I lay on my bed to think, those thoughts surface and they give me anxiety and depression in ways that others feel ridiculous but to me, they take me into deep sleep with tears. I quarreled more often with my family and with the limitations of my room and no human interaction with my friends on online conversations, it did make me feel really lonely and melancholic. I did try to find new hobbies but I’m limited to my room only. Both me and my foster family members never see each other as family so there was never any reason to join the dinner table. There was no way of getting out and being alone aside from the going to school for certain businesses. I’m honestly emotionally and physically drained, even when I’m not using much energy to move around the house. Now, how I wish for everything to return to normal. I hope that people who read this will remember to learn how to appreciate their life in every moment and way possible and that they never give up given any situation that follows their way.

My last six months of quarantine have mostly been what this shows, especially the first months. Me, in my messy room, holed up, doing school and homework, playing games, eating, sleeping. Many days were so similar they started to muddle together and I would forget what day or time it was. My only escapes were YouTube, video games, or anime. That is what most of my days consisted of, and still do. Of course I have my parents with me, which is always a plus, but they're always working as well. Also, they can only entertain me for so long. Then I’m bored again. The only things that were consistently fun were playing games and watching anime. But even that got boring after a while. I tried working out at first, and drawing, but eventually just stopped for no real reason besides unmotivation. There were a great deal of days where I just skipped meals or slept in for the same reason. After so long, going out to see friends was so refreshing, and one day of seeing friends was enough to make my week. Besides that though, quarantine was just really boring. Not being able to see friends at school, or go out is what made quarantine especially boring. This quarantine got me feeling ways I have never felt before; lonely and depressed. Other than that, quarantine has been just bland.

Starting from May of 2019, I have been living with my laptop, and I am literal. The screen usages reported by window went up from 4 hours a day to 16 hours. Not only that, chrome crashes at least two times each week because of my gazillion taps. But, beyond the eye strains and frequent crashes, I have to thank COVID-19 for forcing me to use a feature I paid for but have never used on my laptop. The webcam. I still remember the bustling first-day in my bedroom installing zoom while texting my teacher on Instagram to tell her that I was having “technical issues,” looking for the link, and turning on the webcam for the first time. When I saw my face pop up on the rectangular window on the top right corner, something clicked inside me; like a switch, I just knew we were going to do this for the rest of my high school career. Prom will be on zoom, winter concert will be on youtube live, and my distance races will be conducted on my treadmill, all from the comfort of my house. This is my life in the age of CORONA.

Before the pandemic, my room was very unorganized and had just a bed and a table with a tv on it. Being in my room for months straight without leaving my house and having nothing to do or having anything to occupy my mind was getting to me. I realized that I was probably going to spend more months in my small boring room. I decided to use my money I had to redo my whole room and add some furniture. I built most of my furniture with the help of my dad. I bought a desk, to finally have a place where I could do my work, and a dresser, to replace my old table with my tv on it and put some clothes in it. I did some DIY things like that mirror on my desk as shown in the picture and added plants and other things. Having a better environment to work in and having a goal I could work on improved my attitude toward spending all day in my room. apart from having this project I Facetimed a lot with my friends and played games like Minecraft. Finding little, or big, fun things to do while staying safe could really help you stay sane during these times.

If there’s anything I learned in the last 8 months, it’s that the world is a very uncertain and chaotic place. A week before quarantine, spending a quiet week alone for Spring break, was all I wanted in life. 9 months later and another quiet week could potentially be lethal. Even though life has been crazy and online school drives people mad, one thing I’ve managed to pick up and get into the habit of is working out. Everyday, no matter what it is, I set aside an hour and a half to at least stand and go on a run or do any form of exercise. Not only is this good for my body, it’s a great stress reliever from a long unstable day of online school, a great time of reflection and a great way to clear my head from the day. Even in the most chaotic of days, and even on days where I have a lot of work to finish, I spend an hour to clear my head, and most times, after a workout and warm shower, I become more productive than ever. I enjoy working out as it is a great way for me to have something to control when the world around me is changing in the blink of an eye. Me four years ago would’ve never expected or predicted that, I would enjoy losing my breath and being sore from my neck down on a daily basis. Not only does it feel like I have control over my life, but working out has become a hobby of mine, acting as a goal I can achieve in the background subtly while dealing with school and life as a 17 year old.

Here lies a photo of my monitor, which I believe represents my current experience as a junior in high school. Pictured on the monitor is classwork, the bane of many students going through distance learning. It connects to the pandemic as most, if not all, students are being forced to go online to complete classwork and connect to Zoom classes as we suffer through our teen years. The internet is where many have come to meet new people, find answers, and much more, which all starts through our electronic devices. Personally, my devices have kept me sane since the pandemic first struck, but also became a major source of anxiety. This miracle holds numerous games in which I can release my stress and anger through, such as Valorant and Minecraft. In addition, it allows me to communicate with my friends through Discord, something that most teens utilize. However, it is where I sit for hours starting from as early as 7:30 am, to as late as 3:00 am, just for school. This may not be the healthiest thing to do, especially since all of this occurs in my bedroom, a place that used to be my haven. What was initially my safe space became a source of a multitude of emotions, such as stress, anger, joy, and much more. There is no longer a true feeling of comfort in any place I can think of, which really is the most disappointing part of it all. But, it’s just part of being a quarantined teen, right? During this quarantine, I believe I have changed for the better in most aspects, though my mental health has reached the lowest point it has ever gone. I’ve made so many new friends, something that I believe is somewhat hard for me, so I consider it a significant accomplishment. Most importantly, I have learned to prioritize myself. Although I’m not quite there yet, big decisions take baby steps, and thanks to it, I feel like I’m slowly getting better mentally. Unfortunately, I have also lost and drifted from friends, and lost a few people in my life due to the virus. As much as I want to feel sorry for myself, to just cry and complain about the unfairness of life, almost everyone is going through something due to the pandemic, so the best I can do is to stay silent and keep on pushing.

Seldom do we experience an apocalypse in such a light and introspective way.

With the pandemic going on, there are limited options on ways to entertain oneself. Over the course of qurantine, I have collected many books, including Dante's Divine Comedies and Volumes 1-6 of a collection of Shakepeare's plays. Reading is one pf my favorite past times, and I enjoy getting more books to enjoy.

I choose to use this as my picture because over the past 7 months I’ve spent a lot of time on my desk, this year I’ve spent more time on my desk then I have outside, usually I’m a really athletic person who enjoys a good game of basketball, soccer or of tennis. But this year, we haven’t really gotten to go anywhere, I haven’t gotten to see my teammates in person since late April. My desk is really messy because it’s been awhile since I’ve cleaned it, but also because I kind of live on my desk.

staying at home made me binge more dramas and animes. they help with de-stressing from school and it's really entertaining. my friends and I would anticipate every week for the newly released episodes of "the promised neverland", "true beauty", "jujutsu kaisen" and many more... i think these shows became the symbol of my quarantine because they make this whole chaos a little more fun. I get to have this little getaway from reality every time I get into these shows that are so unlike reality. i started to listen to the korean boy-band ASTRO because of cha eun-woo and that resulted in stanning other boy-bands, I find it more unique than our American pop songs. even though i enjoy staying at home, i hope our journey of " 6 feet apart" ends soon because i think seeing familiar faces at school motivates me to work harder in school :))

As an avid reader, I used to have a small collection of books for myself, to open up when I get bored. When the pandemic hit and there was little to do besides read or stare at a screen all day in this house, more and more books joined the shelves.

I selected this picture because it shows how my family and I have been connecting with each other during quarantine. In the image, my cousin, sister and I are watching Cobra Kai together on Zoom. This connects to the pandemic because it shows how we are not able to hang out with each other in person. Instead, we have to watch movies online. This image represents my current experience as a junior in high school as well because all of my school is online. I use the Zoom app nearly everyday, to talk to friends, to hang out with family, and even to attend my classes. While we all wish we could be hanging out in person, we cannot so we have to make do over Zoom. This also represents the period of unrest in this country because of how chaotic our faces look in this screenshot. The U.S. is pretty much crazy right now. I think we are probably all going to die.

Thankfully no one too close to me or myself have had covid. Some of my dad's friends have gotten covid, probably because they're way older than my friends. My dad's really close friend had to go to the ER because his lungs weren't working correctly and his other friend died of covid, I guess that's a symptom. On tiktok a challenge going around if you had covid was to eat a bunch of random things. This was because losing your taste was one of the symptoms of covid. Some people who had covid didn't even have any symptoms, but they still carried the deadly virus.

At the beginning of quarantine, my friends would often bike to my house to drop off food. On one hot summer day, I gave my three friends bars of Melona and we ate together on my driveway. During that time, we had virtually no school assignments and had the freedom to do as we pleased. I began drifting from a lot of my friends as the time we used to spend together in class disappeared in an instant. Surprisingly, I made a lot of new friends in this online learning environment. I grew bonds with people I never thought I would talk to before. I strengthened the bonds with friends whom I have already been close with before quarantine. The image of my crooked Melona reminds me of the time when quarantine was just an extended spring break, a break from the stress of school and extracurriculars.

Having experienced a full semester of Junior year virtually during a pandemic, I can thoroughly say that it was the worst experience of my academic career. Every day of this semester was the same as the last, and I couldn't decide what new hobby to get into or find fun in the hobbies I used to do. Although I had this feeling throughout the semester, one person always stuck by my side, and that person was Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift is the music industry, queen of pop music, and the reason I love music in the first place. And Taylor's album, "1989," helped me get through my first semester of Junior year. Nothing brought me more happiness than listening to "Shake It Off" after feeling I had just failed all my tests for the week and then walking throughout my house as if I were a model while "Style" playing. I know it seems that I have been a die-hard Swiftie for a long time, but this quarantine was the only reason I discovered my infinite love for Taylor. Every song on "1989" makes you experience every emotion in the world, from feeling happy while listening to "How You Get the Girl" to feeling absolute sadness and existentialism during "Clean," my favorite of the album btw. So this rush of emotions felt while I listened to "1989" perfectly summarizes my experience during my first semester of Junior year. :)

Throughout the whole COVID ordeal I have been seperated physically from my friends and family. To compensate the lack of physical interactions with other during this pandemic, we've used Discord an online voice group chat to keep ourselves social. Discord has helped us remember that we aren't alone during this pandemic. We're able to play games, watch videos, and talk to one another one this service. Discord I feel what I feel helped me currently get through this whole ordeal.

During quarantine I’ve had a lot of spare time, but wasn't completely sure how to spend it. Most of the time, when I’m not busy with school work, I’d watch Netflix, but that got pretty boring after a while. Recently, however, I’ve picked up a paint brush, a canvas, and some paint and have started painting. I’ve always loved art but constantly found myself making up excuses and never setting aside time to actually paint. These past months have helped me reflect on myself and realize there are more things to do than just sit around and be sad about the current situations in which I have no control over. It's important during these hard times to find something that makes you happy, even if you are not the best at it, so that life in quarantine is a little easier. Even if I would have never thought in a million years the majority of my junior year in high school would be spent inside my house I consider myself lucky as my family and I are healthy and safe. Despite not being able to see my extended family and celebrate holidays or birthdays with them there's always a way to make the most with the people you have. For my mom's birthday, since I couldn’t go out to buy her anything and don’t own a credit card to buy something online, I had to figure out how to give her a special gift during a pandemic. My new found happiness from painting was that special thing, and so I decided to paint my mom a scene from one of her favorite movies “The Karate Kid”. Finding something I enjoy really helped me cope with the instability and unexpected changes during this pandemic. It gave me both a hobby and goal, as I’m motivated to get better at painting.

The item I chose that best illustrates the past six months in quarantine is a screenshot of my favorite videogame, Valorant. Although I could have chosen any other videogame, I decided to choose Valorant because it is the main game that has brought a lot of happiness to my friends and I when we play it everyday during this quarantine. During this unprecedented time because we must stay safe by isolating ourselves from each other, many people have been experiencing loneliness because they have not had an actual, social interaction in such a long time. Fortunately, through Valorant, I never felt any negative emotions because this game has always allowed my friends and I to play together and build a stronger relationship whenever we were done with our school work. The reason why Valorant connects to the pandemic is because it has been a great way for my friends and I to take a step back and escape from reality. Valorant best represents my current experience as a junior in highschool during a period of unrest in this country because as a junior with many AP classes, high school can feel really stressful and tiring at many times, however I have learned that it is important to focus on my mental health at all times. Thus, playing Valorant with my friends has really helped us relax and forget about all the problems in the world for a brief period of time. Furthermore, I see that a lot of students in highschool complain how this pandemic has stolen a lot of our time that could have been spent making memories, however, I have taken a different approach to this because I found that playing video games such as Valorant is the best way to make memories with friends and it has helped me realize that despite the hardships we face during this pandemic, my friends and I will always have each other’s backs.

The item that I have chosen that connects to the pandemic was a Starbucks Coffee. The reason why I decided to choose this item is that there are days that learning over zoom is quite a challenge and that it gives so much pressure on me to be able to adapt to this kind of style of learning. With coffee on my hand, I can focus on class more and it makes me more energetic. When I drink coffee during my zoom classes, I tend to be able to participate more. I love caffeine, it encourages me to also be a positive person during these times because, without any coffee, I wouldn’t be able to learn anything from a monitor screen. Coffee best represents my current experience as a junior in high school because there are days that are sad and depressing, and there are days that are happy and bright. Online learning is a cycle, wake up and learn, after that you rest. I have been doing this since MARCH. Again, this is me with coffee because without any coffee, I am really tired and not energetic. When I have my coffee, I am always feeling refreshed and active! Online learning is something that I am not used to and I fear how with the difficulty of learning online, I am not able to understand the lesson which can lead me to bad grades. Hopefully, I will be able to accomplish my goals by staying determined and dedicated to online learning, resulting in a better grade for my classes, (with coffee of course). One word to describe my 2020 year is a challenge. It’s a challenge because there are things I have been through, like losing my grandpa who sadly passed away due to a heart attack and not being able to visit him because of COVID. COVID was mainly the reason why my 2020 was a challenge because I have to figure out new ways to keep myself happy and motivating. Online classes have made me less motivated because it didn’t feel the same and that everything was quite last minute last year. I wasn’t able to keep up with lessons, which discouraged me to continue and of course my grandpa’s sudden death. As from my experiences, the various holidays looked the same for me this year. Christmas and Thanksgiving were the same because I usually hang out with my family. When I do my online classes, I usually have a workspace. Since I know for a fact I am going to sit in one place for the next 9 hours, I have my coffee next to me to keep me up, I have my water, some chapstick, a big monitor screen, my textbooks, and my journals. I also have an office chair with a pad seat cushion for me to be comfortable! Even though those were the basic items on my quarantine workspace, I like to keep things simplistic. I only have things that are essential for me to use for working online, so I am not bothered by that. The three things that I would include in my quarantine survival kit would be some energy drinks, chapstick, and a pen with a journal. The reason why I chose these items is that for the first two, I cannot do anything without them! It’s great to have a lot of energy to do tasks, and some chapstick to have my lips not chapped. I also wanted to bring a pen and journal to describe my experiences in quarantine. I would also use that journal to write down things that bother me and things that I am appreciative of. Words do mean a lot, so I love to express my feelings in a journal to remind me that overall in time, things can get better.

You know, I don’t see much difference between the lifestyle I’m living right now and to the one I was living 10 years ago. 6 year old Me’s daily routine: Wake up: check Do school work at my desk: check Mope around the house: check Annoy my siblings: check Attempt and fail at anything in the kitchen: check Look outside my bedroom window and daydream: check Draw and doodle endlessly: check Want to see my friends: check Think about what I want to be in the future: check Sleep without expecting much the next day: check This year was horrible. There is, of course, covid happening and political events and natural disasters and death. The world and society is constantly changing and shaping due to the actions of people, possibly in the worst way possible, while all I’m doing is sitting in my room, looking out to the vast blue sky. And I have a confession: I feel like I’m missing out on everything. I KNOW I SHOULDN’T BE SAYING I’M MISSING OUT ON CONTRIBUTING TO THE WORST YEAR POSSIBLE, but I just miss the other not-so-horrible things in life such as experiencing highschool (debatable though), meeting new people (also very debatable), going out for the day, traveling to see family and friends; you know, making memories, having fun, the things that make life worth living. For the past few years of my life, like any teen going through adolescence, I’ve met hardships, failures, tears, but during this lockdown, I’ve haven’t felt any of those things in a while. The same goes for the successes, the excitement, and the joy-- it’s been a while since I’ve felt those too. My life at the moment has reached a straight. Life is supposed to have its bumps - its highs and lows-- a road with unprecedented surprises, but I’ve been going through life as if I’ve pressed autopilot, set to one direction. Time is passing all around me and I’ve been on this one way road, destined to who knows where, and I haven’t done much to enjoy life for what it truly is. However, my situation hasn’t been nearly as bad as others though and I’m truly grateful for that. One thing I won’t ever regret doing is resisting the urge to go out. I’ve been tempted a few times, but I’ve stayed quarantined from others-- you know the one thing that we all should be doing. I’m glad to say that I haven’t put my family, my friends, my neighbors, heck, random strangers’ lives at danger and I’m going to keep doing this until things finally boil down. The last thing I want to do is change someone’s life for the worst. Though it sounds like I’m all gloomy and what not, I don’t think quarantine was a complete waste of time. I’ve been able to sit and reflect in my own thoughts-- the one thing I’ve been trying to avoid. Like I said in the beginning, the life I’m living now is nostalgic of my 6 year old self. Not like the goldfish crackers and PBS kids TV shows kind of way, but the experiences I’m reliving. The last years of my life have been hectic and I’ve been striving for self improvement. I haven’t really sat down and let those experiences marinate. I’ve been doing, doing, doing, but I haven’t asked myself the true reasons for my actions. Self improvement, development of my character, blah, blah, blah, everyone says that stuff, but I’ve asked myself what DO I truly aim for: an end goal? A life goal? Why did I do the things I did back then, and how would they affect me now and later. Thus I revert back to my 6 year old self-- curious about what I want to be in the future and learning what it is to be a good person. I’ve come to realize my many flaws and rethink my mistakes and actions I’ve acted in the past. I’ve come to realize some of the things I did back then and the things I do now aren’t very nice-- for others and myself. Sometimes I’m too judgemental, I overthink things, I’m brash, I take things for granted, I do things for my own benefit-- heck, I can keep listing. To say the least, I’ve become more self-aware. Things aren’t all rosey posey and sunshine and rainbows-- quarantine helped me back down to earth and analyze my own character. I’ve also begun to realize the small things. Not my patience, but the things that give me joy. The nature in my backyard, windy days, my favorite nail polish, hot meals. I’ve been on this 1 track mind for so long that quarantine has made me stop and find joy, even the slightest bit of it, in things I would normally overlook-- the things my 6 year old self would smile for the brim for. I guess it hasn’t been all that bad. Could be better since I miss seeing people THAT aren’t constantly nagging my name to do the dishes, but hey, at least I’ve got my family to entertain me. I don’t know if we’re going out of quarantine anytime soon, but we did just get out of 2020. Cheers to 2021- maybe it’ll get better, maybe it’ll get worse, but hey it’s going to be quite a ride. Hope you enjoyed reading my brain dump and wish me luck as I try to tackle my kitchen; I am very determined to make both something at least edible and some new memories I can look back on.

School used to be a place where I would find comfort; a place to escape. Ever since the pandemic started, school has been the root of all of my problems. My mental state has hit an all-time low and I often wonder when I will become the cheery and spirited person again. Learning materials used to come easily to me but now I find it so difficult to retain a small amount of information. Now that I am a junior, I've realized that I only got to experience a year and a half of it. I am afraid that by the time the pandemic gets better I'd leave high school with nothing. As a child, I always envisioned my life to pan out to be like those in shows. That is quite a stretch, isn't it? A selfish part of me wants to be able to go live life like past generations have but that doesn't mean I will go out and risk the safety of others as well myself. The world right now is scary... Fate has a mind of its own and as people of this Earth, we will never know what it will throw at us. With that being said I find that the load of work that teachers hand to us derives my motivation. I knew for a fact that this school year would be hard but I never realized how much of a toll it would take on me. Even though this was enough to discourage me, I tried - believe me - to find something that will spark my drive again. I tried to challenge myself and reward myself to fuel my passion for school but it's proving to be impossible as of lately. Will this ever get better? It's been like hell.

This image practically sums up my entire experience in this unprecedented pandemic. Being confined to my room, I was mandated to attend online school through zoom. I now had to spend hours fixated on a screen, forced to learn in a distracting environment. With my phone by my side and countless thoughts running through my head, I found the learning process quite straining to both my mind and eyes. The only escape from school I had was spending time with my friends. However, with the ongoing pandemic and social distancing protocol, we were unable to see each other in person. Although we do see each other virtually, it is difficult to do fun activities as a group and momentarily release our stress. The digital realm has seemingly taken over my life, with untold hours spent through screens, I frequently felt isolated and disconnected from the outside world. I long to soon escape my bubble, to once again see my friends, family, teachers, classmates, and even strangers. For the time being, I will take advantage of this leisure time, hoping and dreaming for a normal society once again.

The object that I have presented is my Akaashi plushie from one of my favorite anime shows called Haikyu. During quarantine, I have retaken an interest back into anime. I used to watch anime when I was in middle school, but my obsession ended because I was prioritizing school more. Until my friend convinced me to watch a show called Haikyu, which was about high school volleyball and made me get hooked back into watching anime again. Although my Akasshi plushie is just a stuffed animal, it has helped me through my journey as a junior in high school because it reminds me to continue working hard. In the show, Haikyu, the team Karasuno's goal is to get to nationals and become the top school in Japan. Although they struggle to achieve their goal to reaching nationals in their first attempt, that does not stop them from continuing. They all persevere through their downfalls and eventually, they finally achieve their dream. This show has given me a shed of inspiration, reminding me to continue working hard because eventually, I too, can achieve my ambitions with the efforts I put in. It also represents the difficulties that our country is currently struggling in right now because the number of COVID cases continues to rise and the vaccine for COVID is still in preparation. However, we continue to persevere trying to find a vaccine to cure this sickness and for our country to finally be at peace once again. To sum up my 2020 experience, I would have to say it was quite a crazy, adventurous, yet boring time. It was crazy because I have never expected I would experience a pandemic in my life time. To think I have read about all sorts of plagues in history class, only to discover I would actually experience it myself and one day, be able to retell my journey through this difficult time to future generations. Despite it being crazy, I thought it was also quite an adventure going through this pandemic. I have taken interests in hobbies that I never thought I would such as baking, painting, and embroidering. I even began taking an interest back into anime, which I never thought I would because I always believed it was silly, only to find out I was completely wrong. These animated shows have helped me become the person I am today and I am really grateful for that. Sure, discovering new hobbies was an adventure, there were some moments during quarantine that were boring. I could not go outside and interact with my friends as much, which made my quarantine experience even more boring. Holidays such as 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, was quite tragic. Normally I would go on vacation with my family, but because flights were cancelled and going around increased the risk of catching COVID, my family and I stayed home trying to make the most of the holidays. We followed all of the stay at home regulations for the holidays by wearing masks and standing 6 feet apart from our family members just in case they ever caught it. The holidays did not feel as special anymore since we could not interact with people as close, making it seem like it was a normal weekday. My quarantine workspace is my white wooden desk with light blue draws and a light blue chair to match the draws. On my desk, there is a white lamp, an essential oil diffuser, a candle, and a tiny Buddha statue. Around my desk, there are a couple of photos of my family, anime characters as well as BTS members too. Three things that I would include in my quarantine survival kit would be my phone, food, and water. I would bring my phone because it would be my only source of entertainment since I have the ability to communicate with my friends, watch shows, online shop, and listen to music. I would also definitely bring food and water because I need it for survival and I love to binge watch shows while eating some food. I wanted to upload a photo of the anime paintings I have painted during quarantine, but unfortunately I can only upload one photo :(. Instead I will describe it :). My first painting that I have painted was a picture of one of my favorite characters named Killua and he is from the show Hunter x Hunter. I painted a close up photo of him smiling and made my background a little blue color. As for my second painting, I painted Hinata and Kageyama from Haikyu because they are known as the best duos when it comes to their play tactics. I painted Hinata and Kageyama who are both smiling from joy because they were able to get a good shot from one of their plays and I painted the background yellow to symbolize the happiness in the painting.

In a time where life went from full speed to a sudden pause, I felt like I was just standing in the middle of chaos and confusion. Prior to Covid, TikTok was seen as just an app for adolescence. However, to me it was bigger than that it was a communicate freely your comments, concerns, escape from reality. In a world full of darkness, this brought laughter to many faces. It is an outlet that felt like you were hanging out with your best friends. TikTok was the light in my life, being able to connect with so many people when that was stripped from us.

With long school days and extracurriculars occupying my weekends, I spent the little time I had at home doing school work. I never truly felt I was at home enjoying time with myself or with my family because the rush of high school was not stopping anytime soon. Then, a virus wave put all our lives on pause. Some thought of quarantine as a jail cell, but I took it as a breather. Before, I was unable to see my family often or enjoy proper meals and during these past 10 months in quarantine, I have been able to make up for that lost time. I have been filled with delicious, home-cooked meals nearly 3 times a day made my mom, a passionate cook. It made me realize that providing us with whole-hearted meals was my parents' love language. Throughout quarantine, I have been living, eating, and spending time with my family in the comfort of my home. I often feel that I'm taking this precious time for granted because when things go back to normal, I won't be able to escape the rush of life. Even though my days seem static and monotonous right now, I think I will truly miss the this feeling of comfort in the future.

The beginning of 2020 was actually going really well for me. February was Lunar New Years, and it was one of the best years I’ve had lion dancing. Later that month it was Vietnamese culture night, and me and some school friends decided to form an impromptu team to perform for the event, and eventually it led me to starting an actual lion dance team for my school. A little context to this is that I’m a very young, but passionate lion dancer, and I’ve been lion dancing since I was in 7th grade. Growing up I always wanted to be a lion dancer, and never in a million years would I have imagined that I'd end up starting and running one. So when I did it was one of the most exciting things that happened to me, and life for me was starting to look good; I was doing well in school, I finally asked out this girl I had a crush on, and I somehow recruited members for this school lion dance team. I will always rember that day, March 13th, 2020. I remember it was a wet and rainy day, but the rain had stopped for a bit. So we decided to have practice. I remember in the middle of our practice, we had received an email from the school saying that we would shut down. (Ironically, I remember being in 5th period, joking about how I’d take one for the team and get COVID so school would get shut down) I remember everything was just quiet in that moment, then suddenly everyone started to freak out. They worried about their AP exams and their stuff from sports and yearbook, etc. On the inside I was freaking out too, but I tried to keep my composure and tried to get back to practice. But eventually we all decided to end practice early. I remember going with my brother after that to get sushi with our Vietnamese teacher and we just thought it was going to be a short term thing. In the beginning I thought it would be a fun and breezy 3 weeks. But 3 weeks became 3 months. And 3 months became 9 months. I remember just sitting at home and feelin devastated about the current situation. I didn’t think that it would ever be so bad and it’d be such a low point in my life. I remember waking up everyday during summer feeling more and more worthless, with no goal or idea of what to do next. And this thought basically continued into the new school year, but it suddenly got worse. It was the middle of November and I remember jogging and i felt like i was choking, I rember i got home and fell down and just started gasping for air. Later my family got tested and turns out I had COVID. And what I thought was isolation became even more isolated. I was all alone, both emotionally and physically. There comes a time where you become tired of everything and you just lay in bed and stare at the ceiling and wonder, “Why the hell is this happening? Is everything I do a failure? Why do I even have these hopes and aspirations when it seems like the world doesn’t approve of it anyways?” But there was one thing that really comforted me, and that was anime and manga. I remember re-reading one of my favorite series, and a certain line always stuck out to me, especially during my quarantine. It was a simple line said by the protagonist(?), Eren Yeager from Attack on Titan. “We need to keep moving forward, even if we die, even after we die.” I think this line really stuck out to me because it gave me a simple yet unclear solution to this unprecedented situation. I just need to keep moving forward; because there’s really nothing I can do except dwell on all that I've lost. But if I just sit and dwell then I would never know if there’s hope moving forward. Even now as I’m writing this, it is approaching Lunar New Years, but almost everything is cancelled. Sure it hurts to see lion dance teams around the globe take off while mine is stagnant, or see people finding new romance while I’m here getting rejected and ghosted, but what more can I do except continue walking. If I had to sum up my whole lockdown situation with one word, it would be hibernation. I don’t know if lions hibernate, but mine is, and so am I. We’re not resting per se, but waiting for this tough time to pass so that when we come out of hibernation, we come out better and stronger than before.

Living in a pandemic, navigating through the ins and outs of being (almost) 17, and self-reflecting on who I am during quarantine has shaped me into an entirely different person than who I was at the start of 2020. I remember sitting through a speaker presentation for a club I’m in during Transgender Awareness Week; In part because of LGBTQ+ education being moved into virtual spaces and in part because I feel the term now deeply resonates with me, I quickly took this screenshot of the slide defining the term non-binary. Before the pandemic, gender and how I viewed it was never a thought in my head because I often had no time to even reflect on what it meant to be a girl, to be a boy, or to simply exist beyond the binary. But I feel like if this prolonged period of isolation has taught me anything, it’s that gender and my relation to it will always remain an agglomeration of everything and nothing at all, and sometimes that’s perfectly normal.

Tiktok has made a pretty big impact on my life throughout quarantine and my junior year. I got to watch videos and see new trends everyday. Whenever I was feeling down or bored I would resort to tiktok as an escape. I think seeing videos on cooking, music, etc. really helped changed my perspective of life and influenced me into cooking and listening to new music. Although, junior year so far has been difficult and stressful, Tiktok is still my escape from all the piled up school work and to feel like I am connected with the world.

My computer is important to me because it's the one thing getting me through school and quarantine. Without this computer, I wouldn't be able to go to school, I wouldn't be able to see or talk to my friends on Discord and I wouldn't be able to do any of the hobbies I enjoy. This computer gives me the opportunity to see and talk to my friends during a time where doing so could cost me. This computer allows me to finish assignments and join zoom classes but also gives me a chance to get away from school and play video games when I need to. So until the pandemic reaches an end, I'll just be here, at my computer.

Although my friends and I were relatively sad that we couldn't hang out with each other due to going in lockdown, it gave us the best excuse to start a world on Minecraft, and of course, build a McDonald's. There was a lot anxious thoughts, fears, and overall clinical depression. However, through it all, we fought together in unity to overcome not only the external struggles due to quarantine, but also our own internal struggles (that was very much poetic). This screenshot holds a lot of meaning to me because it truly shows how we all truly went through a lot this past year, and how we've been able to adapt to this new lifestyle. Nevertheless, this new way of life really hasn't been that horrendous, and in fact, I'm starting to prefer this type of schedule. At the same time though, I really wish that things could go back to normal, so that way, my friends and I's addiction to Minecraft could cease.

This is a pdf of my award from the annual piano competition. Usually, I would perform in a concert hall with 3 judges and the other contestants. This year, I had to submit my recordings and compete with over 30 entrees. To me, my piano was not the big grand pianos and my setup was not professional as others. After changing songs a month before the due date, I practiced for hours. You think learning an 8-page song in a month is hard, but actually, it was fun with the pressure on. 3 months after submitting, I finally got the news that I won 3rd place. Despite learning a song in a month, I was able to win and place. From this, I learned that hard work never stops and nothing should discourage you. If I gave up when I found out the category I originally applied for was canceled, I wouldn't have won. This was an important event for me because I didn't think I would get close since I was close on time. If I turned back time, I would have initially picked this set of songs and perfected it, even before the quarantine.

To be honest, when it was first announced that there would no longer be in person school last year, I was pretty excited. I knew about the terrible things happening where Covid originated and that it was spreading rapidly, but all I could focus on was that I had been gifted a second summer break. However, like most things, staying at home every single day eventually turned into a negative. Everyday seemed like another day and the weekends lost their value. The situation really dawned down on me when Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year came and went without even a second look. Holidays I tremendously enjoyed in the past no longer had the same spirit and it felt just like another week. Yet I should feel grateful since nothing has changed. I've been lucky to avoid the serious effects of the pandemic so I guess I should count my lucky stars that fate handed me mundane days instead of no days at all.

This is a screenshot of Patrick crying and I felt like it symbolized how I and many other feel about Quarantine and the pandemic in general. At home 24/7 makes me feel depressed and I cry a lot. I also watch a lot of cartoons because there something that make me happy, which is why I chose this photo to include

Quarantine might be one of the most bittersweet experiences of my life. I lost many opportunities, friends, and even parts of myself, as losing my ability to socialize really took a toll on me. However, benefits also sprouted from this, as I manage to discover new things about myself, such as hobbies and interests, and was able to grow as a person. Even thought it was sad to drift from many of my friends, I found how who I my real friends were, and who were the ones that I would stay with for a long time. If I was given a choice to go back in time and be able to live my life without COVID, I might not take it, for this pandemic showed me who I really am, whether it's for the better or worst.

As it almost reaches the 1-year mark since COVID drastically transformed our lives, everything has become a norm. It is normal to go out wearing a mask, it is normal to stay in your house all day, and it is normal to go to school or work online. With schools closed down, Zoom has become a necessity to connect to others. As tiring as it is, we wake up every morning and log in Zoom for hours because it is something we have to do. As high school students, we no longer get the chance to make new friends at school, interact with each other during class, or participate in sports. For most, it is certainly upsetting to not be doing all those things right now, but as time goes by, we can only hope that things will go back to normal soon. For me, I do not mind online-learning and being confined to my room all day. Though it is boring, at least I have technology. Everyday, I communicate and connect with my family and friends through text messages, FaceTime, or Zoom. During a time of unrest, the best thing to have is friends and family, and when we can not come in contact with one another, technology is the only way. Since the start of junior year, my best friends and I talk everyday to compensate for the times we could’ve spent together in person. It is hard to plan safe and fun ways to hang out together, but we find ways to interact, such as, studying together on Zoom or daily FaceTimes. However, as our birthdays and the holidays have passed throughout the year, my friends and I have gone to each other’s houses to surprise each other with gifts. When we do choose to see each other in person, we try our best to ensure that none of us are sick and we are all safe. I hope that soon my friends and I can spend time together without worry and have lots of fun before the end of our high school careers. It is no doubt that we all use technology everyday as it has become an essential part of our lives due to this pandemic. 2020 was arguably the most disastrous year that I have experienced so far, and I have hope that 2021 will be better. As I have been living on the same schedule since March 2020 and the first semester comes to an end, it seems like it has made my junior year go by in a zoom.

I used a meme for an item to describe my Quarantine and I thought it was a good example of what quarantine was like for me since I don’t like showing others especially my parents that I’m having a hard time even when I’m really stressed about so many things at once. 2020 in five words is boring because nothing new was going on since we had to quarantine, lonely because I couldn’t hang out with my friends, slow because every day was pretty much the same and it felt like it wasn’t going to end, different as well as frustrating because we had to learn in a new way and it’s not something that I’m really comfortable with especially with our wifi sometimes being really slow so it makes the meeting laggy. The holidays were barely any different from a regular day except for the fact that there was more food and on Christmas, we had gifts to give and receive. My workspace isn’t really much, just a desk with my school books and binders on the side, my computer in the middle, and a snack for the day in front of my black table lamp on the other side with my school supplies in the drawer. Three things I would include in a quarantine survival kit is my phone/book so I have something to entertain myself with, fuzzy blankets since they’re really soft and I like being cocooned in it and lastly is a bunch of boxes filled with snacks since I like to eat when I watch or read something.

My junior year in high school isn't like any other school year because I could describe it as probably the bumpiest roller coaster I've ever been on. This is because I get to watch Gilmore Girls on Netflix during lunch and lay in bed while logging onto zoom for classes. But the downside is I've been simply alone and away from friends or even teachers for that matter, that I'm supposed to see every week day. Facetime calls are never the same as meeting up with someone in real life so that goes for making up time away from actual school, but I've learned to cherish these moments I have. My family is home majority of the time, and I get to hear my dad play his guitar more often or stay up late with my mom watching Sinister 2 or play Call of Duty Cold War with my brothers. Whatever it is, I'm grateful for this break away from the usual, and I have the opportunity to focus on myself for once. Before quarantine, school was draining me out as I had early classes and I really needed a break, so fortunately, I got one. I've finally found time to think about what I truly want to do in life, and what my future plans are for college because I never really got the time for that during school. I've learned a lot about my interests as well and even time for self-care and all the girly pamper routines. Some days I like to treat myself with homemade pancakes, my favorite, and eat them at any time of day just because I can and I can make them whenever I'd like. Staying home has its pros and cons, but as of now, its important to follow strict protocols in order to safely recover and protect others! so don't forget to wear a mask and social distance when you leave the house because we're all in this together!!

My name is Annie Nguyen and during quarantine, I have discovered my love for painting. I soon developed a talent for painting over the months and I curated this skill using the hours freed up by the pandemic. Locked indoors, I had nothing but free time. With free time to spend, I devoted all that time to painting characters from anime series and beloved movies. At first, I would display these painting on my bed mantle. However, I would soon run out of room as I painted more! Then I thought of the genius idea to assemble them as a collage on the side of my dresser. Now as I look at these painting, I am reminded of the positive of this pandemic.

To me, I have yet seen any changes in my life due to the pandemic. Before I have always been home and the only place I would leave my house for was school. The only thing that has change is waking up early and trying to get to school on time. Since the pandemic has closed school, I just needed to wake up and join the zoom call with one click of the button. When I do go outside, I have to wear a mask and sometimes I do forget but It hasn't bothered me since the places I go are near by and it didn't take much to go back to my house. This picture is important to me as is really describes how my experience of the pandemic has been. Lazy and tired are two words that describes how I been feeling throughout this pandemic.

This journal entry was written as a part of the American Studies class at California High School in San Ramon, California. I cannot believe it is already almost fall. I was thinking about it yesterday and it makes me really sad. Quarantine took so much of our normal life away, and it all just went by too fast. When I really think about it, so much has happened and changed for me over these months and some of which I wish never ended or changed. All the good times I had feel like a blur and all the rough times went by so slow. I wish I remembered more. In a usual year, I would look forward to Labor Day so much. This year I didn’t get to do what I normally do. Labor day usually comes by so slow because I just cannot wait for it to happen but this year it passed me up. Lately that has been all I could think about.

This journal entry was written as a part of the American Studies class at California High School in San Ramon, California. Over the summer i guess i did change quite a bit. The main thing that changed was really my hobbies or rather, my newfound disinterest in my old set of hobbies. I always took my hobby far too seriously and it turns out that when i didn’t have any pressure to keep pursuing it, i kind of dislike it a bit. I had a bit of an existential crisis over it but it’s been nice to take a break.. I’ve also gotten used to school a lot better. I’m a lot more responsible nowadays and i have no missing work so that’s nice. It’s partly because of all the time i don’t use up on my hobby but it’s mostly that i just find find it fun to organize my computer. Now that i think about it i really don’t want school to start. I won’t have the choice to stay home because then i’d lose touch with my friends but I’ll really miss not being mentally drained from talking to strangers. There’s also the fact that i don’t want my room to be filled up with papers that i’ll just stare at become overwhelmed by. There’s just so many reasons that i don't want to go back to in-person.

This journal entry was written as a part of the American Studies class at California High School in San Ramon, California Throughout Covid-19, I’ve learned that I don’t really have any hobbies or anything that interests me because I realized all I did was playing video games after school. So I changed myself to be more active by doing some workouts and reading every day. Even though the first try didn’t work very well to keep my routine organize, I felt it was getting better each day since there’s much time I can spend my time on myself. I hope this would make my life a little better.

I spent my entire summer walking around San Ramon with one of my best friends. I had plans to go to Hawaii and to go see my Dad in Utah a lot but those plans changed because of COVID19. My mom didn’t really think it was a good idea to allow me on a plane to run around another state in the middle of a pandemic. So my days were spent walking the Iron Horse trail to marketplace, central park, Target, Cal High, or pretty much any park that exists around here. Finding things to do was definitely a struggle but we mainly just wanted some company and someone to talk to so we didn’t have to sit in our houses alone all day. Everyday was definitely an adventure and we made a lot of memories throughout the summer that we will remember forever. It was the summer where you couldn’t do anything or go anywhere because everything was closed but we tried to make the most out of it and ended up a lot closer and happier than we were before the pandemic.

COVID-19 literally shook my life straight. Before, my life was full of procrastination, laziness, and just simply unmotivated. I didn’t know my purpose in life but now I came to the realization that I am a certified bad bytch! I was finally able to Launch my second company Peasant Cosmetics and relaunch my slime company Peasant Slimes. I did months and months of research on the hair industry so I can came in prepared to dominate and take over. All companies I have started have my 100% pride behind them, meaning no matter how large it grow to, none of it will be sold. I will always own 100% of the company since I didn’t get into business for the money and I would never really do anything in my life except for 9-5 to get money. I also used several extremely fragranced lotions from Bath and Body works which gives me a few scents to smell for nostalgia into the future.