Items

• 2021-01-26

  COVID 19

  It is January 2021 and Covid 19 has now infected almost 100 million people around the world. Although I have not experienced Covid first hand it still effects everyones day to day life, simple things like going to the grocery store or even school put us at risk. Covid 19 was difficult for everybody and my biggest struggle was making sure to keep in touch. I found it was easy with all the time at home to just hide in your bubble. Do online school, finish homework, go outside, watch some television and repeat. It started out like this but as time went on I realized the importance of getting out of routines and trying new things which significantly made my quarantine better. I facetimed friends, did zoom call secret Santa gift exchanges, walked the dogs, reached out to family. Although it was rough, This whole experience truly made me appreciate the small things and learn that going through times like these are really when everyone needs to come together and support one another.
• 2021-01-25

  COVID Thoughts and the Journey through the pandemic

  I thought the pandemic was not as bad as I expected for me. Since soccer was still open, I got to get a lot of physical activity during the pandemic and I love playing soccer. School was different since the first semester I was online the whole time. This was very frustrating since I had no social interaction with any of my friends. The second semester however I transferred schools and it is going much better now than before. In general the pandemic was very hard to get through with all of the rules you had to follow and everything else, but it also made some memories.
• 
  2021-01-22

  Pandemic Webcam

  I selected my item because I use the webcam almost every day. It connects to the pandemic because the only reason I have it in the first place is because of online school requiring webcams.
• 
  2021-01-22

  The Push For Fitness

  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.
• 
  2021-01-22

  Life Goes On

  This image is what the city looks like at about 350 in elevation at around 2AM. The city lights are clear, the air is cool, and you catch your breath as you reach the top. There are rocks you lean on just as you begin to realize how peaceful it is, and more importantly, how much you needed this. This was me, one spontaneous night during quarantine. Because we were aware there wouldn’t be any people there at this viewpoint at 2AM, it was an open area, and because our sleep schedule was beyond our ability to control, going here was the best idea yet. We have been unintentionally forced to become part of a system we are simply not accustomed to: online school. Being a junior high school student during this, for obvious reasons, has not made this adjustment easy. Being bombarded with homework assignments, quizzes, tests, due dates, etc. my stress levels have been at an all time high. My mind is constantly running in circles and I had felt as though I would never get a break. But, this specific night, sitting there in silence made me realize, “This is my escape.” There is so much peace in the world if we choose to acknowledge and it is most important to know that life moves on. We struggle in school, we live in a coronavirus prone town, we feel drained from the repetitive days. But life goes on. And the most crucial part about that is that it goes on to so many more better things that we are not ready for.
• 
  2021-01-22

  Pandemic School

  School has always been a great place go to to learn and make friends in an open, lively environment. With a pandemic going on, school has become a very isolated experience. It's hard being stuck in a room with two laptops (because one alone doesn't even work fast enough with Zoom on), with 20 pens (15 of which have no ink), and a limited space so that you have to sit at he very edge to take a test so your math teacher can see you and your workspace... Covid-19 sucks.
• 2021-01-22

  School

  When students were told that we wouldn’t be going to school for two weeks because of COVID-19 I had no reaction. It did not surprise me and I didn’t really care because it was only going to be two weeks. Two weeks turned into three weeks, then a month, then four months, and now almost a year. I do not like online school but I also don’t hate it. Getting good grades was always important to me and it was how I identified myself. If I had good grades that meant I was a smart and hardworking person. Now, I don’t care that much about my grades. I don't stress about getting a bad score on a test, I acknowledge it and I don't beat myself up about it. As a new year resolution, I told myself to not stress out about school because this school year is different and I shouldn’t push myself too much. My sleeping schedule has been improving and I’ve been able to pick up old hobbies.
• 2021-01-21

  How I was Affected by Testing Positive for Covid

  My experience testing positive for Covid was not enjoyable at all. I tested positive for Covid back in April, and I had almost all of the symptoms of Covid for about 10 days. My life was affected by Covid because I was super sick, I didn't feel like going to school (even though it was online), and I also stayed inside the house and couldn't exercise for about 3 weeks, because I was still too sick and weak feeling. My life was also affected by testing positive for Covid because I found out a couple months later, after scientists knew more about Covid, that I most likely had antibodies now and would not get as sick as before even if I did catch Covid again. After I found that out, I was less scared to go outside and be around people, like at the store, at Wellness Wednesdays, and even outside if I went to run or play tennis or walk my dog. Lastly, my life was affected by testing positive for Covid because after I found out, it was kind of scary and my hair also started to fall out afterwards because of the strain that Covid had put on my body.
• 2021-01-14

  Learning online

  Remote learning was not that bad. I got to work with my own comfort. I would wake up, go to class and then at break I would eat breakfast. On breaks I could also watch TV. The only downsides to it was that I couldn't see my friends that much, or if I had a question, it was hard to get to a teacher. I had plenty of good routines that I enjoyed.
• 2020-12-15

  covid 19

  when quarantine first started I thought this was going to last for only 2 weeks so I thought me and my friends would go mountain biking and I thought I got covid because for a week straight I was coughing and had bad chest pains and I couldn't taste anything. I was stuck in my house for like a week and half. but then 4 months past we were still doing online school, bored out of minds it seems this was never going to end. but then all of sudden there was hope but then there was spike in cases so everything shut down again and here we are present times.
• 2020-12-15

  The advantages of online school

  For many kids, online school has ruled their learning, spending hours on a screen. I'm Callum Simons, an Eighth Grader enrolled at Oaks Christian School. Before the pandemic, my grades were not as good as they were during the Pandemic. During the pandemic, I had a lot more time on my hands, therefore taking my time on school assignments and making sure they were top quality work. Before, I would not take as much time, as I would have soccer practice, Band, and other extracurricular activities I would go to. My test and exam grades also went up, as I felt I was in an even safer place then school: My home. I felt very calm and at peace, as I had no teacher watching us, and getting distracted by other classmates was not possible. I had an 82% in math at the start of the 3rd quarter, and by the end of the school year, I had an 89%! A con about online school is the fact I don't get to socialize with my friends, and I have become a lot more clingy and nervous when others don't respond to my texts. As you can see, there are some pros and Cons with online school, and this has affected my life greatly, as I go to school 5 times a week for 8 months.
• 
  2020-11-12

  HISTW 300 Interview of Stephen Von Der Ahe

  This was an assignment that I did as part of a course on the global history of food. As a class, we interviewed each other to see how one's experience with covid was going. In particular, we asked questions about how one's experience with food has changed since the covid lockdown began.
• 2020-10-13

  The Pandemic Lifestyle

  When this whole pandemic started I was startled. I had to start living my life in paranoia. Everything I did had to be careful, safe, and with caution. Covid 19 has become one of the United states biggest worries. How do you know if your friend is sick?; but she is known to have severe allergies. How do you know if your father has covid?; but, he gets really bad back pains on a regular basis. All the common symptoms of covid are also regular issues in someone's daily life. Not knowing who's sick, who isn't, who carries it, who's immune to it, is very scary. Having to be quarantined for months just made me feel like I was being held captive. Not by choice but by demand. The fear of being sick and not knowing. Knowing that this deadly virus could have infected your neighbor who sleeps on the bed on the other side of your wall. This pandemic has brought me nothing but fear. Fear of dying, fear of being infected, fear of losing a loved one in the process. It all just comes down to faith. During this pandemic that's what I tried to have most of. Following precautions to avoid it, staying distant from my family, not going to the fun places i enjoy.School will never be the same. Having to do online learning is difficult. The focus is harder and understanding what's going on in class is frustrating. Not only that but civilians had to learn how to adapt to the new life. A mask became a part of everyone's daily necessities. Walking into stores without a mask is prohibited and even walking your dog now has an extra twist to it. Having to walk 6 feet away from each other has become a primary concern. While I was sacrificing my boredom other people were sacrificing their lives. Doctors, nurses, cops are all the important people who make sure our lives are safe. They put their lives in danger to protect our own by choice. While people complain about not having fun, workers are fighting for their lives everyday, and they may not even know it. They are at risk every step they take, out of their home, or office, or facility, wherever they are based. They are taking a risk to save civilians who can barely listen to protocols that are given. While people are complaining about not being able to go outside,they aren't wearing their mask. How do you expect for things to change if no one can make it better on their own? That right there, is a question you should be asking yourself.
• 2020-07

  Making Masks

  Not much changed for my family when the pandemic started. In the beginning, all we really had to do was switch our school and work environments to online, but after that it stayed relatively the same. Every day was about the same for all of us; Wake up, do things for school/work, maybe take a nap, and occasionally hang out with the rest of the family. After a while it began to get monotonous, and we all eventually began to take up new little hobbies to keep ourselves entertained. My mother, for example, began to make homemade masks. When we were young, she’d often make little outfits or stuffed animals for us, so this type of work wasn’t too difficult for her. When working on the masks, she’d often ask for help from me or my sister, and as quarantine went on, we all began to pitch in on her little mask-making project. With too many masks for just our family, we’d give them off to friends, or bring them to work with us (when we had the opportunity to go back). Weeks, then months went by, and we began to come up with better ways for making masks. It was a fun little pastime, allowing us to do something constructive with our time while also being able to bond as a family. I’ll admit my time in quarantine wasn’t terribly rough (at least compared to others’ experiences), but it was incredibly tedious for a little while. Just being able to do things like this with my family, and being able to help others, was enough to break up the long months of quarantine.
• 2020-09-18

  Golfing During COVID

  I first became uneasy about the coronavirus when the US government started to make mandates about what businesses were to close, the limits of crowds, and when they made wearing a face mask in public mandatory. At first, I did not notice a significant difference in everyday life. The biggest change for me was moving out of my dorm room at Duquesne University and going home where I would complete the rest of the semester online. It was a very different experience in the sense I never would have thought that I would be completing my first full year of college education at home. With that being said, I got very used to attending class and completing work virtually. Moreover, as time went on, I realized at the time that the biggest change, the weirdest aspect of the pandemic was that almost every business was closed (except for the essential businesses) or at the very least open for only a few hours out of the day and there were many restrictions on the amount of people allowed in a given building at any time. For the first three or four weeks of quarantine, I struggled to find activities to do while I wasn’t in a Zoom session or doing homework. That was the worst part for me because I am someone who loves to be doing something all the time. It is hard for me to sit around inside all day not doing much. So, when May 1st came around, the government allowed golf courses to open in Pennsylvania. I have always enjoyed golfing in my free time even in the years prior to this pandemic. But when golf was allowed to open back up in PA, I began to golf more and more as it was one of the few activities that I could enjoy. Golf is not a sport where someone would come into contact with very many people in general so, I began golf quite frequently as it was a perfect way for me to ‘de-stress’ from being cooped up in my house attending zoom calls and doing homework problems for what seemed like one long day that didn’t really end. That brings me to my next point which was that pandemic life took a toll on my mental health. Waking up every day knowing that I was strongly encouraged to stay at home and if, in the case I did leave the house, I had to keep my distance from other people. To me, it felt like pandemic life was a very cyclical way of living which lacked variance. It was the same thing every day for weeks on end. Just that state-of-mind was probably the largest toll that pandemic had on my life. Fortunately, though, it seems as though we are through the worst parts of the coronavirus pandemic. I am seeing more and more businesses re-open which is encouraging. And hopefully we can continue being safe in order to get over the virus and back to normal life.
• 2020-04

  My COVID Story

  My experience in the COVID-19 pandemic has been boring, to be completely honest. I have been fortunate enough that the disease hasn't touched my immediate family, though there were some moments we were scared because of cases at my step-dad's workplace. The main way the virus has affected me is my education. My school took the last few weeks off of my 8th grade year and switched to online school. At first we all assumed it would only last a couple of weeks, but eventually it stretched till the end of the school year. Around two weeks into the online schooling, me and my best friend decided to 'send' packages back and forth to keep each other busy because we had nothing to do at home, and by send I mean she'd come over and drop something off on my porch and I'd give her something to take home. So we did that and it lasted all summer, although it did fade into just letters instead of actual things to keep us busy. That was a big part of my COVID-19 experience. Another part was not being able to visit my dad, who lives in Canada. We were unsure whether we could afford the flight this summer anyway, but COVID restrictions kind of just sealed the deal and made it impossible to go up and see him. I haven't lost close family like some people during this pandemic, but it has touched my family nonetheless. I lost my great-aunt and my great-papa this summer. I know a lot of people who contracted the virus but lived to tell the tale. Really, I have just been affected like most, my education was changed a little bit and for a while my parents went grocery shopping without me and my sister. I guess to close this up, the package I sent a picture of is important to me because it created a new... tradition, you could say, between me and my best friend.
• 
  2020-04-20

  Humans of Covid-19 AU: Zev

  “I’m excited to do everything that I can’t do now because of corona. I hate coronavirus, it’s annoying. School on the computer is boring. I can’t see my friends. Now that I think of it, I do miss school. People need to stop doing what the police tell them not to do. I saw two teenagers get told off by police for kissing in the park, and also people sunbaking. I'm going to appreciate seeing my friends more once this is over.” Instagram post on Zev, a student, and their experience during the pandemic, which was created by a psychology student living in Melbourne who was interested to hear about how COVID-19 was impacting on different peoples’ lives.
• 2020-05-31

  At-Home Learning and Lost opportunites

  As a junior in Garden Grove, attending GGHS, it is becoming harder and harder to watch my senior friends not being able to walk to graduate, but instead have it on Zoom. They could not have even enjoyed their last moments with their friends or teachers. But as a junior, my school has obtained a "credit or no credit policy" which brings a lot of stress to the majority of us because we have been working so hard for our GPA and now it does not even count for college, and our SAT possibilities got cancelled. So what makes us stand out? How will colleges see us? Many relied on our junior year to find internships, like me at a preschool, or to volunteer and find extra cirriculars just so we can have a good image for the colleges we want to attend.
• 
  2020-05-09

  A Loss of Words for a Season That Barely Started

  This year was supposed to be my third year in swim season. Being in varsity swim since freshman year, I've always looked up to give everything I got in my races and maybe even try to break at least one record by my senior year. With COVID-19 cancelling our entire season of swim, I was shocked in many ways because I have never expected the sport I'm passionate about to be cancelled. Not only was this tragic, but also all the hard work that I put into to make CIF 2020 went down the drain. I don't even have a pool in my backyard and when the pool opens back up again, I will be as sluggish as ever. COVID-19 affected my physical abilities in general and as I attempt to exercise with different methods besides swimming such as the popular Chloe Ting's workout, I barely saw any result and gained 7 lbs in the process. Thank you COVID-19 for ruining my swim experience.
• 
  2020-05-31

  Coronary Diaries

  My story is a simple one. Day after day is an assignment from my online classes and I am extremely grateful, because my day is safe and secure. On the other hand, there are people on the front lines constantly exposed to the dangers that are keeping us all in.
• 2020-05-30

  My Room

  I am staring at my computer right now writing this story as an online assignment. It is worth 20 points, but does it matter now? The pandemic had put everyone in quarantine and made the CA school system a pass/ no pass grade system. A couple of weeks into quarantine already, maybe it's the 9th? or is it the 10th? I've lost counts of days and time as the clock ticks and my door remain shut. People outside my window seem not to care anymore because they're...well they're outside. People are protesting against lockdown and that doesn't really help with the infection rate. My thought on this is simple, population control. Whether it be man-made or just nature doing its thing. Still, I remain to be in my room. Weeks have gone by that I didn't step foot outside and my mom began to grow some concern. But not that I didn't want to go outside, I couldn't. The online assignments are dropping like crazy and seem to have no end. I remembered the day my doctor said to give myself only 2 hours of screen time. Now I am just on my devices the moment I woke up to the moment I sleep. Sometimes I just stare at the walls and just try to keep myself entertained by coming up with little story or skit that I might write a script for. Other times I just sleep. It was heaven, sleeping that is. I've begun to sleep more and more but soon, that got boring as well. My desk is really messy, and my piano is piling with finished or unfinished homework. Oh, also I'm running for my class president! Made rap video and a lot of people liked. Right now it got around 1,650 views on Instagram, so that cheered me up. Looking around my room once more as I am writing this, I just realized that there's a lot of paper on my wall. Most of them are reminders and the others are just random script Ideas. To describe my experience during COVID-19 in one word it would be "Messy". My room is messy. The people outside protesting are in a way "messy". The people afraid and scrambling for supply are "messy". The politicians are "messy". The world is in a mess. But It is what it is.
• 
  2020-05-27

  A Junior's Experience in Quarantine

  I wanted to share my story with being in high school, especially junior year - the most important year for college applications - and being in quarantine. I think everyone has different opinions about being stuck at home and I wanted to share mine, one some can relate to.
• 
  2020-04-01

  Online school

  Due to Covid-19 all schools have been required to do online school. This image represents students having to sit in their house all day doing school work and not being allowed near others
• 
  2020-03-22

  My Life in China During the Coronavirus

  Ten weeks ago, I was in Beijing. I did not have to wear a mask, I did not have to get my temperature checked. I was with a close friend of mine. While they were worried about this virus, I shrugged it off. "We have a new virus every year," I said--"This will be no big deal, I'm not worried." I still feel terrible about that conversation exchange. A few weeks later, I was canceling my holiday to South Korea. A couple weeks after that, China had reached 40,000+ cases. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. I was stuck inside. I slipped into what felt like an endless ocean of the blues. I felt sad, worried, I was contacting those most important to me almost every chance I got. Now, after 10 weeks, China is slowly starting to return to normal. This picture, taken by Joe Larrea, shows me out and about for the first time since the pandemic began. We have been teaching online for 7 weeks now, with uncertainty on when we'll go back. However, it's nice to see that the city is finally starting to come back to life, even if it is still not as booming as it usually is. We still cannot leave without masks, or enter anywhere without temperature checks. But the country is slowly starting to open up again. What's considered normal is starting to return, albeit at a slow rate. Now, the rest of the world is reaching the problems that China experienced a few weeks ago. Hopefully, the rest of the globe can combat this as well, and one day it'll all seem like a bad dream.