Everybody's life has changed. And what would have been unthinkable a few weeks ago is now the new "normal." We wanted to see what that meant first-hand, so we reached out to a few people and asked them to share their stories.
Last week, we introduced you to four people, who are now "sheltering in place" at home, like the rest of us. Sophia is a senior in high school-- looking forward, until recently, to sports championships, school dances and everything that is part of being a senior, including that once-in-a-lifetime high school graduation. Brett is a senior also, at University of Maryland in College Park, who just moved back home, and is now envisioning how his final two months of college will play out. Iris works in an office, but now she is forced to work at home with four adult children in the house...while she takes online courses herself, and prepares to get married. And Michelle is a teacher, wondering now exactly what that means and how she can really teach, without a real classroom.
SOPHIA (High School Senior)
Last week on Thursday we started online school which has been pretty interesting so far. It’s hard to get into a routine but I’m trying to start waking up earlier so I can finish my 4.5 hours of work as soon as possible. So far my teachers seem to be easing us into the work which is nice because it is hard to stay focused especially when my phone is so close by. It is hard to teach myself some of the material but I can reach out if I need help. One thing that’s nice is that me and friends have been zoom calling during lunch time and we eat and talk together and its really nice to talk to people other than my family. Although I like talking on the zoom call it makes me miss seeing them every day in school. Also a lot of my friends have been committing to colleges and it sucks that I can’t hug and congratulate them in person, but I’m trying to do something fun that we can all do online to spend time with each other.
BRETT (College Senior)
I have lost track of how many days we have been in voluntary quarantine for the coronavirus pandemic, but I do know it has been a long time. I thought I would try waking up early to get motivated to do something fun and exciting, but that would last only a few days. Before I knew it, I was back to waking up at 3 PM and eating breakfast, passing my father who was eating a snack and who had been up since 6:30 in the morning, making me feel bad about myself. The only time I see the outdoors is when I take walks one to two times a day around the neighborhood. Other than that, I have been catching up on shows that I have been meaning to watch on Netflix, trying to come up with new things to cook with what is left in the house, and playing video games. All and all, there is really not much going on, but in times like these, it really allows you to reflect. I miss being with friends in College Park, I miss hanging out with friends from high school in Baltimore without worrying about ‘social distancing,’ and I miss the simple pleasure of eating out at a restaurant or going to a bar and being around a large group of people. Hanging out with people and going to restaurants and bars are two activities that you take for granted while you are doing it, but when they are taken away from you all of the sudden, it really makes you think.
IRIS (Office Executive , Now Working at Home)
I work in a fundraising department for an academic medical institution and luckily we have been really busy setting up platforms for those who want to donate to our hospital and our research. While I am not getting as much down time as many of my friends, I am acutely aware of how lucky I am to be gainfully employed and to be involved in work that is making a difference to the outcomes of this pandemic.
I had a zoom meeting with a colleague this week and I noticed she was wearing her work badge. I asked her why she was wearing her badge and she let me know that it helps her to separate when she is working from when she is off, I thought this was brilliant as that has been a big struggle. The other day, I snuck out to buy some milk and eggs and wound up i on an impromptu Zoom call with my boss while I was in Walmart. .
I would love to hear any tips you may have on creating work from home boundaries or more importantly for quarantining a 20 year old boy with no virus symptoms, recipes for large families are also welcome.
MICHELLE (Teacher)
Welp, I definitely started my 2 days of preparation with excitement and anticipation of creating interesting, connective lessons. I am a Spanish teacher, so it goes without saying that my classes are interactive and rely heavily on verbal communication. Language is not learned by memorizing lists – if it were I would be as fluent in Italian as DuoLingo says I am….
I found that I quickly became paralyzed by the technology choices available to me. I found so many resources on how to create amazing on-line language lessons, I couldn’t actually pick and choose. Finally, I made myself dive in to creating voice-over lessons and videos using a few cool tools.
I am, frankly, embarrassed to tell you – you probably would not believe me - the hours I spent on creating just 2 days of lessons. I actually enjoyed creating the lessons and was proud of my work! I was making those happy connections I anticipated in my last blog, right????
Ummm, As I saw the frustration of my own children watching lesson after lesson on their computers, I decided to re-watch my own after a couple days. BLAH!
Fail #1: Sadly, I will probably not be a famous you-tuber, after all! My lessons seemed a bit slow and dry, despite that I thought they were gonna be amazing. “WOW, WE LOVE ON-LINE SPANISH!,” the students would exclaim! Well, amigos, the spark we create in class was far from replicated and, I am pretty sure, there is no way I reached each student in an authentic way. Fortunately, I think they still like me, for now.
BUT this leads me to Success #1: I did not throw my computer across the room! This was a major win by the time our on-line faculty meeting ended at 4:30 pm on Friday. Success #2 begins tomorrow. I will not be waking up at 5:30 am (that is definitely very cool) and I am going to give that balance thing another try.
Pura vida!
If you missed everyone's first story last week, just click here to read them now.