I actually miss school

Entry 1:

For the Fourth of July, I went camping with my family and my two dogs. We packed up all of our stuff and then realized there was no way it was all going to fit in the car. We decided to take two cars so the dogs wouldn’t be squished or have a tent fall on them. 

Luckily camping wasn’t very different than it would be if we went before the pandemic. We didn’t really run into anyone except for when they would walk past us and my dogs would bark. Camping with two large Pit Bulls is basically awful. We had to untangle their leashes every five minutes and then sleep with them on top of us while they’re covered in dirt and mud. 

Other than that, the only interesting thing in my life right now is learning how to drive. I am currently in that weird phase where I am obsessed with driving all the time, and then when I actually get in the car I start to get nervous. I hope that will get better with more practice. 

During the quarantine, I have become so bored that I taught myself how to solve a Rubik’s cube for absolutely no reason. I have started to get really interested in it and I want to get faster. It currently takes me about one minute to solve. Since then I have also bought 2×2 and 4×4 Rubik’s cubes and learned how to solve them. I don’t think this is the kind of hobby that will benefit my future in any way but I think that is okay for right now. 

I am also overwhelmed by the amount of homework I have for my AP classes this summer. I am taking AP Chemistry, AP English Language, and AP Calculus and I am starting to think I overestimated my ability to get work done. I hope that I like the classes and that I pass the exams so that it will be worth it in the long run. 

I think that since I have nothing to do this summer, I am really looking forward to going back to school, just so that I have things to do and I can see my friends. Hopefully, I will be going to Cape Cod a few times throughout the summer, just to switch up locations whenever possible. My parents both work fully online so it is possible to travel whenever we want. I think it will be the key to staying sane throughout the summer. 

Something that I have been struggling with is the fact that all of my friends have met up at least once during the summer, and I am not able to. I have asthma, so it would be riskier for me to go outside at the moment, which I understand, but it really sucks. I want to see my friends and hug them but I can’t. 

One thing I have been thinking about recently is the fact that I missed my school’s Europe trip in April. I was supposed to go to England, France, Italy, and Belgium with my french class, but it got canceled. It is very frustrating that we still haven’t gotten information on whether we will be getting refunds. We were told that there was nothing about pandemics written in our insurance and that we wouldn’t be getting refunds, but we might get a refund due to our flights being canceled. I wasn’t really upset about missing it at the time because I was so overwhelmed with many other things, but now I am really disappointed that I won’t get to go. I was supposed to be going with one of my best friends, and traveling without my family for the first time. I feel like that was a huge milestone and opportunity that was taken away from me. Hopefully, another opportunity like that will come up. 

Entry 2:

Something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently is the fact that everything changed so quickly because of COVID-19. One day I was going to school every day, seeing the number of people with coronavirus rising every day, but not worrying too much about it. The next day I saw that school was canceled for six weeks straight. I thought that it was a bit excessive to immediately say it would be six weeks, but now it seems like they should have anticipated it being longer. 

I remember the last day of school so vividly. My mom decided to drive me to school instead of taking the train with my brother. I’d say that the average number of students in each class that day was five. Even three of my teachers didn’t show up. The whole day was lessons structured around coronavirus and a bunch of questions that weren’t answered. When would we be coming back? How are we going to do work from home? Do we still have MCAS and finals? 

After school was really hard for us. My mom was nagging me to get to the car and not to touch or hug anyone. I barely got to say goodbye to my friends and my boyfriend except for quickly seeing them on the way out (I managed to sneak a quick hug from my boyfriend lol). I only took my English binder home, which was a huge mistake because I left at least four sweaters in my locker. 

It seemed like we went from zero to one hundred in only a day. My parents started cleaning everything that came into the house and no one was allowed to touch packages or groceries unless they washed their hands for a very long time. I remember learning about coronavirus for the first time as my friend explained a meme about it to me. And then, less than a month later, we were locked in our houses and forced to do everything online. I feel awful for the families with many children and that can’t afford enough devices for them to do school all day. I had my computer break at least 20 times, so I can’t imagine what it would be like for someone who has it worse than me. 

I am extremely grateful for the family that I have because without them I think I would go crazy. My parents learned how to make bread, kept everyone entertained as best as they could, and still managed to get everything done for work. My mom also made masks for us and a lot of our neighbors. I am grateful for my brother who finds time in between Fortnite games to hang out with me. I am grateful for all of my pets who have gotten 20x more attention from me in the past four to five months than in the past 16 years of my life. I know that it will take a while for things to go back to normal, but what we have managed to accomplish during this time amazes me.

Entry 3:

Two days ago I burned my arm doing something very stupid. I had just gotten dinner, which was french onion soup (delicious), and I was walking up the stairs to go to my room when I tripped. My slides got caught on the lip of one of the stairs, and I fell down about six steps. The soup got all over me, mainly my left arm, but also my clothes and my hair. I also bruised my leg and ribs. 

I think I was very shocked because it didn’t hurt that bad for the first minute. My dad made me run my arm under cold water for 20 minutes while he called the doctor. Luckily my arm wasn’t blistering so we didn’t have to go to the hospital. I just put a wet rag on it and went to bed. In the morning, it looked fine and only hurt a little, so that was that. 

Also, I have a new roommate that lives in my bathroom. There has been a spider in the top corner of my shower that won’t come down so I can kill it. I think it has been there for roughly three weeks, hopefully not laying eggs. It seems like the spider only moves when I am in the shower, so I always have to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t crawl into my hair or something. I think I’m gonna name her Janice, the first name that popped into my head. 

I have a bad history with bugs and insects, so I absolutely hate them. I think I was six or seven years old when a bug flew into my eye and I couldn’t get it out for a very long time. I had to go to the doctors where they got it out. They forced my eye open so they could find the bug, and they also saw that it made a very painful cut on my eyeball. I think that scarred me for life, making me very scared of all bugs. I hope me and Janice can just share the space until she eventually dies because it doesn’t look like she’ll be coming down anytime soon. 

There are some big changes happening to my room in the near future. I currently have royal blue walls and black and white curtains. I hate the way it looks even though it seems like everyone else loves it. My birthday present was being able to paint my room, and I chose a light grey color because I think it will match better with everything in my room. I am hoping to buy new curtains because you can see the cats if you walk by my house and I need that to change. I chose them and the paint color when I first moved to this house, and I have changed a lot since then, so I am excited to change it up.