(03/16/2020)
Dear Diary,
Today was my first day of online school. Everything is so different. My teachers are still trying to figure everything out. They said this shouldn’t be for too long so we should still be working towards studying for MCAS and finals. Since we go to Boston Latin Academy although we are doing online school, we are probably still going to be getting tests every week. I wonder how we are going to finish our projects that were due next week. I think that I am going to enjoy this two-week break because school has been very stressful. I still don’t understand why we are even going on the two-week break. I understand that there is coronavirus and it’s like all that is on the news right now but why does that affect us and the school? Is it that big of a deal that they have to close schools? Boston Public Schools usually doesn’t just let us go on a break. They sent a lot of students home and everyone had the choice to borrow a Chromebook. A lot of us left our textbooks and things in our locker so I don’t know how we are going to do most of the work they used to do in class. I’m not complaining though because I had so much free time today! Getting all that free time and less work is completely worth having to see my friends through a camera. I can literally do school from my bedroom! I also can sleep for much longer since I don’t have to get ready and get to the school building! In addition, my back is taking a break from carrying that extremely heavy backpack that had textbooks. I would literally have to walk with it all around. It was like I was carrying the world on my shoulders. Perhaps now that I have a lot of free time I can learn how to do something new. Hopefully, we get a longer break because I am really getting used to this schedule. I still get to see my friends through Facetime so there isn’t much of a change in my relationship with my friends. I’m afraid that the Big Brother Big Sister organization is not going to let my big sister Stacie and me go on outings to fun places. As of right now, they are still letting us go out with each other, and now that I am not at school, there are more options of times that we can go on outings.
(04/13/2020)
Dear Diary,
This weekend my mom and I were not feeling well and we had fevers so we got COVID tested. I was scared because I thought that they were going to put something up my nose like I have heard they do to other people but in reality, they just did a mouth swab. Even before the results came in my mom and I went into isolation. The results came back yesterday. My mom and I tested positive but my siblings and my father did not. My mom and I were devastated when we got the news because that meant we would have to stay quarantined away from the rest of our family. I don’t understand because although on the news they say the symptoms of COVID include loss of smell and taste, I only had a fever for one night. I am so scared, all I see on the news are cases of people dying from COVID. I am also very confused, I do not feel anything but I am supposed to have what seemed like a lot of symptoms and I have none of them other than the fever I had the other night. Many people including doctors are calling me and asking me how I am doing. When I go out of my room I have to wear an uncomfortable mask and gloves. I miss being around my siblings and being able to hug and feel other people in my house. It is so hard to stay positive when I can’t get out of my room. I feel like an animal locked in a cage. I am so mad at the fact that I can not do anything I used to do. I used to be able to go with Stacie every other weekend and now I can only Facetime her. I just feel so alone and isolated from everything I love. This situation would have been different if my entire family had COVID. I barely do anything anymore, just school, work, and sleep. Everything has changed for me. It has only been two days and I am already losing my mind. It is weird how my life can change in a matter of a week.
(03/20/2021)
Dear Diary,
I can’t believe that a year has passed! A year ago when I was in seventh grade, I thought we were just going on a two-week break. Now I am going into the last term of my 8th-grade year! When we were in school and they told us we were going to be back in two weeks then more and more time went by. As that time went by I started to see myself change so much. Since I had so much free time I signed myself up for everything that would help me get my mind off everything that was happening around me. I applied for two scholarships and during my second scholarship, I had COVID which made it much harder for me to think positively. I signed up for the student council at my school to help my school improve online learning. I became a teacher’s assistant and now help all the students who are having their first year of school at BLA. I signed myself up for the baking club which is so much fun! Even though I didn’t have much time left to do any other clubs I learned how to crochet which is something that I enjoy doing so much. I also signed up for Teens in Print which has been an amazing experience for me. I have changed so much from the person that I was before COVID happened. I wouldn’t change anything that I did during quarantine. After the quarantine was over I was able to go on more outings with my sister Stacie. Even though a lot of positive things occurred in your life during the pandemic, there are also things that I miss about my life before COVID-19. I miss talking to my friends as much as I did before COVID. I miss being able to not have a mask on every time I go outside. I miss being in a classroom with desks where the kids didn’t have to social distance. I miss traveling to see my relatives. There are so many more things I miss but after all this time they don’t seem as important to me anymore. After all that has happened, I am grateful for the time I had to learn more about myself and who I am.
Holidays during COVID
It whispered change
