Get to know our community through interviews with students, parents, siblings, and faculty members about their experience with the shelter-in-place and things they are looking forward to.
IN TODAY’S POST:
Hannah D., Grade 9 | Dashiell H., Grade 5 | Delphine Priest, Parent
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HANNAH D., GRADE 9
What is one thing you have learned about yourself during quarantine?
I really don’t like days when I’m not doing anything. If I don’t do anything, I’m going to lose it. I have to be productive, or I feel bad about myself. By productivity, it can be anything, from going for a walk to doing exercise. Initially, I thought this was going to be easy. I thought it would be like vacation with a couple Zoom calls. Now I realize it’s a lot harder than that. This isn’t vacation; I have to do things. There’s a reason vacation is only a week long. I have to be productive if I don’t want my mental health to decline.
What is one thing you have learned about someone you are quarantining with?
My dad likes to develop conspiracy theories in his free time, so he’s now taking a deep dive into the government and its lies. It is entertaining and terrifying at the same time. I think he might be the most insane of all of us.
Who do you talk to most during quarantine? What was the last conversation you had?
I think my friend Anna. We’ve gone on three socially distanced walks together, and she only lives two blocks away. Plus, her mom isn’t afraid of the coronavirus, and my dad is a conspiracy theorist, so it works out great. We walk on opposite sides of the street and chat. The last thing she said to me was telling me that she had to bring her small animal on a walk next time—a.k.a. her little brother.
How do you think your life will change compared to pre-quarantine?
I think people are going to be a lot more paranoid. Social distancing, while not the norm, is going to stay to some degree. I imagine concerts will be less popular, particularly in smaller venues. The music industry will definitely decline. So will those restaurants where they cook the food in front of you. Any industry where it involves being around a lot of people will decline. I’m sure there are going to be some happy-go-lucky people, but others will be quite paranoid. I like to think I’m in between the two groups.
What do you miss most about attending classes on campus?
I really miss the community aspect. There’s also the perks of being on campus—like tea in the mornings. I mean, I have tea at home, but the selection isn’t as wide. Also, on campus, class is a lot easier to stay focused in. In Spanish, my teacher has bad Wi-Fi, I have bad Wi-Fi, and he’s speaking a language I don’t understand. It’s a mess.
DASHIELL H., GRADE 5
What do you want to do after quarantine ends?
You know, meet my friends, talk to them. Take a walk without a mask—right now, I can walk, but I can’t inhale. Release the hounds. All that good stuff.
What do you miss most about attending classes?
I miss the two-way interactions. In Zoom, since there is a button to stop your video and mute and just cut yourself completely off, it’s kind of a one-way road—the teacher really is teaching you usually—but in a classroom, where everyone’s kind of reacting and thinking and stuff, and you can’t just disappear, I find there’s a lot more two-way interaction.
What’s one new activity you’ve started?
I’ve been playing Minecraft. Basically, you can do anything—my friends and I switch from the survival world to creative building. So I’m making a house underwater—a Viking longhouse—and an aquarium. And after that, I’m going to make a couple of farms. It’s less about the game itself than that it’s a game that all my friends really like to play. You can talk in it and I can interact with them, which is really nice because I haven’t been able to really interact with my friends for a while.
What’s your favorite place to be during quarantine?
When it’s time for a break I really like to sit out in the backyard. It’s gonna sound cliched and tacky, but kind of getting away from, you know, my screen and everything else and just seeing nature and the flowers and chickens—or, well, less the chickens, but definitely the nature.
Have you tried anything new during quarantine?
So recently I’ve been listening to a bit more music. Mainly classical—The Planets, The Carnival of the Animals, and Night on Bald Mountain. I feel like The Planets are fun because you can kind of tell they’re all from the same composer and yet they’re completely different, every single one of them. The Carnival of the Animals I really like because of the same sort of reason; they’re all a set, but they’re all in contrast. And I really love Night on Bald Mountain because it’s kind of very evocative, interesting music that has ups and downs—it has an arc.
Forbidden fruit?
I want to eat the guinea fowl. They’re so annoying. They’re loud. They’re evil. They’re nasty and they’re supposed to taste really good, okay? I want what I paid for and I paid for speckled yum-yum [a colloquialism for guinea fowl]. Paid for them with hours of hatred of the squawking. Anyways, yeah, that’s my forbidden fruit—or should I say forbidden speckled yum-yum.
DELPHINE PRIEST, PARENT
What’s one thing you want to do as soon as the shelter-in-place is lifted?
I want to travel and go to my favorite coffee shops, restaurants, concerts—just to be in life again.
What’s one thing you learned about yourself during quarantine?
I’ve learned many things. First of all, to go back to basics; I lost so many extravagances of life. I’ve made more time for myself and the things I really love—quarantine is a time of deep self-reflection, where I asked myself who I am and what I want. I think about the things I did before the quarantine; did I really enjoy it, and was it really sparking joy? And I know that I’ll now make time for all of these new interests when COVID is over.
What’s one new habit you have picked up during quarantine?
I picked up gardening, and right now I’m redesigning our garden with botanicals. I’m reading a lot of books about gardening—as well as anything else I find interesting—something I didn’t have the time to do before.
What’s your favorite space during quarantine?
The garden, because its vibrant greens really soothe me and give me a break from the house. Instead of staring at a screen all the time, I get to be with nature.
What’s the emotion you feel the most during quarantine?
Mostly sadness from losing my old way of life, and also because I feel a general loss of freedom. I’m almost in mourning of the life we had before; we took everything for granted, but now it’s gone.
