Tweet

I know you may be thinking: “Oh quarantine isn’t all that bad, you’re just over exaggerating.” For some people, it can affect their physical, mental, and social life tremendously. As a teenager, it’s not easy being able to comprehend the adaptations you have to take in for quarantine.

It was not easy for me the first time being stuck in quarantine for 2 months and it is not that easy for me now. It is crazy to think how it has already been a year since everyone in the world was in lockdown mode. Everyone kept saying: “See you in 2 weeks.” Then 2 weeks turned into a month which then turned into 2 months. This pandemic has affected everyone traumatically but somehow we pushed through this virus making things seem more possible everyday.  Personally, I cannot be stuck in my house for long periods of time. I have to be doing something because I cannot just sit inside all day but because of quarantine, I can’t really do much. The one thing that has personally affected me throughout my 10 days of quarantine is not being able to see my friends. 

Friendship is very important to me, and my social life mainly takes place at school or The Door. Not being able to see my friends in person and having a conversation face to face is difficult for me. It is especially hard not being able to see my best friend in person. Who else would I have my daily conversations with at lunch and in the halls? Not being able to see any of my friends and best friend makes me feel disheartened and frustrated. 

Whenever I heard I had to quarantine, I knew I would dread it. The first time I worked online from my junior year wasn’t so bad but whenever we went hybrid senior year, I slowly started to dislike the concept. Having to get on a Teams meeting everyday doing the same thing got tiring. I have always preferred face to face learning because I can focus and get things done better that way. 

With virtual learning, it tends to add more stress onto me. I get so distracted easily where I want to go on my phone and just answer everyone who texted me. I also tend to start lacking in the work I get assigned. Everyday I tell myself: “You have two study halls, you should work on your assignments you were assigned.” I never get to the assignments because I start to lose motivation every single time. 

Even when I am at school face to face, I still find it hard to find motivation to do anything other than nothing. In my mind, online classes provided almost no mental stimulation, so there’s no point in doing all of that work. 

Despite being able to clearly picture the repercussions of doing no work and falling behind, I still can’t seem to bring myself to do anything. Part of the reason is that most of the people I know aren’t doing much either, and I’ve always been able to get by in school with minimum or maximum effort. Even before my classes start face to face or online, I know I’ll be able to get almost all of the required work done. 

Being a teenager during coronavirus quarantine is the opposite of fun or enjoyable, and I feel many will agree that incentive is an all-time low. But if you can try to better yourself or do that one thing you’ve been putting off during your quarantine, I would say that is a quarantine well spent. Get ahead, and work to be better than you ever thought you could be.