“We’re dealing with a lot too”: COVID Life Through the Eyes of a 14-Year-Old

Guest post by Millie Howard

You adults are probably finding quarantine pretty rough – you have to find ways to entertain your kids, work has become more of a hassle, and you’re probably bored most of the day. I get it. But do you ever wonder what quarantine is like from a kid’s perspective?

I hate when adults say that quarantine is like an extended summer break for children, because it is everything opposite of that. When school was in, it was a win/lose situation. We saw our friends (definite win) BUT we had to do work (definite LOSE).

Now with school online, it’s just one big LOSE. That’s bad enough – but just imagine getting loads and loads of math homework which wasn’t taught to you. Learning math in front of a teacher was so clear and way easier for me to understand, but now I have to go through tons of YouTube videos of old men explaining to me how to divide a fraction. It is definitely not fun, and I prefer the boring, in-class math lessons.

My shortened school year was fun while it lasted. I had a good time just messing around with my friends and enjoying the last year of elementary school with no stress on my shoulders. Sometimes I sit and wonder about all the things I missed because of COVID-19 – all of the inside jokes that my friends and I would have shared, all of the happy memories I missed out on. I have a bad habit of going through old photos and videos on my phone of me and my friends hanging out while everything was normal. It really makes me sad.

Now lets talk about all this extra time I suddenly seem to have. What do I spend it doing, you may ask? Do I see my friends?

The popular kids at school are definitely having the time of their lives right now, hanging out with all of their friends and even meeting up with kids from different schools. Sadly, if you’re not too popular (like me), then chances are you spend a lot of time sitting at home all day not doing too much.

It’s not that I don’t have friends – because I do have a handful of friends and I like them all a lot. But many of my friends I consider my “in school” friends. We hang out a lot at school, but outside of school hours, we don’t really talk. I do have several close friends, and when we hang out it’s always a lot of fun. But with such strict social distancing rules, it’s just not the same.

Describing quarantine is hard, but one sentence sums it all up perfectly for me: Everyday is a Sunday morning.

These months so far have been the slowest, fastest, longest, shortest months of my life. I don’t know how I got through it all. I will say that I’m proud of myself for keeping myself entertained (for the most part).

One thing I really miss is the feeling of looking forward to something. When things were normal, we’d see movies at the movie theatre a lot; we’d go out for dinner with our friends and that sort of thing.

For me, one of the best feelings was rushing home from school on a Friday afternoon and looking forward to our Friday night plans. Just the feeling of having something to keep you pushing, something you’ve been waiting for. I was looking forward to graduation, to end the year off with all of my friends.

Sadly, that feeling is gone now. The only thing I look forward to anymore is ordering takeout. You’d assume I’d be looking forward to high school as well but not really. Who knows what high school will be like with all of these new rules? If it turns out high school is online, I seriously don’t know what I’ll do. Maybe I’ll run away to L.A., become super rich and famous, and social distancing won’t have nothing on me. Just kidding.

I’m just eager to find out how this whole thing will play out. If only my future self could come visit me and inform me about everything that’s going on. What is high school like? Is it happening online? What is my life like?

I have no energy and motivation to do anything. My Grade 8 graduation is going to be an online pre-recorded message and to be honest I would prefer to have no graduation than an online one. I would also prefer summer school over online school.

I don’t really know what else to say. Maybe I’ll do an update blog post in the fall. In September a lot of questions will be answered such as: What is school like? Are things finally getting back to normal?

All I can say is that this SUCKS. Please – if you’re a parent, try to understand that this is not a vacation for us kids and we’re dealing with a lot too. Those are my final words.

Millie Howard is an 8th-grader whose school year was cut short by the sudden pandemic. When not going to school, she spends her days sleeping until noon, texting her friends, skateboarding around her neighbourhood, watching YouTube, hanging with friends from 6 feet away, watching movies with her family, drawing and doing some online school work from time to time.

This blog was originally posted on http://pencilsandpopcans.com/.