Dispatches from Quarantine:
Young People on Covid-19

I’m sitting at my desk in Omaha, Nebraska, in a historic midtown neighborhood called Dundee.  If I look at the calendar to my right, I can see that it’s the 30th of April.  If I look at the calendar to my left, I can see that this is my 49th day of isolating in Omaha.  The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 crisis a pandemic while we were still vacationing in Chicago over spring break.

Today I slept through my 10:00, 10:30, 11:00, and 11:30 alarms, but woke up promptly at my 12:00 alarm.  It took me a while to get out of bed as I read through the messages I received last night and early this morning.  One of the group chats I’m in is very active right now, and it’s the primary way I’m communicating with my friends right now.  We did do a Zoom call a while back, but it doesn’t flow as well as if we were all face to face.

I showered and ate breakfast, or lunch, or whatever you call a first meal at 1:00 in the afternoon.  It certainly wasn’t enough.  It’s 4:39 right now and I’m quite hungry.  After eating I checked my school email, where assignments are being given to me on a weekly basis (with some exceptions) and did my homework for calculus and discrete math.  My teachers aren’t allowed to grade our work right now, probably because many students have unreliable internet access at home.  Some people are doing Zoom classes, but I haven’t had one yet.

My life right now revolves around exercise, reading, and music.  I’m trying to run four days a week, which usually isn’t a challenge, but the monotony of running alone right now has really gotten to my head.  I’ll shake things up sometimes by getting on the exercise bike and listening to a podcast as I do so.  The reason I’m waking up and eating so late is because I stay up late and read. I don’t always wake up at noon, but I was up especially late last night.  I never get the time during the school year to read, so I’m taking advantage of my free time right now.  I have a habit of reading for roughly two hours a night, and I’ve finished six books in quarantine so far, which for me is impressive.  Lastly, I’m continuing to play piano and learning to play guitar, albeit very, very slowly.

The city is talking about re-opening in early May, and I don’t know if that’s a great idea.  We don’t have very widespread testing and our case numbers don’t look great.  Luckily, a lot of restaurants around here are refusing to open until the health situation looks more optimistic.

This is the closest thing I’ve written to a journal in forty-nine days.