COVID-19 and Quarantine
COVID-19 and Quarantine
Lily Oyen ’24 and Gianna Wainwright Milfort ’24 recall the abrupt changes that occurred in mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and reflect on the time between then and now.
Friday the thirteenth is notorious for bringing bad luck, but that particular one brought a wave of misfortune that would never be forgotten. On March 13th, 2020, worried whispers flooded the freshly sanitized school hallways as every student asked the now bone-chilling question: Do you think this thing is actually serious?
Our burning questions were quickly answered with the crunching sound as our principal’s voice blasted through the loudspeakers. “Due to the Coronavirus, John Jay High School will be temporarily suspending in-person classes for two weeks.”
Naturally, as high schoolers, we were ecstatic to learn that we were going to have two weeks off from school. “Long spring break”, we called it. “We’ll be back before we know it,” we assured each other, “it’s not that big of a deal.”
Little did we know what monster lied ahead of us.
As those two weeks turned to countless months, the outdoors became a war-zone, friends became strangers, and the world as we knew it became a mystery. Suddenly, everyone had to re-learn how to do simple tasks, such as getting the groceries or going to the doctors office. My parents, filled with anxiety, locked us inside and avoided contact with the outside world as much as possible. Those six months in total isolation taught me more about myself than I’d learned in eighteen years.
High school was difficult for me. As someone with ADHD, I always struggled with organization and attentiveness, and this affected my test scores. Growing up in a wealthy, high-achieving area, I always felt pressured to be perfect, and because my school provided me with no extra support, I pushed myself past my limits every day just to keep up with my peers. For a long time, this extra effort I was having to put in distracted me from the things I found really important to me. Yet, as I began to spend all of my days locked in my house, I realized how futile the disdain I had against high school really was. As all of the elements of school that caused me stress were stripped away, I realized how much of it I actually loved, and this led me to realize that in order to change my life all I really needed to do was change my perspective on it.
Before quarantine, each day was a chore. Life was something I felt forced into and dragged through, every day being a struggle against myself. Yet, as I watched the world change, my views did as well. I began to realize something very important- nothing in life is promised. The prom that I looked forward to for my entire life was cancelled. I never got to walk the stage at my high school graduation. As I looked back on my high school years I realized that I spent them in agony. This is what showed me that the most important thing in life is finding happiness in every situation.
After learning what I have, I wish that I had cherished the day of high school which I would learn to be my last. I wish that I’d enjoyed rehearsal for the musical that day- the one we would never get to perform. I wished that I had hugged my friends, walked through those classrooms once more, or taken one last breath of that stuffy, mildew-soaked air I used to despise. Because now, all of the problems that I faced in high school are meaningless. All of the afternoon headaches, nail-biting exams, and hormone-induced quarrels that filled each of my days turned into memories right before my eyes. Finally, I can look back at the times that brought me joy instead of focusing on the things that tore me down.
With each day that has passed since that fateful Friday, I have grown. Instead of having to be dragged out of bed each day, I wake up with a smile on my face, because you never know- you could look back at your life in the future and find that exact day to be the best one of your entire life. I have learned not only to take each day as a blessing, but to also find the bright side in every hurdle the world throws at me. I have found a new passion for life, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. The Coronavirus may have taken many things from me, but what it taught me in return is priceless.
-Lily Oyen ’24
March 17th. 4:45am. The sun hasn’t come out yet and it’s still cold out. I question my life while lying in bed, contemplating whether going to school is worth it. I lay staring at the bars of the bunk bed and slowly rise from what seems like a two-hour slumber. The rustling of feet in the morning irritates me continuously. I wake and do the same routine I’ve been doing since the beginning of senior year. I shower, put on my uniform, brush and gel my hair in the same low bun I put in every day. I longingly look at the mirror wishing I was in my bed and hugging my Build-a-Bear. I had a feeling something wasn’t right today. The tiring day of school, it goes by slowly like any other day, laughing with my friends on my way to assembly to talk about what’s to come next, with everyone panicking about the spread of COVID-19. All I hear is my prom is being cancelled, I’m likely starting college online, my dazzling dress that was supposed to sparkle in the light now has to be zipped away in the closet for its beauty to fade away, I am not able to see my friends again, and I have to stay in my house with my family. My family and I have such different lives, and we don’t see each other anymore—with me working all the time, and my brother at school with karate afterwards. It was going to be weird to see my mom at home not moving around being active, but somehow it had to be done.
The end of the day is near, and the crying has begun. My friends hug one another, thinking they may never see each other again in an instant. I’ve never seen a whole wave of emotion crash through the sandy beaches of my school, leaving in its wake people running and screaming around the building. I start to get emotional, I don’t think I will ever see my friends again. It really hit me seeing a junior on the floor rolled up into a ball crying her eyes out. Everything that I worked so hard for was gone in an instant, in a snap of a finger. I wouldn’t think that COVID would end my high school career like this. All the honors that I was supposed to receive, I would receive through the mail. I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears as they continued to show students out the door into the real world. My safe haven was gone. I felt like the big bad wolf had come in and had blown my house down. My whole world.
In the coming months, COVID knocked on my door and invited itself in. It raided my fridge, so there was no more food and my mom had to go shopping every week. It online shopped till it dropped, leaving my bank account empty. COVID took over my streaming services for Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube. I didn’t like it one bit. It entered my computer and seemed to have planned my graduation virtually as well as my orientation to see my new school. COVID seems to be having a fun time invading my life and others. I felt it laughing at me when I struggled to turn in my assignments on time.
After a while, the intruder left, seeing that I was getting used to the routine of online learning, and to being online, essentially. The intruder saw that I was going outside and being safe and quivered at the sight of me being safe outside with my family and friends. The intruder decided to follow me everywhere I went; it was amusing to see it shake when in sight of me. COVID seems to have taken everything riveting of my senior year in high school, however it also seems to have prepared me for whatever is to come.