“Now, all of my time has been spent waiting for something to change because I feel powerless against the situation. Everyday it feels like it’s getting worse. More people dying, less hospital space. And then there’s the constant fear in the back of my head, when will it be someone who I care about who gets COVID.”
“Due to Covid-19, I have been in strict quarantine due to the fact that I live with my grandmother…Academically, this has also affected my ability to take the SAT and ACT, which is something I felt disappointed about because I spent so much time studying for them.”
“It’s been almost 365 days since everything took a turn for the worse, and most of us are still in shock. I could have it a lot worse but it is still pretty hard. I was getting less hours at work so it became difficult for my mom and I to pay our bills and expenses, grocery stores were almost completely empty…”
“The progression from being independent in my third year in university to going back to my hometown was such a drastic change that I can’t say that I enjoyed at all. One day I was looking for internships and regretting signing up for an 8 AM lecture, and the next I was getting woken up by my dogs barking and looking for “just a summer job”. It all felt like it happened in an instant. It also felt like it was going to be a few months tops.”
“I don’t experience sufferings as most people do.
I’m aware it exists.
I used to feel bad that I’m not experiencing grief and pain like the majority of the population.
Yes, it can feel real.”
“I had to miss out on internships, summer programs, and my last year in high school. But it hasn’t been all bad. I’m lucky enough to have derived some good from the situation. I learned to better balance my life with school. I’m thankful that I figured this out before going to college. If I could give advice to others, it would be to sometimes set aside important things when you start to get overwhelmed.”
“I manage an obstetrics and gynecology office. Our business was essential and we did not have to quarantine. At the office, my job was to figure out how to keep patients and staff safe without clear guidance and limited access to medical supplies, run the business with a lower patient load and to keep staff employed. At home my job was to educate and comfort my kids.”
“My advice for others in quarantine would be to work on something. Find a hobby that will inspire you to become better. I took up speed-cubing during the quarantine and I have bumped my time down from about a 1:45 to consistently less than 45 seconds. I’m not that good, but I am getting better every day and it gives me something to focus on and destress with.”
“…the hardest thing about quarantine is not being able to see my grandma, especially not being able to hang out with her during the holidays. My grandmother lives in another state so we would probably have to do a two week quarantine before even visiting her, but my family believes it is still too much of a risk to take. We call her on facetime, but, of course it is not the same.”
“Now, that may seem selfish considering thousands of people are dying, and what I care about is the ‘high school experience,’ but look it from my perspective. Isn’t it scary enough, that in four years I have to decide what to do with my life, and now I have to find out whether I’ll get a chance to do anything? “
Life in Quarantine: Witnessing Global Pandemic is an initiative sponsored by the Poetic Media Lab and the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis at Stanford University.
Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA),
Stanford University
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