Browse the Archive

The Stories

N.C., a teen in Murrieta, CA

“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.”

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I.Z., a teen in Murrieta, CA

“…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.”

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A.M., 46, a School Secretary in Murrieta, CA

“The biggest challenge that I am now facing is the toil of children around the country not going to school. I believe that kids need to be going to school. The situation has been messing with my thoughts. I have heard terrible stories about the impact of a virtual school on students and their mental health. At the beginning of quarantine in March and April, the fear of the unknown was another hardship. The fear was paralyzing and I found myself crying a lot.”

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D.V., a teen in Murrieta, CA

“School was weird because my school offered distance learning as an optional assignment and their was no interaction with other teachers or students. The only incentive was a letter grade boost if we did 90% of assignments so I did distance learning for some of my harder AP classes I had B’s in. This went on for the first few months like March, April, May.”

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R., a teen in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

“Covid-19 remedies have replaced our ‘good morning’ and ‘good night’ quotes on whatsapp. In fact, home remedies are spreading faster than the virus. The topic has given content creators a chance to make their audience smile during a devastating pandemic. Masks and sanitisers are everyone’s best friends. These give a person a sense of security. The pandemic has changed so much in our lifestyles and habits. Quarantine has given all of us another chance to discover ourselves, to discover our hobbies and to discover the people close to us.”

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D.D., a teen in Chennai, India

“During this period, I have realized how privileged I am because I see a lot of people struggling with financial problems. I hope their problems end soon. However, I read a lot of positive articles about how the earth is healing. That makes me very happy. However, certain things like fake WhatsApp forwards and the fact that my grandparents believe in them as if they are the words of the oracle is very irritating.”

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A.S., a teen in Hyderabad, Telangana, India

“I study in a college in Bangalore, India and got to know of the coronavirus scare
in early March…Fortunately I booked bus tickets and went home (to Hyderabad) immediately, a week before our country went into
lockdown. Some of my friends were not so lucky and were stuck in flats or PGs
near college and could not go home.”

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N.N., a teen in Chennai, India

“Personally, keeping a schedule, e.g getting to bed at a certain time, has really helped keep my life fairly structured during these chaotic times. So I’d probably encourage others to be slightly productive, even if it isn’t studying/work, something like baking is super fun and you get some great treats out of it.”

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C.Z., a teen in Beijing, China

“Of course, we have to wear a mask when going outside, and we also have to keep social distancing. Many schools have reopened, most people are back to work, and the traffic has returned to normal, so things are looking good again!”

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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.

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