my quarantine experience essay 500 words

My Quarantine Experience Essay & Paragraphs For Students

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in an era of quarantine and social distancing, profoundly impacting our daily lives. This essay will delve into my personal experience during quarantine, highlighting the challenges, adaptations, and insights gleaned from this unique period.

Table of Contents

Essay On My Quarantine Experience

To comprehend my quarantine experience fully, it is important to understand what quarantine entails. It is a preventive measure aimed at curbing the spread of infectious diseases by isolating individuals who have been exposed to the infection. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, quarantine involved staying at home, minimizing physical contact with others and practicing strict hygiene protocols.

Initial Reactions: The Onset of Quarantine

The initial days of quarantine were marked by a mix of anxiety, uncertainty, and confusion as familiar routines were disrupted. This section will explore my initial reactions to the sudden shift in lifestyle, the challenges faced, and the coping mechanisms adopted.

Adapting to a New Normal: Life During Quarantine

Quarantine necessitated a significant adaptation to a “new normal”. From working from home to virtual social interactions, life underwent a dramatic transformation. This part will discuss the various adjustments made during quarantine, focusing on work, education, social interactions, and daily routines.

Discovering New Interests: The Silver Lining

Despite the challenges, quarantine also offered an opportunity to explore new interests and hobbies. With additional free time, I found myself engaging in activities like reading, cooking, online courses, and fitness routines at home. This section will delve into these newfound interests and their impact on my overall well-being.

Emotional Impact: Navigating Mental Health During Quarantine

Quarantine also had a significant impact on mental health. The isolation, coupled with the constant influx of pandemic-related news, led to feelings of stress and anxiety. This part will discuss the emotional impact of quarantine, the strategies employed to maintain mental health, and the significance of seeking help when required.

Lessons Learned: Insights from the Quarantine Experience

Quarantine, while challenging, also offered valuable insights into resilience, adaptability, and the importance of community. It highlighted the need for empathy, understanding, and collective responsibility during times of crisis. This section will reflect on these lessons and their implications for the future.

Conclusion: Reflecting on My Quarantine Experience

My quarantine experience was a journey of adaptation, self-discovery, and resilience. While it posed numerous challenges, it also offered an opportunity to slow down, introspect, and focus on personal growth. As I reflect on this period, I realize that despite the hardships, the experience has equipped me with a better understanding of myself, a greater appreciation for connection, and a renewed sense of resilience to navigate future challenges.

Hello! Welcome to my Blog StudyParagraphs.co. My name is Angelina. I am a college professor. I love reading writing for kids students. This blog is full with valuable knowledge for all class students. Thank you for reading my articles.

Related Posts:

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Covid 19 — My Experience during the COVID-19 Pandemic

My Experience During The Covid-19 Pandemic

• Categories: Covid 19

About this sample

Words: 440 |

Published: Jan 30, 2024

Words: 440 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, physical impact, mental and emotional impact, social impact.

• World Health Organization. (2021). Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard. https://covid19.who.int/
• American Psychiatric Association. (2020). Mental health and COVID-19. https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-blogs/apa-blog/2020/03/mental-health-and-covid-19
• The New York Times. (2020). Coping with Coronavirus Anxiety. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/well/family/coronavirus-anxiety-mental-health.html

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Dr. Karlyna PhD

Verified writer

• Expert in: Nursing & Health

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

3 pages / 1417 words

2 pages / 876 words

2 pages / 985 words

3 pages / 1383 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Covid 19

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus, has had far-reaching consequences on individuals' lives worldwide. This essay will explore the personal impacts of the pandemic, focusing on mental and emotional [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic has left an indelible mark on the world, altering our daily lives in unprecedented ways. In this essay, I reflect upon my experiences during this global crisis, the challenges I faced, the lessons learned, [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the indispensable role of accurate information and scientific advancements in managing public health crises. In a time marked by uncertainty and fear, access to reliable data and ongoing [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic, a global crisis of unprecedented magnitude, has not only posed threats to physical health but has also had profound implications for mental well-being. This essay, titled "Impact of COVID-19 on Mental [...]

As a Computer Science student who never took Pre-Calculus and Basic Calculus in Senior High School, I never realized that there will be a relevance of Calculus in everyday life for a student. Before the beginning of it uses, [...]

Many countries are suggesting various levels of containment in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus or COVID-19. With these worries, schools and universities are closing down and moving abruptly to online platforms and [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Essay on Quarantine Experience

Students are often asked to write an essay on Quarantine Experience in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Quarantine Experience

Introduction.

Quarantine is a time when people stay away from others to prevent the spread of diseases. This essay will share the experiences of different people during their quarantine period, which was a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Staying at Home

Staying at home was the main part of the quarantine experience. People could not go out except for essential needs. Schools were closed, and students had to study online. Many people also had to work from home. This was a new experience for everyone.

Impact on Mental Health

Quarantine had a big impact on people’s mental health. Many people felt lonely and stressed because they could not meet their friends or family. Others felt anxious because of the fear of the disease. It was a tough time for everyone.

Learning New Skills

On a positive note, many people used this time to learn new skills. Some learned cooking, others took up gardening. Many students took online courses on topics they were interested in. Quarantine gave people time to explore their hobbies.

250 Words Essay on Quarantine Experience

What is quarantine.

Quarantine is a time when people stay away from others to stop the spread of diseases. This usually happens when a person is sick or has been near someone who is sick. It’s a way to keep everyone safe.

Life During Quarantine

Quarantine can be a strange time. It feels like everything has stopped. Schools are closed. Parks are empty. Friends and family are far away. It’s like the world is on pause.

Quarantine can be hard because it’s different from our usual life. We can’t go out and play. We can’t meet our friends. We have to stay at home all the time. But it’s not all bad. There are still many things we can do.

Activities in Quarantine

Quarantine is a good time to try new things. We can read books. We can draw and paint. We can learn to cook. We can watch movies and play games. We can even learn new things online. It’s a time to be creative and have fun at home.

Lessons from Quarantine

Quarantine teaches us many things. It teaches us to be patient. It teaches us to be kind to others. It teaches us to take care of our health. It also teaches us to value the things we have. It makes us realize that even simple things like going to school or playing in the park are very special.

500 Words Essay on Quarantine Experience

Quarantine is a term we’ve all become familiar with due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a period when people stay away from others to prevent the spread of diseases. This essay shares the unique experience of quarantine.

Life at Home

Quarantine means a lot of time at home. Most people are not used to staying indoors for such long periods. In the beginning, it felt like a long holiday. People got time to rest, catch up on hobbies, and spend time with family. But, as days turned into weeks and weeks into months, the reality set in. The same walls that once felt cozy started to feel like a prison.

Online Schooling and Work

Mental health.

Quarantine has also affected people’s mental health. Being away from friends and not being able to go out can make people feel lonely and sad. It’s important to talk about these feelings. It’s okay to feel low sometimes. But, if these feelings don’t go away, it’s important to seek help. Many helplines and online counseling services are available to help.

On the bright side, quarantine gave people time to learn new skills. Many learned to cook, paint, or play a musical instrument. Some even started their own small businesses from home. It was a time to explore interests outside of school or work.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

COVID-19 Lockdown: My Experience

When the lockdown started, I was ecstatic. My final year of school had finished early, exams were cancelled, the sun was shining. I was happy, and confident I would be OK. After all, how hard could staying at home possibly be? After a while, the reality of the situation started to sink in.

The novelty of being at home wore off and I started to struggle. I suffered from regular panic attacks, frozen on the floor in my room, unable to move or speak. I had nightmares most nights, and struggled to sleep. It was as if I was stuck, trapped in my house and in my own head. I didn't know how to cope.

However, over time, I found ways to deal with the pressure. I realised that lockdown gave me more time to the things I loved, hobbies that had been previously swamped by schoolwork. I started baking, drawing and writing again, and felt free for the first time in months. I had forgotten how good it felt to be creative. I started spending more time with my family. I hadn't realised how much I had missed them.

Almost a month later, I feel so much better. I understand how difficult this must be, but it's important to remember that none of us is alone. No matter how scared, or trapped, or alone you feel, things can only get better.  Take time to revisit the things you love, and remember that all of this will eventually pass. All we can do right now is stay at home, look after ourselves and our loved ones, and look forward to a better future.

View the discussion thread.

Related Stories

Looking back on lockdown days

Art class and self care during the pandemic

We'll Walk Together

A Race to What Finish Line

C 2019 Voices of Youth. All Rights Reserved. 

Personal Experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

The COVID-19 outbreak was a sudden and terrifying experience for all people around the world. I remember telling my friends that the virus would not last for a long time and that we would all meet after two weeks of self-isolation. I did not know how far it would go and what changes to my life it would bring. Sitting at home and watching the news about millions of infected and fatal cases made me realize how fragile human life is. The pandemic has both positive and negative effects on people and their businesses. This paper addresses these effects and provides my experience of the COVID-19 healthcare crisis.

The virus that is still ongoing has taught a valuable thing for all of us that is being able to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances. You will never know what is waiting for you in the future, and you should be flexible and calm enough to embrace the new reality. At the beginning of the pandemic, it was fun to sit at home, watch TV series and chat with my friends. Yet, after some time, I realized how my mental health was going downwards as I started to feel anxiety about the world and my future. I also felt very sorry for people who lost their close ones because of COVID. However, I somehow managed that stress due to mental health support, podcasts, and books. I realized that being able to adapt to a changing reality is the only way to keep doing daily routines. At a country level, countries were also adapting and making new policies, and I think now many political figures are more flexible being aware of sudden changes. There were too many mistakes to realize the importance of effective and fast decisions that take into account today’s reality.

One more positive thing about the pandemic is that people learned the value of family and socialization. People cannot live alone, and they need someone to rely on and care for. During the pandemic, I was with my family, and I think it was the first time interacting with them so closely. We were discussing the situation and sharing personal concerns a lot, so that I could understand my family more and support them. I was also worried about older members of the family, thinking that I did not appreciate time with them before the pandemic. It made me reconsider my family relations and understand that they are my close ones, and I should dedicate my time to them more. I assume this was a great lesson for everyone, and I hope people would value their families and take care of them.

One of the crucial changes that the COVID-19 outbreak brought to us is online education. I did not know how to assess such kind of education as positive or negative as there are many arguments for each side. Personally, I liked the online mode of the studies because I could also register for other courses provided for free by different universities and platforms like Coursera. I also learned how to manage time properly as the increased number of assignments forced me to do so. Yet, many students did not like online education as we could not focus well on our studies. People live in different conditions, some of us did not have personal space for studying while others did not have time for education. Education is indeed a privilege, but the online mode made it even worse. Moreover, I heard that in some countries, students climbed on trees to have access to the Internet and do their homework.

The COVID-19 crisis increased inequality across the world and had a negative impact on the world economy. People in developing countries did not have proper healthcare services and tools for online mode of working and studying. Many people lost their jobs, being unable to sustain their families. Such conditions raised crime rates, unemployment rates, and global hunger, putting many countries in a hard socio-economic situation. Furthermore, the virus split people into two categories of supporters of vaccination and those who are against it. This division between people caused social disturbances that made the healthcare crisis turn into an ideological fight. People were making up some stories regarding the COVID-19 and not contributing to the solution of the outbreak. In my opinion, such a response of the public is expected as the general mass wanted answers that government officials did not have. As such, the government should be very careful on how to communicate with citizens.

Overall, there is much to say about the effects of Covdi-19. For me, it was an experience of taking care of my mental health and being close to my family. For the world, it has resulted in disrupted economies, increased inequality, and loss of lives. I hope the crisis made people rethink their lives and be supportive of others. I also believe that the world would not be the same after the end of COVID-19 if it actually has an end.

• A Personal Crisis that Prompted Me to Apply for Emergency Assistance
• Critical Thinking in a Personal Decision
• The COVID-19 Pandemic: Concerns, Responses, and Lessons
• Ethnography During COVID-19 Pandemic
• Health and Medicine: COVID-19
• Experience of Working With a Nursing Specialist
• Working in a Group WikiProject
• The Internship at Studio O+A Company
• Coach-Player Relationship: Power Distance and Individualism-Collectivism
• Attitude Towards Death Essay: Life-Span Development
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, January 3). Personal Experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic. https://ivypanda.com/essays/personal-experience-of-the-covid-19-pandemic/

"Personal Experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic." IvyPanda , 3 Jan. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/personal-experience-of-the-covid-19-pandemic/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Personal Experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic'. 3 January.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Personal Experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic." January 3, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/personal-experience-of-the-covid-19-pandemic/.

1. IvyPanda . "Personal Experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic." January 3, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/personal-experience-of-the-covid-19-pandemic/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Personal Experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic." January 3, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/personal-experience-of-the-covid-19-pandemic/.

• Current Issue
• Journal Archive
• Current Call

Search form

Coronavirus: My Experience During the Pandemic

Anastasiya Kandratsenka George Washington High School, Class of 2021

At this point in time there shouldn't be a single person who doesn't know about the coronavirus, or as they call it, COVID-19. The coronavirus is a virus that originated in China, reached the U.S. and eventually spread all over the world by January of 2020. The common symptoms of the virus include shortness of breath, chills, sore throat, headache, loss of taste and smell, runny nose, vomiting and nausea. As it has been established, it might take up to 14 days for the symptoms to show. On top of that, the virus is also highly contagious putting all age groups at risk. The elderly and individuals with chronic diseases such as pneumonia or heart disease are in the top risk as the virus attacks the immune system. 

The virus first appeared on the news and media platforms in the month of January of this year. The United States and many other countries all over the globe saw no reason to panic as it seemed that the virus presented no possible threat. Throughout the next upcoming months, the virus began to spread very quickly, alerting health officials not only in the U.S., but all over the world. As people started digging into the origin of the virus, it became clear that it originated in China. Based on everything scientists have looked at, the virus came from a bat that later infected other animals, making it way to humans. As it goes for the United States, the numbers started rising quickly, resulting in the cancellation of sports events, concerts, large gatherings and then later on schools. 

As it goes personally for me, my school was shut down on March 13th. The original plan was to put us on a two weeks leave, returning on March 30th but, as the virus spread rapidly and things began escalating out of control very quickly, President Trump announced a state of emergency and the whole country was put on quarantine until April 30th. At that point, schools were officially shut down for the rest of the school year. Distanced learning was introduced, online classes were established, a new norm was put in place. As for the School District of Philadelphia distanced learning and online classes began on May 4th. From that point on I would have classes four times a week, from 8AM till 3PM. Virtual learning was something that I never had to experience and encounter before. It was all new and different for me, just as it was for millions of students all over the United States. We were forced to transfer from physically attending school, interacting with our peers and teachers, participating in fun school events and just being in a classroom setting, to just looking at each other through a computer screen in a number of days. That is something that we all could have never seen coming, it was all so sudden and new. 

My experience with distanced learning was not very great. I get distracted very easily and   find it hard to concentrate, especially when it comes to school. In a classroom I was able to give my full attention to what was being taught, I was all there. However, when we had the online classes, I could not focus and listen to what my teachers were trying to get across. I got distracted very easily, missing out on important information that was being presented. My entire family which consists of five members, were all home during the quarantine. I have two little siblings who are very loud and demanding, so I’m sure it can be imagined how hard it was for me to concentrate on school and do what was asked of me when I had these two running around the house. On top of school, I also had to find a job and work 35 hours a week to support my family during the pandemic. My mother lost her job for the time being and my father was only able to work from home. As we have a big family, the income of my father was not enough. I made it my duty to help out and support our family as much as I could: I got a job at a local supermarket and worked there as a cashier for over two months. 

While I worked at the supermarket, I was exposed to dozens of people every day and with all the protection that was implemented to protect the customers and the workers, I was lucky enough to not get the virus. As I say that, my grandparents who do not even live in the U.S. were not so lucky. They got the virus and spent over a month isolated, in a hospital bed, with no one by their side. Our only way of communicating was through the phone and if lucky, we got to talk once a week. Speaking for my family, that was the worst and scariest part of the whole situation. Luckily for us, they were both able to recover completely. 

As the pandemic is somewhat under control, the spread of the virus has slowed down. We’re now living in the new norm. We no longer view things the same, the way we did before. Large gatherings and activities that require large groups to come together are now unimaginable! Distanced learning is what we know, not to mention the importance of social distancing and having to wear masks anywhere and everywhere we go. This is the new norm now and who knows when and if ever we’ll be able go back to what we knew before. This whole experience has made me realize that we, as humans, tend to take things for granted and don’t value what we have until it is taken away from us. 

Articles in this Volume

[tid]: dedication, [tid]: new tools for a new house: transformations for justice and peace in and beyond covid-19, [tid]: black lives matter, intersectionality, and lgbtq rights now, [tid]: the voice of asian american youth: what goes untold, [tid]: beyond words: reimagining education through art and activism, [tid]: voice(s) of a black man, [tid]: embodied learning and community resilience, [tid]: re-imagining professional learning in a time of social isolation: storytelling as a tool for healing and professional growth, [tid]: reckoning: what does it mean to look forward and back together as critical educators, [tid]: leader to leaders: an indigenous school leader’s advice through storytelling about grief and covid-19, [tid]: finding hope, healing and liberation beyond covid-19 within a context of captivity and carcerality, [tid]: flux leadership: leading for justice and peace in & beyond covid-19, [tid]: flux leadership: insights from the (virtual) field, [tid]: hard pivot: compulsory crisis leadership emerges from a space of doubt, [tid]: and how are the children, [tid]: real talk: teaching and leading while bipoc, [tid]: systems of emotional support for educators in crisis, [tid]: listening leadership: the student voices project, [tid]: global engagement, perspective-sharing, & future-seeing in & beyond a global crisis, [tid]: teaching and leadership during covid-19: lessons from lived experiences, [tid]: crisis leadership in independent schools - styles & literacies, [tid]: rituals, routines and relationships: high school athletes and coaches in flux, [tid]: superintendent back-to-school welcome 2020, [tid]: mitigating summer learning loss in philadelphia during covid-19: humble attempts from the field, [tid]: untitled, [tid]: the revolution will not be on linkedin: student activism and neoliberalism, [tid]: why radical self-care cannot wait: strategies for black women leaders now, [tid]: from emergency response to critical transformation: online learning in a time of flux, [tid]: illness methodology for and beyond the covid era, [tid]: surviving black girl magic, the work, and the dissertation, [tid]: cancelled: the old student experience, [tid]: lessons from liberia: integrating theatre for development and youth development in uncertain times, [tid]: designing a more accessible future: learning from covid-19, [tid]: the construct of standards-based education, [tid]: teachers leading teachers to prepare for back to school during covid, [tid]: using empathy to cross the sea of humanity, [tid]: (un)doing college, community, and relationships in the time of coronavirus, [tid]: have we learned nothing, [tid]: choosing growth amidst chaos, [tid]: living freire in pandemic….participatory action research and democratizing knowledge at knowledgedemocracy.org, [tid]: philly students speak: voices of learning in pandemics, [tid]: the power of will: a letter to my descendant, [tid]: photo essays with students, [tid]: unity during a global pandemic: how the fight for racial justice made us unite against two diseases, [tid]: educational changes caused by the pandemic and other related social issues, [tid]: online learning during difficult times, [tid]: fighting crisis: a student perspective, [tid]: the destruction of soil rooted with culture, [tid]: a demand for change, [tid]: education through experience in and beyond the pandemics, [tid]: the pandemic diaries, [tid]: all for one and 4 for $4, [tid]: tiktok activism, [tid]: why digital learning may be the best option for next year, [tid]: my 2020 teen experience, [tid]: living between two pandemics, [tid]: journaling during isolation: the gold standard of coronavirus, [tid]: sailing through uncertainty, [tid]: what i wish my teachers knew, [tid]: youthing in pandemic while black, [tid]: the pain inflicted by indifference, [tid]: education during the pandemic, [tid]: the good, the bad, and the year 2020, [tid]: racism fueled pandemic, [tid]: coronavirus: my experience during the pandemic, [tid]: the desensitization of a doomed generation, [tid]: a philadelphia war-zone, [tid]: the attack of the covid monster, [tid]: back-to-school: covid-19 edition, [tid]: the unexpected war, [tid]: learning outside of the classroom, [tid]: why we should learn about college financial aid in school: a student perspective, [tid]: flying the plane as we go: building the future through a haze, [tid]: my covid experience in the age of technology, [tid]: we, i, and they, [tid]: learning your a, b, cs during a pandemic, [tid]: quarantine: a musical, [tid]: what it’s like being a high school student in 2020, [tid]: everything happens for a reason, [tid]: blacks live matter – a sobering and empowering reality among my peers, [tid]: the mental health of a junior during covid-19 outbreaks, [tid]: a year of change, [tid]: covid-19 and school, [tid]: the virtues and vices of virtual learning, [tid]: college decisions and the year 2020: a virtual rollercoaster, [tid]: quarantine thoughts, [tid]: quarantine through generation z, [tid]: attending online school during a pandemic.

Report accessibility issues and request help

Copyright 2024 The University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education's Online Urban Education Journal

We need your support today

Independent journalism is more important than ever. Vox is here to explain this unprecedented election cycle and help you understand the larger stakes. We will break down where the candidates stand on major issues, from economic policy to immigration, foreign policy, criminal justice, and abortion. We’ll answer your biggest questions, and we’ll explain what matters — and why. This timely and essential task, however, is expensive to produce.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Read these 12 moving essays about life during coronavirus

Artists, novelists, critics, and essayists are writing the first draft of history.

by Alissa Wilkinson

The world is grappling with an invisible, deadly enemy, trying to understand how to live with the threat posed by a virus . For some writers, the only way forward is to put pen to paper, trying to conceptualize and document what it feels like to continue living as countries are under lockdown and regular life seems to have ground to a halt.

So as the coronavirus pandemic has stretched around the world, it’s sparked a crop of diary entries and essays that describe how life has changed. Novelists, critics, artists, and journalists have put words to the feelings many are experiencing. The result is a first draft of how we’ll someday remember this time, filled with uncertainty and pain and fear as well as small moments of hope and humanity.

• The Vox guide to navigating the coronavirus crisis

At the New York Review of Books, Ali Bhutto writes that in Karachi, Pakistan, the government-imposed curfew due to the virus is “eerily reminiscent of past military clampdowns”:

Beneath the quiet calm lies a sense that society has been unhinged and that the usual rules no longer apply. Small groups of pedestrians look on from the shadows, like an audience watching a spectacle slowly unfolding. People pause on street corners and in the shade of trees, under the watchful gaze of the paramilitary forces and the police.

His essay concludes with the sobering note that “in the minds of many, Covid-19 is just another life-threatening hazard in a city that stumbles from one crisis to another.”

Writing from Chattanooga, novelist Jamie Quatro documents the mixed ways her neighbors have been responding to the threat, and the frustration of conflicting direction, or no direction at all, from local, state, and federal leaders:

Whiplash, trying to keep up with who’s ordering what. We’re already experiencing enough chaos without this back-and-forth. Why didn’t the federal government issue a nationwide shelter-in-place at the get-go, the way other countries did? What happens when one state’s shelter-in-place ends, while others continue? Do states still under quarantine close their borders? We are still one nation, not fifty individual countries. Right?

• A syllabus for the end of the world

Award-winning photojournalist Alessio Mamo, quarantined with his partner Marta in Sicily after she tested positive for the virus, accompanies his photographs in the Guardian of their confinement with a reflection on being confined :

The doctors asked me to take a second test, but again I tested negative. Perhaps I’m immune? The days dragged on in my apartment, in black and white, like my photos. Sometimes we tried to smile, imagining that I was asymptomatic, because I was the virus. Our smiles seemed to bring good news. My mother left hospital, but I won’t be able to see her for weeks. Marta started breathing well again, and so did I. I would have liked to photograph my country in the midst of this emergency, the battles that the doctors wage on the frontline, the hospitals pushed to their limits, Italy on its knees fighting an invisible enemy. That enemy, a day in March, knocked on my door instead.

In the New York Times Magazine, deputy editor Jessica Lustig writes with devastating clarity about her family’s life in Brooklyn while her husband battled the virus, weeks before most people began taking the threat seriously:

At the door of the clinic, we stand looking out at two older women chatting outside the doorway, oblivious. Do I wave them away? Call out that they should get far away, go home, wash their hands, stay inside? Instead we just stand there, awkwardly, until they move on. Only then do we step outside to begin the long three-block walk home. I point out the early magnolia, the forsythia. T says he is cold. The untrimmed hairs on his neck, under his beard, are white. The few people walking past us on the sidewalk don’t know that we are visitors from the future. A vision, a premonition, a walking visitation. This will be them: Either T, in the mask, or — if they’re lucky — me, tending to him.

Essayist Leslie Jamison writes in the New York Review of Books about being shut away alone in her New York City apartment with her 2-year-old daughter since she became sick:

The virus. Its sinewy, intimate name. What does it feel like in my body today? Shivering under blankets. A hot itch behind the eyes. Three sweatshirts in the middle of the day. My daughter trying to pull another blanket over my body with her tiny arms. An ache in the muscles that somehow makes it hard to lie still. This loss of taste has become a kind of sensory quarantine. It’s as if the quarantine keeps inching closer and closer to my insides. First I lost the touch of other bodies; then I lost the air; now I’ve lost the taste of bananas. Nothing about any of these losses is particularly unique. I’ve made a schedule so I won’t go insane with the toddler. Five days ago, I wrote Walk/Adventure! on it, next to a cut-out illustration of a tiger—as if we’d see tigers on our walks. It was good to keep possibility alive.

At Literary Hub, novelist Heidi Pitlor writes about the elastic nature of time during her family’s quarantine in Massachusetts:

During a shutdown, the things that mark our days—commuting to work, sending our kids to school, having a drink with friends—vanish and time takes on a flat, seamless quality. Without some self-imposed structure, it’s easy to feel a little untethered. A friend recently posted on Facebook: “For those who have lost track, today is Blursday the fortyteenth of Maprilay.” ... Giving shape to time is especially important now, when the future is so shapeless. We do not know whether the virus will continue to rage for weeks or months or, lord help us, on and off for years. We do not know when we will feel safe again. And so many of us, minus those who are gifted at compartmentalization or denial, remain largely captive to fear. We may stay this way if we do not create at least the illusion of movement in our lives, our long days spent with ourselves or partners or families.

• What day is it today?

Novelist Lauren Groff writes at the New York Review of Books about trying to escape the prison of her fears while sequestered at home in Gainesville, Florida:

Some people have imaginations sparked only by what they can see; I blame this blinkered empiricism for the parks overwhelmed with people, the bars, until a few nights ago, thickly thronged. My imagination is the opposite. I fear everything invisible to me. From the enclosure of my house, I am afraid of the suffering that isn’t present before me, the people running out of money and food or drowning in the fluid in their lungs, the deaths of health-care workers now growing ill while performing their duties. I fear the federal government, which the right wing has so—intentionally—weakened that not only is it insufficient to help its people, it is actively standing in help’s way. I fear we won’t sufficiently punish the right. I fear leaving the house and spreading the disease. I fear what this time of fear is doing to my children, their imaginations, and their souls.

At ArtForum , Berlin-based critic and writer Kristian Vistrup Madsen reflects on martinis, melancholia, and Finnish artist Jaakko Pallasvuo’s 2018 graphic novel Retreat , in which three young people exile themselves in the woods:

In melancholia, the shape of what is ending, and its temporality, is sprawling and incomprehensible. The ambivalence makes it hard to bear. The world of Retreat is rendered in lush pink and purple watercolors, which dissolve into wild and messy abstractions. In apocalypse, the divisions established in genesis bleed back out. My own Corona-retreat is similarly soft, color-field like, each day a blurred succession of quarantinis, YouTube–yoga, and televized press conferences. As restrictions mount, so does abstraction. For now, I’m still rooting for love to save the world.

At the Paris Review , Matt Levin writes about reading Virginia Woolf’s novel The Waves during quarantine:

A retreat, a quarantine, a sickness—they simultaneously distort and clarify, curtail and expand. It is an ideal state in which to read literature with a reputation for difficulty and inaccessibility, those hermetic books shorn of the handholds of conventional plot or characterization or description. A novel like Virginia Woolf’s The Waves is perfect for the state of interiority induced by quarantine—a story of three men and three women, meeting after the death of a mutual friend, told entirely in the overlapping internal monologues of the six, interspersed only with sections of pure, achingly beautiful descriptions of the natural world, a day’s procession and recession of light and waves. The novel is, in my mind’s eye, a perfectly spherical object. It is translucent and shimmering and infinitely fragile, prone to shatter at the slightest disturbance. It is not a book that can be read in snatches on the subway—it demands total absorption. Though it revels in a stark emotional nakedness, the book remains aloof, remote in its own deep self-absorption.

• Vox is starting a book club. Come read with us!

In an essay for the Financial Times, novelist Arundhati Roy writes with anger about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anemic response to the threat, but also offers a glimmer of hope for the future:

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.

From Boston, Nora Caplan-Bricker writes in The Point about the strange contraction of space under quarantine, in which a friend in Beirut is as close as the one around the corner in the same city:

It’s a nice illusion—nice to feel like we’re in it together, even if my real world has shrunk to one person, my husband, who sits with his laptop in the other room. It’s nice in the same way as reading those essays that reframe social distancing as solidarity. “We must begin to see the negative space as clearly as the positive, to know what we don’t do is also brilliant and full of love,” the poet Anne Boyer wrote on March 10th, the day that Massachusetts declared a state of emergency. If you squint, you could almost make sense of this quarantine as an effort to flatten, along with the curve, the distinctions we make between our bonds with others. Right now, I care for my neighbor in the same way I demonstrate love for my mother: in all instances, I stay away. And in moments this month, I have loved strangers with an intensity that is new to me. On March 14th, the Saturday night after the end of life as we knew it, I went out with my dog and found the street silent: no lines for restaurants, no children on bicycles, no couples strolling with little cups of ice cream. It had taken the combined will of thousands of people to deliver such a sudden and complete emptiness. I felt so grateful, and so bereft.

And on his own website, musician and artist David Byrne writes about rediscovering the value of working for collective good , saying that “what is happening now is an opportunity to learn how to change our behavior”:

In emergencies, citizens can suddenly cooperate and collaborate. Change can happen. We’re going to need to work together as the effects of climate change ramp up. In order for capitalism to survive in any form, we will have to be a little more socialist. Here is an opportunity for us to see things differently — to see that we really are all connected — and adjust our behavior accordingly. Are we willing to do this? Is this moment an opportunity to see how truly interdependent we all are? To live in a world that is different and better than the one we live in now? We might be too far down the road to test every asymptomatic person, but a change in our mindsets, in how we view our neighbors, could lay the groundwork for the collective action we’ll need to deal with other global crises. The time to see how connected we all are is now.

The portrait these writers paint of a world under quarantine is multifaceted. Our worlds have contracted to the confines of our homes, and yet in some ways we’re more connected than ever to one another. We feel fear and boredom, anger and gratitude, frustration and strange peace. Uncertainty drives us to find metaphors and images that will let us wrap our minds around what is happening.

Yet there’s no single “what” that is happening. Everyone is contending with the pandemic and its effects from different places and in different ways. Reading others’ experiences — even the most frightening ones — can help alleviate the loneliness and dread, a little, and remind us that what we’re going through is both unique and shared by all.

• Recommendations

Most Popular

• America isn’t ready for another war — because it doesn’t have the troops
• Your guide to the Brittany Mahomes-Donald Trump drama, such as it is
• The Trump Arlington National Cemetery controversy, explained
• Democrats’ vibes are excellent. Can they turn that into votes?
• Take a mental break with the newest Vox crossword

Today, Explained

Understand the world with a daily explainer plus the most compelling stories of the day.

This is the title for the native ad

More in Culture

Why everyone suddenly cares about Brittany Mahomes’s politics.

The second season of the series has huge news for fans of Tom Bombadil.

A newsletter about kids, for everyone.

How the once-maligned retailer quietly became a closet staple — and a stock market giant — once again.

My generation was taught to change the system. That lesson came at a cost.

The pods across the pond feel a lot less toxic.

Writing about COVID-19 in a college admission essay

by: Venkates Swaminathan | Updated: September 14, 2020

Print article

For students applying to college using the CommonApp, there are several different places where students and counselors can address the pandemic’s impact. The different sections have differing goals. You must understand how to use each section for its appropriate use.

The CommonApp COVID-19 question

First, the CommonApp this year has an additional question specifically about COVID-19 :

Community disruptions such as COVID-19 and natural disasters can have deep and long-lasting impacts. If you need it, this space is yours to describe those impacts. Colleges care about the effects on your health and well-being, safety, family circumstances, future plans, and education, including access to reliable technology and quiet study spaces. Please use this space to describe how these events have impacted you.

This question seeks to understand the adversity that students may have had to face due to the pandemic, the move to online education, or the shelter-in-place rules. You don’t have to answer this question if the impact on you wasn’t particularly severe. Some examples of things students should discuss include:

• The student or a family member had COVID-19 or suffered other illnesses due to confinement during the pandemic.
• The candidate had to deal with personal or family issues, such as abusive living situations or other safety concerns
• The student suffered from a lack of internet access and other online learning challenges.
• Students who dealt with problems registering for or taking standardized tests and AP exams.

Jeff Schiffman of the Tulane University admissions office has a blog about this section. He recommends students ask themselves several questions as they go about answering this section:

• Are my experiences different from others’?
• Are there noticeable changes on my transcript?
• Am I aware of my privilege?
• Am I specific? Am I explaining rather than complaining?
• Is this information being included elsewhere on my application?

If you do answer this section, be brief and to-the-point.

Counselor recommendations and school profiles

Second, counselors will, in their counselor forms and school profiles on the CommonApp, address how the school handled the pandemic and how it might have affected students, specifically as it relates to:

• Grading scales and policies
• Graduation requirements
• Instructional methods
• Schedules and course offerings
• Testing requirements
• Your academic calendar
• Other extenuating circumstances

Students don’t have to mention these matters in their application unless something unusual happened.

Writing about COVID-19 in your main essay

Write about your experiences during the pandemic in your main college essay if your experience is personal, relevant, and the most important thing to discuss in your college admission essay. That you had to stay home and study online isn’t sufficient, as millions of other students faced the same situation. But sometimes, it can be appropriate and helpful to write about something related to the pandemic in your essay. For example:

• One student developed a website for a local comic book store. The store might not have survived without the ability for people to order comic books online. The student had a long-standing relationship with the store, and it was an institution that created a community for students who otherwise felt left out.
• One student started a YouTube channel to help other students with academic subjects he was very familiar with and began tutoring others.
• Some students used their extra time that was the result of the stay-at-home orders to take online courses pursuing topics they are genuinely interested in or developing new interests, like a foreign language or music.

Experiences like this can be good topics for the CommonApp essay as long as they reflect something genuinely important about the student. For many students whose lives have been shaped by this pandemic, it can be a critical part of their college application.

Want more? Read 6 ways to improve a college essay , What the &%$! should I write about in my college essay , and Just how important is a college admissions essay? .

Homes Nearby

Homes for rent and sale near schools

How our schools are (and aren't) addressing race

The truth about homework in America

What should I write my college essay about?

What the #%@!& should I write about in my college essay?

Yes! Sign me up for updates relevant to my child's grade.

Please enter a valid email address

Thank you for signing up!

Server Issue: Please try again later. Sorry for the inconvenience

Featured Topics

Featured series.

A series of random questions answered by Harvard experts.

Explore the Gazette

Read the latest.

Her gift launched four centuries of Harvard financial aid

On move-in day, hugs, sweat, and tears

His country restricted music. Suddenly he was a target.

‘the full covid-19 experience’.

A science and medical reporter offers an intimate look at the pandemic’s personal impact

Alvin Powell and his mother, Alynne Martelle, who passed away from COVID-19 in April 2020.

Photos courtesy of Alvin Powell

Portraits of Loss

Alvin powell.

A collection of stories and essays that illustrate the indelible mark left on our community by a pandemic that touched all our lives.

I remember thinking, “I guess I’m having the full COVID-19 experience,” though I knew immediately it wasn’t true. Having the full experience would mean switching places with the frail woman before me. It would mean my eyes were the ones that were closed, my breath silent and shallow.

But I also knew she wouldn’t want it that way. My mother, Alynne Martelle, was protective like that.

It was April 2020, and I was sitting in a Connecticut nursing home across the bed from my sister Kelly San Martin. I wasn’t thinking about how outlandishly I was dressed, but each glance across the bed provided a reminder. We were both wearing thin, disposable yellow gowns and too-big rubber gloves, with surgical masks covering our noses and mouths. We were each hoping the protection would be enough, but at that point in the pandemic’s first spring surge, nothing seemed certain.

Earlier that day — a Friday — I had been working from home and heard from my sister that my mom, 80 and diagnosed with COVID-19, had taken a turn for the worse. I called the nursing home where she’d lived for nearly five years, and the nurse said to come right away. So I told my editors at the Gazette what was going on, got in the car, and headed down the Pike.

I had a couple of hours to think during the drive. As a science writer for the Gazette, I routinely monitor disease outbreaks around the world — SARS, H1N1, seasonal flu — and discuss them with experts at the University. My hope is to lend perspective for readers on news that can seem too distant to be threatening — yet to which they might want to pay attention— or things that seem threateningly close, but in fact are rare enough that the screaming headlines may not be warranted.

“I suspect that a nursing home isn’t part of anyone’s plan for their final years, and it certainly wasn’t for my mother.“ Alvin Powell

There were two times during my coverage of the pandemic that I felt an almost physical sensation — that pit-of-the-stomach feeling of shock or fear. The first was when Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist and head of the Harvard Chan School’s Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, said early on that, unlike its recent predecessors SARS and MERS, which got people very sick, this virus also caused a lot of mild or asymptomatic cases. As that news sank in, I realized how difficult the future might become: How can you stop something before you know it’s there?

The second time I had that feeling was just a few weeks later. Through February 2020, the number of cases in the U.S. and globally had continued to grow, and it became clear that a major public health emergency was underway. Harvard’s experts, among many others, were offering a way forward, and I was writing regularly about the pandemic, about the new-to-me concept of “social distancing” and the importance of using masks to reduce spread — even as faculty members at our hospitals were also warning of shortages of personal protective equipment, or PPE — another term now embedded in our daily language. That was when President Donald Trump used the word “hoax” in discussing the pandemic. When I read that I thought, “This could get a lot worse.”

More in this series

A table set for two

A teacher for 40 years and a neighborhood ‘den mother’

Pandemic from the rear-view mirror of an ambulance

My grandpa’s 100 hats

By the third week in April, it had. Then, of course, the winter’s much larger surge was still just a vague threat and 100,000 deaths nationally from COVID-19 would soon warrant front-page treatment in The New York Times. Nursing homes — which concentrated society’s frail and elderly — had been hit hard early, as protective measures were being worked out and individual habits — life-saving ones — were still being ingrained.

I suspect that a nursing home isn’t part of anyone’s plan for their final years, and it certainly wasn’t for my mother. She was born in Hartford, poor and proudly Irish. She was artistic, eccentric, and joked later in life that if she hyphenated all her last names, she’d be Alynne Cummings-Powell-Martelle-Martelle-Herzberger-Harripersaud. Though she was tough on her husbands, she was easy on her kids. Despite the roiling of her married life, our home in the Hartford suburbs was mostly stable. That was largely due to the stick-to-it-iveness of my stepfather Sal — the two Martelles in there — and the fact that her four kids never doubted that she loved them.

She traveled even more than she married, preferring out-of-the-way places and bringing home images of the people who lived there. Among her destinations, she spent a summer in Calcutta volunteering at one of Mother Teresa’s orphanages and, on her return, she struck up a correspondence with the future saint.

Alynne Martell (center) surrounded by her children, Laura Lynne Powell (clockwise from left), Kelly San Martin, Alvin Powell, and Joseph Martelle. They are pictured at Hawks Nest Beach in Old Lyme, Conn., where they’ve gone for a week each summer for more than 45 years. Powell and his mother on a family kayak trip on the Black Hall River in Old Lyme.

Mom’s later years were difficult. Her mental decline had her moving from independent to assisted living and then to round-the-clock care. In the last year, her physical health and mobility had declined as well. When my mother spiked a fever in April, my siblings and I assumed it was COVID. It took the doctors some time to work through the possibilities, but they eventually got there, too. They and the nurses reminded us that it was not universally fatal, but nonetheless asked whether she had a living will. She did, and wanted no extraordinary measures taken.

Though many hospitals and nursing homes weren’t allowing visitors, the home where my mother stayed would let us in. Several family members had converged on the parking lot there, and we had a robust discussion of how safe it would be to go inside. My mother’s room was on the first floor, and some family members peered through its sliding glass door. My sister and I decided it was worth the risk to sit with Mom during her final hours, as she would have if indeed our places had been reversed.

On that Friday when Kelly and I entered the lobby, the facility appeared to be taking necessary precautions. In addition to providing PPE, they questioned us about our health and took our temperatures before letting us farther into the building. The main thing I was uneasy about was the use of surgical masks rather than N95 respirators. The N95s, I thought, would provide a level of protection commensurate with sitting in a place where we knew the virus was circulating.

On the second day, two friends teamed up to get us the N95s one had stockpiled during the 2009 H1N1 epidemic. We met in the parking lot for the handover — accomplished with profuse thanks and at a safe distance. The masks eased my mind. The key to weathering the pandemic came not from hiding away, but from a clear-eyed assessment of risks and having a plan to manage them. I had also learned during months of covering the pandemic that even measures inadequate on their own could be powerful when layered over one another. So, though it now seems like overkill, after doffing all the protective gear on the way out, we also changed into clean clothes in the chilly April parking lot, our modesty shielded by open car doors. We stowed the dirty clothes in plastic bags in the trunk and made liberal use of the giant bottle of hand sanitizer Kelly had brought.

“My mom had a metal sculpture of herself made by artist Karen Rossi. Her four kids are hanging off her feet in mobile-style,” writes Alvin Powell.

The result was that my sister and I were able to sit with my mom for several hours over the weekend. She was mostly asleep or unconscious but roused herself, seeming to rise from a place deep inside, to rasp out that she loved us. Then she retreated inward again.

Mom died the following Monday, and I went into home quarantine for two weeks, breaking it once to head back down the Pike to make arrangements with a completely overwhelmed funeral home. She had wanted to be cremated, but the crematorium was also backed up, so they refrigerated her body for several days until they could get to her. Afterward, my brother, Joe Martelle, picked up her remains and brought her home to await her burial.

But we delayed too. We put off her funeral until the family could gather for the bash she wanted as a farewell — she’d picked out the music and assigned tasks to different family members — Joe and I were to build the wooden box for interment. “August,” I initially thought. Then “October.” I was sure about October. My sister in Sacramento, Laura Lynne Powell, had suggested early on we might have to wait for the April anniversary of her death, which at the time seemed ridiculously distant since the pandemic surely would be controlled by then. Now, of course, April’s here and it is still too early for a big gathering.

In the year since my mother died, I’ve been back at work and have continued to learn as much as I can in order to convey our shifting — yet advancing — knowledge to readers. I’ve been repeatedly reminded how far I still am from “the full COVID experience” because the virus seems insatiable and just keeps on taking.

I don’t for a minute think my family is unique in its impacts, but many of those around me have experienced some ugly aspect of it. My son was laid off; my daughter’s 18th birthday, high school graduation, and freshman year in college have been canceled, delayed, or distorted beyond recognition. Two daughters and four grandchildren have been diagnosed with COVID and recovered. In February, four family friends in my Massachusetts town saw the contagion flare through their households, while my own family in Connecticut watched with concern as a loved one became severely ill, later rejoicing at her recovery after treatment with remdesivir.

The pandemic picture seems to have become even muddier lately, devolving into a foot race between vaccines and variants. Through much of March, vaccines seemed sure to win, but warnings from public health officials have become dire of late, warning of too-soon reopenings and the potential for a fourth surge. My stepfather Sal has gotten his second vaccine dose though, so hopefully he, at least, is out of harm’s way. I’m also hearing of friends and family whose first dose appointments are looming. That gives me hope and serves as a reminder that there is one part of “the full COVID experience” I’m looking forward to: its end.

Alvin Powell is the Harvard Gazette’s senior science writer.

Share this article

You might like.

As a woman, Anne Radcliffe wouldn’t have been able to attend the University when she donated its first scholarship in 1643

With help from family, first-years make themselves at home

Between Taliban regimes, Scholar at Risk gained stardom singing on Afghan TV show

You want to be boss. You probably won’t be good at it.

Study pinpoints two measures that predict effective managers

Your kid can’t name three branches of government? He’s not alone. 

Efforts launched to turn around plummeting student scores in U.S. history, civics, amid declining citizen engagement across nation

Good genes are nice, but joy is better

Harvard study, almost 80 years old, has proved that embracing community helps us live longer, and be happier

One Student's Perspective on Life During a Pandemic

• Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
• Ethics Resources
• Ethics Spotlight
• COVID-19: Ethics, Health and Moving Forward

The pandemic and resulting shelter-in-place restrictions are affecting everyone in different ways. Tiana Nguyen, shares both the pros and cons of her experience as a student at Santa Clara University.

person sitting at table with open laptop, notebook and pen

Tiana Nguyen ‘21 is a Hackworth Fellow at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. She is majoring in Computer Science, and is the vice president of Santa Clara University’s Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) chapter .

The world has slowed down, but stress has begun to ramp up.

In the beginning of quarantine, as the world slowed down, I could finally take some time to relax, watch some shows, learn to be a better cook and baker, and be more active in my extracurriculars. I have a lot of things to be thankful for. I especially appreciate that I’m able to live in a comfortable house and have gotten the opportunity to spend more time with my family. This has actually been the first time in years in which we’re all able to even eat meals together every single day. Even when my brother and I were young, my parents would be at work and sometimes come home late, so we didn’t always eat meals together. In the beginning of the quarantine I remember my family talking about how nice it was to finally have meals together, and my brother joking, “it only took a pandemic to bring us all together,” which I laughed about at the time (but it’s the truth).

Soon enough, we’ll all be back to going to different places and we’ll be separated once again. So I’m thankful for my living situation right now. As for my friends, even though we’re apart, I do still feel like I can be in touch with them through video chat—maybe sometimes even more in touch than before. I think a lot of people just have a little more time for others right now.

Although there are still a lot of things to be thankful for, stress has slowly taken over, and work has been overwhelming. I’ve always been a person who usually enjoys going to classes, taking on more work than I have to, and being active in general. But lately I’ve felt swamped with the amount of work given, to the point that my days have blurred into online assignments, Zoom classes, and countless meetings, with a touch of baking sweets and aimless searching on Youtube.

The pass/no pass option for classes continues to stare at me, but I look past it every time to use this quarter as an opportunity to boost my grades. I've tried to make sense of this type of overwhelming feeling that I’ve never really felt before. Is it because I’m working harder and putting in more effort into my schoolwork with all the spare time I now have? Is it because I’m not having as much interaction with other people as I do at school? Or is it because my classes this quarter are just supposed to be this much harder? I honestly don’t know; it might not even be any of those. What I do know though, is that I have to continue work and push through this feeling.

This quarter I have two synchronous and two asynchronous classes, which each have pros and cons. Originally, I thought I wanted all my classes to be synchronous, since that everyday interaction with my professor and classmates is valuable to me. However, as I experienced these asynchronous classes, I’ve realized that it can be nice to watch a lecture on my own time because it even allows me to pause the video to give me extra time for taking notes. This has made me pay more attention during lectures and take note of small details that I might have missed otherwise. Furthermore, I do realize that synchronous classes can also be a burden for those abroad who have to wake up in the middle of the night just to attend a class. I feel that it’s especially unfortunate when professors want students to attend but don’t make attendance mandatory for this reason; I find that most abroad students attend anyway, driven by the worry they’ll be missing out on something.

I do still find synchronous classes amazing though, especially for discussion-based courses. I feel in touch with other students from my classes whom I wouldn’t otherwise talk to or regularly reach out to. Since Santa Clara University is a small school, it is especially easy to interact with one another during classes on Zoom, and I even sometimes find it less intimidating to participate during class through Zoom than in person. I’m honestly not the type to participate in class, but this quarter I found myself participating in some classes more than usual. The breakout rooms also create more interaction, since we’re assigned to random classmates, instead of whomever we’re sitting closest to in an in-person class—though I admit breakout rooms can sometimes be awkward.

Something that I find beneficial in both synchronous and asynchronous classes is that professors post a lecture recording that I can always refer to whenever I want. I found this especially helpful when I studied for my midterms this quarter; it’s nice to have a recording to look back upon in case I missed something during a lecture.

Overall, life during these times is substantially different from anything most of us have ever experienced, and at times it can be extremely overwhelming and stressful—especially in terms of school for me. Online classes don’t provide the same environment and interactions as in-person classes and are by far not as enjoyable. But at the end of the day, I know that in every circumstance there is always something to be thankful for, and I’m appreciative for my situation right now. While the world has slowed down and my stress has ramped up, I’m slowly beginning to adjust to it.

Browser does not support script.

My quarantine during COVID-19 pandemic: A personal insight from the very red zone in Italy

10 April 2020

I am writing from Italy, where I am spending my quarantine… but I do not remember how many days I have spent in lockdown so far, maybe because it is a lot.

In this blog, originally published on  Inspire the Mind  on 8 April 2020, Valentina Zonca , Psychological Medicine Research Student at King's College London, details her experience of quarantine from Lombardy in Italy.

As those of you who have read my previous blog on  how to prevent adolescent depression  will remember, I am a researcher at King’s College London during my second year of PhD, working across Italy and the UK. 

And in Italy I live and work in Lombardy, in the very red zone.

For me, being a researcher means spending hours working in the lab with state-of-the-art equipment as well as constantly discussing and exchanging of ideas with my colleagues and supervisors. 

Thus, the lockdown in Italy has affected me and my work a lot.

It was the 20th of February when the first young man was hospitalized for COVID-19 related pneumonia in Codogno, a small city in the north of Italy less than a hundred km from where I live. 

Then, I clearly remember the last time I was with my friends: on Friday 21st, one of my dearest friends told us that she was expecting a baby boy. At the time we had no clue of what it was going to happen to us all, only few days later.

In the meantime, the number of the Italian positive cases was increasing, and on Sunday evening, 23rd of February, my supervisor suggested that we should work from home for the following week, in order to avoid traveling on public transportation and being in crowded places.

“OK, it is just one week” — I thought — “I have some work to catch up on, and this is the right moment to get it properly done”. At the end of the week I was ready to get back to the lab.

At this point everything was odd but still under control in Italy. Schools and universities in Lombardy had been closed for precaution, but restaurants and bars were still open. 

Then something changed: all of a sudden, the number of cases exploded and on the  8th of March , the entire region of Lombardy and other fourteen surrounding cities were declared “red zones” and put into lockdown.

Duomo Cathedral and Square in Milan is totally empty. Photo source: SkyTg24

Panic spread… the night trains from Milan to the south of Italy were literally mobbed with thousands of people trying to escape from the red zones to get home. Moreover, lots of people emptied shops of groceries and essentials. 

The following day, on the  9th of March , the Italian PM declared quarantine for the entirety of Italy: schools and universities closed everywhere with the advice to “ stay home, stay safe ” as much as possible.

Again, a  couple of days later  a new communication: Italy is in complete lockdown, restaurants and pubs must close as well as every shop apart from grocery stores, pharmacies and essential industries.

Empty shelves in Milan’s grocery stores. Photo source: Il Fatto Quotidiano

And here we are, today Wednesday 8th of April, still in quarantine and holding on. The number of positive cases has increased steadily, together with the deaths, and the hospitals are full, with no more critical-care beds. 

Here is the most updated  data  (Tuesday 7th of April): 135,586 total cases, 17,127 deaths and 24,392 recovered.

These have been difficult days indeed.

I live in a small town near Bergamo, the city most hit by the virus and with highest number of deaths. The images of the  army drafted in to help move corpses  have been broadcasted throughout the world. 

Channels are broadcasting news related to COVID-19 every hour. This is exhausting and has a negative impact on our emotions as well as on our mental health.

Speaking for myself, I have deleted the Facebook app from my phone, and I try not to overdose with the news that hammers us constantly.  There is no need to be updated 24/7 because it’s likely you will actually get more anxious.  

Moreover, it is essential to avoid fake-news and stop believing  false myths .

How do we cope with this heavy burden and all the stress that comes with it?

An empty St Peter’s Square (Vatican City) during Pope’s blessing Urbi et Orbi. Photo source: La repubblica

During the first two weeks of quarantine I was full of energy. I shifted from being a desperate housewife to a perfect cook. I attended yoga classes, group meetings with colleagues and drink meetups on Skype. I also spent several hours in front of the computer writing, sending emails and reading.

Then something slightly changed… We all realized that things would not come back to reality as soon as we thought. As I mentioned, the number of cases, and sadly deaths, is rapidly growing and I have been really worried for my relatives’ health. We all have also felt overwhelmed and anxious — and this is perfectly normal.

To quarantine means to stay home, always.

You are allowed to go out to buy food and medicines, for going to work (only when smart working is not possible) or for real emergencies. 

Walks seem to no longer be allowed. Policemen even stop you along the streets asking where you are going and why you are not at home — if you cannot provide proof for why you are out or where you live, they press  charges  against you (fines from 400 to 3,000 euros; COVID-19 positives who violate quarantine can be charged from 3 to 18 months of detention and a 500–5,000 euros fine).

Supermarkets and pharmacies are open, but only a few people can enter at any time, which means queuing outside at least one meter between others in line. 

A pharmacy in Bergamo. Photo source:  Lorenzo Zelaschi

Glass shields appeared everywhere, making human contacts almost impossible. 

Moreover, you can only enter a shop after having your temperature taken.

This is a difficult situation, but it is essential to respect these restrictions for our safety.

However, Italians have figured out some ways to be together even in lockdown.

My country has sung  the national anthem as well as iconic Italian songs on the rooftops and balconing, while waving the Italian flag.

Italian flag on Medolago Albani Palace in Bergamo. Photo source: L’Eco di Bergamo

Even in the north of Italy and in my Bergamo, we are trying to do our best to boost the moral, to stay strong and copy with this nightmare, but we rarely sing from the balcony. 

However, in order to face the urgent need of new critical-care beds, two brand-new field hospitals have been set up in Milan and Bergamo in about 10 days thanks to the incredible work of thousands of volunteers.

Members of the Alpine Corpse actively involved in the creation of the field hospital in Bergamo. Photo source:  Matteo Zanardi

During a pandemic, thanks are due to doctors, nurses, pharmacists and everyone working in the hospitals (and not only); to couriers, grocery shop assistants, policemen, guards and all the workers still doing their job everywhere. 

It is amazing to see that the desire to thank them is spreading from country to country — a positive contagion — like in UK, where people  clap for NHS staff and key workers .

Cremona’s hospital: exhausted nurse collapsed on her desk. Photo source: Francesca Mangiatordi

So, this is my quarantine in Italy so far. I got through difficult times missing my loved ones, my friends and simply my daily routine. I have some good days when I am very focused and calm, but also some (very) bad days, when I feel overwhelmed or just worried and exhausted. 

I am sure everyone feels quite the same. 

Be kind to yourselves, don’t judge the way you are copying with your emotions during these difficult times. 

Don’t be hard to yourself because you are totally allowed to not be able to deal with a quarantine.

Everything will get better, sooner or later.

Niguarda Hospital, Milan: the rainbow and the quote “Everything will be fine” on this newborn’s nappy. This image become a sign of hope for Italy.

Inspire the Mind is an online blogging community started by the   Stress, Psychiatry and Immunology Laboratory (SPI Lab)   King's College London, which is led by Professor Carmine Pariante. The blogs hosted on Inspire the Mind aim to use writing and creativity to open up a conversation about wellbeing, to teach and disseminate the science behind mental health and to encourage others to do the same.

If you're interested in writing a blog post, please contact:  [email protected]

Keep up-to-date on Inspire the Mind's blog posts.

Understanding the effect on mental health

Life as we know it has been radically changed by the coronavirus crisis, but whether we are working on the frontline of this pandemic or staying at home to save lives, how will lockdown,…

Latest news

2 September 2024

King's College London and the Foundation for Liver Research announce new institute dedicated to liver studies

King’s College London and the Foundation for Liver Research (FLR) are pleased to announce the…

King's Professor receives prestigious National Teaching Fellowship

Professor Eleanor Dommett has been recognised by the Advance Higher Education National Teaching…

Halal Crypto: could blockchain be a boost for Shariah-compliant finance?

With the global Muslim population exceeding 1.8 billion, and increased demand for investment…

30 August 2024

King's alumna Errollyn Wallen appointed Master of the King's Music

Errollyn Wallen CBE, who studied composition at King’s, is the first Black woman to become Master of…

The Benefits of Being Inside: My Experience of Quarantine

Therapist josh hogan shares his experience of quarantine after developing coronavirus symptoms, his period of self-isolation had ups and downs as he was both forced to, and made the effort to, look inwards, if you would like to talk to a therapist, start your search here.

I have seen a quote doing the rounds on social media that seems apposite during present events: “If you can’t go outside, go inside.” I cannot find the original author of the quote - perhaps it belongs to an ancient sage, or perhaps it was a random tweet that went viral in the last few weeks. Either way, for me it sums up a helpful way through the health crisis that we are facing.

Coping during lockdown

As I write, a third of the world’s population is on ‘lockdown’, meaning severely restricted movement outside of the home. In the UK, if you display any of the known symptoms of Covid-19 you are required to stay indoors for seven days, while members of your household are to stay in for fourteen. Everyone should be limiting their trips outside to the bare essentials. Workers not considered ‘essential’ to the national effort are asked not to go to work; social gatherings of more than two people are subject to a blanket ban. Everyone is affected by this, everyone’s way of life has changed dramatically in the last two weeks. Most of us will need to get used to spending a lot of time indoors, which is where that quote becomes relevant, as we close our doors and get better acquainted with our own interior lives.

For me, ‘going inside’ means sitting with myself and focusing on what is going on internally. Of course it might mean completely different things to different people. Having been forced to spend a significant amount of time indoors, I find myself increasingly drawn to the idea of exploring my internal reactions to what’s going on.

The coronavirus crisis is being called a once-in-a-century event, and it’s easy to concur with that description. The only similar event in living memory for us Brits will be the blackouts of the Second World War. Perhaps the most alarming thing about this experience is how out of the blue it was, as well as how quickly it escalated.

In January when I first heard about this mysterious virus that was claiming hundreds of lives in China, like most of us I couldn’t imagine the same thing ever happening here. Yet as I write today I sit at home in quarantine, having developed the symptoms of that very virus last week. It’s just been announced that the Prime Minister and the heir to the throne have the virus too. It seems no one will escape the fallout.

I wasn’t expecting self-isolation to be fun, and it hasn’t been. For a few days last week I was very unwell, suffering from the worst case of flu I’d ever had. This week I’ve experienced a slow but steady recovery. I gather from official government advice that I should have stopped being contagious a few days ago, and so I am once more able to venture to the shops to meet my basic needs. But I wouldn’t say I am 100% back to normal health. I am lucky to be relatively young and fit, so I’ve had nothing more than a bad case of the flu, where many others will endure far worse. My thoughts during this time have frequently turned to the countless people who won’t survive this awful illness, and to the brave healthcare workers who will look after them.

It has been a shock to the system, on both a personal and a national level. I rarely ever get ill, and I don’t like it when I do. Remaining indoors for seven days gets exhausting – having infinite choice when it comes to streamable films and TV shows is more of a curse than a blessing.

Finding some peace

Quite apart from the ongoing economic fallout, I’ve been stunned to observe the impact on the once busy streets of my home city, which for the first time in my life could be described as ‘quiet’. The significant fall in traffic is already being said to correlate with much cleaner air in our skies. Luckily my infrequent trips to the shop this week have been peaceful, my fellow shoppers always standing a polite two metres apart, smiling and nodding as I get in line behind them. The good will that we’re expressing towards our healthcare workers and towards each other is one of the heartening aspects of all of this.

Having to spend so much time inside has taught me that I need to find better solutions to boredom. Online TV bingeing has been my go to antidote to lethargy, and after a solid week of it I can confirm that it makes the problem worse.

At the start of all this, naturally I pledged to be good and accomplish all the things I wouldn’t normally have time to do, such as daily meditating. As the lockdown continues I find these tasks to be more and more vital to my wellbeing. While I can’t go outside I really have no option other than to ‘go inside’, where I stand a chance of assuaging my innate anxiety. At first, having all this time to meditate makes me oddly resistant to it, which tells me that I must persevere. When I focus on my breathing and on what’s going on in my body at the present moment, I can’t get caught up in worrying about the future and what’s going to happen with this virus. Unlike Netflix and the 24 hour news channels, practising mindfulness doesn’t leave me feeling frustrated or triggered or fatigued. It is a source of replenishment that sees me through to the next day.

Josh Hogan is a verified welldoing.org therapist who works in London and online

Further reading

Welldoing.org's 8 coronavirus mental health tips, unexpected endings: support for young people after school closures, using exercise and cbt techniques to combat lockdown anxiety, 6 youtube videos for mindfulness meditation, self-care tips from an introvert: how to make the most of isolation, find welldoing therapists near you, related articles, recent posts.

Reset September: 5 Habits to Maintain Post-Holiday Energy

Book of the Month: The Nervous System Reset by Jessica Maguire

The Power of a Flexible Mind: Release Yourself from Rigid Thinking

Meet the Therapist: Tara Saglio

My Experience of Shame and Addiction

Everything You Need to Know About the Mind-Gut Connection

Dear Therapist..."How Can I Deal with Distress Now I've Finished Therapy?"

Meet the Therapist: Gary McFarlane

Harness the Transformative Power of Art Every Day

3 Uncomfortable Truths You Might Learn in Therapy

Find counsellors and therapists in London

Find counsellors and therapists in your region, join over 23,000 others on our newsletter.

Quarantine Diaries: One Word

Quarantine Diaries One Word

If you had to pick one word to describe your coronavirus pandemic experience, what word would you choose these are ours., explore related topics:.

• Coronavirus
• Share this story
• 15 Comments Add

Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 15 comments on Quarantine Diaries: One Word

This is one of the best, inspiring and insightful pieces. I loved the creativity in how each piece was featured. Everyone’s story was well presented and the content exemplified the word it represented. I especially loved the colorful way the word title s were displayed. Thank you.

CHILDREN. Spending an enormous amount of time in the house with my school-aged children, balancing home-schooling, discipline, play, healthy meals, bedtime routines, while also still trying to do my own work.

Every one of these is beautiful. Thank you!

ROLLERCOASTER

Also, love this piece…well done.

This was a very “healthy” piece of work. Mindful. I can relate to each of you. Beautifully done. Thank you.

Wow. These are so thoughtful and creative.

This collection of stories made me a little less sad, so I’d say they’ve done their job. Also- definite future historical artifacts.

Opportunity

Really beautiful! I love this.

Interstitial: When the pandemic was still new and Shelter at Home orders were not yet given, I told my Manager at work that the world was shifting on it’s axis. It needed a correction in how the poles lined up. I don’t know why I was thinking that way. I am generally not a scientific person.

Now that we are into the seventh week of sheltering at home, I realize that we can never “go back” to our lives before the pandemic. Too much has changed. The old habits and routines are gone and won’t ever return. We have wiped the slate clean and are adjusting our worldview to begin again in a Brave, New World. Every action, emotion and habit will need to be examined. How does it fit with the new way of thinking? Is it something important or frivolous? Only then can we go boldly into the new day.

I loved reading all the word essays – so raw and heartfelt – beautiful.

With thanks to the last post from Carol – love that word ‘interstitial’! The between ‘then’ and ‘now’ times. I will start reflecting on which of my ‘old’ habits I will take forward….thanks for that prompt.

It has been a “Nightmarish” year, full of doubt, anxiety,and too damn many people just plain ignoring it.

As the coronavirus continues to spread and confine people largely to their homes, many are filling pages with their experiences of living through a pandemic. Their diaries are told in words and pictures : pantry inventories, window views, questions about the future, concerns about the present.

I definitely can relate to this I also couldn’t keep my eyes off of social media. This was very interesting and detailed.

Post a comment. Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest from BU Today

Bu ras begin strike as move-in winds down, how do you run a city of 650,000 residents these terriers have some insights, celebrate labor day weekend and enjoy these local events, exploring boston’s cultural and culinary diversity, here’s where to find last-minute back-to-school shopping essentials, the six best restaurants near campus to celebrate national eat outside day, looking to purchase, or rent, textbooks here’s what you need to know, to do today: rollerama open skate at kendall common, fysop looks to expand the horizons of incoming first-years, fire program returns to college of engineering, bu names jennifer gunter king first associate university librarian for special collections, bu’s booth theatre helps boston public schools students and grads set the stage for success, to do today: summer exhibitions at isabella stewart gardner museum highlight lgbtqia+ photography, love insects this club’s for you, karen engelbourg, leader of bu’s fundraising efforts and alumni engagement, is stepping down, the terrier bucket list: 15 places you need to visit while living in boston, mechanical vs biomedical engineering: what’s the difference between the majors, chief investment officer lila hunnewell recognized for stewardship of bu’s endowment, 20 questions: can you guess the bu location, to do today: saint anthony’s feast in the north end.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

current events

12 Ideas for Writing Through the Pandemic With The New York Times

A dozen writing projects — including journals, poems, comics and more — for students to try at home.

By Natalie Proulx

The coronavirus has transformed life as we know it. Schools are closed, we’re confined to our homes and the future feels very uncertain. Why write at a time like this?

For one, we are living through history. Future historians may look back on the journals, essays and art that ordinary people are creating now to tell the story of life during the coronavirus.

But writing can also be deeply therapeutic. It can be a way to express our fears, hopes and joys. It can help us make sense of the world and our place in it.

Plus, even though school buildings are shuttered, that doesn’t mean learning has stopped. Writing can help us reflect on what’s happening in our lives and form new ideas.

We want to help inspire your writing about the coronavirus while you learn from home. Below, we offer 12 projects for students, all based on pieces from The New York Times, including personal narrative essays, editorials, comic strips and podcasts. Each project features a Times text and prompts to inspire your writing, as well as related resources from The Learning Network to help you develop your craft. Some also offer opportunities to get your work published in The Times, on The Learning Network or elsewhere.

We know this list isn’t nearly complete. If you have ideas for other pandemic-related writing projects, please suggest them in the comments.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

Essays in Quarantine

In This Series

How embracing uncertainty might make me a better journalist.

As a journalist, it’s my job to find answers and tell the truth. But right now the truth is I feel like I have fewer answers than ever.

Practicing joy (and social distancing) in nature

When lockdown hit, I found myself suddenly with more free time than I’d had since childhood. To fill it, I started to take walks.

Starting a new job during COVID is lucky … and lonely

There were no handshakes, no in-person introductions. Leaving work is the equivalent of signing out of an app.

Obligations and graduations: What my time as a farmworker taught me about sacrifice

Many farmworkers not only miss family graduations, but also birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays to support their families.

Parenting may never be the same post-COVID. Maybe that’s a good thing.

While part of me is mourning the loss of my bubble, I realize nostalgia is not sustainable. At some point, it’s the same as regression.

Reflections on Father’s Day a decade after losing my dad

The COVID-19 pandemic is turning many people's parents into full-time patients. I know how that feels.

Social distancing while black? Let your community lift you up.

We spend the first hour of our weekly Zoom happy hour just catching up and making each other laugh — we need it.

Planning for my grandkids’ future

"I am more determined than ever to leave them a brighter, more hopeful future to look forward to."

Coronavirus canceled my favorite sports. Here’s why we need them more than ever.

Once it’s safe, sports can’t return fast enough for this fan.

ESSAY: Finding community during quarantine in my hometown of Farmington

When I first started writing stories about Farmington for Metromode, late in 2018, WDET’s Jerome Vaughn asked me what defined our tiny town’s spirit.

“People who live there and spend time there really want to know each other and interact with each other,” I’d told him.

So how are we faring during this Coronavirus quarantine, when we can’t do one of the things we love and value most?

Well, it’s been hard, obviously. When I venture outdoors with my daughters each day, I can’t escape the sense that we’re all suddenly existing in adjacent, single-family ghost towns, like something out of a “Twilight Zone” episode.

But every now and then, thankfully, I’ll also be surprised by something lovely.

On another afternoon, for our outdoor excursion, we biked downtown to our beloved local bakery. These days, we’re going through loaves of Sunflour Bakehaus ’ Old World bread even faster than usual, so I asked if there were any left. “We have two kinds of weirdly shaped loaves” was the answer. I didn’t care how they looked, so I said I’d take both; but then a woman entered the bakery while talking on her phone, and she started to report that it appeared the bakery was “all-out” of something. Figuring she was angling for a loaf of the Bakehaus’ signature bread, too, I told her she was welcome to have one of the loaves for which I was about to pay. She happily accepted – and it felt reassuring to be able to do this small kindness, and thus remind myself that this is what we do in Farmington. We look out for each other.

Which is precisely why I’ve lately felt so torn between wanting to support local businesses through a challenging time and strictly observing public health advisories. We’ve cautiously, judiciously tried to thread the needle: over the weekend, we picked up lunch at Dagwood’s Deli , and we all sat in the sunshine by the pavilion to eat our sandwiches; I got one last haircut at Salon Legato last week, just before I was scheduled to have a two-hour online job interview (and before the state ordered salons to close); we purchased a couple of birthday gifts for relatives at Clothes Encounters , as well as a few cat- and hamster-related items at PetValu (hand sanitizing often along the way); and we’re walking to Fresh Thyme these days only as needed.

Soon, of course, these kinds of fraught decisions will be rendered moot, as more and more businesses shut down for the quarantine’s duration. I’ll confess that I’m worried for our downtown because it is so central to our super-connected way of life here in Farmington. (If the town was a body, the neighborhoods would be its limbs, and the downtown would be its beating heart.)

Don’t get me wrong, though. Farmington is a terrific place to live primarily because of its people, and though we’re having to hunker down and do the whole “social distancing” thing just now, that fact won’t change.

I mean, one neighboring family who hosts an outdoor movie night a couple of times a year just organized, on Friday evening, a Netflix party so we could all watch “Incredibles 2” (and see each other online) while staying in our own homes. Locals are scrabbling like crazy to connect like old times in new (and safe) ways.

These are the places where we’ve always (quite intentionally) come together, so their current barrenness feels like grief.

Yes, we all must continue to stay home and do what’s asked of us, of course, for the greater good. No question. But in Farmington, I think we’re not only missing each other right now; we’re deeply missing our sense of being who we are as a tight-knit, unabashedly gabby little community.

To that end, my whole family responded to another localized social media call this past weekend – this time, creating sidewalk chalk art. My husband used bright colors to fill in a large cursive J (though to me, it looked like a butterfly in profile); my oldest daughter labored to fill in a giant, blushing smiley emoji; my younger daughter made a multi-color happy face; and I simply wrote “Hi, neighbors!” next to a heart.

It felt – as we worked on our individual contributions – like we were co-authoring a love letter.

Which I guess we were.

So stay safe out there, Farmington. While this prolonged isolation will inevitably re-shape us a bit as individuals, here’s hoping that our friendly, open-armed communal identity remains intact.

Recommended Content

Across Our Network

• Detroit has always been a hotbed of jazz artists. This year's Jazz Festival moves them center stage Source: Model D

• Second Wave - Michigan
• Capital Gains - Lansing
• Catalyst Midland
• Concentrate - Ann Arbor/Ypsi
• Epicenter - Mount Pleasant
• Route Bay City
• Rural Innovation Exchange
• Southwest Michigan
• UPword - UP
• The Keel - Port Huron
• The Lakeshore
• Metromode - Metro Detroit
• Arts and Culture
• Community Development
• Economic Development
• Entrepreneurship
• Healthy Communities
• Kids and Education
• Sustainability
• Technology and Innovation
• Transportation
• About Metromode
• Have a tip for us?
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use