My Days At Home

So quickly, the days go by

While at home all day time seems to fly 

Time for dinner!! We just had breakfast I thought

I assumed it was still morning

I guess not

Sam Dean

Fitz 9th Grade English

4/24/20

When Will It End?

My Thoughts On Quarantine

“The opposite of happiness is not sadness, it’s boredom”   

~Anonymous

    Sometimes when I am not really doing anything at the time, I will just sit and think. Think about what’s going on in the world, when it will end, what things will be like after it does, and how long until everything in the world is back on track. There is not really a way for me to come up with those answers though, I can only imagine. 

Reading Log - 4/19

Dragon Teeth

    It was the one of the very first days of online school. I navigated my way through Zoom, for I had never used it before, and I logged into an English class. I was curious about how our class would change since we are doing distance learning, but it turns out our English agenda is relatively the same. Despite not being in person, we still continue to do weekly assignment sheets which we have been doing all year. I opened the link on Fitz’s blog to the first weekly assignment sheet and scrolled through, getting a taste of what our week would look like. I neared the end of the sheet and noticed a few particular assignments. Reading Logs #1, #2, and #3. 

  The Brains Of The Family

A Memoir About My Father 

    Right now the world is going through a very troubling, unpredictable, and confusing time. Our lives have been completely changed in the blink of an eye. Students are now going to school from home, many workers lost their jobs, other workers need to figure out a way to continue working. This is all due to covid-19, a virus that has become a global pandemic and put the world to a halt. Alone, I would not really know how to get through this harsh time, but there is one main person who is calling the shots in my household, telling us what we need to do in order to stay safe, and that person is my dad.

My dad, Brett, is a very smart person. He works at a bank, so I am sure this pandemic is especially troublesome for him and the bank. Despite having to work a lot and focus on his job, he has been very useful to me and the rest of my family throughout this time. He threw out the idea of going to New Hampshire to live on our lake house. The lake house is much more private than our house in Belmont. We are surrounded by less people and have much less interaction with others, which is definitely a good thing. Unfortunately, my dad has had to work a lot still, so he only comes on weekends. He works from home though, and as a precaution he took a coronavirus test and thankfully tested negative. Therefore, we get to stay safe in New Hampshire, doing schoolwork and getting a lot of family time while he is still able to work.

My dad always makes sure we are being smart with our decisions. He makes sure to remind us to wash our hands a lot, don’t touch our face, and do not go near people other than family. He can get a little bit crazy with some of the extents he goes to in order to make sure we are safe, but I am thankful for it. When my mom took a trip to Belmont to pick up some things we needed, he sprayed them with disinfectant and left them in the garage for a few days, therefore if there were any viruses on the things they would be killed by then. He does lots of simple but smart things, things that I probably would not have thought of.

He started planning before I even thought that this virus would be a big deal. I remember I walked down the creaky stairs of my house in Belmont to go play some xbox and I noticed a bunch of canned foods and peanut butter that he had gotten just in case something bad happened with the virus. I recall getting on xbox and talking with my friends and saying that my dad got like six jars or peanut butter and a bunch of canned food. I said that very jokingly, almost as if I was making fun of him, but now that things have gotten bad in the world I realize how it was a very smart move by him to think ahead. 

Right now I have the luxury of being able to sit down and look out at the lake, while chatting with my family and appreciating the fact that I am able to spend quarantine in a not so bad way, meanwhile some people are going though really hard times. I am thankful that my dad thought ahead and is being very smart during this scary time, without his cautiousness I would not be able to have a reasonably fun and safe quarantine experience

Journal Entry #3

So far today has just been another day of online learning, although, It is still early in the morning, but nothing very interesting has happened yet. There is one interesting thing though. It’s my moms birthday! So today I started this morning by going downstairs, wishing her a happy birthday, giving her a card I made, and eating a delicious breakfast. Then I got dragged off to school. 

Sometimes school gets confusing for me. It’s hard to tell when and when I do not have a zoom meeting, so pretty much before every class I log into a Group FaceTime with a bunch of other 9th graders and we talk about which class we do and which classes we do not have. Those FaceTimes usually help me a lot.

I sat down to write this journal entry with no real driving topic that I wanted to talk about, so I decided to just let my fingers do the work, and I just began writing this. This journal entry seems to be jumping from one topic to another, but that could just be the nature of journal entries, just a rant about my day. Speaking of today,  think it is supposed to rain which is not fun, but I will figure something out to do. 

I am not sure what I am going to do when I finish writing and posting this, maybe play some xbox because I do not have another class for a little while. Maybe get some work done too. Like I said in one of my past journal entries, I am living in the present.

    Daily Journal #2

    Here I am back writing journal entry number 2, I have only had two days worth of online school, it is going pretty well so far. At least it is something that will keep me occupied. I think being able to go to school in person is a lot more fun though. I get to see my friends and teachers in person and I have a lot of fun. I miss it. It’s pretty crazy and sad to think that school might be closed for the rest of the year, meaning that one day before spring break I played my final game of spike ball at Fenn with my close friends, and I had my final Fitz english class in person without even knowing it. Pretty sad. I feel especially bad for high school seniors and college seniors who are missing their senior spring, it seems like that would be a very fun time of year for seniors and it was taken away from them. I could kind of say the same thing for myself because I am a senior at fenn, so I will probably miss the end of my final year. It has been a long 6 year journey for me at Fenn. And I will probably miss my final moments there. I am in dance right now for my art, and it’s sad that I will not be able to have a performance in front of the whole school, I will not be able to show you my dance moves Fitz :( although you have probably already seen my moves because of me dancing around your classroom letting out some energy. Good times. On another note, sitting down to write this journal entry I did not even plan to be writing about the sadness of not having school. I just sat down and let my fingers and brain do the work, and this is what it turned out to be. I’m not disappointed though,  I think it is a good topic. 

This is probably going to be a long next few months, anyways, I think this is all I have to write for this journal entry. See you in the zoom meetings Fitz. Peace 

Daily Journal #1

    It is hard to know how each day will unfold during these confusing times. Especially because we are now doing online school. Distance learning so far has been a little confusing for me, but I know I will eventually get the hang of it. 

I woke up to the sound of my moms voice in my room. 

“Good morning, what would you like for breakfast?” She said. 

I blinked a few times trying to wake up a little, but every time I would try to open my eyes my eyelids would slowly fall down again. I think this is because of my sleep schedule. Having all this time on my hands during March break caused me to stay up late watching movies and TV shows, because I never had the worry of having to wake up early, but now things are a little different. I spent two weeks relaxing at my house in New Hampshire. I was never really occupied by much, except for the outdoor activities sure as hiking and playing catch. Jumping back into school is an adjustment, instead of waking up late and the only decision I have to make is what movie I want to watch, I have to wake up early ready to think and learn. I’m still making the adjustment back into school mode. 

Anyways, eventually I dragged myself out of bed in the morning I sluggishly walked downstairs to a delicious egg sandwich that my mom made for me. I am really glad that I have my mom in my life, she makes things a lot easier for me, but sometimes I think “Am too spoiled? Should I be taking more responsibility then I do?” I think this because I realize how much my parents do for me, and sometimes I wonder if when the day comes that I go off into the world alone, will I be ready to be responsible for myself? Will I be prepared to be able to provide three meals a day for myself? I’m sure I will be, but sometimes I just get curious about what would happen if I had to take care of myself. I know I am still only 14, so I have plenty of time to learn more about the world and how to be independent and successful. 

Back to my day... 

I finished eating and logged into the advisory zoom meeting. I checked in with Mr. Bradley, said hi to my classmates, and was off to my first class, Global Studies. I am still getting used to distance learning, so I texted the 9th grade group chat asking if we have a Global zoom meeting. Even though there was not one posted on the calendar I still wanted to be sure. It turns out we did not have a meeting, so I got to work on my homework. To make a point on the responsibility topic, I do my work pretty diligently. I do not like to save it all until last minute... usually, so I try to get it done shortly after it is assigned. I think that is a good sign of responsibility, I get right to work and always try to do it well. I hope my teachers would agree. After finishing my Global work I realized I had some time on my hands, about an hour. So I checked in with some friends and a group of us got on Fortnite to play a few games together. I think it is nice that we have time between classes just to relax for a little, it makes the school day seem less stressful, and gives me time to get work done. After playing some video games it was time for my next class. I did not see a scheduled zoom meeting for English, but to be safe I checked in with the class once again. I realized there was no meeting, so I helped my mom with something, and then got right to work doing this, writing a journal entry. Here I am, sitting at my plastic foldable table writing on my iPad about my day. 

I feel like since distance learning has started I am living in the present more, I will progress on my work as the day goes on, and not worry about what is ahead of me until it comes. This should be an exciting and unexpected next few weeks.