4/16/20 Julia O'Hara Period 5

Julia O’Hara
4/16/20
Period 5
Sophomores 2020


Your own personal feelings and thoughts about what is happening right now:

If I could describe what is happening right now in one word that word would be crazy. I remember hearing about this virus in January and not thinking much of it. Of course I was devastated hearing what China was going through, but I never thought we would soon go through it as well. It amazes me how one weekend I was hanging out with all my friends and the next we couldn’t leave our house. When I went to school the Monday before it was shut, I would have never guessed that in a week schools would be closed for a while. I didn’t even attend school that Friday, but my friends sent me a picture of their classrooms and I could see that more than half the students weren’t there as well. Yesterday I went on a walk and had to wear a mask. It’s scary how we can’t even do normal everyday things such as walks without taking precaution from this virus. On the bright side, the number of cases do seem to be slowing down. I’ve also been catching up on sleep that I missed when we had school. Although I think it is unlikely, I hope we can go back to school so I can see all of my teachers and friends again.



What is it like working from home?

Although I miss getting up and leaving my house, working from home has its advantages. I live in Brooklyn so for regular school I would have to wake up at 6 am. Instead if my first class is at 9, I can wake up around 8:40. I also feel that I am much less stressed working from home. As I said, I can get more sleep and start my work earlier instead of getting on the bus to come home. I also like how we have three days to complete the work, so if the workload is a lot for one class I can spread it out. However sometimes I feel very lazy. Instead of going out and interacting with people, we are all sitting in our rooms alone doing work which makes me very bored and lazy. Also, it's better to be sitting in the class with the teacher and classmates next to me so if I have a question I could quickly ask them. I honestly greatly miss being in school and I hope we can go back by the end of the year.



What are you learning about your world/ community based on the reactions?

One thing I learned is how generous and kind people can be in times of need. I’ve seen people grocery shopping for the elderly, people giving out masks for those who need. My neighbor is a doctor at Maimonides Hospital and every night when he leaves his house at 7 my whole block comes out and we clap for him. It is so nice to see everyone come together as a community. All essential workers are heroes right now. From the doctors who go into work everyday, saving thousands of lives while also being exposed is inspiring. Even the supermarket workers who could also be exposed around many people everyday are helping a great amount.

Currently there are 132,467 total cases in New York City and 746,625 cases in the US, which is the largest amount of reported cases from a country. However, cases have been declining.