4/20/20 Abanob Shehata Period 5

Abanob Shehata

4/20/20

Period 5

Sophomores 2020

Blogger #21

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

To be honest, it all happened so fast that I could barely process it. One week we were going to our classes normally and taking tests and doing lots of HW. Corona was not looked at seriously and it seemed that it would affect a few people in other countries and never reach America or do any serious damage. I personally didn't think much of it when I heard the news of it infecting people in China. But in just weeks, unbelievable stuff started happening. I remember the day the first case was confirmed in NYC. At first I was nervous that it was gonna spread like crazy but some of my friends comforted me. And then about a week later thousands of people were getting infected. I went to school that day and almost half the school was missing. Then a few days later school was officially closed and I couldn't believe it. Soon, thousands of people were stuck inside their houses because of the virus. Everything had become canceled in days. All sporting events, my soccer practices, church, and pretty much everything else was cancelled. I was stuck at home to watch T.V and to go on my phone all day. Despite all these things happening however I wasn't as upset as I expected to be. The reason for that is school has become much less stressful which is a huge gain. But also, now we get to spend more time with our families which is very important. I personally have tried to sort of enjoy this quarantine by having fun with my family by playing games together and telling stories. A third good thing is that I get to sleep much later now in quarantine than ever before. Also, the fact that I'm always at home gives me the advantage of… eating every 2 seconds. I mean that's like a dream come true. And to burn it off I just workout for like 45 mins. So this quarantine might have many disadvantages but I like to look more to the positive side of things. Things we never used to do before are now possible so why not try to enjoy it?

What is it like working from home?

Working from home has come with many advantages. Firstly, there are no more commutes.I personally may not take long to get to school but I have friends that sometimes take an hour or more to go to school. And without a commute there's no point in waking up early. If class starts at 9 you can wake up at 8:59 which is a huge advantage to many people. Also, working from home has helped release stress for a few reasons. We now have more time to submit assignments and because we're at home all day we have more time where we can actually work on them. Before, people who lived in Brooklyn had to start their work at like 7 in the evening but now we can all just do it whenever we want. Of course however there are disadvantages. When we have so much free time on our hands we waste lots of it on our phones or playing games instead of actually being productive. I personally have been playing FIFA in my free time rather than study for my upcoming AP exam or doing schoolwork. Also, learning from school itself has advantages over working from home. When we're at school, we are usually more focused on our school work and get our assignments handed in on time as well as study for upcoming exams. Physical school also offers interaction instead of being stuck at home having to facetime everybody. And school also offers extracurricular activities such as sports or band which many of us enjoy but now that we're at home we can't do any of that. So working from home has its advantages but also some disadvantages.

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

There's a lot I've learned about the world and community in the last few weeks. The first thing I learned from seeing many people help each other, is that in times like these some people offer lots of kindness. In a time of crisis we should be helping and supporting each other and luckily that's how a lot of people reacted. Some people have given money to people who lost their jobs because of Corona and many other great acts of kindness. However, I've learned a lot of bad things about some people in the world at this time of crisis. Some people who are selfish and want to make personal gain off others at this time. Some people have sold things for prices much higher than normal to take advantage of this crisis. I've also learned that many people are selfish and don't care about others whose lives are in jeopardy. I've seen videos of people blocking traffic on purpose to protest the shutdown and blocking hospital entrances in the process. So because some people wanted to shop and get their hair done other people's lives were at risk. But enough looking at the bad side of how some people reacted. This crisis has brought many people together. People in Italy were seen singing in their balconies together. And then of course there's the doctors and nurses saving people's lives everyday showing that at a time like this we as a world can come together and try to fight this and although not everyone will exactly agree and react properly, the majority of the world can fight this and future problems together.