At the beginning of this year, the state had started lockdown and schools went online due to COVID-19. Seven months later, we are still practicing social distancing and restrictions. COVID restrictions and rules have affected my everyday life in both positive and negative ways.

To start, some of the positive aspects about quarantine for me are not having to wake up as early for school and getting to explore new interests. Since school is online and starts a bit later, I feel more ready for school because I get to sleep in a bit more than I did before and not have to worry about being late to school. During the beginning of the lockdown, I found myself being able to explore new interests such as making origami stars, painting landscapes, listening to new artists, and watching dramas of different genres. Trying out these new activities helped to entertain me and get me off my phone. Another thing that is positive about quarantine for me is that I feel more comfortable with participating in class by sharing ideas and answering questions. Due to my camera being off in most classes and having the chat bar, it makes it easier for me to engage in class.

However, some of the negative aspects about quarantine for me are that I haven’t been able to go out as often or freely as I was before and online school at home can be distracting. My family and I practice social distancing and don’t go out unless we need to. This has been a new experience for me since I would go out a couple of times a month before to go to stores, bakeries, or to walk around my neighborhood. However, due to the rise in COVID cases, it doesn’t feel as safe to go out anymore and there isn’t much time to do so because of school. During online school at home, there are more distractions for me since my cousins all have online school at the same time as me. Sometimes I can hear what is going on in their classes and my internet connection would be slow. I would also help my cousins with their homework sometimes which can be time consuming at times since I also need to meet my deadlines. Once my relatives return home from work, it can get noisy especially since I have to do my work in the living room. From conversations to the sound of cooking, it can make it hard to focus sometimes. One last negative thing about COVID for me is the weird looks I would sometimes get in public because they make me feel intimidated and guilty. Sometimes I would choke on water or just my saliva and I would start coughing. This attracts people’s attention and sometimes they would start giving me dirty looks.

Based on the current situation and number of cases, I predict that COVID won’t be over until next year. I believe that it’s because there are currently 7.58 million active cases in the United States alone and it hasn’t gotten much better. Also, there are still people that don’t follow the guidelines. I still see people wearing masks incorrectly and it’s disappointing because it isn’t that hard to wear it properly. Even children can wear masks correctly so why can’t everyone else wear them? I believe that if everyone wore a mask properly when going out, then the number of cases would go down. At the moment, I feel as though it will never return back to normal. However, I really hope that we can return back to normal soon and the only way for that to happen is if people cooperate with the guidelines.

While there are restrictions, I think that there are more things that can be done. For instance, there are still people who aren’t wearing their masks out or aren’t wearing them correctly. According to the CDC, “Wear the mask over your nose and mouth and secure it under your chin.” and “Masks are most likely to reduce the spread of COVID-19 when they are widely used by people in public settings.” The CDC has also stated, “CDC recommends that people wear masks in public settings.” However, when I go out, I still see people that aren’t wearing masks or are wearing them with their nose sticking out. To those who are reading this and aren’t wearing masks properly or at all, I highly urge you to wear a mask! It’s not only for your safety, but it is also for the safety of the people around you.