by Jimmy Yates ‘21

At first I was ecstatic, a month or two without the stress of tests, waking up early, and carrying around a hundred-pound backpack. I spent the first two weeks of break enjoying my freedom: going to sleep after midnight, waking up at noon, playing video games, watching tv, playing tennis, mountain biking, and going for the occasional run.

But sadly, the low-stress times did not last. As the first messages in my inbox started rolling in from my teachers I realized that this, just like regular in-person school, would be similarly taxing and present challenges that I wasn’t used to. Reading assignments, completing boring work while my dogs sniff my face and my parents holler at their fellow school administrators, it seemed impossible to be productive or complete assignments with the same effort and focus that I did at school.  I stopped going outside and exercising. Any time not spent on academics was spent playing games and watching tv. In addition, as everyone knows by now, being away from friends, and not being able to play team sports or go anywhere, really bums you out.

Then, I started thinking about the bigger picture. As my dad forced me to watch the news every night, I saw the rising death toll of the COVID-19 virus and the horrified faces of families of those who the virus affected. It wasn’t just the health casualties of the virus either, people also were unable to pay bills, rent, medical procedures, on and on. Businesses were forced to shut down, let go employees, and watch their years of hard work go down the drain. I realized that if the worst we have to deal with is a few weeks away from our friends and some practice concentrating in a distracting home environment, we should count ourselves lucky. Sure, it sucks that we are stuck with siblings and parents and can’t go out to the mall, movie theater, or restaurants, but we have the pleasure of staying close to the ones we love and enjoying their company while others locally and across the country and around the world have lost their loved ones to this pandemic. 

I’m not saying this revelation has made me super upbeat and productive; I’m still getting there. For the past week I have woken up at 8 a.m., whether I stayed awake after that is neither here nor there. I have gotten out of bed early, eaten a good breakfast, and done a substantial amount of work whenever my parents weren’t hogging the computers. I have tried my best to work out once a day, go outside and play basketball, and go on runs, but there is still room for improvement.

If you’re still at the point in your quarantine where you’re waking up at noon and struggling to complete a single assignment, don’t fret, we have all been there. Start small, go to sleep a little earlier, wake up a little bit earlier, set aside a time each day for academic work and for exercise. You will get there.