These past weeks have been overwhelming. I’ve had a lot of different mixed emotions going into this quarantine situation. I feel bored, tired, scared, and stressed, but at the same time relaxed. Being stuck at home has given me more free time. The thing about being held at home is that everyone’s situation is different.

photo-yellow-sunflower-1214258 Having to spend every hour of the day with family members becomes pretty annoying. I’ve tried to come up with activities to keep myself busy and even started to work out. I built a schedule of things to do throughout the day to be more consistent and productive as if I were still in school. That’s the thing I miss the most: the routine. I like to know when I’m doing things and have them all planned out. For me, school was a way to socialize since I don’t go out apart from that. Being at home all the time was the one thing that didn’t change. The transition from schoolwork and online work has been a bit confusing. I think the most challenging part of it has been teaching myself the material and being motivated to get on the computer to get some work done. The amount of school work assigned is doable. My professors have been pretty consistent with the amount of work they assign. The only thing is being at home is pretty distracting and I would rather be doing something other than schoolwork.

The way I’ve been trying to handle things since being stuck at home is just making sense of what’s going on outside by watching the news to keep me updated on the development of the situation.

Every day that goes by, the story keeps getting worse, and it’s terrifying. Simple things like going out to get groceries now require that we wear masks and gloves. More and more people are getting infected with the virus, and when I heard the U.S was leading with the highest number of reports, I panicked. Every time my parents leave for work or to buy groceries I worry. Many of the messages I keep seeing are, “We are all in this together.” Yet, many people keep leaving their homes to visit family members or friends. It may seem selfish on my part but seeing family or friends can definitely wait.

By visiting others we are risking spreading the virus to them or ourselves. My routine has pretty much stayed the same. I look at my emails and Google classroom for new assignments. Then, after some work, I start watching Netflix. One hour on Netflix turns to four hours on Netflix, and two hours of TikTok. I’ve been spending more time with my family, playing board games and tennis. Personally, I think this would all be over sooner if people listened to directions. It really is no joke and people are dying. It’s not much to sacrifice a bit of social time for the well being of others because even if we aren’t directly affected by it, the people around us might be.

Itza Dayanara Rodriguez is a sixteen year old born on June 18, 2003 at the Mission Regional Hospital. She considers her upbringing more influenced by her Mexican roots rather than her American ones. At a very young age she was interested in dance and everything related to it, so at the age of three, her parents decided to enroll her in ballet and gymnastics lessons. Since her family was constantly financially struggling at the time, her parents had to take her out of her dance lessons, but made her attend head start a few months later. By the time Itza entered Patricio Perez Elementary she was pretty fluent in spanish so she was moved to an all English class, in which she had to learn the basics of English in just two days in order to start first grade. In the second grade, her parents had become financially stable and Itza moved into a new home. At the age of ten, she experienced the first death of a loved one. Her grandfather passed away the day she went to visit him and she griefed his death for a really long time. It changed her view on what it means to be alive and gave her the inspiration for her future career. Itza attended Ann Richards Middle School, during the sixth grade she was interested in playing the cello but starting seventh she decided to follow her passion for dance and join the drill team. Throughout middle school she was in various UIL activities and in one particular competition held at Jimmy Carter made her interested in going to the early college. Being at Jimmy Carter Early College made a future college education more accessible and allowed her to start her career path early. Freshman year became a new experience for Itza since she began taking college classes, and these were way more rigorous than any of her previous classes. After a year of dealing with phobic anxiety problems she turned to playing the guitar and used music as a way to calm herself during panic attacks. Using dance and music to distract her she was able to control the panic attacks. The first semester of sophomore year went by pretty rough for her but the second semester was much worse. In the second semester she started struggling with her body image and just wanting to fit into the stereotypes built by society and that created a lot of stress. College classes had become more demanding towards the end of the year and her stress wasn't getting any better. To top it all off around this time she separated from her life long best friend over some dumb highschool drama. Now starting junior year Itza wants to focus on loving herself and doing well academically. She plans to raise her college and highschool GPA before the year finishes and get high performing scores in her ACT’s in order to apply for her dream college. She wants to study in a korean university abroad, Seoul National University the number one medical school in that country. All while learning the culture and meeting new and different people to expand her view on the world. Itza wants to obtain a masters in Pediatric Oncology and move back to the valley to build a clinic for cancer patients focusing on kids, she decided to pursue this career due to her grandfather's lung cancer. The clinic will help cure immigrant kids who otherwise would have to seperate from their parents in order to be treated at a hospital upstate or in Mexico. Itza also wants to better herself as a person and become more confident in how she looks and is. She wants to be able to raise her self esteem without relying on anyone else's opinion or approval to accept herself. There is definitely many goals that she wishes to accomplish but feels that it is never clear where life will be taking her, but she hopes that with her hard work she is able to achieve her dreams.