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This whole quarantine has given me time to catch up on a bunch of anime that I have been meaning to watch but never had the time. A few days ago I finished watching Akame Ga Kill and Kill la Kill, in a total span of four days for both of them. I am currently watching Fruits Basket and I love it. I get so emotional like every episode, but it’s okay, I am here for it. I will not say any spoilers, but it is so damn cute and there are parts where my heart just breaks over the character’s life and how much they have gone through. My favorite episode so far is the New Year’s Eve episode, like, OMG! What a beautiful soul.

I caught up with the Black Clover manga and let me tell you something. It is so fire! The hype that is about to happen with the dark triad, but I will not say any spoilers. I also read the Burn the Witch one-shot by Kubo (writer of Bleach) and it got me hyped up for the movie and series that is coming up. Just watching the trailer made me thirsting for more. Another thing connected to Kubo that is getting me hyped up is the final arc of Bleach. It is coming back, finally! I need to watch Rukia’s and Captain Unohana’s Bankai animation like now.

With anime series and manga came the animated movies. I am rewatching a bunch of Ghibli movies like Ponyo, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Arrietty. It is so wonderful to just lay down and watch a good movie while eating brownies with sweet tears. I cannot stop with these though. I plan to rewatch A Silent Voice and I know that I will cry all over again. I always say this, but it breaks my heart and I love it.
Indeed, all of this time has given me many opportunities for both watching anime and reading manga, but there is one thing that I have been waiting for a long time and that is the Violet Evergarden movie. After Kyoto studio was set on fire I hoped that they would receive nothing but blessings, but they have blessed humanity with this new film that will come out tomorrow (April 2). I have been waiting for something related to Violet Evergarden for a long time (rewatched the series like 5 times) and it is finally happening. The trailer for the movie is so beautiful and makes me wonder, how much time has passed since the end of the series?
This whole quarantine is terrifying, but for me, it is smoothed over by doing the things that I love. Nothing warms my heart more than beautifully animated entertainment with a good storyline and most of all, the lovable characters and how they interact with each other. It is the perfect opportunity for friends to get much closer and to know each other better in this current lockdown.

Let’s go out

      Last week was a fuss. I was waking up every day at noon with more than 15 emails from every single one of my teachers. Moments like this make you appreciate everything. For example, did you ever realize how much time we actually had in our hands because the school would make us wake up early? Just a thought. Anyways, I’ve learned that to be able to sleep now; I actually had to start taking these melatonin gummies. It helps me sleep without overthinking every possible scenario that can happen in the next couple of weeks, and the best part is it allows me to wake up early without being tired. 

        You see, this deadly virus has caused a whole lot of changes. I am starting with the fact that we no longer have a school. The district says we’ll be back by April 30, but I highly doubt that. It’s a bit of a shock when you actually step out of your daily routine and realize that you actually have no freaking idea what to do—adding to that, that we can’t actually go out anywhere or if you’re not a responsible citizen and you’re not protecting yourself and others and going out. However, in this whole mess, I’m still going to work. You’d be surprised to see how many people actually will put themselves in danger and create physical contact with you for a whopper. The amount of income the store is making is basically the same. Our working habits have changed though, we now use gloves for everything and wash our hands every 30 minutes. We also have fewer staff working during the same shift, which is totally a bummer because I already get a crappy paycheck. Imagine what it will be with my two days of work. It’s actually sad though the fact that many people aren’t getting any money to be able to provide to their families. I mean, I don’t really need the money since I’m working for myself, but what about those people who actually have to support their families? That’s scary. 

      I’ve been watching the news every single day with my mother, and Even though this pandemic is really dangerous, I believe it would actually bring some relief and decrease the hysteria if they would actually talk about something else. I mean LITERALLY, a whole hour just talking about how people are being infected and dying do they actually realize how much effect this news causes to people? I would doubt it if they did, they would know that the people actually need to start inhaling something different. 

      Aside from all the crap, this pandemic has brought my family back together, and every day is a movie night, apparently. That’s okay though I love them, and before I was always stuck between school and work plus church that we never really had time to or I never had time to be with them. It’s fun to see what my mother is doing to try and cheer the whole house up. 

I’ve been stuck at home for the past 12 days, and as much as I feel extremely productive, I also feel unproductive and lazy, I feel as though I have nothing to look forward to and have nothing to strive for at the moment.

I’ve been doing the best I can to keep up and do my assignment, but it’s been a struggle. The best way I’ve been able to do them and the best advice that I can give is to keep everything in order and have it visual where you can see it and scratch it out when it has been done.

For me this past school year, I have been using a planner on and off, and at the beginning of this week, I took it out of my backpack and looked at all of my assignments that had already been posted and wrote them down. This past week’s load has been full, and so has my page on my planner. However, I feel so productive; I have been doing all my assignments, even turning them in before the due date. On the downside, while doing that I’m in bed, I’m watching Netflix, snacking on food, and taking naps after everything is done. This is extremely different from being in class. It is a different environment; it’s not a learning environment. I think of home, a place to relax, a place I am comfortable in, and a place where I can get away from the stress I have and the real world. It has been difficult taking that comfort zone to me and making it into what is supposed to be a learning environment because now that is what my home has to be, because of the unfortunate circumstances that we are in at the moment.

I wake up, do some work, and now go to bed. That was the usual occurrence before understanding that at this time in my life, I co-exist with a global pandemic. Yet, nothing much has changed, and the only change is that it’s from home. Home is where I have all the time to myself. To practice self-care, have a good sleep schedule, eat correctly, and exercise basic needs that I neglected before because now I have the time to pace myself instead of working on other people’s time. Of my generation, I find myself an average teen, the same as others. I was worried about what might come from this pandemic, worried for my friends as well as a family that has compromised immune systems. I wake up every day wondering if healthy people understand that stockpiling and buying up everything think it’s good when the older generation lives from paycheck to paycheck in this economy. Then I remember that most adults read at the level of an 8th grader. The repeated fight in the political arena between republicans and democrats over an issue that could affect millions upon millions of people being treated more as a ploy to get re-elected by the usage of the media to coerce millions to think in a specific manner, which isn’t for themselves. The repetition is the same old song, and it gets boring, so I decided against watching the news and like researching on my own time. Rather than the adults at my home who are sucked into it, they think they’re world-class scientists after being no more than slightly educated on the topic off of Facebook. Yes, Facebook. It’s at this point in my life that I realized the tables have turned. Teenagers are no longer the simple ones, but rather it’s the older generation that believes coronavirus is a government ploy meant to control the population. “Yeah, grandma, don’t believe everything on Facebook,” is a go-to now. Watching my little sister play with toys at home as nothing out of the norm for her.