We asked a group of teenagers from the SheKnows Hatch program about their experience during the unprecedented COVID-19 quarantine.
Video transcript:
Emma: During my online history class, my mom came in to my room in a towel and asked if I was still in class, when indeed, the whole class could see her. Then she goes "Oh, whoops!" and runs out of the room. My whole class laughed very hard.
Reed: To address the obvious, yes, currently I am a cat. I was missing my friends in social isolation… like I miss walking in the halls with them, and just talking. So I was like, who hates people more than cats? No one. So that’s what I’ll become. I don’t think I’m doing well without people… I’m a 15-year-old dressed as a cat. There’s a breakdown coming.
Julia: Right now, homeschooling isn’t bad. We’ve been doing our classes through video chat.
Juno: Though you’d expect it to be less stressful, because you’d have more time to do homework, somehow, I feel like teachers have been compensating by giving us more work.
Jojo: For me, homeschooling has been really difficult. I’ve had a really hard time focusing. I’ve been handing in assignments late, I’ve been texting my friends during class… it’s really quite awful.
Jack: Now there are complaints about too much screen time at my school, so they’re cutting class time down and dishing out more homework. Which isn’t great.
Juno: I don’t think my eyes are ready for 6 hours of screen time, like, school, and then after school, doing homework on the screen… I just don’t think it’s really healthy.
Julia: I’ve been going on my phone 10 hours a day, on average.
Gabrielle: 10 and a half hours on my phone a day, it’s really bad.
Henry: I’ve just been watching movies, texting people…
Jackson: … playing video games…
Julia: … Instagram, Messages, and TikTok.
Henry: The funniest thing my mom did was she downloaded TikTok and has been doing dances. I don’t even have TikTok!
Evan: The funniest thing that my parents have done during quarantine is spend hours trying to teach my grandma how to pick up a FaceTime call so we can talk to her. Because she always tries to pick up her land line, and that never really works out.
Jojo: I’m so unproductive. I have all this time on my hands that I’m just not using for anything.
Gabrielle: I just feel so lonely all the time. Like, I talk to my friends, but as soon as I’m done talking to them, I’m like, "Oh my god, where did everyone go?"
Jojo: I’ve been really low-energy. I’ve been really depressed. It’s fun.
Max: If I could go "outside" outside right now, I would probably go play basketball. It’s just my way to clear my mind and be happy.
Jackson: I do a lot of roller-blading. I play tennis with my parents.
Reed: I have a Zoom meeting with my tae-kwon-do instructor.
Julia: [I’ve been doing] Pilates with my mom.
Reed: I’m not worried about the coronavirus for myself, like getting it, because I believe that I’d probably be fine.
Jojo: My biggest fear is being a carrier for coronavirus, and spreading it to my family and loved ones who are immunocompromised.
Max: What scares me most right now is the pace it’s picking up throughout the world.
Jackson: I feel like every day it hits a little closer to home.
Henry: What scares me the most is my grandparents getting it.
Reed: My grandma loves to come over, she loves to garden in our yard and help out wherever she can, but like, I’m so worried for her.
Jack: Favorite things about quarantine: everybody’s here, I have a lot of free time. Least favorite things about quarantine: everybody’s always here, I have too much free time.
Jackson: Not having to actually go to school.
Reed: I’m so happy I don’t have to get up as early anymore.
Emma: Quarantine has also given me much more time to watch Netflix.
Max: We have a lot more meals together, which is really nice.
Reed: Staying inside can get kind of sad.
Julia: Feeling trapped and not getting fresh air.
Jackson: I really like to go outside and play a lot of sports with my friends, and obviously we can’t do that, and all the organized sports that I’m in have been cancelled.
Emma: I tried to go to the park with one of my friends, and my mom came and yelled, "10 feet! Stay 10 feet away!" before making me come home because we were only 8 feet away.
