Sanjida's Journal

March 10, 2020

It is Tuesday, the second productive day of my week. Following my daily routine, I went to school. While starting for school, I couldn’t realize that this Tuesday is going to be my last day of traveling to school as a sophomore. However, for all other high school students, this date was not the same. My 2 days early separation from school was triggered by the flu. After getting back home from school at around 4:30 PM, I took a shower. Then following the flu symptoms, I got a fever, cough, headache. The CNN news is showing the novel coronavirus updates. By now, we all have learned about COVID-19 symptoms. I am suspicious about myself to be a new victim of the sars-cov-2. I see my parents are not that worried. It is because I have a runny nose as well, which is a hopeful reason of not being a new COVID-19 case. Now it's around 10 PM. The fever is high with a bad cough. Observing my deteriorating condition, my uncle emailed my advisor about not attending school the next day.

March 11, 2020

I started taking medicine from last evening and took two doses by this morning. Comparatively I am feeling better than last night. I was confident about seeing my friends and teachers the next day in school until 6 PM. Now I realize my hopes of attending school are in vein as again the high fever and coughing have started. Again my advisor will receive an email that excuses me from school the next day.

March 13, 2020

Happy Friday people. I am feeling alright now since my temperature is normal but the cough is still killing me. However, still today, parents are not allowing me to go outside. I am already excused in school as I sent an email to my advisor again about not attending school due to illness. Besides, in the afternoon I called my job place and informed them about not going to work today. On the other hand, my friends were having the last day of school in Elmhurst today. Yet, they had no idea that it was their last meeting with teachers in the real school.

March 15, 2020

I woke up and felt super well today. I have my job today from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Seeing me better, my parents are not stopping me. They just asked me to put on my mask and gloves all the time while I was leaving for subway station. However, the novel coronavirus has confirmed 20000 cases and caused 5-6 thousands deaths across the United States until today. Therefore, it's not seeming that serious yet. None of us are still restricted to go out. I went to my job and came back home on time like other Sundays. Now it's around 8 PM, an email has popped up on my phone's screen. Checking the mail, I am feeling a combination of happiness and sadness--happy because there will be no school for a long time "yeeyyyy". Then sad because I’m not going to see my friends and teachers for a long time.

March 16, 2020

Today is Monday but not like other Mondays. I didn’t wake up at 6 AM today. I didn’t rush to brush my teeth and have breakfast thinking about getting late for school. I woke up at 9 today. I had my breakfast. I am still confused like my other friends about how our school is going to be held. It is evening now. By now, we have got the information that we are going to have online school. Teachers have started sending us class codes to join their classes. I have also started joining the classes in google classroom using the codes.

March 23, 2020

Life is being stuck at home. Life has already become so boring. I already stopped going to my job, supermarket, Rite Aid (my most favorite place near home where I go to hang around by walking almost every day), school, mall; everywhere in a word. On the contrary, the novel coronavirus has started hanging around everywhere in an epidemic from across the world. Millions of people have already met coronavirus and been victimized by it. Thousands of deaths have already been confirmed by it. However, the government can shut down the country but cannot shut down the learning of millions of students. Our first online school is today. Starting from last Monday, we took the last entire week to inform all the students about the virtual classes to join classes by today. It is 8:30 AM now. My alarm has started yelling at me. After brushing and having breakfast, now I am sitting before my computer. It is 9:00 AM now. The day started with Global Studies lesson and ended with sharing feelings with my advisor at 3 PM.

April 25, 2020

Today is Saturday. I wish this Saturday could be a weekend like I passed almost two months ago. I am already sick and tired of staying home in fear of a freaking sneaky microorganism. Still I am trying to make good use of time. It is late afternoon now. I just heard someone ring the bell. Opening the door, I noticed an Amazon box. I unwrapped the box and my LUDO set is here. Immediately, I will start playing. I have got two rivals: my grandma and my aunt. It’s 9 PM now. We spent some time playing Ludo. It was fun. Having dinner and watching TV for some time, now I am hitting the bed at 11 PM.

May 1, 2020

It was 12:01 AM. I was watching my favorite TV series ‘Greys Anatomy’. I was so lost enjoying the show that I forgot I have already turned 16. Suddenly, all my family members appeared before me and screamed “HAAPPYY BIRTHDAAYY TO YOUUUU” They took me to the living room. There was my favorite chocolate cake on a small table. It was a great plan of my cousin, who unfortunately lives in Brooklyn. My family members helped her to accomplish the plan. She made the cake for me by herself and my uncle fetched it and brought it home. It was really surprising during this stay-home order. We cut the cake and had a great time all together.

Now it’s 9 AM. The class started and ended at 3 PM like every Friday. Yeeyyy! I am a free bird now for the next 2 days. It is 5 in the evening now. I didn’t know another surprise was waiting for me outside. A bike was hanging behind my uncle’s car. I couldn’t believe that was for me. Now it is 8:30 PM. We went to the Flushing Meadows Corona Park and did some biking in the evening. Unfortunately, falling from the bike, I got a big blow on my right knee. Getting back home, I had dinner and around at 11:00 PM, I went to sleep.

May 30, 2020

The days of May passed in a less boring way as I started going outdoors for biking almost every day. Today is Saturday. My previous wound from the last bike crush has completely healed. I cannot even remember when I had pain in it. However, now it is 5:30 PM. I am going to the big park again with my bike. The park is the most crowded place in the United States now I believe. This makes me realize that people are bored of staying home like me. Everyone wants to enjoy life. Now it is 7:30. I am home but not like how I went to the park. Now here I am with a bunch of cuts all over. My next park tour with my bike is canceled now. This is the saddest feeling during this shutdown period.

June 2, 2020

Today is another Tuesday. Sadness is not that my body is aching incredibly rather that I am banned from going outside with my bike. That is the most heartbreaking part. Anyways, I am trying to feel better rotating my mind in good memories. I just remembered something that really makes me feel good every time while seeing people wearing masks outside. Alright! Now I am going to write about some moments I really enjoyed during this lockdown period.

At first, I want to say many, many thanks to my Lord for keeping me and my family healthy. Since the beginning of the coronavirus period, my family and I realized that we got to do nothing but wear masks during this global pandemic. One night, my uncle decided to help people during this pandemic. I became curious about thinking how! He ordered a big bunch of masks from Amazon (our best online place for hanging around now). I didn’t take so long to understand the second step. We decided to distribute masks among people without masks on the street. After getting the delivery of a huge number of masks from Amazon, we started our mission. We got out for the nearby Rite Aid first. We got out of the car with two bags of masks. I noticed a lot of people walking around without masks. We started asking people one by one if they would like to get a free mask or not. Some appreciated and liked to get one or more for themselves as well as their dear ones. Some said, “No, thanks.” Starting from there, we continued to several areas like Hillside, Jackson Heights besides our neighborhood and several supermarkets. However, we were confident about our health because we were wearing n95 masks and gloves while coming in close contact with people.

Now I really feel good going outside when I see comparing to previous months, almost 90% of people are wearing masks now.