Now that there is an extension for the stay at home order thanks to the governor J.B. Pritzker, we now have to stay home until the end of May. The biggest challenge of them all is just staying home. Some of the other challenges lately are not having school for the rest of the school year, my schooling schedule, and many more things that have happened over the last month. Hopefully, we will be able to go and hang out with friends and go shopping or go out in public soon. 

The one thing that has challenged me big time is my schedule for the school days because I have been trying to get up around 8:15 so I can get my day started and I can start my schooling to make sure I am not doing it all day. Every day, I just do the assignments that are due that day, and space out the different assignments. I definitely take breaks throughout the day because I don’t want to be sitting on a computer for a long time. I would go and find little snacks to have throughout the day. Throughout the days, I also try to talk to my friends to see how they are doing with all of their classes, and maybe working together if we had a class together. 

Another thing that was a big time challenge was not having the chance to go out with friends, shopping, and not eating in the restaurants. Usually when it is spring and really nice out, my family’s friend group end up planning to have bonfires almost every weekend. Sometimes, we will play some type of card game, and the teens are sometimes allowed to play with them, but otherwise, the teens will just hang out and be on our phones. But not being able to go hang out and have some laughs are something I will miss for a little while. Usually and my friend and I would always go out and shop, and just have some fun while we could since there isn’t a lot of the things to do around here, other than just taking random trip to walmart and the mall.

 Another challenge that happened due to this virus was having my mother working from home. Now her office has taken over the dining room, it was weird to have her come home with a big box that had a lot of papers, wires, and other office supplies, plus a check printer. It was difficult to figure out how to connect the certain wires, such as what has to be plugged into the internet and what cord had to go to her phone. Also, my mom had someone to talk me through it all, so thankfully, it didn’t take all day. The walkthrough only took about an hour to make sure everything was set up correctly. 

Another challenge that has occurred during the virus is finding a job. I was planning on applying for a job at Hyvee right after the spring musical Cinderella. But since the virus broke out, Cinderella got cancelled, and there are a lot of people that have been applying for unemployment. So, I took the chance and I decided that I wouldn’t put in an application to work because there are other people that need a job more than me. Plus, my mom and grandma didn’t want me to take someone else’s chance of earning money for their family for food and other needs. I thought that it was important that someone might need the job instead of me, so after we all get released from the lockdown, there is a chance that I will send in my application.

Some ways that I have been working through these challenges are making rainbow loom bracelets, which I make them to waste time. I also made some hearts for the heart hunters Facebook page, so I have decorated my front windows with paper hearts that I had cut out and posted the pictures on the page. The reason why you might see all of these hearts up on people’s houses is because it is our way of saying thank you to all of the healthcare workers and the people that have essential jobs. Other ways that I have been getting through are doing meeting calls with other people, such as my band family, which was a really fun time to hear all of their voices and some of their faces. During the group call, a bunch of them were showing off their pets and our directors were asking what we have been doing while we are “grounded” because of this virus. Luckily, our band family has a strong bond and we are able to come together to communicate. The meeting might become a weekly thing for us to stay connected.