The Advice Column

Covid-19 was sprung on everyone out of the blue. We had no real notice or preparation time for this. Everyone got crazed and bought all the hand sanitizer and toilet paper. Businesses deemed “unessential” got closed in the blink of an eye and left people without an income. But don’t you worry, you can defer that loan of yours for a month! Teachers are relying on Google Classroom to teach their students, while Health Care workers are going head to head with the virus. Everyone wishes life would go back to normal.

In Illinois, we’ve been ordered to stay home. People don’t listen though, they really want that Big Mac meal with a Coke instead of staying home to try and fight this virus that ‘s ruining people’s lives. That’s my first piece of advice. STAY HOME. I know it’s hard to do when you’re told to do it, but it helps prevent contact with others and helps prevent the spread and prolonging of the stay at home order and even the virus.

An easy way to kill time is by finding a good series on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Disney + and any other platform you use to watch TV and movies. That leads into my second piece of advice, distract yourself. If you’re wrapped up in a TV show, you aren’t going to think about anything else, your main priority is going to be what happens next in the show of your choosing. Criminal Minds has become my life.

Not all quarantine food has to be snacks and junk food, apples with peanut butter is actually pretty good. Eat healthy, and stay active: advice #3. Don’t think that just because you’re trapped inside doesn’t mean you can’t get a good workout in! Turn on some upbeat music and do some air squats or run on the treadmill if you have one, or walk laps around your living room. If you set your mind to it, you can accomplish anything!

Going into all of this hecticness, I wish I would’ve said goodbye to my teachers, all of them. I regret not trying harder in school. Honestly, I took it for granted. I didn’t realize how much it meant to me and how much I needed it until it was ripped from underneath me and it wasn’t mine anymore. I wish I could go back in time and build more friendships with my classmates and create more bonds with my teachers. This was the final year, the last year to do something with my high school career and I didn’t get that chance. 

I’m sitting here, listening to my country playlist that I would turn on in my Journalism class, just wishing I could go back and sit in my desk, waiting for Ms. Miers to tell us, “Head to the back and work on your pages.” I miss that. I miss creating a yearbook page, showing off my awesome classmates. I wish there was a redo button. I’d redo the last 13 years of my life. Each year for one I was in school.