Living as a college-ready senior in times like these is rough. Notice that you immediately understood what I meant when I said, “times like these.” This isn’t an isolated incident going on across the border in some place that we can’t see. For the first time in most teenagers’ lives (including mine), history is in our country, our states, our cities, and across the street from us; and there’s not much more we can do than adapt. 

I, personally, have had to adapt to a new, empty schedule instead of a filled one. Normally around this time of year, I would have pit orchestra going on. Almost every day after school, I’d stay until 5:30, playing my tenor sax or my soprano sax. At home, I would practice as much as I could to get those quick sixteenth notes under my fingers to make our musical the best it could be. This year would’ve been my third and final year in pit, but unfortunately due to covid-19, that opportunity has been lost. 

Work is another problem. Until the start of the quarantine, I worked at an essential business, a grocery store. At the time, it already seemed like a bad idea to be working upwards of eight hours per shift, due to my worries of eventually getting covid-19. While working with customers who have touched their products, breathed on them, and possibly coughed on them, I didn’t want to risk the possibility of bringing home a disease to my parents and possibly my neighbors. I took a leave of absence, and I’ve been out of work for about a month. 

Now that most of what I normally do is gone, from school based music to my own job, I’ve picked up other hobbies to keep myself occupied. Most of the time I find myself in my room, at my computer. In-between gaming and my schoolwork, I’ve been writing a short film with one of my friends, and both of us have been composing music for the film, as well. I’ve found myself in a goldmine of creativity; potential ideas everywhere. In a point where all we have is time, why not make something of it?