Now that we are going to be at home for awhile, we need to practice social distancing. It is something that all of us need to do, and it is very important. Since we are doing that, we can’t really hang out with friends or other people. It is also hard to spend time with family that are not in the same home as you. Trying to stay connected with friends can be one of the hardest things because you can’t be with them physically to actually do things. 

Social distancing can mean a variety of different things, such as you do not leave your house and get food shipped to your house, stay away from other people as much as you can when you’re out, or try to connect with others over video chat or just a phone call when trying to socialize. I would say that social distancing is where you stay home unless you need to get necessities from the store and when talking to friends, it should be some type of video chat because I feel like you can connect with others more when you can actually see them. 

Recently, my family on my mom’s side had decided to take my great uncle into Friendship Manner to live in the assisted area. Before this pandemic broke out, my family was able to go and visit him in his apartment, and made sure that he was stocked with everything that he needed. Since all of his mail is still going to his house, there would be times where we would bring stuff for him to look through to spend some time. Now that virus is making everyone stay six feet apart, at nursing homes, no one can go in and visit, and my great uncle cannot leave his room. We are able to call him every night to check on him, and they are funny phone calls because he is not the best with a smartphone, and we sometimes struggle to talk to him or he calls us about five times in a row. There would also be times that we would tell him to go out on his balcony and look down to see us and talk for a little bit to just see how he is doing. We hope that this virus calms down so we can all go and visit his apartment and talk to him about all of the things that he did while he stayed in his room. 

Another thing that my family decided on doing for my grandma before the pandemic was getting her a car because the old one was not working and had a lot of problems. After not having accessibility to a vehicle for four months, we found her a nice shiny red car. But now she is unable to drive it many places as she needs to stay home. There are times where she would need groceries so  my mom and I would go get them and then deliver it to her apartment. It has been very important for my grandma to not go outside to go anywhere, and we get worried when we would call her and she wouldn’t answer because she would still be out running errands. 

There have been many ways that my friends and I have been staying connected. One way is just by texting, which is the one way that I have always communicated with them. Another way that I have been staying connected with friends is through facetime or video chat. I have also been communicating with some of my teachers through remind, which is a really good app to use to get information out to students and respond to a student, without actually exchanging phone numbers. On Monday, my music teachers are going to be doing a video chat so they can see all of us because they miss us and they want to know how everyone is doing. Another way I am planning on hanging out with friends is an app called houseparty, where you can video chat with friends and even play games with the group. I feel like the app is the best way to have some fun during some of the stressful times while this virus has been spreading. 

I am hoping that everyone keeps their distance from others, and if we practice social distancing, maybe we would have the chance of flattening the curve of this virus. We are all in this together and I believe that we can do this. Please just stay home and connect with others over a group video chat and not in person. Let’s flatten this curve of the virus!