Logan Ho (11)

“Initially I was psyched about quarantine because I thought it would be sick to take school at home. At the beginning, it was exactly how I thought it would be. School was really chill and I got to play games a lot during class. After a while though, I realized I really missed my friends and social interaction. Currently, instead of feeling great like I did at the start of quarantine, I feel kind of “stale” to be honest. I can’t see most of my friends nearly as much as I would like to and it is somewhat hard to make new ones. The main hard thing for me is not making friends with people I meet, it is finding new people.

The main thing that affects my everyday life is physical exercise. On a normal school day I would be walking everywhere: between classes, at PE, to go get lunch, going to volleyball practice, and even just walking around aimlessly with my friends. Now, I just sit around on my butt all day playing league and Valorant. The only time I really get exercise is when I go play volleyball with my friends, and it is not even close to how much work I would put in during practice.

A few months ago, I was really hyped to play for club volleyball and made a 17’s team but, at the last minute we went back into SIP (shelter in place) and my parents said I couldn’t play this year. Hopefully if Corona ends this year, I was hoping to contact the coach and ask if they still have a spot available.

The first thing I would do after the pandemic is getting some friends and go camping or something. I definitely want to do something outdoorsy and just stay on vacation with friends for a few days at least. I am so tired of being locked up in my house all day and not being able to hang out for long.”

Sivagunalan Thamilarasan (Class of 2020)

Sivagunalan Thamilarasan is a class of 2020 alumni who attends UC Merced. 

“School is pretty hard. I quit computer science because I couldn’t do it so I changed to bioengineering. I take biology now, which is killing me. It’s a lot of information and also a lot of things to understand. 

Online school is pretty easy; I’m at home currently and we have scheduled classes. Sometimes you don’t have to go to classes though. The classes are mostly recorded so you can always watch it back. But you definitely have to figure out the schedule by yourself a lot more. They don’t tell you “you have this tomorrow, this is due next week, etc.”

I haven’t been in person for college yet and I don’t know the full experience yet, but I really want to go to college. Right now I’m just sitting in the corner of my room all day, eating, and sleeping. I’ll also have more freedom. It’s definitely easier to get A’s and better grades this year, but it’s also good to go to college and study and understand things. I’m happy right now but I think I’ll be happier when I go to college.

I also began to work. I was staying at home for 24 hours and doing nothing and my college is pretty far away so I just decided to get a job at Amazon. I go around 7:30 P.M. for maybe 4, 5 hours everyday, depending on my schedule. I have to buy my own stuff like my laptop and jeans and everything now and gain a little independence at home since I’m living with my parents right now. 

Quarantine has made me more antisocial. Usually at school I’m talkative and loud but now, in Zoom classes if someone asks for the answer, even though I know the answer I don’t say it. It’s weird. Fun fact, I haven’t made a single friend at Merced yet. I always wait for someone to talk first. It hasn’t gotten any easier, I just got used to it. I had a bunch of friend groups at high school and I got closer to people I wasn’t close with during school. I met new people and got closer to them than old friends. Old friends were getting a little distant but I met new people from our school later.
I regret not making more memories and doing wild things. I didn’t screw around as much as other people did in class because I wanted to be present in school a little better. I look back at my friends and what they’re doing and that’s why I want to work harder and be more studious. It was a good time to self reflect. I want to focus more on college since in high school, I really didn’t care and played volleyball and screwed around. Right now, I actually want to be more studious and go to places I usually don’t go alone. Usually, I ask for my parents permission and go with friends. When I go to college, I want to walk around by myself and go on drives and experience freedom.

The first thing I want to do when the pandemic is over is to actually go out and hang out with my friends. I would go on a hike and come down after the hike and get food at an open restaurant and sit and talk. It’s a vibe talking to friends at the end of a day.”