Coronavirus Diaries is a series of diary-type entries written by students and staff documenting the day to day activities and experiences in quarantine. If you are interested in submitting an entry, contact us at [email protected] 

8:30 a.m.: I wake up to music blasting out of my Alexa speaker, reminding me that A) I need to wake up and face the world, and B) that I should probably change the alarm volume and stop setting an alarm for every minute so that I don’t tick off my parents. I’m reminded that the institution of school has been changed drastically by the fact that the alarm goes off two and a half hours later than normal and the fact that, appropriately enough, “Pumped Up Kicks” always plays in one of my alarms. My taste in music is otherwise quite dynamic and broad, and lately, I’ve been playing more oldies music, such as “Wonderwall” by Oasis and “Heroes” by David Bowie.

9 am: I go downstairs to the guest room where my computers are and study, usually by watching the AP Calc BC livestream on YouTube, which I highly recommend for those taking the exam.

10:00 am: I go back upstairs and eat breakfast, usually milk and cereal (call me boring, but Multi Grain Cheerios are my favorite) unless my dad makes something special. I say my prayers and chill for a little bit after.

11 am: My siblings and I have been taking Skype lessons for reciting the Quran for 20 minutes a day per person, for probably 6 years now. Until live class sessions started recently, we’ve been doing this at 11 am. This usually wakes up my lazy siblings

11:30 am to 12 pm: While everyone’s eating breakfast, we watch New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s daily address.

12-1ish to 2-3ish pm: I usually start walking sometime between noon and 1 p.m. I walk on the trails in our neighborhood for about two hours (while socially distanced, of course), which is good for my sanity, my ambiverted-leaning-introverted soul and my sense of reflection; also I also get to listen to Green Day, which is good because I can’t blast out their music from my speaker at home. I’ve been starting to run a little bit during those hours because I need it.

2-3:30ish: I take a shower if I’m not biking later that day, say my midday prayers and then I eat lunch.

3 to whenever…pm to whenever…am: This is my whatever time. During this time, I study, work on some personal programming projects, read, practice bass or stare contemplatively outside my window for hours wondering if the torture of being socially distanced will end, while at the same time putting up with my younger siblings and longing for an opportunity where I can be of use to someone other than my immediate family. I’ve been reflecting and searching through the inner spiritual workings of my soul, longing to hear and see a voice in front of me that doesn’t belong to anyone in my household because being cooped up in my house has been detrimental to myself. Even though I’m soothed by keeping in touch with my friends and extended family I need someone to have a physical presence for me to see their mouth moving as they talk in order for me to be sane and remember that my world is not the center of the world that other people and lives still exist for me to be humbled. I keep complaining about these times even though everyone else has to suffer and my life isn’t unique and I’m just doing what everyone else is doing so I don’t really have the right to complain.

If my dad is home, he and I (and maybe my sister) go biking from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on the Washington and Old Dominion  Trail. We’re big bikers and we have a rather large collection of 19 bikes total- most of them secondhand that my dad bought off of Facebook Marketplace.

I eat dinner around 9-9:30 p.m. and then continue whatever I’m doing until I go to bed. I’m supposed to go to bed at 11 p.m., but if I’m busy I sometimes go to bed as late as 1:30 a.m.

Routine Activities:

Every Friday: During my walking period, the programming subteam of the robotics team has a Zoom meeting. Every other week we learn something new, and every two weeks we have a mock hack-a-thon (repository for all of our code located here: github.com/Team612/mock-hackathon). Shoutout to junior Kai Fergerstrom, our programming captain, for arranging these meetings!

Every Saturday morning: I would, in normal times, take classes at my mosque, but now, those classes have taken the form of 40-minute Zoom sessions.

Literally every 5 minutes whenever I’m near my mom’s phone: I check my parents’ families’ WhatsApp threads. My mom has family all over, including Detroit, New York and Bangladesh, and I constantly worry about them, especially since my uncle, a NYC doctor, already caught the virus (he recovered, thank God). My dad’s side mostly lives in the Washington D.C. area, so these times hurt even more since we used to see each other so often and we’re so close, and overly active WhatsApp threads with crazy cousins and Bangladeshi aunts and uncles aren’t the same. Sometimes, the family has an hour-long Zoom meeting. COVID-19 hasn’t stopped my cousin from having a baby, my other cousin from getting engaged or my nephew from learning how to ride a two-wheeler.

Obviously, we’re having classes Tuesdays and Thursdays as well.

Every single minute of my lifetime I’m listening to music, in case you haven’t noticed

Moral of the story: Life kinda sucks, but it’s corona time, so we just gotta deal with it. Do something productive. Also, remember to wash your hands and face, and wear a mask outside and socially distance yourself from other people!