I am Kaitelyn, Uncaged’s feature columnist. My column is called Raise Your Voice and I typically talk about issues with school. Now that we aren’t in school and we are exploring a very different way of living it is harder to talk about school issues. I kept a diary to show what my life is like as a teenager in quarantine.
Wednesday, April 22
Dear Diary,
I am just so frustrated! I keep seeing all these pictures of people hanging out and having get-togethers with lots of people. I just wish everyone would take this more seriously and stay home! Oh, another thing I keep seeing, people on Facebook using #notmygoverner or typing angry comments and posts full of typos and wrong information. It makes me so angry to see people being so uncivil. I understand everyone has the right to their own opinion and we have freedom of speech. I am fine with most comments that are civil and simply expressing what people think. It is when I see people using politics and incorrect facts as arguments that frustrates me. It shouldn’t matter whether our governor is male, female, Democrat, Republican, or whatever. I am sure there is a Republican governor doing similar, if not the same, as our governor is. My grandma told me someone even said she was a pig and that she has breathing problems because she smoked her whole life. That is so not true!
Thursday, April 23
Dear Diary,
Today my mom went to pick up some milk and bread from Dollar General because we ran out. When she came back she started talking about the frustration she felt seeing people not use their masks correctly. She has to do surgeries since she is a vet so she knows the proper and effective way to use them. She always gets frustrated when people don’t understand how they work. They are meant to keep whatever you may have out of the air. She told me she sees people constantly adjusting them, not wearing them tight enough, having them below their nose, or hanging on their necks. I saw a video on TikTok of a nurse having to take her mask off and put it in a container to reuse. She had been using the same mask since March! That is crazy! My dad is very frustrated with how the country club he works at is handling this. I am very thankful both my parents are still getting paid though.
Friday, April 24
Dear Diary,
Today my family decided to run our mile for the day on a new trail. It would have been nice except there were a lot of people and they didn’t all practice social distancing. It was nice weather, except I hate running alone on trails. My mom and sister decided to hike instead so I tried taking our dog. She gets so scared sometimes of the tiniest sounds so she kept stopping. It was kind of annoying, but eventually we made it to a mile. The trail we were on intercepted a dirt road, as we crossed the road we saw some people in the woods. My mom said she thought they might have been picking mushrooms. There is this bridge going over a small stream at the entrance of this trail that we had to cross which isn’t a big deal. Except when we got there this family of maybe five people, I wasn’t exactly sure, were by the bridge. They had little kids that were running around, so we waited until they went down to the water. We decided to just cross the bridge because we wanted to get home. Well, these people’s dog ran up to us and at our dog! Now, our dog isn’t aggressive or anything but you could tell she didn’t like it. They just stared at each other really close. I thought the other dog might attack! The guy with the family ran right up to us and got very close to get the dog. It was just really scary.
Saturday, April 25
Dear Diary,
It’s been a couple of weeks, I think, since I rearranged my room and painted my mirror. I really like how it all turned out. With all of this time on my hands I have gotten around to a lot of things I kept putting off or never thought I would. I even did my own at home spirit week! One thing I am having a hard time getting around to is my school work. I had no structure or deadlines or anything like that for a while so now the slightest bit of work stresses me out. I have been doing these adulting 101 webinars through zoom that are an hour long and at first even they stressed me out! I have so much work to do that I haven’t done, and I have 3 zoom, or google meet, meetings on Thursday this week. 3! I have ones at 1:00, 2:00, and 5:00. I have another one on Friday too. I can’t stay focused long enough to do school work. At one point I was failing a class! For some reason it is just so stressful! It is really hard not having much structure anymore.
Sunday, April 26
Dear Diary
I remember at the beginning of this break I was at a low point. I was just really sad and dealing with a breakup, but having no school has really helped me get better. Although today I hit my breaking point with my anxiety. I just started crying a bunch over everything. My mom said she would set up a meeting with my grandpa, he’s a psychologist, this week. I miss my grandparents so much. It really makes me sad watching my grandparents leave and not being able to hug them. I can see how much it hurts my grandma too, which is hard. My grandma has a lot of health issues and I am really scared about her getting COVID-19. That is just one of the many what if’s I have running around my head causing my anxiety to be at its worst. Some days aren’t that bad, but then I have days like today where I have that anxious feeling all day. It gets hard sometimes because I am just so worried about everything, but I am working on trying to focus on other things. Something I am doing is trying to run a mile every day and gradually increase the distance. Running really helps me clear my mind and feel better about things. I am trying to eat healthier too, but that is not going very well. We also got baby chicks so they always brighten my day. I love hearing their little peeps while trying to work on school work. I even have stopped wearing makeup everyday because I am more comfortable in my skin. Writing down my feelings has really helped too. I think tomorrow will be a good day.
Credits:
PHOTO KAITELYN WALKER