This week on Dayton Youth Radio, we have the fourth feature from our Teens In Quarantine series, with stories from Nick Kvalheim, a student at Oakwood High School and Nicole Henderson a student at Fairmont High School.
Nick Kvalheim
My math teacher handed us pink slips detailing how she was planning on running class if we did get quarantined. The day after I received my pink slip from my teacher, the loudspeaker boomed during seventh period astronomy class. My principal announced that Governor DeWine decided to close all schools until April 1st. Although I know how serious this disease was, I never thought it would be this bad.
My name is Nick Kvalheim. Some of the things I love are music, videography, and skateboarding. I play guitar and alto sax, and I'm always trying to expand my abilities. Right now, I'm in a band called Nudists on Strike.
During the weeks and days leading up to the pandemic, tensions in school have been very mixed, but the general mood was mild. One day in class, I was reading a news article on my phone that mentioned the director of CDC saying it's not a matter of if the coronavirus spreads, but when.
It really just seemed like there were two things that could happen: you get a small cough and you feel like garbage for a week or two or you feel like you're drowning and struggle for air while you feel you absolutely can't leave your bed and you need to go to the hospital so they can help you breathe long enough for your body to fight off the infection. That's crazy.
It's been really hard to not be able to see anyone during quarantine. The person I talked to most is definitely my girlfriend, Audrey. Neither one of us are allowed to hang out with other people. Fortunately, we've been able to negotiate being able to go on walks together.
The stay-at-home order really did mess up a lot of things for me. Right now I'm in a band called Nudists on Strike. My band is me and my friends Ethan, Chichi and Kevin. Unfortunately, we can't practice online. There is a slight reception delay that makes it really hard to interpret when to start playing, and it can throw the whole band off. We had about two practices when DeWine called shut down, and we had like two or three shows planned. It really just made me feel sad that I don't get to play. I really wanted to play for all my friends and Audrey.
For now, all I have is time. So I've been using it to get better at my guitar and play as much as I can.
Nicole Henderson
I thought that online learning and time management were skills I would get in college. We're still teenagers, nd so time management isn't a skill we have fully developed yet.
The hardest part for me has been procrastinating. I am one of the biggest procrastinators I know. And when you're in online school, you can put off your homework for hours. You can do your homework late, not even by hours, but days. You could literally put it off until days later.
I was sitting in my 10th period chemistry class, and the hallway was louder than usual. And I kept hearing people talking about coronavirus. I thought it wasn't that big of a deal. I hadn't heard of that many cases in America yet. So I was just unbothered.
This part might be frowned upon, but Twitter is like my main news outlet. I think it's actually that way with a lot of teens. I went on the trending page, and I saw that "schools" was trending. And then that's when I knew that it was for real. The next thing I noticed was the sound of the classes because they were all cheering and yelling. And then it was like a movie, honestly. Rverybody was scared of getting infected by you, and you were scared of getting infected by them.
There's a common theme with everybody I talk to, and that is how excited we are for this to all be over. When you're sitting at home, you're thinking about what you should be doing, like on prom night. I was just thinking, Oh my gosh, I should be at prom right now. School closing actually did mess up one of the most important things in the whole entire world to me.
If you know me at all, you know that track is the thing that I am the most passionate about. And I've been working very, very hard since November for this season. I do the 100, the 200, the 4X2 and the 4X1, two long jump. And if you put me on the 400, I'll run it.
I know that me talking about track, it just it sounds like such a me problem and even like a first world problem because people are dying because of COVID-19. But once I found out that the season was wholly taken away from me, I was heartbroken. It's just so heartbreaking to not be with the team.
Nick Kvalheim is a student at Oakwood High School, and Nicole Henderson attends Kettering Fairmont High School. Special thanks to Laura Hutchens. Dayton Youth Radio is supported by the Virginia W. Kettering Foundation, the Vectren Foundation and the Ohio Arts Council.
This story was created at the Eichelberger Center for Community Voices at WYSO.