This week on Dayton Youth Radio we continue our Teens In Quarantine series with two stories from students at Fairmont High School. First, we'll hear from Max Gallanstein, who's a big sports fan, and then we'll hear from Ethan McFarren, who produces dance music from his bedroom recording studio.
Max Gallantstein
Hello, my name is Max Gallanstein. I'm a junior at Fairmont High School. I live with my two parents, Mary and Phillip, and I have two older brothers.
Like other students, I'm doing my classes online. One thing I like about online school is being able to do it at my own pace so I can go and work in the morning and then come home and do school later.
I've also been working a lot from my parents at Big Sky Company. I helped make the bread, make the muffins and the cookies. And when we finish, I go and do the dishes for everybody. We have been making a lot of bread and donating lots of it to the Fairmont Backpack program and Catholic Social Services. My family and I are just trying to help out as many people as possible right now.
I'm not too worried about anyone close to me getting the virus, and I'm fortunate enough to be able to say that I don't know anyone that's been affected by it and I feel pretty lucky right now.
My brother Jack and I have been playing a lot of basketball in our backyard to pass the time. I think I was in fourth grade when we moved into our new house, and my grandpa came over to our house and built a little basketball court in our backyard, and we've used it almost every single day since then.
One cool memory I think that I'll have from this whole time is that we're living in a time when all sports have been canceled, including the Olympics, which is just crazy. I miss not seeing the Reds games on TV every night. Every year we always go to four or five baseball games, and it just stinks that they're not playing. I definitely miss March Madness the most, especially because I really felt like UD had a really good chance this year of making a really good run, possibly even winning the NCAA championships. That was really disappointing when they canceled March Madness.
What I wanted to tell WYSO listeners is that everyone just needs to keep their heads up and we'll get through this time and everybody should just enjoy the extra time they get to spend with their family.
Ethan McFarren
Hi, I'm Ethan McFarren. I'm 17 years old.
It kind of sucks that I'm not going to get the same treatment as other junior classes. It really does bummed me out, especially because some of the events coming up in my life like junior prom, and I also had a job shadow coming up at Encore Recording Studios in Dayton. So the state shut down kind of happened at a crappy time for me.
I work at Marc's Grocery, and since the shutdown, my hours have been picking up a lot. I've gotten to prove that I'm a hard worker to them. I started just stocking shelves, but then after the first week, they trained me in meat department and cashier. Marc's as a company has really kept us safe, providing us gloves to change out and sanitation of all touch points in the store. Everyone there is a wonderful human being to work with, and I enjoy it very much.
I get my schoolwork done in a timely fashion usually, then I have the rest the day to make music.
I love being creative in different ways and finding cool ways to express myself. You have a hobby you love, now is the time to learn more about it and become more proficient in whatever it is you're doing.
I really enjoy electronic music. Electronic dance music is made on on a computer, and it's played out at raves, parties, festivals or just to listen to. I have a ton of equipment for a bedroom producer. I have a vast array of microphones and MIDI controllers. I use Audiotechnica m50 headphones. I use that to produce all my work.
I record under my alias Frixel, and my big album just came out last week. You can listen to it on iTunes, Spotify, on SoundCloud, really anything you can think of, it's out on there. The album is called The Mechanics EP. I've spent months on this album and everything is done by me and I take a lot of pride in it.
This is a time for learning and mastering. Use it your advantage, it'll work out in the end.
Max Gallanstein And Ethan McFarren are both juniors at Kettering Fairmont High School. Special thanks to their teacher 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.
