Outline

What is a teachable moment in your life? 

COVID lockdown was my greatest teaching moment 

Introduction/rising action

• Anxious and unconfrontational nature
• Sometimes I overthink about the worst outcomes and imagining scenarios that do not exist
• Being home and trapped in my thoughts all the time made me feel stressed (not having things to distract myself)
• Feeling behind
• Feeling unproductive 
• Playing video games with friends in class while in online class
• Laying in bed for long hours while watching 
• Getting stuck in my comfort zone
• Attending class in bed
• Feeling like im living the same day over and over

What I am being taught

• Climax?
• Eureka moment- waking up late and always feeling groggy and lack of energy
• Realized i have to make change and i cant keep living like this
• Began to start taking action in applying to internships and online jobs
• Took initiative in signing up for courses and new skills like coding 
• Began trying to learn Japanese and Chinese because I plan to study abroad
• Started reading self-help books on some of the goals i want to achieve
• Learning how to cook 
• Began thinking about my future and what kind of plan/path I want to go down
• Researched some majors I wanted to enter for college
• Began enjoying fitness and working out 
• Grew healthier habits like eating well and sleeping earlier
• Learning to avoid friends that are not healthy for me 
• Engaging in class more
• Putting myself more out there in attempt to having closer connections with family and friends
• Realizing that things will not just come to me, I have to work for it
• Trying to ease my parents’ stress at home by doing extra chores
• Finding that small change compounds (1% everyday will lead to something bigger)

Conclusion

• Going into post-covid with better habits 
• Realzing everything happens for a reason

What perspective: First person, narrating someone going through my struggles and thoughts during covid but 

Foundational moment of not having solitude 

Implication of no structure

Space and no space

Too much downtime for children

Learning that too much unstructured downtime hinders creativity 

Emergency scenarios and anxious moments – cause us to fill in worst case scenarios and prevents us from trying and adventuring

Feeling not special

Inner critics become overactive 

Draft

On Friday, March 13, 2020, all NYCDOE students got the email that schools are closed until further notice. The moment I found this out, I was in disbelief. I was so excited to hear that we would have a break from school. The stress of my upcoming tests and homework was lifted off my shoulders. However, online classes came soon after. Zoom calls were mandatory to join and there were tests and homework again.

Waking up at 8 A.M. to open my laptop to join online classes next to my pillow, my eyelids feel like they weigh a ton.  I join for attendance but end up going back to sleep until my next alarm wakes me up. But for the next class, I get out of bed to my desk to join the group voice call with the rest of my friends to play video games in the background. In the past few months of junior year in high school none of my days feel substantial.  It is this repetitive cycle where I forget to acknowledge what day of the week it is anymore. 

After classes end, I end up laying in bed scrolling through hundreds of short videos on Tik Tok. Well, what else is there to do? It is either this, or going back on my computer.

I’m beginning to realize that during this pandemic I am feeling trapped by computer screens. I am feeding on small hits of unlasting dopamine. Given that I am now given the freedom to grow, I dont know how to grow because there is no structure. Without rules theres no game to play. Suspension of rules. 

• Feeling trapped from screens rather than feeling free in having downtime
• When it comes to lessons learned about the pandemic most of us agree that helped children grow and gave the downtime/freedom for creativity to grow. 

• Going out helps with distracting my time. Not fixing what needs to be fixed and just putting up another wall. Being unconfrontational.. 
• Online learning taught me to fear what I did not before.