How am I doing? Well, after three weeks of being at home I have only one real overarching thing to say: I want to leave my house. Two full, early weeks of spring break followed by a week of online class and only leaving my house one time. With everything that is going on in the world and in the country, it’s the best option, but I am slowly going stir crazy. After one week of living in a house with my parents and younger brother, I had missed being in the dorms as I could not seem to get any personal space here, so when we needed groceries, I volunteered to go since I was the best suited. This was the only time I left the house in the past three weeks. I woke up at five in order to get to the store when it opened at six on a Saturday. Gloves on and a Lysol wipe in one hand, and a grocery list in the other, I made my way around the store, careful to avoid aisles that had too many people down them, trying to find everything that was on my list. After an hour I had satisfied the list to the best of my ability, then stood for twenty minutes in line while next only taking ten minutes to check out and pack the car myself. It wasn’t too bad compared to what I had expected.
Also in these past three weeks we have been lucky enough to get some nice weather so I can at least go in my yard instead of being stuck inside perpetually. My mom has gotten me to go on multiple walks on the nice days we’ve had and it’s helped with being stuck inside all day with three other people and a diminishing sense of privacy. I’ve even had some time on nice days to go out and use my lacrosse throwback. Online classes have been pretty boring, worst of all being physics lab, as doing online simulations is nowhere near as fun as performing the actual labs in person. My workload hasn’t even decreased that much as I still have CAD projects for engineering, webassigns for calc, and lab reports for physics; I seem to be as busy as I was before. The best day so far has been the day I’m writing this (Sunday 4/5). I worked outside all day helping to expand our garden by digging up sod in the shape my mom wanted to expand. It was beautiful out and it felt good to finally go outside and not have to do only computer work all day. All I did for seven hours was force a shovel into the ground and move squares of grass to where my dad needed them, as my mom kept saying “I can’t believe you can do that, I’m not even strong enough to.” I may have messed my back up a little, as expected (my back’s not in the best shape), but being able to work with my hands was refreshing, so maybe I’m doing better than I expected during these trying times in the country and in all of our lives. And I have a little bit of a farmer’s tan to prove it.
Madison Gac
English 110 Spring 2020 10:10-11:00 
Madison, this piece was so very relatable and gratifying to read. I’m glad that you are turning away from the ‘stir-crazyness’ and taking time to enjoy the outside. I think it was a good point to mention that nothing at school has slowed down, because it emphasizes the pressure even during online learning. Good luck with your work!!
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Madison, I feel you when you say you have a lack of privacy at home. I think it’s funny how we have to share rooms at school with someone else 24/7 but somehow, at least in my house, having my own room in a house with my family means less privacy. I’m slowly losing my mind when it comes to just being able to do what I want and when I want but what’s getting me through is the hope that someday, hopefully soon, this will all be over and we’ll be back on campus. I find going outside even though I’m not an outdoorsy person helps keep me sane so kudos to you for being able to work outside for 7 hours!
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I loved reading this piece because I was able to relate to so much of it. I especially loved the parts where you mention the diminishing sense of freedom and missing the dorms. It was so nice to read that someone has the same feelings. I love my family but I had gotten so used to not having to report every movement to someone and having that freedom taken away was an interesting adjustment. This was a very enjoyable piece! Good luck with everything, especially labs!
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Madison,
Its very conforting to know that i am not the only one being forced to do physical labor in the form of yardwork during our very ill timed pandemic. I also relate to your course load a lot. It feels like i have even more work than i did before and when im not being forced to do random household projects assigned by my lovely mother, i am stuck in front of a god awful computer screen on zoom or doing exams or whatever. Hang in there hopefull we will be back super soon. Wishing you all the best from my bored and crazed quarantine to yours.
-caroline erlandsen
ps at least youll be ripped i guess!
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