Author Archives: Polly

Looking Back to Look Ahead

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Since this class is on social media, I decided that my final blog post would be brief narratives about some of the Facebook posts I made about Molly over the past year. I hope you enjoy Molly’s pandemic story!

One of the highlights of my time with Molly during the pandemic was having her teach me how to paint during our extended spring breaks and the creation of our basement art gallery, which I blogged about a few weeks ago: Creating a basement art gallery during isolation.

On March 17 our trip to Germany to visit Molly’s brother Sam was cancelled. On the day that would have been our last night in Munich we had a German-themed dinner to mark the day. Little did we know that the rest of our trips would also be cancelled, Sam would lose his job due to COVID in November, and he would be hired back in March 2021.

At the end of March, it was time for Molly to go back to school in the new remote learning model. She had a very short school day for the rest of the year and she managed to fill her days with new activities and hobbies she learned about from her friends and online, mostly from social media.

 

In April, my neighbor, Carolyn Bertsch, captured a photo of Molly on her scooter and she wrote a short piece in our local paper titled A new normal. At this time, we were just getting used to being at home and social distancing. Molly has remained diligent in being safe and I am proud of her.

Early on Molly amazed me by keeping busy with activities and crafts. She taught herself how to cook, bake, bead, sew, you name it. I loved it when her activities included me. Several times she put string wraps in my hair and they looked quite unique. Friends and family were also impressed with Molly’s ingenuity.

Fortunately, we were able to retain some of our traditions. Every May 1st Molly makes May-day baskets filled with candy for her neighbor friends. Just because it was a pandemic didn’t mean she couldn’t continue the custom of dropping off the baskets, ringing the doorbells, and running off.

Molly learned all kinds of cool trends on TikTok, and we were excited to try some of them out. Who doesn’t want to try out spaghetti tacos for Cinco de Mayo? Fried ice cream was also on the menu during the pandemic, which is one of our favorites.

For Mother’s Day 2020, Molly gave me the greatest gift of all—a rhetorical message of love and humor! To this day, this message makes me smile.

As the weather warmed up, we developed a newfound love for our bikes. We biked all over our community on bike paths and through the woods. One evening Molly and I got caught in the rain. We were almost home and the rain felt great and reminded us we were still alive and capable of feeling the water soak us.

Summer arrived and Molly’s arts and crafts continued. She sewed face masks and made clay creations. Molly taught me how to make beaded daisy bracelets. As time went on, we expanded our beading creations and made necklaces and rings as well. She also made us bucket hats that were adorable. I can’t wait for summer to arrive so we can wear our hats out in the sun. As soon as my graduate program is over, I am looking forward to more beading with her.

On August 10, 2020, Molly’s grandpa, Michael Chappell, died in a hospital in southern France due to COVID. We are waiting for the day we can spread his ashes among the vineyards and for some closure.

Even though we were living in a pandemic world, summer seemed to fly by. In September Molly started seventh grade as a distance learner. On her first day of school, we went to her school on our bikes and waved at the kids who were participating in hybrid learning. I wrote about Molly setting her room up in my very first blog: Finding a place to love during the pandemic.

Thanks to social media, I find out about special days devoted to pizza lovers, wine lovers, national puppy day, AND most importantly National Daughter’s Day! I was happy to take part in that celebration.

As fall progressed and COVID-19 spread and got worse in many places in the world, our trip to Bavaria and Tuscany on October 1 was cancelled. Molly and I celebrated, or mourned, with an Italian-themed lunch to mark the day and to remember the fun days we enjoyed in Italy the summer before.

Molly did a good job setting her alarm to get up for school even with the distance learning schedule. However, some mornings she fell back asleep. It was hard to get mad at her because the distance learning format allowed for down time in some of these classes, especially in her homeroom.

On Halloween Molly made plans to meet up with her friends, but when we arrived, they were not wearing masks or social distancing and she did not want to go in. That is the weird part of the pandemic, you don’t want to offend people, but you want to stay safe. The hosts were very nice and understanding. We had a modified Halloween celebration at home and Molly even did some trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. I know she is planning to spend lots of time with her friends once they have all been vaccinated.

Throughout the pandemic, Molly has had her cat, Poppy, at her side. The two are inseparable. They have an amazing relationship and seeing them together brings us all joy. Poor Poppy will be lost without Molly once she returns to school next fall. It’s nice to see that someone benefited from all this stay-at-home business.

This blog isn’t Molly’s first time helping with my graduate work. Last semester I worked on a gender equity group project and we conducted panels with groups to share stories about gender equity. Molly gathered an amazing group of girls to help our group out with the girl’s panel and we were impressed by their contributions. The full recording of the girl’s panel is available for those who may be interested.

Just a week after Molly’s brother Sam turned 24, he lost his job at a resort in Germany due to COVID. Unfortunately, Sam got COVID on his long journey home; however, he was asymptomatic. He had to isolate for a few weeks but when he came home, Molly made a Welcome Home sign for him. The reunion was bittersweet since Sam had to leave his friends, job, and lose his freedom. Luckily, Sam was offered his job back and he returned to Germany on March 21, 2021. The country is still shut down and we are hopeful the vaccines will roll out there and things will get better. We had four months with Sam, and I think Molly appreciated having her brother around.

Molly’s oldest brother Teddy and his fiancée Kaitlyn, along with their Chiweenie Lucy, were able to join us for two months over the holidays. Molly made several ski trips with her brothers, and it was nice having the whole family under one roof for that time. Molly helped us orchestrate a holiday greeting on TikTok.

My kids got downhill ski passes for the season so that they could ski together and Molly could also meet up safely with her friends, who also like to ski. Molly skied several times with Teddy, and when Sam arrived in Minnesota, he joined them. When Teddy went back to Philly, Sam and Molly skied together.

In January, Molly became a teenager. She has spent 1/12 of her life social distancing from friends and family. That is hard to grasp at times. Many other kids see their extended families, participate in team sports, and go to school. To quote Molly when I interviewed her for my last blog, “getting the vaccine will be a game-changer.”

Thank you for reading my blog throughout this semester. I wanted my work to document a time in life that will hopefully be behind us soon, but at the same time I want to remember what we endured, especially Molly, who was only 12 when this all started. I believe her experience will help her navigate the future and everything that comes her way.

 

 

How Molly, a 13-Year-Old, Changed and Adapted to the Pandemic

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I read an article about how teens have adapted and changed during the pandemic so I decided to interview Molly to see what she had to say. I was surprised by some of her answers, but I was mostly moved by her honesty. I had no idea it was hard for her to be motivated for distance learning. When she concludes that she hopes that maybe she can have a sleepover with her friends someday, I was pretty choked up. I hope you enjoy our interview. Please enjoy the 15-minute video I posted on Facebook, or read the transcript below.

Hi, I am Polly Chappell and I am interviewing my daughter Molly for my blog on adolescent resilience. This interview is going to be on how Molly has changed and adapted to the pandemic.

Think back to when the pandemic first started, how did it affect your community? What I am talking about are things like wearing masks, social distancing, travel, and school.

Molly: At first people didn’t like the idea of masks, including me and my family. I did wear some interesting masks. My first time ever going into Coborn’s, I wore a gaiter mask and those are not very protective. I would never wear that now. It is crazy to think that people weren’t wearing masks during the pandemic. That’s probably how it got bad. I’m not sure.

Polly: Yes, I agree with you. How about social distancing, traveling, or school? All of a sudden, the whole world shut down and school was online.

Molly: I really liked getting a break from school. But after about a week of doing nothing but Facetiming my friends and doing my phone, it kind of got boring. I wanted to get back into the school schedule. I missed school. I still do. And then the social distancing, I didn’t hang out with my friends for like a month, I think, but then I did go on some bike rides with them. But not very often.

Polly: In the summertime, yeah.

Molly: I do go on bike rides more often now.

Polly: So, a little bit further into the spring, we had been in the pandemic and things had been shut down or closed for a while. Now we are getting to the end of school. You had been distance learning for a couple months. How did you feel about finishing school at home? How did you feel about your trip to Germany to see Sam being cancelled?

Molly: Well, last year when I finished school, the schedule was very flexible. I would start around 9:00 and be done around 10:30. I would just do nothing, like TikTok and Roblox with my friends. On the last day we had an extra Zoom class you could attend but I didn’t because my brother [Teddy from Philly] came home on the last day of school and I wanted to spend time with him so I skipped it and they didn’t do anything. They couldn’t. The school schedule now is way stricter like Zoom classes all day. It does get boring after a while but it is better that it is that way so I can learn more and be more motivated to pay attention. And also, when the pandemic started, we had a trip that we were planning to go visit my brother [Sam] in Germany because that is where he lived at the time, and it got cancelled. That was a little bit of a bummer for us. But luckily, we got to see him this year.

Polly: So, in the summertime—you didn’t really see your friends in the spring at all—then in the summertime you did take a few bike rides.

Molly: Yeah, I think that is because my brother [Teddy] was home and I wanted to spend time with him because I knew he wasn’t going to be back until Christmas. We didn’t really know that at the time because there could have been another huge outbreak and we wouldn’t have gotten to see him.

Polly: Now we are going to go to the summertime. We live pretty close to Minneapolis, we are only about an hour away. And you heard about the killing of George Floyd. Can you talk a little bit about that? You visited the George Floyd memorial this summer. Did social media play a big part in how you learned and processed what happened. And anything you know about the protests—even though there’s a pandemic and you’re a kid—do you feel like you were able to support or contribute at all?

Molly: Well, it was really crazy to me when it all first happened. I don’t know. It was just hard to think that it happened in our state and so close to me and where we live. I don’t know why but I didn’t expect it to not happen but I expected it to happen maybe in a bigger city in California or New York. But it happened in Minneapolis and it was kind of surreal for me. It made me learn more about police brutality and etc.

Polly: Social justice stuff?

Molly: Yeah. I think the only reason I know so much about it and I am sort of educated on it is because of TikTok because a lot people were posting about it and that’s how I found out about George Floyd’s death and Black Lives Matter, and the election too. I think if I didn’t have TikTok I wouldn’t be as educated on this topic.

Polly: That’s interesting. Do you feel like you’ve been able to contribute to it or support any of the movements or do you feel like your hands are tied?

Molly: Well, it is hard to contribute as a younger person. I’m a kid still and we don’t really go to protests. We didn’t go to protests. And there’s still some happening. We just chose not to. But we still support what people do and we support the protests. And I support them by reposting stuff on my story and educating people on the topic.

Polly: Now we’re kind of heading towards fall again and school is going to start. We had to make the tough decision to do distance learning instead of the hybrid learning. I want to know how you felt about that in fall. Were you okay with that? You talk about the schedule; I think you preferred the new schedule at that point. Talk a little bit about what your friends told you about hybrid learning. Did kids wear masks in school when it first started? Did they social distance?

Molly’s first day of 7th grade distant learning outside her 7th grade class window

Molly: At first distance learning, it wasn’t really an option. I thought I should do my part and do distance learning to keep my family safe and to be able to see my brothers. Sam wasn’t going to come home but he did end up come home. But to see my brothers at some point and to keep safe and to keep COVID-free. So, I did distance-learning and I think I liked it at the beginning—like the first week—but then it was kind of hard to stay motivated in distance learning. I’ve been trying my best. It’s hard to stay on track and not get distracted because you’re in your home learning and you have distractions like family and pets and your phone. So, this past couple months I’ve been okay at staying motivated to do my work but it has been a little bit harder. But I feel like I’d rather go into hybrid now but it’s safer not to. And there’s only two more months left. So, I might as well just do distance learning.

Polly: Okay. Did your friends ever tell you what it was like being in school?

Molly: In hybrid when it sectioned up so there wouldn’t be so many people in school, I feel like they kept safer when it was hybrid. Now that everyone is back except for the distance learners, which is me and people who are learning like I am, they have gotten more flexible and they don’t really enforce stuff like social distancing. For example, there are these circle tables at school and they are pretty close. Everyone eats at the same time and they could definitely section it up or even eat in the classrooms, but they are eating in the cafeteria and it is only every other seat and most people don’t follow that rule.

Polly: Okay. Can you tell me if you got involved in the Trump/Biden election? And if so, how you got involved?

Molly: Well, I did get a little bit involved but I obviously can’t get too involved because I am not old enough to vote. But I can still support a politician. So, I support Biden. And where we live there is a bunch of people that don’t support Biden or just don’t like what his beliefs are and it was a little bit hard because I was targeted—like kind of harassing me—but I also thought it was kind of funny. They would comment on my TikTok posts that were not related to the election. They would comment “Trump 2020” on just a normal post I would make. I find it funny and I would just ignore it. I don’t know if that is getting involved but…

Polly: You had a Biden sign in your bedroom. A big one.

Molly: Yeah, it was a huge one. I took it down when Biden won. I was going to take it down anyway even if Trump won.

Polly: Okay. The last question, over time a lot of things have been out of your control. You’re a kid. There’s a pandemic. But there’s a few things you’ve learned over the last year that you can control, and if you can talk about that—what you think you’ve been able to control during the pandemic.

Molly: I have been able to control my choices on who to hang out with. And if it is smart idea to hang out with this person. Because you can sometimes know when they are not being safe. I have been pretty smart about that. I also made choices to add a time limit to my phone recently, and to hang out more with my family and friends.

Polly: Okay. I do have one more question. I said that was the last one but this is the last one, I promise. Dad and I have been vaccinated. Teddy’s been vaccinated. Grandpa has, and hopefully you will be soon.

Molly: And my friends.

Polly: And your friends. Hopefully everyone we know who is going to get vaccinated, gets vaccinated. Do you think things will go back to normal? Or do you think life is going to be different to some degree?

Molly: I don’t just think COVID will be over. I think it’s going to turn out over time, obviously, like the flu where you get the choice to get the flu vaccination every year. I feel like COVID is going to be more mysterious. I do feel like it is going to get back to normal for me a little bit. I will still wear my mask in the store and stuff but when I do get my vaccination, and also the rest of my family, and also my friends, that will be a real life changer for me because I will finally be able to have hangouts with them and I won’t have to social distance and wear a mask, and I can maybe even have a sleepover with them.

Polly: Well, thank you very much. I love you.

Molly: Bye.

The First Trip to an Art Gallery Since COVID-19 Began: A Day Out in the Life of a Distance-Learner

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On Sunday, March 21, 2021, my family drove my youngest son Sam to the airport because he was moving back to Germany.  He spent four months at home due to COVID-19 after losing his job, but the resort he worked at hired him back. After we said our goodbyes, we considered stopping at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, which was a place we loved before the pandemic. Unfortunately, we needed tickets so the museum could limit visitors.

Instead, we stopped at the Electric Fetus because it was nearby; plus, my daughter, Molly, wanted to go there since she got a vinyl record player for her birthday. At Electric Fetus, Molly got an album called Gorillaz present Song Machine. When she was listening to records, she called me in to see her collection, which included an old Godspell album. I explained to her that my parents had the album when I was growing up because they went to the musical with my aunt and uncle in Detroit when I was a little kid. We listened to the album and Molly seemed to like the music because the tunes are pretty catchy. I suggested that she should start a TikTok Godspell craze, but she’s yet to follow my advice.

The following week was Molly’s spring break, and I just so happened to get my second vaccine mid-week. My husband and I volunteered at testing sites on campus and we qualified earlier than we normally would to get the vaccine for the service. After the first vaccine I felt great, but we were still very careful as not everyone was eligible for the vaccine yet and cases were rising in the area. After my second vaccine, I wondered if I would have side effects. About half the people I knew who had the vaccine had side effects after the second shot. When I woke up the day after getting the second vaccine, I felt great and I decided to take Molly to the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) for the day.

We left about noon that day and stopped for a chicken sandwich for lunch. We talked about the trip and how excited we were to be going somewhere fun. The drive was pretty uneventful, but we stopped at a rest stop right before we got to the Cities. Around 2pm we arrived at the gallery about a half hour early for our 2:30 tickets and they let us in early. Our first stop was at the gift shop where Molly made two Penny Art pennies—one for herself and one for her friend Addie—of a dog and of the state of Minnesota. Inside the store, Molly found some treasures: a postcards and a Capricorn card set.

We headed to the second floor and we looked at art in the following galleries:

  • Asia
  • Africa
  • Ancient Art
  • Period Rooms
  • Americas
  • Pacific Islands

The museum was not very crowded, which was nice. We are mainly interested in paintings up on the third floor and we headed up there to check out the following galleries:

  • Europe & America 1600-1900
  • Europe 1200-1600
  • Modern & Contemporary
  • Photography
  • Judaica
  • Prints & Drawings
  • Period Rooms

Up on the third floor, we started in the Modern and Contemporary gallery and made our way across the museum to the large Europe & America 1600-1900 gallery. We enjoyed walking through the galleries and taking photos of our favorite paintings for inspiration. We came across a huge dollhouse and we both agreed it reminded us of the dollhouse in the Smithsonian American History Museum in Washington DC.

We headed back toward the Modern and Contemporary gallery where we found the van Gogh painting Olive Trees, which we both loved because the painting reminded us of our time in Tuscany where we stayed in villa on top of a mountain that was surrounded by hills an hills of olive trees. Also, in the Italian spirit we looked at several Madonna and Child paintings. There was a statute of a young ballerina, which reminded us of the ballerina statute in the Orsay in Paris.

A gallery on the third floor had large windows where we could see the Minneapolis skyline. It was a beautiful and familiar sight. Also, in the Modern and Contemporary gallery we found the Salvador Dali painting Portrait of Juan de Pareja. For those of you who read my previous blog, you may remember that we visited the Salvador Dali Museum in Figueres, Spain, and he’s another one of our favorite artis. The last painting that we stopped to admire was Picasso’s Woman in an Armchair. We have seen Picasso paintings in many galleries, and we even visited two Picasso galleries, one in Paris, and one in Barcelona.

We had a great day and when we drove off, I told Molly that I almost felt like normal. What I meant was before COVID-19, but Molly responded, “Mom, we are normal.” I love that kid. I cannot wait for our next adventure.

Polly and Molly Outside Mia

Spring Break 2021: A Throwback to Spring Breaks of Yesteryears to Sustain a Distance-Learning Student

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In this post I am going to relive some of the great trips Molly has taken with our family over past spring breaks. I will provide a narrative of where we visited as she helps me reconstruct this throwback post of travel. This week is spring break and by sharing this blog experience with her I hope to help support her during the final quarter of distance learning in seventh grade, which starts April 5.

Every year I look forward to spring break. I have planned some amazing trips to Hawaii, Paris, Bavaria, Prague, Venice, Barcelona, and Southern France. When the pandemic struck in March 2020, my trip to Germany, with Molly to visit my son Sam, was cancelled. Spring break took on a whole new meaning as we watched the world shut down. Spring break 2020 was extended as educators scrambled to figure out how to teach students distantly. Selfishly I thought of how that extra time would have been great if I had been on an exciting trip instead of stuck at home. At that time, I would have gone if I could have, but looking back I feel a lot differently now.

As the year progressed, Molly and I came to terms with the lack of travel and we found new ways to entertain ourselves. We also learned to use the travel memories to comfort us as we spent a majority of our time at home. We enjoyed photos, planned travel-themed meals, painted travel pictures, read about travel, watched travel videos, and talked about travel. Throughout the pandemic Molly seemed content that her travel-full life had come to an end and when I asked her about traveling, recently, she told me that she has gotten used to it and she is okay staying home. She said she did not want to be that person traveling during COVID. Such wise words from someone so young.

Molly’s first spring break in 2008, as a three-month old, was spent road-tripping to Washington DC in a snowstorm. We toured the sites at Williamsburg, Jamestown, and DC, while enjoying the warmer weather. Since then, Molly has been to DC a few times and she remembers the highlights. Molly’s favorite thing to do in DC is visiting the monuments and the Smithsonian museums.

In 2009, as a family, we went to Germany, Austria, and Italy. Molly was only 18 months old and she does not remember her first trip to Europe but she loves the photos.

In 2011, when Molly was three, my husband Paul faced a yearlong deployment to Afghanistan so we took the family on a European spring break trip to Prague, Garmisch, Munich, and Venice. Molly loved the gondola ride and eating pizza on the canal. Traveling can be hard work and Molly had a hard time flying and it took her a few days in Prague to regain her strength and energy. In Garmisch, a beautiful Olympic village in Bavaria, we stayed at Edelweiss Lodge and Resort where her brother Sam currently works and lives. Just outside of Garmisch, is  Neuschwanstein Castle, the famous King Ludwig castle copied by Disney for Cinderella’s castle in Disney World. In Munich we visited the Chinese Tower in the Englischer Garten, strolled through museums and art galleries, and went to the Marienplatz to see the world-famous Glockenspiel.

Molly in her stroller on Charles Bridge, Prague

Upon Paul’s return home, in 2013, we took a family spring break trip to Barcelona and Southern France. In Barcelona we met up with my oldest son, Teddy, who was studying abroad at Oxford University through St. Cloud State University. Molly loved seeing Teddy but once again she suffered from jetlag and it took her a few days to return to normal. In Barcelona we visited La Sagrada Familia cathedral, Park Guell filled with Gaudi’s sculptural buildings, and Monserrat Monastery on a mountainside, which was only accessible by cable car. We drove to Southern France and stopped in Figueres, Spain, home to artist Salvador Dali and the Dali Museum. In Southern France we visited with Grandpa Chappell and we took day trips to the ancient villages complete with Roman ruins.

In 2014, our family spent spring break in San Francisco where we visited Alcatraz, China Town, the Golden Gate Bridge, and we rode the streetcar. Molly loved walking along the oceanfront and seeing the sealions. We spent Easter at Golden Gate Park, home to Hippie Hill.

Spring break 2016 brought us to Honolulu, Hawaii, where, we climbed Diamond Head volcano, strolled along Waikiki beach, visited Pearl Harbor, and swam in a waterfall at Waimea Valley Park. We stayed at Hale Koa, a resort dedicated to military members and their families. Molly loved playing at the beach and swimming in the waves with sea turtles.

We love Germany so much that we went back over spring break in 2017. This time we visited Prague, Berlin, Bacharach, and the Berchesgaden area. In Prague we visited the Old Jewish Cemetery, the Old Town Square, and the Charles Bridge. Molly took her first Uber ride in Prague and she told me years later that she had no idea what was going on because I told her get in the car without explaining anything. In Berlin we went to the Holocaust memorial, the Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, and what is left of the Berlin Wall along with the Wall Museum – Checkpoint Charlie. We stayed in a rundown accommodation and believe it or not that was memorable to Molly! Bacharach am Rhein is a medieval walled village along the Rhein River, and we spent time checking out the village and surroundings. The highlight for Molly was a Niederwald-Seilbahn cable car ride. For me it was Riesling gelato. In the Obersalzburg area we explored the Berghof remains, which was Hitler’s house on the mountain that was bombed in WWII and then later the Germans had the Americans destroy it. We also went into an underground bunker at the Documentation Center.

Berlin Wall

In 2018, our spring break destination was Paris where we explored all the wonderful sites and museums: Pantheon, Notre Dame, Musee du Louvre where we saw the Mona Lisa, Versailes Palace, Sainte-Chapelle de Paris with its beautiful stained glass, Musee d’Orsay, Eiffel Tower, Musee Picasso Paris, Sacre-Coeur, Moulin Rouge, Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Elysees, Musee de l’Armee and Hotel des Invalides, and Musee de l’ Orangerie. There was no shortage of things to do. Molly remembers how I was almost pick-pocketed on the subway. My son confronted a young girl and she denied it and ran away when the door opened. There was also an incident where an older woman tried to get money from us for a ring she found—one of the oldest cons. Molly also recalls getting lost in the Eiffel Tower, which was scary for her at the time, but now she looks back and she thinks it is funny.

Mona Lisa at Louvre

The last spring break trip we took was in 2019, and just Molly and I ventured back to Hawaii. Although we spent most of our time at the pool or beach, we ventured out to see the Honolulu Museum of Art and Iolani Palace. We also took a whale watching cruise and swam with Nani, the dolphin. Molly’s most memorable time on our last spring break was swimming in the ocean and seeing fish in the ocean.

Swimming with Nani

Scattered between spring break trips we had adventures to Philadelphia, skiing in the Poconos, Orlando & Disney World, New Orleans, Toronto, the Upper Peninsula, NYC, the Jersey Shore, Los Angeles, the Black Hills & all the SD sites, Italy, and Iceland. My aunt pointed out to me this past week that one year in Molly’s life is about 1/10 of her entire life and that’s a long time. As soon as it is safe and possible, our first trip will be to Germany to visit Sam, her brother. In her 13 years of life, Molly has had many experiences that I hope will continue to sustain her while we stay at home.

A Typical Day of School for a Distance-Learning Middle-Schooler

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Distance-learning became a household term in 2020 during the pandemic. Kids and college students across the world learned at home in their bedrooms or at their kitchen tables. For some, distance learning was a nightmare but for others it worked out. My daughter, Molly, thrived safe at home where she continues to learn long after most have returned to the classroom. I asked Molly about her typical school day and this is what she said:

 

  • At 8:30am I wake up to Alexa. First, I check my phone, and then I use the bathroom and brush my teeth. Back in my bedroom I make my bed but I like to stay in my PJs until about 10:00am.
  • Next, I have Student Advisory (SA) at 8:50am and I call in on Zoom with the other distance learners and my SA teacher, Mr. Grote. We talk about updates and do fun homeroom activities. SA is not a core class and Mr. Grote is a Gym teacher. Including me there are approximately 25 seventh grade distance learners at the moment; however, five kids are transferring to in-person when the quarter starts in early April. Sometimes I sleep during this class.
  • At 9:15am I have my first class, which is my favorite, Science. My science teacher Mr. Braun does the labs and I write down data along with the other students. I don’t like it that he does all the fun science activities like the labs and I just write down the data, but I guess that is one of the disadvantages to distance learning. Right now, I am learning about the digestive system. Earlier this year I learned about bones and muscles. Next quarter Mr. Braun is dissecting a frog. I am okay that I don’t have to do that in person. This is one of my core classes and I have it all year long.
  • American Studies, also known as Social Studies, is my least favorite class. It is another core class and I have Mr. Gunderson. I think if I had this class in person, I would enjoy it more. Right now, I am learning about World War I and before that I learned about slavery. Class is at 10:10am.
  • Then at 11:05am I have Language Arts with Mrs. Lewis. I like writing essays but I do not like reading books for class. It takes a lot of motivation for me and I struggle to keep up with the long books. I liked doing a persuasive speech a few weeks ago and I did mine on Why the Ocean Should Be Explored More. I just finished the Survivor unit and I had to read articles and books, watch movies, and do an abstract art project about the topic of surviving. The Survival unit was okay since [my mom] helped me with it, and it was fun watching Alive with the whole family.
Molly's Survival Abstract Art

Molly’ Survival Unit Abstract Art Project

  • My lunch break is at 11:55am – 12:25pm. I usually ask for PB & J, mac & cheese, or leftovers. If [my mom] has a meeting, I will make my own lunch. I normally skip breakfast and lunch is the first meal of the day for me so I am pretty hungry. I like to watch YouTube during my break while I eat lunch.
  • After lunch at 12:30pm I have my Specialist class time. Right now, I am in Project Lead the Way, which is a robotics and technology class. Next quarter, in early April, I have art which I think will be my favorite Specialist class. Earlier this year I had Gym and Spanish. When I did Gym at home, I did workout videos, jumped on the trampoline, biked, did yoga, and played basketball. In Spanish, I did Kahoots and Gimkits with the class, which are online games to help learn Spanish basics like vocabulary words. In Project Lead the Way, I recently made a Rube Goldberg machine with [my brother] Sam’s help. Now in class I play online games, I am learning to code, and in Solve-a-Problem I made desk dividers for my markers in my desk drawer.

Molly’s Rube Goldberg Machine Video

  • I really like my Pre-Algebra teacher, Miss Ritter, who is my favorite teacher. Class is at 1:45pm. I think Math is getting harder this month because I am learning percentages and how to measure circumference.
  • Finally, at 2:20pm I have Band. I play percussion, and I have a piano and a marimba at home to practice on. I also have a rubber practice pad to do my snare drum. I think Band at home is a little boring. I liked it better when everyone was distance learning because then I would get to see everyone from school over Zoom, and not just the distance learners.
  • School ends at 2:55pm. I feel lucky that I have the equipment and space to learn at home during the pandemic. I like being at home with [my mom] while [she] works. Sometimes we go pick up lunch and once [she] brought me to my favorite store Mind Body & Spirit to get some lucky bamboo. My days are filled with learning and for the most part I like to distance learn but I am starting to miss my friends and teachers and I am looking forward to returning to school in the fall.

Molly’s Reality

On Monday, April 5, 2021, students who are distance learning in Sartell can return to school for the final quarter of this academic year. As a family we made the tough decision to keep Molly at home for the remainder of the year. She would have liked to return to school and her friends but the reality of having to be in class all day with kids and teachers who may not take the pandemic as seriously as our family does could be distressing for Molly, not to mention dangerous. She is doing well at home and this is hopefully only one year. We have every intention for Molly to return to school in the fall for eighth grade; however, we cannot predict the future and what kind of situation we will be in due to the pandemic. Time will tell.

How Our 13-Year-Old Sister Is Surviving the Pandemic: Interview With Teddy & Sam

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Audio & Video Recording (16:15 minutes)

Sam, Teddy, Molly, Polly

Polly: Hi, I’m Polly and I am doing a blog on adolescent resilience for my English 537 class, Social Media for Professional Communicators. My blog is mostly about my daughter Molly, who is 13, and how she has handled being a kid during the pandemic. Today I am interviewing my sons, Molly’s brother’s Teddy and Sam. Teddy is 27 and he’s a PhD student who lives in Philly with his fiancé Kaitlyn and their Chiweenie Lucy. Sam is 24 and he’s a cook who is heading back to Germany next Sunday after spending four months at home unemployed because Germany shut down their economy and Sam was sent home. As you can see Teddy and Sam are quite a bit older than Molly and I want to hear from them how they think Molly is doing social distancing, distance learning for 7th grade, and just generally during the pandemic.

Teddy, you’ve spent about four months during the summer and over Christmas with Molly at home in Minnesota. What do you think her greatest strength is in how she has handled life during the pandemic? Can you give me some examples?

Teddy: Sure. I think her greatest strength is flexibility. I think, obviously, not only do you have to be flexible to adapt to the new circumstances and everything, but I think it’s flexibility mixed with some optimism too. Because I think that as much as the pandemic means giving up a lot of things, and you cannot do things, it also means that you do have some new opportunities like spending lots of time with your family. Well, obviously, sometimes that can be a bad thing, but I think she has made the best of it. Then it means also doing school from home. It means you have a more flexible routine and I think she appreciates that for the most part. You have more freedom when you’re doing school from home. So, I would say her flexibility mixed with seeing her being optimistic enough to see this not just as these are the things I can’t do, but these are the things that, actually, because things have changed, I can enjoy and I think that it’s very mature of her and kind of almost adult-like because, well, not all adults behave this way, unfortunately. But I think I feel this way having worked from home the entire pandemic, and having Kaitlyn work from home as well, that you have to give up things but it can come with some advantages to balance those out. Having a positive outlook, I think, is important and that’s what I think is Molly’s biggest strength.

Polly: Thank you. Sam, you have lived most of Molly’s life with her except for a summer when you lived in Philly with Teddy and then you were gone from December 2019 for about a year returning home at the end of November 2020. What was the first difference you noticed about Molly from what you remembered about her before you left? Do you think she changed a lot? In what ways?

Sam: Yes. Definitely she’s changed a lot. That was a big surprise my first time seeing her. Like how much she had grown, I’d say, I swear she’s at least six or seven inches taller than when I left for Germany. It’s crazy because when I left, she was still like a little kid to me. She was playing with dolls and I came home and she’s into doing makeup now and she’s really into computer games, and it’s great seeing her do all her online classes. It’s kind of crazy how fast she grew up. I think having the pandemic helped her with some of that. It’s forced her to get more into it and it’s good seeing her—even though she can’t see her friends directly—play video games with them. It’s cool to see how much more grown-up she is. She is a human being and she’s got more of an attitude than she used to.

Polly: You can say that again.  Continue reading →

A Rocky Passion: Collecting Crystals

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Molly talks about how she got interested in collecting crystals.

“I’ve always collected crystals as long as I can remember but my interest piqued over the past year while I’ve been isolating. I wanted to make my room beautiful with plants and rocks and other objects that make me happy. I can remember going to rock shops in Duluth, summers years ago, and I would pick out a few crystals and rocks that I liked and I kept them in a little clear container in my closet. One day I was cleaning out my closet and I came across the crystals and I saw them in a different light. I wanted to use them around my room as objects of art.”

Molly handled the crystals with love, turning them around in her hands while she seemed to be thinking about her history with the rocks. She keeps the crystals in a glass heart bowl. The crystals vary in size, shape, and color and most of them are shiny and colorful, and it almost looks like a bowl of hard candy.

I asked Molly about her favorite crystals.

“I don’t really have any favorites but I have three rocks that I like to sleep with under my pillow because they make me feel good. They are rose quartz, black obsidian, and malachite. The malachite is the newest crystal I have and I really like it. I have a really big amethyst that I use as a decoration on my shelf. Next to that I have pyrite or fool’s gold. Sam gave this one to me. [Sam is her brother.] This one is a smoky quartz that Frances [a friend] gave to me. It has little pieces of dirt inside the clusters.”

Molly listed the names of the crystals she has and she explained some of the properties and why she liked them individually:

  • “Lapis—I like the dark blue color,
  • Clear quartz—I really like the shape of this whitish clear crystal,
  • Sillénite—I also like the shape of this one and my cat loves it too,
  • Tiger’s eye—these are orangish brown and they have stripes,
  • Amethyst—this is purplish and it is a protecting stone,
  • Rose quartz—I like the color of this love stone,
  • Smoky quartz—these are fun to collect but I don’t know a lot about the properties,
  • Black obsidian—this is a production stone and it is good for unwanted negativity,
  • Red agate—these are common in Lake Superior and they are orangish red in color,
  • Citrine—I like this money stone and it is goldish whitish,
  • Garnet—this dark red crystal is my birthstone,
  • Onyx—this black stone is similar to black obsidian in appearance and it is also a good protection stone,
  • Fluorite—I like how this bluish turquoise crystal looks,
  • Moon stone—I don’t know what the properties are, maybe energy, but I like this whitish crystal that has blue highlights,
  • Pyrite—this one is called fool’s gold and you can see specks of gold in it,
  • Green malachite—like I mentioned I got this recently and I like how it looks.”

During the pandemic Molly’s interest in the crystals grew and collecting them provided her with a special hobby. As she handles them and decorates with the crystals she feels connected to each and every one. Most of the crystals she has acquired recently are from Mind Body & Spirit, a gift shop in downtown St. Cloud. Molly hopes to grow her collection slowly so that she can cherish each one. This is a hobby she thinks she can continue after the pandemic is over. She showed me three stones that looked pretty average except that they had holes in them. She explained that she found these special stones in Iceland with her dad. They plan to display them using wire.

How have the crystals helped you during the pandemic?

“They provided me a sense of peace and they also provided me entertainment as I decided how and where to display them. Learning about the stones and the properties has been interesting and I have a newfound appreciation for earth’s beauty. Even my cat Poppy loves the crystals!”

After we talked about the crystals, Molly agreed to make a video where she discusses some of the information in this blog. The video is posted on Facebook.

Creating a Basement Art Gallery During Isolation

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We love to travel. 

Basement Isolation Art Gallery

Basement Isolation Art Gallery

Molly has been all over Europe and the US, and when we first heard of COVID-19, Molly and I were in Philadelphia visiting Teddy and his girlfriend Kaitlyn for a birthday ski trip for Molly’s 12th birthday in January 2020. When Molly and I landed at MSP on our flight back from Philly we were near the International arrivals and I told her we should move outside to wait for our ride. She asked why, and I explained COVID-19 to her. At that time, it appeared to be only in China but I was being cautious because we had some international travel coming up. That week in school when Molly’s teacher asked if anyone knew about COVID-19, she was the only student who knew about it and where it originated.

We had no idea how serious the COVID-19 situation would become.

The first trip I had planned was to Germany to visit Sam on March 17, 2020. As our trip approached, Paul decided to come with us in case we were isolated or quarantined at either end of the trip. We were glued to the news as the pandemic unfolded. Two weeks prior to our trip, Teddy and Kaitlyn went to Germany and got engaged. They were fortunate that their trip was not cancelled and they made it home without incident even though they were there when the WHO upgraded COVID to a pandemic. Our trip was cancelled on March 13, 2020, and we settled in to sheltering at home thinking it would last a few weeks. The second trip I had planned to Germany and Italy was cancelled on October 1, 2020, and our plans to go to Iceland in August 2020 never got off the ground.

For the first time in Molly’s life, we had no plans to go anywhere.

She adjusted well right away, and we were both on extended spring breaks as our schools were busy planning on how to return to studies remotely. Molly taught me how to paint on canvases with acrylic paints. Molly and I painted many masterpieces that were inspired by our trips to art galleries and museums. Molly also taught me how to make this iMovie and we documented the grand opening of our gallery on Facebook.

As our painting collection grew, we came up with a plan to display our paintings in what was to become our basement isolation museum.

As the months passed, we painted new paintings to add to our museum. In the summer and at Christmastime we encouraged the rest of our family to join us and add masterpieces to our gallery.

Through art and creativity, Molly made the world a little more beautiful one masterpiece at a time. We talked about the galleries we visited throughout the years and our favorite pieces. Molly spent hours pouring through art books and Pinterest for inspiration and ideas and to learn about techniques. Molly plans to study art restoration in college, and I think she has a good foundational start in this important work. Recently Molly told me that she misses visiting art museums, that she thought she took the opportunities for granted, and that she rushed through the galleries not spending the time she should have taking in each piece. I told her in the future we will go back and spend as much time as she needs to see each painting. Painting is one of Molly’s many talents, and in future posts I will share more of those talents.

Basement Art Gallery

 

Finding a Place to Love During the Pandemic

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I am the mom of three kids: Teddy a 27-year-old PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania, Sam a 24-year-old cook who lost his job in Germany due to Covid-19, and Molly a 13-year-old seventh grader at Sartell Middle School.

This blog is about Molly.

Molly holding her cat Poppy

I am going to share stories about Molly’s activities, hobbies, new adventures, typical school day, and connections with her friends and family. Most of my narratives will be success stories that share ideas on what to do and how to cope. Some of my accounts will be about the pain and suffering Molly encounters during isolation. Some of my stories will be from the people in her life.

Over the past year I have watched Molly grow into a healthy, young adult and I am proud of how she has handled isolating from her family and friends. The success of adolescents is critical for the future. I believe young adults have been underestimated during the pandemic and I hope to shed light on their possible resilience by sharing Molly’s story. Although I will be documenting Molly’s life, I invite readers to share their valuable and useful antidotes of the adolescents in their lives during this historical time.

Like many kids during the pandemic Molly has been distance learning since March 13, 2020. Throughout this time her school has tried several learning models of hybrid, distance, and face-to-face. On February 8, 2021, students went back to in person learning. The decision to keep her home was easy for my husband Paul and me since I work from home, and we want to keep Molly safe. When the pandemic started, we did not know what safe would be; however, now we know safe to us is when Molly gets vaccinated. In Sartell less than 10% of seventh graders—approximately 30 classmates—have been only distant learning along with Molly.

Molly spends most of her time in her bedroom learning, decorating, tending to her plants, playing with her cat Poppy, gaming, and FaceTiming with her friends.

Continue reading →