Tag Archives: pandemic

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.

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 →