Lockdown Diaries Nominee#20- Lockdown Diaries By María Mitjans

My name is María, and I have just graduated from high school. The last normal day of class, I waved a naive “ See you in two weeks! ” goodbye, when little did I know it was a “Probably won’t see you again, so good luck in life” kind of goodbye. Online lessons started, and lockdown got pretty serious in Spain, taking away all hopes for going back to school. I started to Facetime my friends more frequently and even started talking to some classmates that I never imagined myself talking to. Lockdown has proven, which friends care and reached out to me during these times, wondering how we are all doing. And it is a nice feeling. My parents started working from home, and my sister was also doing online classes. It did feel like a small vacay by being the four of us at home, even though everyone had their respective work calls and there would be fights and complaints about the poor wifi connection, but it did feet nice having lunch all together. It made me appreciate how much my mom and dad really work, and how busy they are. I tried to get the most out of quarantine, by trying to find a routine.

I started to wake up early and getting a workout done before my first online class. I also started cooking all the meals, in order to upgrade my skills that were set at a very simple avocado toast and a bowl of cereal. My main goal was to get as much done before midday, so after my afternoon online lessons, I could relax. My desire for staying productive kept growing until one day, I decided to multitask by merging online classes and cooking. I left my computer logged in the call on the table and I started peeling potatoes in the counter a few meters apart. This way I could still focus on class and start cooking lunch. Maths is not one of my most strong subjects, and I was a bit intimidated by the teacher. I was calmly peeling vegetables when I suddenly hear my name.

In all fairness, there were a lot of students in the class so what were the odds of someone having the same name? Apparently none because five seconds later he called my surname. So I rushed to wash my hands, run to the computer, activate the microphone, and politely asked the teacher to repeat the question.

Can you tell me which is the derivative from the previous equation? I had never seen such a foreign algebra in my life. Somehow out of panic and fear, I found myself saying the correct answer, which I still can not explain how I did it, but I managed to. A couple of months later I took my official Spanish standardized test, in order to get into college, and did excellent on my maths exam. Quarantine has proven that even though digital screens might be now the only way to communicate with friends and attend class, I am still very grateful because now I am not only able to solve algebra, but also capable of getting into Masterchef.

ReachIvy.com organized an online blog/vlog competition to provide people the unique opportunity to share their lockdown stories using their creativity. The competition met with a fantastic response from participants across 4 continents, and our jury has handpicked the Top 50 entries from them for the Popular Choice Award 2020!

The above entry has been submitted by Maria Mitjans from Barcelona, Spain. She is an 18-year-old student of La Salle URL. Kudos to Maria for this beautiful piece!

Show your support and help Maria win the contest by liking this blog post on all ReachIvy.com’s social media platforms!