The time is 3:30 when I pick up my phone to check the time.  “I might as well check my social media while I’m at it,” I think as I open my phone.  I scroll through Instagram first, laugh at a couple posts, and respond to some DM’s.  Snapchat is next, in which I overshare about a minor inconvenience on my private story and screenshot a funny snap that my friend sent me.  Next, TikTok.  I learn a couple new marriage life hacks from a Middle-Aged divorced woman, and like everything that comes onto my For You Page.  My back hurts as I check the time. 

 It’s 9:00.  

I haven’t started my homework yet.

The panic sets in and I get up to grab my computer to check Canvas.  I have math homework due tomorrow, and a Spanish test I have to study for.  ‘That’ll only take me a little while to finish’, I think as I pick my phone back up.  I continue scrolling through tik tok, making sure to check the time every so often.  It’s 9:45 when I grab my textbook to start my math homework.  

As my pencil is poised to write out my first problem, my phone buzzes with a notification.  I ignore it for a bit, trying to stay focused, but in the end my curiosity wins out and I check to see who it is.  It’s my boyfriend, asking if I can talk.  I say sure. 

We facetime, him playing video games, me attempting to do my math homework.  I set my pencil down.  Math homework is hard to focus on when I have a more interesting (much cuter) subject I’d rather give all my attention too.  We talk for a while before he eventually has to go take a shower.  I check the time again.  It’s 11 p.m.

I finish my math homework around 11:45 and don’t even bother trying to study for my spanish test.  I still have to get ready for bed and fall asleep at 12:20 a.m.

It seems that everyday turns out like that.  School, nap, phone, sleep.  There are some variations, like when I go to get food with one of my friends, or when my mom wants to talk to me about her work but that’s it.  In the words of Dr. Dog, in their song “Where all the time go”,  time “is starting to fly”.

Everyday is just a repeat of the last, a tedious journey in which nothing happens, and nothing excites me anymore.

Can you believe quarantine started almost nine months ago?  I thought it had only been five.  Somehow time moved past me like a bullet and I was left in the dust trying to keep up.  I suppose that is the good part about quarantine; time moves so fast, people are no longer scared to appreciate the things around them.  

I know I sure do.  I’ve started to really appreciate my house, with its different colored walls and the new plants that I bought the other day, and my bed which never fails to keep me warm and comfortable.  I’ve even come to appreciate the small hole in my wall, left by the previous owners.  I’m going to be sad when my dad patches it up.  

Things that I would usually take for granted are now being realized by me: loving parents, a roof over my head, three meals a day is honestly all I could ask for.  Of course, those things are nice but I would be more appreciative if I could go out in large groups, or have friends back inside of my house.  They aren’t mandatory but I got so used to having those “luxuries” that living without them is getting pretty boring.  

But, like I said, I still appreciate all of the things that I am privileged enough to get, and all of the things that other people cannot afford.  I also appreciate the people around me that take care of me.  Even if time is moving too fast, and Covid numbers are beginning to spike again, people can still find time to appreciate the things they used to take for granted.