Gators at Home: Ep. 2

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Image created by A. Guo

Sara Abell talks about how she is doing during social distancing and quarantine.

For the second episode of “Gators at Home,” Sara Abell talks about remote learning, fun TV shows and games, and why you need to check up on friends and family.

Aida: Can you introduce yourself so maybe talk about some of your hobbies or things you’re interested in?

Sara: So my name is Sara Abell and I’m a sophomore at Green Level High. I’m in the band and that’s one of my most favorite things. My hobby – I enjoy playing my instrument and I do a lot of art in my free time at home, which I have a lot of now.

A: How are you doing? How are you dealing with the situation? How’s your family doing?

S: It’s good, we’ve been good. We’ve been able to spend more family time together and it’s been more fun to just hang out. I miss all my friends and my school and my teachers so that’s been a little hard but it’s been good to have some more family time and more time to just be able to relax and have a more loose schedule.

A: Yeah, yeah that’s definitely good. And now that you do have more of a loose schedule, how are you keeping yourself busy? Have you done anything interesting or fun in particular?

S: I’m really glad that we started classes now because it gives a little more structure to the day. And then with the time I do have, I just do whatever I want. We have been going on a lot of bike rides and walks, and just going outside a lot, and also doing a lot of art stuff in my free time. And yeah, otherwise we can just hang out. We’ve done a lot of 1000 piece puzzles which has been fun.

A: That’s cool! I can’t do puzzles. I have no attention span. So, that is cool. Are there any recommendations you would have for other people? Like any TV shows or a specific board game or anything like that? 

S: Well we got into this game called Gesture.We’ve been playing at night as a family and it’s been a lot of fun. It’s kind of like charades but you pick the cards and the people on your team have to guess what you’re doing but you can only act it out. It’s been a lot of fun! And a show we’ve been watching is called the Lego Masters and we just finished the last episode last night. It’s really cool because it’s like a bunch of builders that compete for this trophy and stuff, but it’s just so cool to watch them build. Like I love building with Lego, but it’s amazing to see how they can do it. It’s crazy. 

A: Is it like really big stuff or? 

S: Yeah! So, like a lot of it is insane. Like they have so many hours to do it; they have like eight hours or 12 hours and by the end, it’s just like this massive thing. 

A: Oh my God. 

S: Yeah it’s amazing. 

A: Yeah that’s so cool. I know you said that remote learning has just started and you’ve enjoyed it, so what have you enjoyed specifically about it?  

S: Probably just having a more routine schedule. I’m just getting to see some of my friends and teachers even though we’re not really talking. It’s just a little social interaction is nice. 

A: Yeah I get that. And what do you miss the most now that we’re in quarantine?

S: Probably just all the time in school where you just talk with people. There’s a lot of time in school where you just get to hang out with people, like when you’re doing your work, sometimes you just get to catch up with people, so I kind of miss that. Because even talking over FaceTime or Google Meet or whatever, it’s not the same. 

A: Right, it’s different. And like I feel like the remote learning stuff, a lot of the times, a lot of people close their cameras and everyone’s voice is muted, so it’s not like actual class. 

S: Yeah, the first couple of days I would just go into the classes with my camera off just to kind of see what’s going on and I was like why? Why aren’t people showing their face?

(Aida and Sara laugh) 

A: Exactly! I was having a club meeting and I was presenting but everybody’s faces were turned off, so it felt really weird. It felt like you were just talking to a screen.

S: Yeah. But I know the teachers appreciate seeing it so I always turn my camera on.

A: Yeah. Is there anything else you wanna say? That was my last question, but is there any message that you want to say to your teachers, or friends, or peers, or anything like that?

S: I would just say, do your best to check up on people and make sure that people are doing OK, because, you know, it’s pretty hard for everyone. So just make sure you are still keeping in touch with people the best you can and try to make sure they’re OK. We have got to help each other out.