The QuaranTEENS

Not having been out since the beginning of the quarantine, I realize how lucky we were to be free, that’s what I miss the most, my freedom. In spite of our duties, we have a lot of rights, and one of it, the most valuable in my opinion, is our freedom, the freedom of movement.

I really feel like a caged animal. Like everybody, I’d say that I miss my friends, I miss going out and having fun. Nevertheless, what I miss the most is doing usual things. I didn’t think that I would miss it, going out to buy baguette, taking the bus, seeing the Eiffel tower every morning when I take the metro in order to go to school. But I think, that’s the lack of social interaction, which is vital for us as human being, that we miss the most. It’s vital, not seeing anybody for weeks, not talking to anyone, it can drives us crazy.

Indeed, the lack of freedom and social interaction can be dangerous. It leads us to feel useless and that’s the most frustrating for me. We can’t really contribute to anything. I know that staying at home can save lives, but I need to feel useful as an active person in my case. So, to fill this lack of objectives, I advise you to set yourself goals, something to achieve. For instance, if you are a book reader, think of a number of books you could read in a short time, if you are a musician , think of a song you’ll learn until the end of the quarantine. You’ll feel more useful, and you’ll really have this feeling that you are doing something during this dark period.

I’m hopeful about the future, I’m pretty sure that when it’s over, we will see all the good points. The governments will invest more money in our healthcare systems. Everybody is going to realize how lucky and important is our freedom. Jacques Bainville once said ” C’est quand les hommes commencent à se sentir sûrs du lendemain que la liberté commence aussi à avoir du prix pour eux“.

Alexandre Mansour

1- Know how to get information on official websites to learn more about the virus or containment for the good of all. (https://www.gouvernement.fr/info-coronavirus)

2- Keep in touch with your family and friends (by internet of course), and respect the limit of the number of people for the sake of your mental health.

3- Go shopping by buying the essentials and have the certificate for the good of your bank account.

4-Put a padlock on your cupboard so that you don’t eat every 5 minutes for the sake of your physical health and try to do sports (yes, sports, you read that right).

5- Try to respect the usual working hours for the sake of your intelligence.

If you respect all these instructions you will be able to live quietly your confinement. Good confinement to all!

Sean lives alone in a very isolated part of Northern Ireland. He lost his wife 4 years ago. Here is a letter found in a thick book.

“I don’t really know what to say…Actually, I don’t have much time. I just have been procrastinating all week…and last week too by the way… so right now I have a lot of work to do, I really hoped I could finish all the work I have for this week to catch up a little but… I’m up since 8 a.m. and have already seen the Sun rise high up, and he’s already gone.

I am starting to wonder why I’m writing this, it seems so pathetic, but it’s been almost three months since we’re in lockdown. If you haven’t heard of the “Crownvirus” as I call it (or Coronavirus as sociable people say), even if you were born (or will be born) in 2050, you literally live under a rock. Even I live right behind a hill, no one can see where I live but I still manage to get the newspaper. I don’t know why I even bought this small sheet of paper. I guess I was just worried of having no one to talk to.
I haven’t been out for 3 weeks already but I do have what I need to live. I am worried about my son and his wife, they haven’t been calling for a month… They must have forgotten about me, but I prefer to think that they did, rather than thinking they caught it. In 64 years of career, I’ve never stopped working, I’ve always been really invested in what I do. But I just can’t do it anymore, I am getting a bit tired… It might be, being a civil engineer, because I was always out to see how the foundations and orientation of the buildings I designed were respected.

I’ve been listening to a lot of classical music lately. As I lost the ability to speak when I was 20 years old and music was the only thing I wanted to communicate with when I was with my wife. For now, my love is resting elsewhere, I hope to see her smile again soon enough. I used to talk to her through the beats and rithms of music. She used to answer with a waltz in the garden, it would always make me feel lighter than the thin breeze that went through her hair. I can still smell the sweet almond lotion she always used.

As I said, I don’t have much time, to join my wife.”

Had the man been “crowned”?

A couple of hours later, Sean would finally talk…to a dusty and fragile chair:

I’m sorry, if only I had called you once…

Tell Mum I love her.

Love you Dad.

Brahms

We have been in lockdown for more than one week … On Monday 16, the French president said that we must stay at home and get out only for first needs. It meant our exits would be restricted for buying food in supermarket or drogues in pharmacy. All news said the same message: ” stay at home”.

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At the beginning of the lockdown, I did not really realize how my life would be change and how the containment would be set up. So all day long, I run in Paris Bois de Boulogne as those woods are close to my home.

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Some days after the start of the lockdown, I went to the supermarket and I met an old friend (he had protective gloves and a mask). I moved closer to speak with him but he stopped me immediately and said: “Please my friend, don’t make other step towards me because I have caught the coronavirus”. I was absolutely shocked. I could not say anything. Suddenly my face changed. I moved two meters away and I took some news because I had not seen him for three years. I asked him how he knew that he had the coronavirus and he answered to me that he had made a test and he was positive. He also explained to me the symptoms. He just had some fever (39°C) and some headaches but when he made the test he believed that he did not have it. He was then confident that he did not have but the test said something else. During one hour I was shocked. I was thinking then about the numbers of people who had the covid-19 and I realized that everyone could catch it. After that I have really listened to speeches of the French President and his Prime minister and I have realize that I can catch it because if my friend got it why not me? Moreover I realized that many people have it because my friend lives just one street behind my home. We know that the spread of this virus is fast so I deduce that people maybe in my building have it. Now I look with another view all information related to the spread of the coronavirus.

Although the world is at a complete standstill, Financial markets still work despite the high volatility due to the pandemia and some banks now hope that they will close soon. Thanks to the Covid19 I keep informed about outbreak and I read some articles on Twitter or on BBC waves.

Although the Coronavirus shuts down the world, there are however some benefits. We have time to run and spend quality time. We can spend more time with family. We have time for different home activities such as cooking: 

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As a conclusion, I can say that my life has changed since I met my old friend. From now on I pay a great attention to the covid19. I am still a bit anxious but I stay positive in front of this global epidemic.

The Coronavirus has grown significantly from it start. It’s been nine days that people are locked down in their houses for at least five weeks, I’m in my apartment with my parents, my sister isn’t with us she is with a friend out of Paris and I think it’s for the better. In the city, streets are empty and everything is quiet I’ve never seen Paris like that. I spend my day in my room working for school and scrawling on social media for news and the daily life of my friends but all I see is people being outside videotaping it and posting it on their account to show others how being outside is cool but it’s only dangerous and irresponsible. But I’m not going to be the one that says that coronavirus is only something that make dead people because it’s not true this is what the media want us to know, they don’t show enough how people are recovering from this disease even the oldest one. Anyway, life is boring when you stay at home all day long four weeks left ,this is gonna be really hard.

My quarantine started in a very stressful way for me, my brother Yunes came back from Spain and started living with us. A few days after he moved in, one of he’s best friends in Madrid was diagnosed positive to COVID-19 so he taught that he surely had it too. After that, I realized how much free time this quarantine gave me so I decided to end the anime “Naruto”, thing that I had been trying to do since summer break but I couldn’t achieve because of work . Finally, this tuesday I had an extra scholar math class trough Skype. We were only there : the teacher and another student, a female student, and I kind of had a big big crush on her. I don’t know if the quarantine is driving me crazy, but I think I’m in love with her.

personally I think that confinement is a good way to get to know your family by making it board games for example. On the other hand, work at home I do not validate at all, I prefer to have direct contact with my teachers. Apart from my work schedules I practice music, in fact today I released my mixtape called “La gachette”. It is composed of 5 titles. The rest of my time I play Fifa in order to do sports because you have to keep a good balance in life. I sleep about fourteen hours a night so that I can feel fit the next day to be strong at fifa. I live very well the confinement even if I stress a little for the baccalaureat.

It has been now more than a week that we are in quarantine. That’s why our daily life has changed. Thanks to my father who is an hotel manager, I have the luck to be confined with my family in the Hotel that he manage rather than being confined in our flat. Actually that’s a great advantage because there is much more space than in an appartement. So, I can go out in the garden of the hotel, spend time in the swimming pool and the sauna and even practicing sport as football with my lil bro for example. I’ve even learned to dance with him lmao. Here is the link if you guys wanna see us dancing 😉

However, there are still negative points to this even if I’m not the less lucky… Firstly, we don’t have any social life except with our families. I really miss my best friends. Even if we FaceTime each other every nights, I miss the real contact with them. Then, it’s a bit harsh to work in some classes because we don’t have oral explanations anymore… But we don’t have to lose hope and continue to work everyday.

But for me, the most difficult thing since the beginning of the containment is that there is no Paris Saint Germain football games. Actually I’m a great fan of PSG since my childhood because I have been watching games with my daddy since I was born…. and I was habited to go to the stadium 🤷‍♂️.

However I’m conscient of the risks, that’s why I have to accept all these negatives points and stay confined to have a better life as soon as possible…

So the first week has just ended and they tell us that it will be the first of a long serie. Since my parents are teleworking and my brother refuses to leave London ignoring any kind of solidarity towards his little sister forced to stay alone with her parents, I’m all alone with the cat. I’m not someone who loves to stay at home especially when I’m forced to. So after having reorganized my wardrobe, my bathroom and my library for the tenth time, after completing the tenth displacement certificate to have the right to walk down and up my street, I was out of idea. I’m even starting to consider putting dog ears on the cat to go for a walk. More seriously, I’m getting tired of people speaking only of the virus all day long and I really miss all the people I love, I even miss school (for real !!). But I see my father more often, I learn to cook and I meet people from my building : my mother has almost adopted a young boy who lives alone in a small studio, I think she wants to marry us… I’ll give you news next week, while waiting STAY AT HOME that we can finish with it !

It’s been a whole week since quarantine has started and i’m already tired of it . I thought that it would be cool not to go to school for a bunch of days and in a way i like it but i’d rather go to school than be locked at home .

It’s hard to find the motivation to continue my homework but i’m handling it quite well . At least with the containment , i can spend more time with my family . That’s about it for the advantages of the containment . It’s a tough time for me , there’s no more sports on TV , i can’t go to the gym anymore and i can’t spend time with my friends . But what we have to do is stay home to stay safe . What intrigues me the most is that some people can’t understand that they must stay at home so that the number of infected decreases .

Source of the meme : https://starecat.com/coronavirus-memes-government-stay-inside-half-of-the-us-population-catch-me-outside-how-about-that/