The QuaranTEENS

Quarantine was far from easy especially in a social point of view. We were not allowed to go and see our relatives nor our friends. No strolls around the gardens were possible, no dinner in restaurant was allowed, and no birthday was organized although 2020 was the year of our 18th anniversary. All connections were done through phone or internet and via different applications such as Skype or Zoom.

From a cultural point of view, it was difficult therefore we have had to adapt. We could not go to the cinema and the theater, visit museum and use library neither. Therefore, we had to cope with what we had; it meant watching movies, television reports or reading books. There have been many initiatives from artists aimed at bringing culture to people. Theater plays, concerts, museum visits have been broadcasted in the visual media.

In terms of studies, we have had to find and test different ways of learning such as video-conferencing with teachers, online teachings, or educational videos on internet. Quarantine was an excellent period to develop our aptitudes to self-learning. This was not an easy task because it completely changed our working habits. We learned to manage on our own. We improved also attendance and performance in virtual school because we had fewer courses with our teachers. Finally, we have learnt how to learn. For the rest, quarantine has had positive impact. I could sleep for a long time and I was able to be more physically active and to work more efficiently during the day. When I was awake, I accomplished more in one hour than when I was at school. No transport, no time to go to school as your school is at home. I loved the experience of managing my own time. Stress and nervous tensions were less. I felt really rested. I was more effective in my homework. When I needed to go deeper into complex issues, I could do it immediately in internet. No need to wait to be at home. I was already at home. I used also time to cook, play board games and run.

I’ve just watched a few videos about how to get motivated to do hard work, which is usually a synonym of “being productive”.

These videos tell you that in the modern world and the modern society, you get used doing simple things that get your brain to produce dopamine, which gives you some kind(s) of pleasure(s). But this is just like a drug (which does, too, produce dopamine). It becomes your “new normal of satisfaction” and becomes a habit. So you don’t feel anything after doing that thing after a little while. But when you suddenly try to stop doing it because you think it’s a waste of your time, you can feel reeeaaallly unmotivated, not wanting to do many things that could change your day by making it extremely productive.

So basically, these things that might make you feel good for a little while and then make you feel really lazy or uncomfortable are: scrolling down on social media, watching tv (entertainment not really the news), watching online pornography (just a fact, go check on the internet if you don’t believe me), and other instant pleasures. You might think of a few more I could think of, but maybe you understand what it is about. It’s something that you do, or consume for the 100th time, not because it’s exciting anymore, but because you need it. This video told me that if you check social medias all the time, it could be for a lot of reasons, but one of them would be expecting a notification, because we got used to it, and it is the thing about social media that gives you pleasure (aka someone carres about you, what you said, did, or commented on).

So if you’re willing to get more productive by avoiding spending all your time on your phone, on your instagram account, going everyday to McDonald’s or KFC etc. I think you should read the following instructions:

-First start with one day of the week when you prepared what you had to do during the eve on a piece of paper, so that you don’t have to look at your phone every once in a while and get attracted by Facebook originally willing to just check what you need to do.

-Slowly rise the amount of days. Start with one for 2-3 weeks, then add 1 for 2 weeks, then do this 3, 4, 5 days a week until you’re unable to do the work without checking for so long what to do.

-During these special days, do the boring productive things, read books, play chess, read even more, work on a project, build things, do math, write poems, essays. After a while, I promise you’ll satisfy your brain by doing that. This isn’t what you’ll like to do at first. But when you feel at ease doing it, you might realise how interesting it is, how useful it can be.

And the VERY FEW DAYS when you’ll try yourself to video games, to social media, tv, I guarantee you that it WON’T FEEL THE SAME AT ALL. I haven’t tried it, but it’s worth the time. Free yourself from dopamine.

Brahms.

It’s been almost 2 months since that whole quarantine thing as started and it looks like we’re approaching the end of it . I really miss playing football with my homies . The good news of this week is that in some countries like Germany , football will restart in 2 weeks . I’m feeling a bit tired because my sleeping schedules have been messed up by some early tests and classes . Watching the news , i don’t think that we will come back to school this year . So i try my best to follow online classes and to keep up with all the homework . Otherwise , i don’t do much stuff during my free time .

We have been confined to our home for 1 month and 20 days, so I want to practice basketball because I no longer play sports. I also manage to organize myself well for my homework. So I had an SVT check this morning at 8:30 am and had trouble getting up. In view of the news of the situation I do not think that we will return to class. So I work as hard as possible to get a good attendance grade in order to get a baccalaureate grade. Otherwise apart from that I don’t do anything during my days but I still feel overwhelmed

Today is Brahms’ 187th birthday (Johannes Brahms is not a random pseudonym for my account…). Johannes Brahms was a german composer, and even though I don’t know many of his works and chose his name pretty randomly, I do like the most famous ones: The 3rd movement of his 3rd symphony, Hungarian Dance n5 (I don’t know any other pieces from him anyway 😳😅). I also only knew about today’s event because of Steinway & Sons’ instagram account (Steinway is for sure the most well know piano brand in the world), sorry I don’t have an infinite memory to remember every composer’s birthday 😆.

I would like to talk about instrumental music from before the 20th century. I think that the popularity of “classical music” (wrongly used by some people to describe any music that isn’t rap, jazz, pop, funk, slam, etc.) among teenagers and young adults was really at its lowest point between 1970 and 2010. But it seems to be now slowly going up again.

I would like to tell all of you, reading this, that “classical music” (which is actually composed of various other genres of music: Baroque, Classic, Romantique, Opera, atonal, serial and many others) is not as boring as your memories tell you. And I think that in general, films by telling you it’s boring, sometimes; and pop music or rap for example because it’s very different, make you feel somehow uncomfortable. But maybe each one of you should really feel the music you’re listening to and try yourself to classical music, feel the emotions it’s creating and trying to share.
So please tell me in the comments if you like “Classical music” or not and if you don’t, are you willing to try it?

Brahms.

This week has been like others, even if because of the deconfinement some teachers give us more homework to do and more exam. We know that it won’t be marked, but we have to do them for the after confinement. The government should talk at 8 pm tonight to say which department will be in green (which means they can go outside on the 11^th without any problem) or in red (which means that this department will have issues with going outside and see people). My parents told me that we would go to Chinon that is near Tours from Thursday to Saturday to pick my sister up but my mum is scared of being controlled in France so we will go there next week. It’s going to be great to spend some days under the Sun and being outside in the garden not in an apartment.

Yesterday, during my daily walk, I noticed the large number of people on the street, there were as many (or more) people as when we were not in quarantine. Today, the government is speaking, and unfortunately, I expect an extension.

Before being locked on, I used to think of all the things I could do in a month if I didn’t have classes, but I didn’t expect “these” months, which make us less and less productive. I’ve never lost so much time, but at the same time we don’t have much choice, I wonder how prisoners should feel, who are locked up for months or even years. I feel that when “déconfinement”-day will come, we’ll all be zombies, we’ll be Homer Simpson’s, we’ll work less efficiently because we will be used to working less, and this ‘sloth society’ scares me more than the virus.

We can still say that confinement has helped people who are not often at home, to find themselves, to discover what they like or not, what they want/need and what they don’t. Many people discover passions, music, cooking, art.

On the other hand, living in tense periods, locked up with other people, causes a lot of disagreement; here, 1 in 10 couples will distance themselves after confinement, many doctors, and other medical workers, are about to be expelled from their homes because of the fear of neighbors. Some restaurants open with restrictions that seem absurd, society changes, and in the wrong direction.

It’s nobody’s fault, but at the same time, i think there are better ways to act in the face of such a health crisis. Even if the virus disappears, these actions will remain in people’s mind, it’ll be a real crisis, not sanitary, but mental, of society, and it is not the best time for that, it never is.

Hello everyone, I hope you are well! I’m fine, I’ve just had strange dreams for the past few weeks, I saw on Twitter that it happened to many people. I think confinement drives our brains crazy by doing nothing. I’m really looking forward to the deconfinement because I will finally be able to clear my mind (while respecting the safety rules of course) and walk !! I think having social contacts again is going to be super awkward at first.

Tomorrow at 4P.M. Edouard Phillipe will explain the terms of the deconfinement, depending on the area you’re in. I hope he will say concrete things and not going around the subject as many ministers are used to. Another point that makes me sad is that we won’t go back to school. Having my baccalaureate but not finishing the year properly makes me bitter and a little sad. I would have liked to see my friends and my teachers in class! See you in a week!

Source : https://cheezburger.com/11019525/coming-out-of-quarantine-memes-imagine-our-moment-of-freedom

6th of May 2020
To be fair, there isn’t a lot of things happeneing from my side in quarantine. Everyday is basically the same thing, waking up, eating, watching stuff on the internet, clapping at 8PM… today, whatsoever, it has been a sunny day, no clouds, only a big blue sky, it was pretty joyful if were not conscience about all the drama going on. So to be able to enjoy the outside world, my brother and I decide to go out. We took towels with us hoping that we could find a spot where to lay down and rest a bit, but since every public yards were closed we only managed to find one spot with grass… in the middle of a roundabout behind the Invalid.

Even if it sounded desperate we enjoyed every last bit of it, like if it was the last time we could ever do that. It only lasted for 30 minutes, but goddamn was it worth it, being able to breath once in a while is appreciable, since it’s been weeks since i went out. Sorry for you who are reading this, I know it isn’t overly dramatic like most of the other posts, but you know, you take or you live it. Every roads leads to Rome (I don’t know why I just wrote that , it just seemed appropriate with the image)

At the beginning of the confinement I started a booked called La vie devant soi, written by Romain Gary. I have now finished it, and that will be the subject of this article. The story is very earnest it deals with human relationship. It’s the story of a young boy (Mohammed) who’s mum was a hustler, she let him with an ex hustler whom brought him up. Throughout the story we see the boy’s relationship with society, he doesn’t go to school and live’s with the lady whom is bringing up other hustlers children. He spends most of his time out, as the lady is getting old and loosing her mine. He uses a very rough language, and uses familiar words, that makes the story look more real, I really felt him and got attached as I was reading. He is conscious the lady is going to die, he sees her deteriorating, she starts having hallucination about the times when she was still young and hustling in the street. She is also traumatized because she was deported by the nazis, she survived the holocaust before coming to France. It is a book I would recommend, because the young boy is searching for his roots, who he is, why his parents abandonned him.

Now that I’ve finished that book, I’m going to read Les Gones de Chaaba of Azouz Begag, it seems to be a great story too. To make time pass quickly I also make research through the internet and in books to enrich my culture (I don’t only watch movies lol).

See you guys next week, hoping the confinement will be over for real.

Take care of yourselves and your families.