Maya Serna COVID Diary #2
By Maya Serna
I had so hoped that since my last Covid diary things would have improved. Unfortunately, that’s not the case, Covid numbers keep climbing and Ohio is looking pretty bad. I’m still quarantining for the most part. I go out for walks and take my dog to the vet but other than that I’m mostly at home. Last month, on one of the last warm days, I did get to see some of my friends at Westcreek reservation which was really fun. We wore masks and stayed distanced which was weird, but everything seems weird right now. At the same time, I feel like I’m so adjusted to this strange lifestyle that it almost feels normal at this point, but not quite.
My day-to-day life isn’t that exciting. I wake up, eat, text my friends, try to do homework, and hang out with my younger siblings. I made pizza with my little brother, Emilio, last week which was fun. Most days I end up putting off a lot of my homework because I’m not that motivated right now. Instead, I end up doing cottage-core themed makeup, or bake cookies, play chess, or read my current books, Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo and Gender Trouble by Judith Butler. Sometimes I also play violin and binge-listen different musicals. I also recently discovered a band called Blood Orange which is my new obsession.
My dad isn’t living at home anymore so it’s just me, my siblings, my mom, dogs, and bunny. My dad is in Denver working at his new job and waiting for the rest of us to move out there next summer. He’s finally the manager of his own company and works as a partner with Amazon. It’s taken him so long to earn a position like this, his old bosses in Ohio were always trying to keep him down even though he was wanting to do more and work harder. I think they were scared that a Mexican guy was better at their jobs than them, so there were almost always racist undertones in the many jobs he’s held over the years. It’s difficult being part of the very small Latinx population in Ohio, so I’m pretty excited to be moving out to Denver soon.
Between balancing schoolwork and home life, I haven’t had that much free time to apply to four-year universities, but I do want to transfer somewhere after I finish my associate degree at Tri-C. I have so many different interests it’s been difficult for me to narrow it down to choose a single major and deciding which colleges to apply to without being able to visit a single campus is a challenge. In the end I really couldn’t narrow it down enough and am now planning on double majoring in anthropology and political science. Hopefully I’ll get enough scholarship money to do that. My majors might change, but for now I’m pretty confident in what I want to do. I’ve done different types of advocacy work with my environmental and sexual health groups throughout high school and I’m excited to learn more about the things I’m passionate about. To my fellow students, we just have to get through these next few months, and I know we can do it! Good luck to everyone with the end of semester.
