It is important to remember that while all this scary stuff is going on around San Luis Obispo High School, we should  also focus on the fact that there is some positive news too. 

  To help people remember the positive but not ignore the negative, Expressions sat down with SLOHS junior Ian McKay for an interview about his quarantine experience.

  Expressions: How have you been dealing with things mentally during this long period of social isolation?

  SLOHS junior Ian McKay: I’m a very social person so it’s been hard not having that social aspect of my life. But I’m getting used to video chats, lots more texting and other forms of communication. I don’t feel as lonely as when this started but I still wish I had that face to face contact. I miss hugging people.

  Expressions: How have you been coping in this atmosphere of fear around COVID-19?

  McKay: I feel like my family isn’t really at risk right now, we are still financially stable and we aren’t really in danger personally or anything. So I’ve kinda been channeling my energy into trying to help others who do feel scared. I’ve been trying to keep track of cases in our county, graph them and post them on my Instagram story. And I’m actually in the middle of planning a short documentary about Coronavirus’s impact on teens. I feel like I’m incredibly lucky in the situation I’m in and I have lots of opportunities to be creative so hopefully I can do some good and help those people who aren’t in as good of a situation as me. 

  Expressions: How has being home and having the extra time because you control your schedule been affecting your self care? 

  McKay: I’m a little over a month overdue for a haircut and when you’re in that situation there is nowhere to go but up. So it takes a lot longer to do my hair so I find myself doing it less frequently. But I am trying to take this opportunity to drink more water because I have trouble with that with the structure of school and extracurriculars, and as for nutrition that’s a lost cause. 

  Expressions: What has been the most positive thing to come out of this for you?

  McKay: I think the most positive thing to come out of this for me is just seeing the sense of community that’s been developing online primarily. From a distance everyone is doing so much to support each other and you don’t see that a lot when something really big like this isn’t happening. Usually people aren’t nice to each other on the internet so it’s like wow, like this is actually kinda helping. And there is also a lot more time to be out in nature, and a lot less cars are on the street. I heard someone phrase it, it’s like a breather for Mother Nature, which I really liked. Nature is just taking a break from all the smog and pollution. You can really see the changes especially in really polluted areas, how the shutdown is having a beneficial effect on our environment. 

  Expressions: What has been a significant thing in your mind that you have found yourself doing?

  McKay: Now that my extracurriculars aren’t part of my schedule anymore I have had much more time to be creative. So I have been trying to channel that into whatever I can. As a filmmaker it’s a bit difficult to do that because I don’t have access to actors, and I usually borrow cameras from school, but I’ve been doing a lot of screenwriting. I’ve been producing a biweekly magazine full of games and activities and sending it to my friends. It keeps them entertained and it gives me something to do.