Hi, this is Sophia and this blog post is about confinement from my perspective.

I don’t know if you guys have read Diary of Anne Frank but if you have, you might have noticed that in it, she didn’t really talk about the war or how scared she was, but more about herself: her quarrels with her mom, her hopes, and little things like what she was reading and doing during the days. I didn’t really understand how all of that war stuff wasn’t constantly on her mind when I read that book but now I do. I don’t know why but I think that for kids it is easy to ignore stuff, the stuff we call boring but that can change the course of our life. I know that covid19 is a life changing experience but it doesn’t feel that big to me.

For me, I don’t think of what we are missing out on. As far as I am concerned, this is my life. Yes, it is different in that we are not going to school and that going outside has to be for a purpose but it still follows the rhythm of wake-up, work, eat and chill so I have adapted and now I just consider it normal.

While my parents busy themselves with getting us home, feeding us and trying to keep us happy, I sit down to do the mountain of homework I have, so I don’t really have much time to get all thinky. Every morning, I get up and, much to my dismay, I have to go for a run. I come home, eat breakfast and go to school (the very long walk from the kitchen to my bedroom!). Once “at school”, I work for about three hours, give or take, and participate in my online calls. I find that online school is not as engaging as being in the classroom. The teachers have to work really hard to get responses from the students and with all the muting and unmuting, things just take a lot longer. Typically, I am finished by lunch and I normally read in french for some time (my family would argue that I read for at least five hours a day and it’s possible that it is true). These days I am doing a little less reading and a little more art. I recently finished a watercolour of the view out of my bedroom window and I plan to keep it as a memory. I also did a knitting project: a purse for Mavis. Our evenings are used to chat with friends and family from home and to eat dinner which is sometimes made by me. I have made bolognese sauce, grilled cheese, and lots of breakfast items. Weekends often involve baking projects, movie nights and a lot more reading. I have learned how to bake cream puffs, macarons, financiers, molten chocolate cakes, french galette, crêpes and cookies.

Right now, going to school and hugging my friends hello feels like a dream and I am so looking forward to not having to go on a run every morning with my dad. I am excited to go back to Canada but I am disappointed that it has to be under these circumstances. Part of me is happy to not go back to school because I like waking up a little later, not carrying a 13lb backpack and being a little bit invisible to my teachers. The other part of me wants to go back so I can see my friends and say goodbye, even if it is under the “new-normal”.

When my mom and dad talk about moving back to Canada in worried tones, I find myself listening. Before we came to France and they would talk about all of these details, I would ignore them. I am curious about what is going to happen next. How stressed are my parents going to be? When will we move out of our apartment? How long will the flights be and how many layovers will we have to sit through? Will I have to wear a mask? Will we have to spend our last few days in Paris in a hotel?

I am so lucky to have a nice place to stay, a school that can continue teaching us, two loving parents and a little sister to annoy. I wonder if when I look back on this time if it will feel as insignificant as it does to me right now or, if I will someday realize that covid19 was an important event that changed me in some way.