Throughout these past few months with Covid-19, have you ever wondered how it has been for families and households? Each family has their own experiences, but today Jenny Prado, an 18 year old college student and LBHS alumni, discussed how she has been dealing with distance learning and household concerns.

According to Prado, ¨With college, I was looking forward to going on campus and having that typical college experience, but the Corona-Virus came out of nowhere, and we had to go into quarantine. At first I was happy to be at home, since I only thought we would be away for two weeks, but over time, I grew tired of not being able to go back to school.¨

There have been many changes that she had to get accustomed to, especially sharing the WiFi with her two younger siblings. Mornings are hectic and fast-paced, since with distanced learning, classes are required to be online through their assigned chromebooks. Her two younger siblings,  Jaime Prado (15) and Liset Prado (17),  attend Los Banos High School and remembers that at the beginning of their school year, they were having issues with their WiFi connection and staying in on the zoom classes.

Her brother was doing his classes in his room upstairs and her sister was doing classes in her own room as well. In order to be able to hear their teachers well, everyone had to be split up within the house. Sometimes they would be in the living room or the kitchen, but their parents were always making sure that they all had a place to do their online classes.

¨I can see that distanced learning has been stressful for my siblings. The internet connection is not always at its greatest with multiple people connected to it, but we all manage. My situation with college is different. My professors assign work for the week to complete, and I only meet on Zoom for one of my classes. It is a lot of work, but I would rather be assigned work for the week, which is what I like most about distanced learning,” Prado shared.

When her parents are out working, Jenny and her siblings maintain the house by sharing the chores and making meals. Each sibling rotates from doing the dishes, vacuuming the carpets, mopping the floors, and cleaning the bathrooms. There is always something to do done at their household, and everyone helps to make quarantine a little better.

¨My mom works at a food truck from eight in the morning to three in the afternoon, but she is always really happy to help us if something occurs. She really likes to make us nice meals throughout the day and after school she likes to ask us about our day. My dad does some freelance roof work, but I think he worries a lot about our online classes. He is always asking if the internet is working so if not he can go fix it. I know our parents care a lot about us, which I believe is what is helping us get through this quarantine,¨ said Jenny.

Even though the year has not gone as expected for the Prado household, everyone manages to work together and help one another so that life at home can be better. Sometimes there are moments where one sibling is upset at another or when things get tense, but the pandemic has taught them that staying indoors can have its benefits, and being family is important.