Lockdown life through a Cork teenager's lens: 'We are given all this time, and nowhere to spend it'

As we muddle our way through Covid 19 restrictions, 16-year-old Chloe Corcoran gives us a glimpse of lockdown life from a teenager's perspective

Chloe Corcoran at home at Ovens. Picture: Denis Minihane.

Period four technical graphics, Thursday. I remember it well. This was my last 'normal' class in school before it all started. In the beginning, I thought we’d be back to normal before Easter. I was a bit off with this estimation.

I vividly remember talking to my friends on Good Friday, a very Good Friday for some. On this day, it was announced that the 2020 Junior Certificate was cancelled and summer had begun early. I can’t say I didn't want to sit the JC. I had put in a lot of work to prepare for my first set of State exams, however, I still felt relieved when I found out. 

For a while I felt unsure and unmotivated. As if someone had dropped me into the middle of a maze blindfolded then told me to escape. This news cleared uncertainty from the air. We were all just glad to have an answer. It's hard to sit and study for something when you feel like you could potentially be wasting all your time away.

Children my age are really used to change. Between the ever-advancing technology, we are all so ashamedly addicted to, to the different trends and standards we constantly compare ourselves to. Nothing is really consistent with us. Especially not now. With lockdown came two lifetime's worth of spare time and nowhere to spend it. When we first went into lockdown I don’t think I could fully wrap my mind around the seriousness of it all. 

The months of March, April, May and June all melted into one and everything seemed a blur. 

I just remember the warm weather, learning new things online, reading, going on the same single walk, and baking. There wasn’t much to do to pass time besides that. I missed school, I missed friends and I missed dance classes. 

Dance is something I really, really love to do. We were only back for a few weeks before it closed again. I didn’t understand this as it was the most structured environment I’ve ever been in. When it was announced that they were closing again I was fairly disappointed. It felt like I failed 100 different tests all at once. I was reluctant to leave. I felt so happy there. It was such a release from the ever-moving, busy life, for everyone.

We still dance at home over Zoom calls and I’m so happy we have the chance to do this. However, you can’t really move freely unless you're willing to sacrifice a lamp or maybe a plant pot.

When schools, businesses, after school activities began closing down it felt like we were all being held hostage by the world. Ghost towns left the unwalked streets lonely and it made me feel off-put and uneasy.

Chloe Corcoran at home in Ovens with Poppy, the family dog. Picture Denis Minihane.

If you told me in March we wouldn’t be back to school until September I wouldn’t have believed you. I really like school and I wish online school was an appropriate substitute, but to tell the truth it was nothing of the sort. Everyone seemed very unorganised, and could you blame us? We quickly had to change our whole mindset and adjust to a different method of learning that felt completely alien to us.

Of course, nowadays it's easy to keep in touch, after all it's what we’ve been doing all along, but we all know nothing compares to face-to-face conversations. I feel like this communication is so important yet so under-practised and what little we had was stripped away. It seemed as though my screen created a barrier that stopped me from really understanding what teachers were explaining.

But then we got back. Now this was a surreal experience. Everyone, wearing masks. I couldn’t even recognise some of my closest friends at first. Along with this I found it really hard to hear what anyone was saying. I caught myself pretending, nodding and smiling a little too often.

Our school has a strict one-way system in place, the walls lined with sanitisers and the floors mopped with arrows and instructions. We are each obliged to carry with us a sanitiser of our own and a packet of wipes at all times. This is ensured by regular spot checks almost every week and has proven effective. The majority of students wouldn't dare be caught without them.

When we all started to go back to school, I personally began to really see the severity of Covid. 

I first noticed it when I couldn't see my grandparents. I missed them a lot. I missed going to their warm house every day after school and regretted the time I took for granted with them. 

But school life has completely brought me to a new level of realisation. Seeing most of my friends again for the first time with their masks on was strange. It seemed to make everything more real, especially when people were absent for testing or for being in close contact with a case. It was scary. Things like this really showed me the severity of this virus.

But school isn't all that’s changing, shops and businesses always opening, closing, and rumours are spreading like wildfire. 

I find it hard to believe there ever was a time I could take the bus without fear of pressing the ‘stop button’, hug my grandparents without feeling severely selfish and guilty or look at large groups of people without worrying about their lack of social distance. 

I think about how this is all some young children know. I wonder if they will ever see a world as close-knit as it once was, or will their youth be forever surrendered to this virus.

The world has turned upside down and inside out, nothing is as it was and there is no denying it. We have all been touched differently by Covid. It’s tearing us apart yet it is keeping us all so connected. It’s one thing that we all have in common regardless of current circumstances. I’m simply one small voice in the midst of it all. 

I know you have heard this a million and one times, I have too, but we need to stick together by staying apart. Please do it for your generation, the generation above or below you, do it for our moms, dads, grannies, grandads, friends, and cousins. At the end of the day, all we have is each other and that is all we need.