By Kayla Cheung
During the latter half of March, Florida experienced a new kind of natural disaster: SARS-CoV. Already taking the lives of 430 thousand residents of the United States, South Floridians responded to this travesty the same as they would with a hurricane coasting through Florida’s lower half— buying bounties of toilet paper and paper towels, in fear of COVID-19’s devastating effects on people’s homes and normal lives.
The damage in question, however, was not of environmental significance, but the greatly imbalanced the health of Florida residents.
Although the initial panic was overwhelming and vastly affected our lives, it all crashed in a matter of weeks. People began to head home from their jobs and schools to stay at home while Florida was on lockdown. Only a few people, apart from essential personnel, went out regularly, risking their lives all in the midst of an ever-growing report of daily fatalities. Our strictly indoor lives quickly became the new routine.
People were then presented with the idea of complete boredom, without any opportunities to see friends or family in a place where entertainment is guaranteed taken away by local, state, and federal ordinances. Teenagers especially were desperately awaiting the chance to be able to go out again while pacing through their rooms trying to find something to do.
There was uncertainty in South Florida’s climate during quarantine, which inspired creativity in people of all ages, namely students.
“From TikTok, I started seeing more editing videos on there and it made me want to do it too. So, I started editing more and now I photoshop more and edit videos as well…I also started drawing again due to seeing so many people doing it all over TikTok”, says American Senior High sophomore Zainab Akhtar.
Creativity became a coping mechanism for students like Zainab during this time with no source of entertainment available outside of her home. In the absence of physical adventure came that which is digital, via photo and video editing— and at times, activities beyond the computer screen.
“If I feel down, I can make a comic about it or just draw something simple to keep my mind off things. It’s an escape from the real world,” said Yoselin Rimada, a Miami Lakes Educational Center senior in Communications.
Many students took to a canvas, a journal, and their cameras to scavenge for a way to get themselves occupied, and all of these were primarily in the form of the arts — ultimately helping them cope with the rising anxiety and depression during the pandemic.
Despite the neverending slew of bad news that was reported day in and day out, students found a way to bring light into their long days, and it has continued to aid them through quarantine.
