As COVID continues to make life different and difficult, teenagers in the city have had to take on new responsibilities, go without many blessings and learn to deal with life in new ways. Some of our Trellis Crew recently shared what their life has looked like these days in the midst of the Coronavirus

A typical day for me looks either pretty wild and active or just down and depressing, LOL no in between. So i start my day off by walking my shihtzu mix breed dog her name is April she takes up a lot of time in my day so i have to write about her. Sometimes I forget that i'm not just taking care of myself, like when I'm feeling down i forget to feed her sometimes because i'm not eating and she eats when i eat usually but i love her. After giving my dog all the attention she desires, I then start doing the assignments that have been posted for me to complete while also taking smoking breaks in between, the assignments usually take up the morning and some of the afternoon for me. After I have completed all my assignments it's time to figure out what I will do with the rest of the day. Depending on my mood I'll probably want to go out, hmm what shall i do today? I'm feeling pretty confident. I think I'll go to this rooftop party for my friend's birthday I haven’t seen her in a while. First, I have to facetime my bestfriend and what's she doing and what's she doing with her day even though I just really want her to go out. Finally after convincing my best friend to come out and party with me i'm ready to start getting ready but not before pre-gaming that consists of listening to all my favorite songs usually old school R&B.

After going out the previous day I’m usually emotionally drained and mentally drained and don't want anything to do with people for about a week so i'll most likely disappear from everything for a week. All in all, a day in the life of Jalen is either wild and exciting or depressing and overbearing but either way I always show empathy and compassion and always try to keep a high emotional

Jalen Powell

Life has been very busy for me now. I lived in Fort Greene Brooklyn for 12 years
now with my siblings and parents, but we ended moving to Long Island recently, in hempstead. Packing and unpacking things took a long time to do because all the boxes were full.

Moving to hempstead in Long Island is a big change for my family and I. Compared to brooklyn it is quiet and you just get a nice feeling about it. The Fort Greene neighborhood can be noisy sometimes because of the loud music, big events and cars passing by.

The neighbors I have in Hempstead are friendly and very welcoming. While being in Long Island I have been searching for new furniture, making calls to improve the internet with my parents. I also have been walking around the area finding so many food spots and other important stores. My siblings have been enjoying living in Hempstead such as riding their bikes in the area and making jokes with people. My parents worked very hard so we can move. They saved enough money and worked together to make all of this possible. They wanted to move for so long so me and my siblings can have more space for ourselves and have a change of environment. The excitement on my parents face when they got the keys to the house said it all for me. It was a good experience for everyone. My future plan is finding as many stores in the area and just getting accustomed to the area.

Mike Dominigue

We’ve all been asked this question since quarantine was initiated. Has quarantine affected your daily life or how is quarantine affecting you? For numerous people, quarantine might have had a tremendous effect on their daily routines, but as for me, that wouldn’t be the case. Quarantine didn’t necessarily have a major effect on my life, the only difference was remote learning or just staying indoors more. Before quarantine, my daily routine was to wake up, eat breakfast, go to school and do what high school students do, come home, shower, take a nap, homework/ study, eat dinner while watching tv, then go to bed, the time frame would be 6:30 a.m.-1:00 a.m., sometimes it would be 3:00 or 3:30 a.m. depending on the amount of homework I have or how much I would need to study. My daily routine after/during quarantine is that different from my daily life before quarantine, now, I wake up later, eat, watch TV, do work if I have any, eat again, take a longer nap, make dinner, shower, eat while watching tv and go to bed whenever. I’ve been asked if I’m not allowed to go outside.

I wouldn’t say I’m restricted from going outside, it's the fact that I don’t want to go outside, if it’s not necessary I’ll stay inside, which is what I always do. Before I would go to the park or the gym if I had the time, now I mainly go outside to buy groceries, to walk our dog, to do the laundry an appointment or if my mother asks me to, in other words, the necessities.

Sashana Kinghorn

So far in my life, a lot of things haven't changed for my living standards. As the pandemic still presents itself to the public and media, I am consistently cooped up at home taking part in indoor activities. For example, I have been either playing video games or actual home games with siblings such as connect four, chess, and even checkers. This is only because I can't risk my chances of contracting the virus and becoming a victim. For me as of now, funds for affording food has been fine for a while. There isn't any stock deficiency in my house as I know of. However, one problem that has been an annoyance to me during this quarantine part of my life, is that the weather is either extremely humid or just raining heavily. I also haven't been taking any opportunities as of lately to attend certain rallies as well as community services around various parts of brooklyn for the past few days. The boredom this summer has given has yet to disappear, but each day I try to take baby steps into new experiences while I have the time.

Although certain chances I get are abruptly cancelled because of this pandemic, I still try to look for new fun and exotic opportunities that present itself. My mother is a nurse in Coney Island hospital and is constantly working there. She spends more time tending to those in the hospital and I pray for her safety as she helps many victims of COVID-19. I don't get to see or spend time with her much often as I used to before the pandemic. But I'm confident I can survive on my own for a temporary amount of time, I don't want to stress out my mom.

I'm always at home with both my older brother and sister. Everytime I step outside, it seems like the amount of people coming outside for fresh air or to partake in basketball increases slowly, but gradually. To conclude, life as of right now is calm and tranquil. Even though the pandemic is still going on for many of us, we still try to make the best for ourselves without catching COVID-19.

Gbenga Akinrosoye

In April, when I was wrapping up my first year of college and the Coronavirus was at one
of its highest points, I thought there was no chance that I was going to get a job. Then one day late that month, one of my friends informed me that Amazon is hiring people for a Whole Foods Prime Shopper job. I was apprehensive at first given that it was something completely new from previous jobs I have held, but applying was one of the best decisions I made.
Three to five days a week, I work at Whole Foods as an Amazon Prime Shopper. I shop for people’s grocery orders, pack them and stage them on shelves, refrigerators and freezers. Room temperature items go in brown bags while cold and frozen items go in cool liner bags. We get hundreds of orders each day and I typically do anywhere from ten to fifteen. There are metrics that we have to maintain such as having a decent unit per hour rating and offering replacements at least 95% of the time. The staging area can get pretty crowded as there are Amazon workers there as well as Whole Foods workers in addition to drivers coming to pick up orders which is annoying sometimes. When orders die down toward the end of
the day, we label bags with QR codes we use for staging items. We label hundreds of bags each day.
At 6:15 PM, shifts for the days ahead are posted on the Amazon Moment website. One has to be very quick when selecting shifts as they go fast.

This is one of the downsides of working at Amazon in this capacity; they overhire so there is never a shortage of workers. This leads to people not being able to work for days, and some even get fired because they cannot meet the required minimum of 3 shifts every month. Sometimes I get lucky and I am able to select multiple shifts, like today.

When I get home, I exercise. Since the pandemic has started, all gyms have been closed which means home workouts are the way to go. I recently purchased some resistance bands given that the price gouging that has occurred with barbells and other equipment online.

Kadene Harvey