Penelope McKean: ‘24

What has been the most difficult aspect of the COVID pandemic for you and/ or your family?

“The most difficult aspect of this pandemic was not being able to see my grandma and friends.”

How have you dealt with the changes in your life due to COVID?

“Some things that helped me deal with this hard time were staying in contact with friends and loved ones. I would FaceTime and text them a lot and zoomed many of my family members. Because of this, I knew I needed to pick up some more COVID friendly hobbies that I could do in the meantime to take up my time.”

Do you think that you are recovering from these difficulties?

“Recovering from being in quarantine has been hard, however, I know that I am so fortunate to be going to in-person school and that I’m healthy enough to see my family. I know that this isn’t ideal but I know I am very fortunate to have what I have.”

What has been the most difficult aspect of the COVID pandemic for you and/ or your family?

“All the restrictions and precautions. Everything from school to buying snacks at the gas station has been slowed. Now having to constantly be in the mindset of 6ft away and mask on at all times has been a challenge at first, but now it is a routine.”

How have you dealt with the changes in your life due to COVID?

“ I’ve been given more alone time to do things I’ve to do more of. For example, I could go surf almost every after school, during the zoom period, and play more music. “

Do you think that you’ve recovered/ are recovering from these difficulties?

“Yes, I feel like I have adapted to this hard time, by filling it with activities.”

What’s the most difficult aspect of the COVID pandemic for you?

“Not being able to hug people that I want to hug. Missing seeing friends and spending time in close quarters with people. Having instead to have to see everybody online for a long period of time and not knowing when we are going to be over this.”

How have you dealt with the changes in your life due to COVID?

“I honestly feel very lucky that I live in Santa Barbara right now, and I live downtown, so it’s very easy for me to wander around. So I don’t feel totally isolated. I’m a bit of a homebody sometimes anyway so redecorated my apartment *laughs* I spent a lot of time redecorating my apartment.”

Do you think that you are recovering from these difficulties?

“I’m hoping for the end. I have these fantasies of not walking around with a mask. Seeing your actual faces. The basic, normal things, like going back to the Bay Area. I’m a little worried right now because the numbers are really out of control in California and I’ve been hearing that we haven’t even seen the worst of it, so that’s frightening. We’ll see what happens with the vaccine. But, I’m really looking forward to the end of it. But at least I redecorated my apartment *laughs*.”

What has been the most difficult aspect of the COVID pandemic for you and/ or your family?

“It hasn’t affected me as an individual, but my wife, who works as a hairstylist, keeps getting put out of work — but there are benefits from the state. Probably the hardest thing is having kids. They have to go to school through Zoom, so when work opened back up for my wife, we had to figure out what to do with our kids. My parents were responsible for watching the kids a couple of days a week so we had to be super cautious.”

How have you dealt with the changes due to COVID?

“It’s difficult. It causes a lot of stress in the family just in terms of my wife tends to think it’s sort of overblown. She’s more of a social person. I’m a little more cautious — I don’t want to risk getting anybody [especially] my parents getting sick. The way that we’ve tried to adapt is bringing in people to support us, like my family.”

Are recovering from these difficulties?

“Maybe — I don’t know. I don’t take a lot of time to think about how it’s impacting me and if it’s hard, get used to it. Life’s hard. I mourn how it impacts other people. I felt bad about the kids last year. I missed having graduation with them. I’m eager to provide some sort of compensation for the people that missed out on things that were really essential. [For] those who graduated last year to not have that moment that I promised them, like when I was busting their tail and working their butts off saying “but when we get to graduation, we’re going to have the best day and it’s going to be amazing” and to not be able to offer that and have that, I feel like I’m indebted to them and I owe them that.”