No matter your circumstances, quarantine is a completely new experience for all of us. Over the past few weeks, we’ve all been learning how to navigate this new normal. However, some of us have arguably been having more success than others. I, unfortunately, am leaning more towards the unsuccessful category.
The first issue was my overwhelming desire to sleep in and be lazy. However, the rigorous schedule my dad put in place once he found out school was canceled had other plans. My brothers and I still have to get up at 7 am every morning and be out of the house in another hour. Whichever unlucky sibling is elected to do chores that morning crawls out of the house in their pajamas and hastily feeds and checks the cattle before trudging back in for breakfast. None of this is compatible with the fact that I find myself watching Netflix or baking five hours earlier at 2 am.
Once everyone is ready to start the day, my brothers and I spend the morning doing online classes. Dane and Jett are pretty good about getting their work done, but I am struggling considerably. I have quickly found that I can nap in my room under the pretense of doing my schoolwork.
Other than online schooling, the immense workload comes to mind when I think about what quarantine means to me. Since school has been canceled; I have burned twelve brush fires, cleared ten acres of farm ground, helped a cow give birth to twins, gotten bucked off my horse three times (to be fair, I deserved it), and roughly a million other things.
Even though it seems like the world around us has come to a standstill, there are still countless essential personnel that continue to go to work everyday. I don’t consider the farm a job, partially because it doesn’t pay well enough, but many other people do. There is never a break or day off, and there is always something to be done. The farm itself hasn’t changed one bit, but I hope that coming out of this crisis, our understanding of just how integral each and every farm is does change.
By Claire Geiger
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