Ready, Steady, Connect

THE STORIES OF PEOPLE FINDING WAYS TO CONNECT DURING QUARANTINE

By Coral CwmCwlamare and Harvest Ryan

Though we all lived through it, the past year can be tough to describe. “t’s really surreal,” junior Charlotte Lawley said “It’s just, it’s hard to find the way of things again because I almost forgot how to be a person.” One of the things that the 2020 pandemic highlighted was the distance between people and how hard maintaining relationships can be. With schools fully reopening, students have had a chance to reconnect with each other. However, during the lockdown, students had many more opportunities to connect with their families. Socializing during quarantine and when schools reopened are very different, but have similarities and stories of their own. From families finding new things to bond over to overcoming odds to spend time together, quarantine has created new stories.

What was it like trying to stay connected with people?

“Not many people were allowed to, go outside or hang out, and especially me, but around the second half of quarantine, I started talking with a few people... Having so much free time, we wanted to express ourselves musically and use it as kind of a coping mechanism to, you know, the troubled times that we were living in.” - Senior Billy France-Bagwell

“The first day of us practicing, we made a band, and we would eventually call ourselves Tragic. And we spent a lot of time making our own music, and working towards this project that we’re excited to unveil to the rest of the school. ... We’re all guided by music. Music is all of our coping mechanisms.” - Senior Billy France-Bagwell

“There were just a few friends that I continued seeing, and we would go on walks, or run, and we would do it while we had masks on and stuff. And then others I would say fine with like we’re just really good friends who live like an hour away.” - Art teacher Babette Grunwald

“We listen to a lot of Riot Girl and punk. ... Really, all the music is about liberating yourself.”- Junior Charlotte Lawley

“No, I feel like [in] quarantine I don’t know the people closest to me. ... It did connect me better. But then I also felt like it didn’t. There was a friend who hadn’t talked to her, texted, or seen her for a year and a half.” - Art teacher Babette Grunwald

ENTER-TIE-MENT

How the student band Tragic formed during quarantine.

Everyone had their own struggles during quarantine and people came up with creative ways to work around them. Some took to art, others to online gaming but senior Billy France-Bagwell and his friends had a different approach. During quarantine, France-Bagwell didn’t go outside due to COVID-19 but after sometime he started to talk to his friends about playing music together. After the first practice, they decided to make a band called Tragic. “And during COVID we kind of felt isolated, we wanted to unleash, you know,” France-Bagwell said. “And all those built up emotions and anxiety and anger, and kind of turn it into a very unique feel of music that we probably wouldn’t have been able to create in different times.” Using music, they used it as an expression of how they felt. Art and music has often been a reflection of what was occurring in society. Bagwell is excited for the band who will be releasing their first single in November. The band includes senior Corbin Cellerini on rhythm guitar, junior Marshall Hamel on bass, junior Ian Roberts on drums, and France-Bagwell on lead guitar and vocals.

“I really got into music with my sister… Music has already been very important and the way that my dad plays cello and so I played cello. And then my sister played an instrument, now she’s in choir. So my sister and I, we really got to know each other through that.” - Junior Charlotte Lawley