By Danielle Nadoryk-David
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
When fears of infections from the deadly coronavirus pandemic chased students from schools, colleges and universities, senior Michelle Payton found herself cooped inside the family’s three-bedroom townhome in Overlea with her parents and cat Stormi.
“I just sleep…and sleep some more,” Payton says about her new schedule outside of Towson University. “My sleep schedule is messed up. I’m a 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. sleeper now.”
Worldwide COVID-19 has infected 2.6 million people with 180,784 deaths and 701,426 recovered. Closer to home, Maryland recently reported 14,193 confirmed cases, 930 recovered and 584 deaths.
As the virus began to reach the United States in February, federal, state, and local officials began to take definitive actions, calling for states of emergencies, stay-at-home orders, and curfews. Most colleges, including Towson, began to closed own amid Spring break. Hopes of ever returning to class on campus this semester were dashed.
Payton shares what a typical day in home quarantine has been like.
Once completely rested from a 10-hour sleep, Payton says she typically fires up The Sims 4, a life-simulation game in which players can create “people” and play out their lives.
“Playing Sims has been my favorite pass time,” she says. “I love that game, but never have enough time to play it because of school. Now, I basically have all the time in the world.”
According to online forums for The Sims, players often get so enthralled in the game that they can spend hours upon hours playing. With enough free time, players can immerse themselves in The Sims for days, as the game never really ends—you help your Sim characters live out life.
Payton has also kept herself occupied by practicing her makeup and baking skills. For makeup, she finds new ways to use different palette colors to add some “pop” to her face. As for baking, Payton runs a small business that goes by Michelle’s HomeBakes, or @michelleshomebakes on Instagram.
People have been ordering from Payton even through the pandemic, so she takes great precaution and sends her elegant baked goods through the mail to her customers. You can tell Payton’s passion for her work through the amount of detail she puts into everything she bakes.
As Payton relaxes comfortably for most of the day, she says she doesn’t have as much of an appetite with the lifestyle change brought on by COVID-19.
“I only eat one meal a day now because I don’t get hungry laying down,” she says.
Towson and most other colleges and universities quickly switched instruction from in-class, face to face to online or remote instructions. Though classes continue to be held online, the biggest challenge for Payton is finding the motivation to complete schoolwork remotely.
“I physically have no motivation to do homework anymore,” she stresses. “That’s probably the most frustrating thing to come out of all of this.”
In a recent New York Times article, students were asked how remote learning has been in the past couple weeks. One user by the name of Joela commented, “It’s certainly a lot and when you’re staring at a computer screen for like five to six hours a day it’s VERY easy to get distracted.”
Another user by the name of Yesenia SW wrote: “My first days of remote learning have been good, but it will never be the same as being in the classroom. When I go to school I am concentrated only in my class, but if I am in my house, there are many things around me, and it is more difficult for me to focus.”
“I already struggle enough with schoolwork while actually in school,” Payton explains, “but it’s a completely different story being home because there are too many things to distract me.”
Payton continues, “It doesn’t feel like I have a reason or purpose to still be putting in effort because I’m stuck in my room and have been doing nothing for a while.”
Other forms of entertainment keep Payton occupied in her many hours of free time.
“My phone battery is wrecked, but social media has truly been my safe haven,” she says.
Payton also has kept in touch with her four siblings via FaceTime. Since they all live in Maryland, she typically would drive to their houses to visit in person, but the stay-at-home order has forced the Payton family to communicate through technology.
“I’ve also watched so many movies…I’ve been watching a movie almost every day with my parents,” Esther and Shawn, she says.
Overall, Payton says that, despite her battles with motivation, she’s somewhat enjoying herself through the pandemic.
“I think this is how I prefer to live out my life,” she says. “I like not having to get out of bed when I don’t want to, and my mental health is absolutely loving this, but I’m probably going to get sick of it at some point.”