HIKI NŌ 1218 [intro music plays] [sound of beach waves] [overlapping speech montage] Aloha, my name is Akeakamai Cho.

I am a sophomore at Kua O Kā La Miloli‘i Hipu‘u Virtual Academy.

I am recording this outside my school on the Big Island on February 16, 2021.

COVID’S been hard on my family and me.

Both of my parents lost their jobs.

My father worked for the forest reserve and now looks for part-time work.

My mother was a prep cook, but the restaurant she worked at closed during the pandemic.

Money is tight, living space is tight, and keeping up with school has been difficult.

We’ve had to make hard decisions and haven’t had enough money for all the things we need.

For example, one time we went to the store to buy diapers and didn’t have enough money.

So, we went home and made cloth diapers.

We have gone pig hunting so we can have meat for the family.

Adding to our challenges, we have adopted two new babies who needed a safe home.

So, we are now eight people living in a three-room house.

This means I have a lot of new responsibilities.

In addition to caring for my little brothers and sisters, I help with the new baby.

I also cook and clean, and I am really missing in-person help from my teachers.

With all these changes, I’ve been feeling depressed, so I try to take time to myself to write and play music.

[‘ukulele music plays] In spite of all these challenges, we are a strong family and are there for one another.

If one of us is struggling, we call a family meeting and address the issue together.

For example, we noticed that my brother wasn’t talking.

We all sat down and found out he was having a hard time at school, so we took turns helping him catch up with his work.

In my case, the family noticed I wasn’t doing any schoolwork.

We met and I told them I was feeling overwhelmed.

They hugged me and told me to try my best.

That encouragement was all I needed.

I appreciate our strong family support, and I know we will get through these difficult times together.

[sound of beach waves] Hi, this is Chloe Pacheco, a junior at Leilehua High School on the island of O‘ahu.

I am recording this at home on January 28, 2021 At first, I was super excited to have fun with my friends when spring break was extended, like a lot of students.

But COVID happened and affected my life and my family's, too.

My 102-year-old grandfather wasn't directly affected, but because his immune system isn't that strong, he doesn't go out as much as he used to.

My sister is a medical assistant, and she puts herself at risk every single day to help the doctor treat patients.

But really, it was my mother who was really affected the most.

She's a single parent and was temporarily laid off for nine whole months due to the closure of hotels.

Seeing all the struggles that my family was going through made me realize that maybe I should try to relieve their stress and worries.

So lately, I've been sanitizing high-touch surfaces.

I helped my mom learn the basics of using a computer to help apply for unemployment insurance, and I even help to connect her Zoom meetings.

Helping my own family has encouraged me to want to help other people, too.

So, I've been trying to give back to my community by volunteering at food banks at my church.

I really enjoy it because people are just so grateful and humble, even after they've been waiting in long lines, stuck in their car.

This pandemic has really opened my eyes, and it gave me a sense of duty.

I know it's been hard on a lot of families but helping us come together as a community brings us hope that life will go back to normal.

[sound of beach waves] Aloha.

I'm Daniela Tafolla, an eighth grader at Kealakehe Intermediate School.

Here is my reflection on something I experienced starting last March.

I recorded it at my home on February 4, 2021.

The beginning of March had been a hard time for all of us.

COVID had just hit and changed all of our lives, and not for the better.

Staying at home for the past 11 months had been tough.

My Grandpa Mike had been sick with pulmonary fibrosis way before COVID had hit.

We were terrified by this new virus we knew nothing about and could be fatal.

We tried to get my auntie to fly out so she could take care of him.

She knew everything on how to keep him safe.

Medications, what he could and couldn't eat, and even doctor's appointments.

But with COVID it was really hard to get a flight.

So I had to stay home with my Grandpa Mike and balance between online school and taking care of him.

My auntie eventually managed to get out here.

But by this time, my grandpa needed more from us than what we could offer.

Specialists couldn't come see him in person, so video visits were all we had for checkups.

He needed 24 hours of care, and we had occasional hospital visits.

When he did go, it was just him, by himself.

Due to COVID, nobody could go visit him.

Eventually, he did pass away.

But I still remember him by all the things he loved.

He was a big fan of music and played the guitar for 46 years.

He taught me how to play electric guitar and ukulele.

He also did work in landscaping and always had our yard clean.

I still remember, one day he came home from work with a bird on his head.

He said, “Look, Dani, a new friend.” Her name was Aloha.

She had been his pet for seven years.

She is still with us today, and every day I wake up and have a reminder of him.

[sound of beach waves] This is Katelyn Kato, a seventh grader at Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School on O‘ahu.

I am recording this at my home on April 10, 2021 Even though school has changed or gone online due to COVID, the standards my parents set for me haven’t.

Last school year, I set the bar for my grades of having straight A’s, which was completely fine by me.

School was actually manageable, and my parents and I were happy with the results I was showing.

But now that school has drastically changed, maintaining these high expectations have become overwhelming and stressful.

My workspace has been merged with my home environment, and it’s hard to switch between the two, making it impossible to focus in class.

Now, every little thing seems to bother me, whether it’s the noise level, the cars passing by outside or just my mind being unable to adapt to this new environment.

But, when I was in in-person class and in the academic environment that I’m used to, focusing on my work was so much more easier, where all the sights and sounds were academic.

In school and with my grades, I really do my best, even though my results might say otherwise.

The way teachers are teaching, and the way we are expected to learn have drastically changed from the ways that I’ve been used to for the past eight years.

I want to do well in school, and I’m still trying my best, so please be patient with me.

I’m still a work in progress.

[sound of beach waves] My name is Ethan, and I'm a senior in high school, and honestly, at first it didn't seem too bad.

But eventually, quarantine got to me.

I soon started to experience emotional turmoil between spiked depression, anxiety and lack of inspiration.

I started to lose motivation for work, whether it was for, like, personal stuff or for school.

Due to quarantine, I lost the ability to make wonderful memories with my friends and make the most out of my senior year.

I just really miss being in their presence.

They pushed me to become a better person and strive to reach my goals.

They're one of my biggest motivators.

But COVID has brought unexpected feelings of isolation.

No one was prepared for it.

No one thought it would last that long or that we would start missing seeing our friends and actually hanging out with them.

Before this pandemic, we would always hang out and goof around, talk about our future plans and just give each other moral support when we needed it.

I wish I had the chance to experience my senior year with those who not only were my friends, but in time, became family.

Those who were with me from the start and made my life bright.

Honestly, I never truly realized the importance of those little moments of joy I had until it was gone.

[sound of beach waves] Humans are difficult to understand.

We have a conscious that allows us to think freely, move freely, speak freely -- and we can just about do everything we ever dreamed of.

The average lifespan is 73.6 years, and the oldest person in the world is Kane Tanaka.

She's 117 years old, born in 1903, when the population was around 1.6 billion.

And in one person's life, our population grew to 7.8 billion.

They say that life flashes before our eyes when we die, which makes death a movie.

And what if every time we blink, it's like a screenshot we show ourself when we die.

Our first 18 years of life is like a free trial, and then after, we spend most of our time working, which leaves an empty feeling, like, there has to be more, something to fill that void.

Leaves us wondering, what is the point to life anyways?

We kind of go through the same daily routine: wake up, go to work, eat and sleep.

Talking about sleep, did you know if you're 26, you spent a lifetime of sleeping of a person who's 75?

I'm an 18-year-old adult who has trouble sleeping, trying to figure out my next steps in life.

I'm one to dwell and overthink.

Why do we overthink?

Just causes stress and unnecessary feelings to be present.

In a few months I'm leaving for the Mainland to pursue a better life, but I'm quite scared.

I'm scared that I won't find what I'm looking for, although what I'm looking for does not exist yet.

So, until then, I'll keep pushing the complexity of humans and the reasons we live.

[sound of beach waves] This is Faith Christy Soliven, a junior from Maui High School.

I recorded the following reflection on my home on February 3, 2021.

Compared to life before this pandemic, it seems like we have more time.

Time to learn a new language, lose five pounds, gain new skills, or even talk to friends, virtually, of course.

But sometimes, if we get caught up in trying out new things, we can forget to prioritize what's important to us.

In my life, nothing brought this issue more to light than the pandemic.

At the beginning of the pandemic, my relationship with my phone, social media, Netflix and YouTube was stronger than with people.

I connected to the outside world in the wrong ways.

Each time I chose my screen over the people in my life was a chance that I missed out on to bring value to my life and to others.

I was comparing myself to new trends, watch new shows, instead of focusing on the tangible needs of myself and others.

My reliance on superficial things disconnected me from real relationships.

Progressively, I found myself emotionally isolated and lost.

My mental health came to a breaking point, until I realized I was already surrounded by the people I needed.

I finally opened up to family and close friends.

I knew I had to do better, so I got to work to spend my time wiser.

I had set goals for myself for what I had to do, like spend more time with family and check in with friends.

However, consistency was key to make sure that I stuck to these goals.

My new habits ensured me that I would play with my brother at least once every day, and I take up the opportunity to spend time with family in and out of the house.

Now I am learning to better appreciate and value my relationships with my family, close friends and my community.

I thank the best and the worst parts of this pandemic for teaching me how to be closer to others, and I intend to be even closer with hugs and hanging out when this pandemic is over.

[sound of beach waves] Hi, I'm Jasmine Thai, a senior at McKinley High School on O‘ahu.

I'm filming this in my home on January 20, 2021, and today I'll be talking about my experience with online learning.

Before the pandemic, I was always drained out, despising the thought of school.

However, after the first quarter, I discovered that I actually enjoyed distance learning and was starting to have a lot of fun.

I had put away my quiet public persona after being quarantined for five months.

So staying in the same environment for online school resulted in me having an easier time communicating with others.

My creativity for schoolwork starts to spike, like when I had a presentation for my AP class.

Instead of sticking to a boring old slideshow, I wrote out a script and voice acted out instead.

Now that quarantine is over, I finally found ways for me to enjoy school after 12 years.

I became more in touch with my real self and developed good relationships with my peers.

Although I don't know how I would be if things went back to normal, all I know is that with my own twist, I'll be able to make school more enjoyable thanks to the self-discovery that this pandemic brought me.

[sound of beach waves] I'm filming this from my home in Kahului on February 2, 2021.

At the beginning of the school year, my parents decided that it would be best for me to do online schooling.

But what I didn't know was that I was also going to become a teacher, a security guard, a principal and a cafeteria worker overnight.

Here's what I mean.

I have an 11-year-old brother in the fifth grade, Lance, and a nine-year-old sister in the fourth grade, Keira, which means if I'm doing online school, so are they.

The three of us are crammed in a 15-foot room all day for the entire school year.

I'm not sure what goes on in their heads, but I swear they never stop making noise.

Ever.

[funny mouth sounds] And my sister, she has some kind of problem with my bun, because for some reason she likes to try to whack it off my head.

Seriously.

Another thing they do: they are always fighting.

All I have to do is walk out of the room for 10 seconds, and then… Kaci!

They fight over pencils, erasers, water bottles, everything.

It’s mine!

It’s mine!

Something else I've been doing is making lunch.

Every day I have to warm up their lunches and make sure they eat in time to get to their next meeting, because believe it or not, getting them to eat while the TV's on isn't easy.

Finally, I've been relearning fourth grade math.

My sister doesn't like math as much as my brother and I do, so sometimes I have to help her with her homework.

This would be fine -- if they didn't keep changing math.

Every time I try to help her, it's always the same.

But that's not how we do it in class.

So I have to go through the workbook that they use to learn the lesson, figure out how they did it, and then reteach it to her.

It's a process, but it works.

Despite these challenges, there have also been some upsides.

For example, I think my mom skills are kicking in.

It's also been teaching me patience.

I swear, the amount of times they push me to my limit is absolutely nuts.

But even though they drive me insane, life would be boring and lonely without these little monkeys.

[sound of beach waves] My name is Sam Tiwanak, and I am a senior at Henry J. Kaiser High School.

I'm recording this at my home on April 20, 2021 The school year has been difficult for seniors like myself to adjust to this new lifestyle.

I wanted to share the experiences that I was able to gain from this pandemic.

When COVID hit, at first it was very hard to adjust to, and for a long time it was, but I had a lot more time to myself.

So, I had more time to explore my interest of creating videos.

I felt like sharing these videos, so I decided to post some of them online.

In the process, a fellow Class of 2021 student, Will Sato, had noticed my work.

He had contacted me to tell me that he actually liked the work that I did, and he himself was interested in video and photography.

Through social media, we were able to share our work, and I was able to be inspired by some of his work that he posts on his social media.

Naturally, as COVID’s restrictions began to lift, me and Will started to collaborate on videos, as well as photos.

Collaborating with Will has made me better as a creator because I was opened up to a new perspective on someone else who shared similar interests to me, as well as Will was able to teach me some of the ways to work cameras and how to light shots better.

It was also great to know that I was not alone in the struggle to deal with the pandemic.

Though times were tough, I was able to find people that I could relate to, as well as make new friends that I'm able to have fun with creatively, and just as friends.

If there's a message I could give to any seniors right now, it'd be that through our struggles, we find experiences to help uplift us.

[sound of beach waves] Aloha, my name is Evalani Keawekane, an eighth grader at Kamehameha Schools Maui Middle School.

It’s almost been a year since COVID-19 forced the campus to close unexpectedly.

I’ve only been on campus five times as an eighth grader since August, but as of this month, February 2021, our school leadership has us back on campus twice a week, all while following strict safety guidelines.

Before entering campus each morning, we have to answer a long list of wellness questions and do a thermal scan upon arrival to campus.

You’re in there.

Next.

Once OK’d, we get a sticker which shows everyone that we have been cleared and OK’d to be on campus.

‘Iwa birds are painted on the walkways to show us the safe direction to move about, and orange dots on the ground remind us of how far apart we should be.

…definition or illustration of what a hero is… Our classes operate in small cohorts that stay together all day.

Even lunch is different.

Rather than being in the dining hall, we now use reusable takeout trays on green wagons.

Our return to campus brought lots of mixed feelings.

The new routines are so odd and a bit intimidating.

However, it’s been comforting to have people around me and to be out of my house.

Although we are all wearing masks, I can still see the smiles of my friends and kumu in their eyes.

Not even a pandemic can keep us from sharing our aloha for one another.

[sound of beach waves] Hi, this is Isaiah Matsunaga, and I'm recording this at Waikīkī Elementary School on April 22, 2021.

It's been an interesting year.

Now that we're back in school, I've been thinking more and more about what class was like online, what it was like before the pandemic, and how things have changed since then.

One of the first things I noticed when we came back to school was how much taller my classmates look.

Some even older, or just different than they do on Zoom.

I feel like I'm seeing the real version of themselves.

I wonder why that is.

When I first got back, everyone was pretty quiet and didn't say much.

Mr. Marvel would ask us something, and I was one of the only people to answer.

I think we are all a little nervous and maybe surprised by how things have changed.

It's hard making friends online, so I didn't really have a friend in our class.

Most of my friends are in a different group in another class.

But this past week, we got pool noodles, so we can play tag during recess without touching one another.

It's been lots of fun, and sure enough, I've started making some new friends.

It's funny how friendships are made.

So being back in school has its pluses and minuses.

Yes, we can't play certain games like we used to, like the ones that involve touching one another, but we can think of new ways to play together, like the noodles.

It was nice not to wake up so early to get to school.

It was nicer not to look at a screen all day and be sitting down for so long.

Now we're standing up and moving around more often, doing Zumba, and P.E., and working in the garden.

Being back in school has been, well, different, but I'm grateful.

I'm grateful to get a chance to come back to Waikīkī Elementary School and have one last time with my friends and teachers before I graduate onto middle school and begin the next part of my life.

Things change.

Change is good.

If you hope, let it be.

[sound of beach waves] Dear Distance Learning, I hate you.

Online classes became boring.

I lost my motivation to learn.

The passion I had for learning now disappeared.

Homework now became an assignment to find someone who I could copy off of.

Did you guys finish the homework?

No, I didn't start.

But you didn't stop there.

School events that I’d longed to participate in now cancelled.

Homecoming events, prom, marching band.

You took away the activities that made my years in school irreplaceable.

But most importantly, I lost touch with my classmates.

It's only through a screen, where I can see them.

Seeing my classmates in person every day made me happy.

You took a lot away from me.

But, thank you.

Now that I'm stuck at home, I can do things I couldn't do before with my family.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to enjoy my grandma's Filipino cooking for lunch, finally getting a chance to spend time with my family almost every day.

You allowed me to focus on myself and gave me the time to better my overall well-being.

Getting back in touch with my faith, actually getting a chance to exercise, and giving attention to my self-care.

You even allowed me to enjoy the presence of the outdoors and focus on my mental health.

Most importantly, you taught me a valuable lesson in life, to be grateful, to be understanding that what I have now, many other people are wishing for it.

No matter what's happening, no matter what you take away from me, I know that every moment should be cherished.

So thank you, Distance Learning.

Thank you.

[END]