{"id":45351,"date":"2020-03-27T11:18:07","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T15:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=45351"},"modified":"2020-03-30T08:05:52","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T12:05:52","slug":"one-emu-family-of-writers-gives-some-honest-takes-on-their-quarantine-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2020\/one-emu-family-of-writers-gives-some-honest-takes-on-their-quarantine-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"One EMU family of writers gives an honest take on their quarantine challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Whetzel<\/strong> BSN ’17 specializes in marketing of nursing programs at Eastern Mennonite University. He’s currently enrolled in the MA in Organizational Leadership program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His son Joe<\/strong> is a first-year writing major and daughter Claire<\/strong> a sophomore English and writing double-major. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They’re a writing family. Mike publishes fiction at www.amazon.com\/Michael-Whetzel\/e\/B006ZCVULU<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe blogs at americandrivermag.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the COVID-19 outbreak upended the semester for everyone, EMU News asked father, son and daughter to reflect on their experiences. Both younger Whetzels lived in the residence halls until earlier this semester and have moved back into the home their dad shares with his fiancee, two small children and dogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One theme is of EMU, whether in work, in studies or from office or residence hall room, as HOME.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the world has changed and life is not the least bit smooth right now, Mike, Claire and Joe are all finding ways to make their current situation work and at the same time, looking ahead to an uncertain future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not worried because I know that we will step up and take care of each other. That is what family does. <\/p>Mike Whetzel
<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Joe Whetzel: ‘To be back in my dorm room…’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s day number\u2026 Well, actually, I have no idea what day it is. It feels like it’s been nine months. My upper back has entirely scrunched into one large knot and for the most part, I can\u2019t feel my legs because I have been sitting for so long. Thankfully I have no Zoom classes to attend as of now, but I have an ungodly number of due dates for little writing assignments to get done. I\u2019ve found that it’s much harder to focus on schoolwork here at home versus at college. Probably has something to do with the fact that there are six people sharing this one house and I have basically no privacy whatsoever. There\u2019s no bedroom for me here, just a couch that I wake up on every morning after either the two dogs that roam this home decide I\u2019ve been sleeping long enough or the two small kids decide it\u2019s time for a very noisy breakfast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My only chance for some solace is in the late hours of the night, but of course, that would be sacrificing the only sleep I could get, because in the daytime the house becomes so loud that I can feel my eardrums pleading for some silence. I went for a walk yesterday to soothe my aching legs and just listened to the birds and the rush of wind as cars passed by on the road and it was near euphoric. … I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d ever miss sharing a room with someone quite as much as I do right now, but good God, I\u2019d do just about anything to be back in my dorm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claire Whetzel: ‘I will appreciate having class in a classroom’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I waited just as anxiously as everyone else for the announcement that classes would be conducted online. Ah, <\/em>I thought. Man, it\u2019ll be so nice to roll over in bed and go to Spanish while still in my pajamas, teeth unbrushed. That\u2019s the dream.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a glorious few days of lazing around campus and getting adjusted to the new weirdness of the caf, waiting for classes to start, we were all told to leave. I was less than thrilled. While everyone else was pretty blas\u00e9 about returning home, I wanted to stay. My little dorm room, with its weird smells and wall decorations and roommate, is more my home than either of my parents\u2019 houses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am staying with my dad now and am pretty unhappy. This is not his fault, nor my brother\u2019s (though he intentionally tries to get on my nerves, as little brothers do), nor the puppy\u2019s, and it\u2019s not even the fault of the two kids who wake me up at six in the morning because they\u2019re bickering about what game to play. I am unhappy because I miss my routine and, stuck in this house, I am antsier than ever. I thought that it would be great to have classes online, but it\u2019s less than ideal. I\u2019m not learning as much, but the workload has increased. Of my six courses, only two use Zoom and I miss seeing my classmates, even the ones that I don\u2019t particularly like. I also miss making plans to visit friends and seeing my family and going to Target without the intention of buying anything, but just to mill around. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The silver lining here is that it will be so awesome when all of this is over. I will appreciate having class in a classroom rather than in my bedroom, seeing my friends whenever I want, going wherever I want, not washing my hands so obsessively. And yeah, that road trip that I\u2019ve been wanting to go on, the one that I had planned to do last week? That will be the first order of business post-Corona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Whetzel: ‘Work was a break from home’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There are positive things and\nnegative things with the distancing going on. I love having my kids here and\neven though I work where they attend school, I still always miss them. But\nthere are challenges. We currently have six people living here and two of them\nare small kids who are going stir crazy. Then there is trying to find a balance\nin completing all our work, having personal space, and just settling into what\nmay be a new norm. It\u2019s funny. I have a huge library of books and movies, four\ndifferent streaming services, seven different game consoles, and about 25\ndifferent board games but all we want is summed up in two things: personal\nspace and to see our friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working at home has been challenging as I\u2019ve had problems ranging from technical issues to access to all the different marketing platforms I manage to having immediate feedback from the marketing team. We are using Zoom sessions daily and phone messaging. Another challenge with working in marketing was the ability to feed off the other team members and their creativity. Now there is a huge buffer to all this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ironic thing is that people\nalways see home as an escape from work or school. But this new dynamic now\nbreaks down these boundaries and you realize that sometimes work was a break\nfrom home. There are a lot of blurred lines in how to manage all of this and\nnavigating them is hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are also realizing that if this\ncontinues to go on for a while, we will have some added financial burdens to\nour budget. Going from a household of four people to now one with six people\nmakes a larger financial footprint. To help alleviate this we are looking at\nonline options to bring in extra money. Claire has been tutoring online\nsuccessfully for quite a while. Joe and I are looking at adding online writing\nwork and I am trying to push some more self-publishing initiatives through my\nown channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I\u2019m not worried because I know\nthat we will step up and take care of each other. That is what family does.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Whetzel BSN ’17 specializes in marketing of nursing programs at Eastern Mennonite University. He’s currently enrolled in the MA in Organizational Leadership program. 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