Editor’s note: “The new normal” is a continuing series that looks into how members of the Los Medanos College community are coping with a shelter-in-place order amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

As the shelter-in-place order continues and is extended in California, students and staff are still trying to adjust to the transition from in-person to online classes while also balancing their own home and work lives.

Some students are now out of work during this pandemic, but others are considered essential employees and are still working for their companies. LMC student Ziara DeBose is among those students still having to check-in to work. 

DeBose, who works at Home Depot, has found a new routine during the shelter-in-place to continue being productive with the campus closure.

“I go to work way more now. My hours have increased,” she said. “I don’t wake up early anymore to go to school. Instead, I’m waking up early to go to work.”

However, DeBose is finding it difficult to balance both work and education now that classes have moved online from their original face-to-face nature. 

“I hate it,” she said. “I feel like when you’re in class, you can sit there and be focused doing the work, but when you’re at home you have multiple things around you to distract you from doing work. That’s where I’m at right now.”

During this pandemic, DeBose has found it very important to find different hobbies, stay occupied and refrain from falling too far into boredom. 

“I definitely sleep a lot because I am tired from work and I honestly do school work when I feel like it,” she said. “I know that seems bad, but it can be stressful sometimes. I try to take my mind off of everything happening by watching Netflix because you know, what else is there to do?”

With the district announcing that the rest of the spring semester will remain online, students are still trying to find the happy medium of doing school work, working and living through history.