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. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the state of California into a standstill, which has resulted in students and staff of Los Medanos College learning to adjust to their new normal.

LMC alum and Senior Lab Coordinator Cesar Reyes is adapting to his new remote normal just months after being hired at LMC to support the art, drama and journalism programs.

He explained he can be involved in anything from budgeting and ordering supplies to keeping inventory, sound design or coaching students on how to use equipment.

“I bounce around between the departments and make sure they have the resources that they need to do what they do,” he said.

Jumping around between multiple departments typically means bustling through the College Complex but now that the campus is closed Reyes finds himself working remotely to help the departments continue to function.

Working remotely “a lot of the same principles apply in making sure the departments have the resources they need,” said Reyes. “Right now it’s making sure we transition things online.”

Reyes is used to transitions. After getting a bachelor’s degree in political science at San Diego State, he moved to the greater Bay Area and started taking theater classes at LMC for fun. He found his calling and that led him to graduate school at the University of Idaho where he earned his master’s degree in theater. 

“It was a way for me to do something and get involved and pursue some dreams I had before,” he said. “Through that I rediscovered my passion for theater.”

Before the pandemic, Reyes spent his free time acting and was cast in a play with other LMC alums last month called “Two Sisters and a Piano.”

To kill the free time he has now that he is not starring in an LMC show, Reyes said he has been “Netflix binging more than I usually do. Usually I have all sorts of projects I am working on creatively. Right now I just want to slow down a bit and watch other projects people have been working on.”

The LMC alum is very social so being forced to keep his distance from students, family and coworkers has been hard. To make up for the lack of face-to-face time he has with people, he uses the technology around him.

“Social interaction is something I miss. I’ve done some FaceTime calls with friends and family,” said Reyes. 

As someone who has taken the trek “Camino de Santiago” — walking from St. Jean Pied de Port, a Commune in France, all the way to Santiago, Spain — sitting around all day is hard so he will try to be active as much as he can at home. He said he has a subscription to an online yoga service, but hasn’t been taking advantage of it.

 “But in the next few days I’ll be getting back into that,” said Reyes. “I started doing yoga in San Diego and my yoga instructor at the time started [putting together videos] and making it a subscription.”