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 Coronavirus pandemic goes on and people adjust to their new normal, Los Medanos College student Karen Bauman is at home and continues her usual routine as a stay-at-home mom. She has a 6-year-old son and a husband who is an essential worker.

“For me, personally, it hasn’t been so bad,” said Bauman. 

However, her son is at home instead of at school in an actual classroom. Bauman explained that “The most trouble I’ve had with this whole thing is the fact that my son is not able to go back to school for the rest of the school year.” 

Despite this setback, distance learning is going well for Bauman and her son.

Bauman has one class at LMC, Introduction to Photography. Her original plan was to take an in-person class instead of online to have hands-on experience. However, since the college had to transition its classes to online, she is working through Zoom meetings and not getting the hands-on experience she signed up for. 

She is especially grateful to her instructor, Curtis Corlew, who is understanding about the situation everyone is currently in right now. 

“Curtis is helpful as I’m sure most other class instructors are since we are in uncharted territory right now,” she said.

Despite the fear that has gripped society, Bauman is not worried about contracting the Coronavirus. But if she happens to get it, she has the mentality that “It will suck, but I will take it one day at a time.” 

However, she is fearful that other people she knows might contract the virus and die from it. Because of this fear, she says her family has been “really good about sticking to the shelter-in-place rules.”

But Bauman’s husband works in a corrections facility where one inmate tested positive for Coronavirus. “I’m worried about [my husband] going back to work and bringing the virus home,” she explained.

Optimism is key to get through this pandemic. Bauman is hopeful despite the risk of contracting the virus.