Honolulu Reporter

Ethan Cameron said for kids his age, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken away time they can never recapture.

Cameron, an Ilima Intermediate School eighth grader, said the coronavirus has affected him and his mother in numerous ways. The 13-year-old from Ewa Beach on Oahu is unable to attend in-person classes as for all but a few students, classes have been held online for months. 

“The hardest part of COVID is not being able to hang out with my friends in the way that we used to, going to school virtually instead of in-person, and it’s hard to stay active because sports and other active activities are shut down,” he said.

“The biggest changes have been attending school virtually has been really hard. The effect has been not being able to learn as efficiently, haven't been able to interact with my friends in school and other classmates. I have not been able to make any new friends or see my teachers in person. My friends and I are basically missing all of middle school and we are going to have to go to high school without having even done middle school in the real way.”

He has dealt with unexpected changes as well.

“Keeping up with classes is hard because the teachers are not working as a team and communicating so they are piling on excessive amounts of work because they don’t know what the other teachers are giving us,” he said. “It is also hard to keep track of all the assignments virtually. In terms of learning, it kind of depends on the class. In social studies we have learned a lot but in math we have not learned that much because the teacher is not that great at online learning.”

COVID-19 also has hit Cameron and his mother financially, an additional concern.

“I feel it has created stress for my mom as she is facing a possible huge pay cut that could make things extremely hard for our family,” he said. “School has been really stressful for me because teachers assign crazy amounts of work without realizing what we have in all of our other classes. It’s gnarly.”

However, it’s not all negative. 

“Some of the positives have been having more free time after school because I don't have to wait for the bus and there is no soccer or Kenpo to go to,” Cameron said.

It’s been a difficult year in many ways. Cameron said because of the need to isolate, he spent most of the summer at home.

“It resulted in a lot of stress for me and my mom," he said. "She had to work all summer at her office as an essential worker and I was stuck at home on lockdown,” he said. “I got super-lazy and just laid around watching Netflix and YouTube all day, and eating too many snacks. My mom wanted me to be more active and to do some brain work, but I was unmotivated and we ended up fighting a lot. Being together without having places to go and fun activities to do like the beach was super hard.”

Because of the pandemic, both he and his mom saw their social circles shrink.

“A big thing for me has been that almost every friend I had moved away,” Cameron said. “Their families got sick of lockdown and wanted their kids in school and were freaking out about the economy and they just all left in like a three-month period. My mom lost most of her friends too. So now we have much less friends.”

He has been an active person, winning a biathlon for his father’s charity in 2017, but his level of activity has diminished as well.

“I have been exercising a lot less, especially during the summer, but I am keeping up with surfing, jumping on my friend’s trampoline and riding my bike around,” Cameron said. “It is definitely really hard to stay in shape like I used to. My friends also play too many video games and have become lazy couch potatoes too.”

Alison Cameron said she is aware of the toll the pandemic has taken on her son and she feels it as well.

“Ethan is having a lot of anxiety about going to high school without having done middle school really and without any friends,” she said. “He is really suffering from having virtually no friends, as am I. We literally have two friends each. We lost our whole social network.”

The financial stress is real as well, she said.

“I am facing a huge pay cut and, as a single parent, that really puts huge stress on me which affects the family,” she said. “We barely make it as it is."

Alison Cameron said the sheer boredom of being stuck at home was difficult to adjust to and has taken a lot out of their lives.

“Ethan is really missing being as active as he used to but it is hard to motivate him to work out alone,” she said. “Summer was especially difficult. It felt like hell, honestly. We were on top of each other all the time.”

This fall, Ethan has been going to their friend Amy’s house during the day. She has a son in seventh grade and has set up a classroom in her living room so they can learn together.

“Now that he is ‘in school’ it is better but that is only because my one friend came to my rescue because she is a stay-at-home mom,” Alison Cameron said. “Otherwise, Ethan would be home alone while I am mandated to be at work every day. If that were the case I don't know how we would be managing. He certainly would not be doing as well in school as he is now.”

Ethan Cameron said adults should realize the cost to young people during this unprecedented time.

“It is really hard to be a kid these days because of this whole new lifestyle that we have to adjust to,” he said. “Everything being closed and being super-isolated is very hard. It is really sad and depressing.”