HOW HAS IT BEEN LIVING THE LAST YEAR ONLINE?

Cashel: “It’s definitely exhausting, that’s the first word that comes to mind, is it’s just exhausting. Social interactions online, school online. You might just not have to leave your apartment or your bed, but it takes up just as much energy, if not more mental energy, to have everything online . ... Zoom socializing is just no, that’s just not fun.”

Vazquez: “That’s one of the things that I think I would have liked to do more: just enjoy my high school experience, because I was only there for a little bit over two years. And most of it was spent in my room. So I think I really would have liked to go out more and socialize.” Rasyamond: “I see this on TikTok, too, where people are like, ‘Oh, have you felt like this past year has just been repeating the same day over and over again?’”

Lupita Carballo, 21, FREELA youth organizer with the Youth Justice Coalition: “As an organizer it allows me to reground myself and really think about me. I’m always — before COVID, running around all the time, trying to catch up with people, trying to catch meetings and stuff like that, but also focus in my community, which is OK, but not really so focused within myself.”

Argueta: “And you are at that point where you love your family, but if they talk to you one more time, you’re gonna fling yourself off a cliff. So, it’s all the responsibility and all of the weird pressure and all of like the, ‘Well, you’re 18 now.’ And none of the joys and/or freedoms that come with being 18.” García: “We’re hungry to connect. And suddenly, we couldn’t do that in the way that we were used to. And so I think, especially with platforms like TikTok — which I would say really took off during the pandemic — people were just able to show their life. Like, here’s what I’m making today. Like, here’s this fun little dance to make the day go by faster.”