Throughout quarantine, many people from the Country Day community changed major parts of their lives, including moving across the country and changing hair color.
Haylee Holman
After 15 years of being a ginger, sophomore Haylee Holman dyed her hair brown.
She wanted a change in her life.
“Quarantine made me realize how boring my life was, so I wanted to spice things up,” Holman said.
She dyed her hair in June at W Salon Suites, a beauty salon in Roseville.
Holman has a family friend who’s a stylist at the salon, and has been going to her since she was 4.
The hair-dying process was long and boring, and it irritated her scalp.
“It was brutal, but the results were worth it in the end,” she said.
Holman’s parents supported her decision, but her grandparents were against it.
“My childhood nickname was ‘Lil Red,’ and with my hair brown, that name wouldn’t work anymore,” Holman said.
Five months after her life-changing decision, Holman is happy and has no regrets.
Since the dye is temporary, Holman has follow-up visits every six weeks to maintain her new color.
Sophomore Haylee Holman decided to dye her hair brown during quarantine. (Photo courtesy of Holman)
Patricia Jacobsen
Weekend excursions are familiar for high school math teacher Patricia Jacobsen and her family.
“We love road trip adventures, but with quarantine, I’m terrified to take my kids anywhere,” Jacobsen said.
However, the pandemic didn’t stop her from having a good time safely.
On Easter, Jacobsen’s family had a backyard campout, and they even put up tents.
She purchased an outdoor projector and a movie screen that transformed her backyard into a fully-functional movie theater.
To run her movie night, Jacobsen used a Roku Streaming Stick, a flash drive-shaped device that plugs into a TV’s HDMI port and delivers streaming content via the internet.
“It worked out perfectly because we were able to access our Netflix and YouTube subscriptions,” she said.
Jacobsen had to wait until sunset to start the movie.
“With sunset at around 8 p.m. and a two hour plus movie, we all went to sleep at about 11 p.m.,” she said.
Karabelo Bowsky
Sophomore Karabelo Bowsky had an entire section of a plane to herself.
Bowsky travelled from Bethesda, Maryland to Sacramento.
“My family is in Davis, and my mom and I wanted to be closer to them,” Bowsky said.
She traveled by plane, but a moving truck brought her belongings across the country.
Bowsky took many precautions while travelling by plane, including wearing a mask and gloves and wiping down her seat with Clorox wipes.
There were about ten people on the plane.
“My mom and I basically had an entire section to ourselves,” she said.
Bowsky misses her Maryland friends. She’s lived there for two years, and moving in the middle of a pandemic was a “weird” experience.
California’s “chill vibe” surprised her.
“In Maryland, people are very uptight and in their own world,” Bowsky said. “So, it’s nice now living around relaxed, laid-back people.”
Zoe Genetos
Biking in the dark is freshman Zoe Genetos’ favorite activity.
Over the summer, Genetos went night biking with fellow freshman Brooke Barker.
They biked in their neighborhood for about an hour once a week.
Genetos and Barker would hang out during the day, go swimming and then go biking at dusk.
“We would blast our favorite songs, and no one was around to judge us,” Genetos said.
She enjoyed the freedom of biking at night.
With fewer cars on the street, she was able to ride her bike in the middle of the road.
One time, freshman Annalucia King joined the two.
With only two bikes, they had to improvise.
Genetos had to sit on the handlebars, and Barker pedalled.
“I’m still surprised on how we got that to work out,” Genetos said.
— By Rod Azghadi
Originally published in the Nov. 17 edition of the Octagon.
