Getting on a plane from Florence, Italy back to San Francisco wearing dish gloves was not how I thought my study abroad experience would end. At 4 a.m March 11, I arrived at the Florence airport with...

The sweat dripped from my forehead and down past my mask. My legs ached and my arms were sore from swiping items across the scanner and repeatedly sanitizing the checkstand with a rag. Everyday from...

Let’s talk about the quiet. Because there is a lot said in between words, and that’s stretching out, all gooey gluten out before our eyes as we persist to be trapped inside. Or get to enjoy a staycation....

Day ? the crisp cry each new birdsong delirious⁠—tangled heavy under the weight of every little thing famished, she sings from inside that chimney. Day ?? squandered over the bathtub edge my...

from my glass box I can see you’ve got a lot on your mind texts have that way of pulling us in I hope it isn’t bad news your mother’s cancer came back an argument with your wife or sullen teen...

Due to the recent Coronavirus outbreak, many of our regular schedules are affected by the sheltering- in- place. As workplaces and schools are closed, adults and students have no other choice but to work...

On March 16th we received the order to shelter in place. This struck me. Before that, I thought maybe it was a fake conspiracy. After the quarantine began, I realized that this situation is for real!...

My name is Nardos Asfaha and I am 20 years old. I have been going to SRJC for 2 years now. I am really glad to get this chance to share my story with you. I  hope this coronavirus will end soon. It has...

As the spreading of the pandemic, all my future plans have just been changed, delayed, or even canceled and I could not have any better solution to deal with. Everything now is getting worse. I have witnessed...

With all of the headlines in the news that talk about the deaths, infected, sick or isolated from the world, I can’t imagine the trauma this pandemic is bringing to people around the world. My brother...

Everything has changed Everyone has changed The world has changed My world has changed The virus has attacked my family Two-year-old Dilan was first Then his dad Then his brother And finally...

Stay Home through the window blooming flowers in the sky   through the screen waving friends in the room   through the hardship praying for happiness in the world

May 14, 2020 I have dreamed of the days I am with my parents and friends, tasting the gourmet food in China and bringing my kids to visit some historic points in China. But these were broken up by the...

I had heard about the word quarantine; did I know what it means? No, I didn’t know the real meaning; until I experienced it first hand during this pandemic. My quarantine has been quite complicated....

Every morning I woke up at 6:30 am to take my mom to work, come back and get ready for school; but before going to class, I had to take my siblings to their respective schools and after I went to my institute...

The new decade began, and a new chapter of my life began as well. I just moved to Santa Rosa from Honolulu on January 1st, 2020. However, one day, I read a news article that there was a new virus spreading...

My name is not important. I'm just another guy watching how our world has changed in just a couple of months. I don't pay attention to what day of the week it is. I've been sheltering in place at home...

There are many people who are unemployed after the coronavirus has spread throughout the world, but they don’t want to be stuck at home for months and months. Therefore, people should search for ways...

This is my second year at Santa Rosa Junior college and my educational goal is an Automotive Technician. During my spring break, boom it was officially announced the Social Distancing, because of COVID-19,...

I have never been in jail, but that’s how I feel with the coronavirus pandemic I feel like I’m in jail and I can’t find my safe place I want to run away I want my normal life again I can feel...

Appreciate what you have now, tomorrow we don't know. Moments of gratitude and appreciation are what I have learned in this pandemic. With the speed with which we live we do not see how beautiful...

My name is Laura Figueroa. I am an ESL student at Santa Rosa Junior college. And this is how COVID-19 has been affecting me during this quarantine. On Dec. 31, 2019, I felt very enthusiastic because we...

So far quarantine has been no picnic. Personally I am handling it decently. I follow guidelines, I take healthy walks and I am doing pretty good in all my classes. To most it may seem like I am doing great...

I am a 45-year old blind student at SRJC since 2012. I was very excited taking the ESL 10 course when the classes were halted, and we had to be in quarantine as a result of the coronavirus. As a blind...

  Day 50 of being tucked away, where my thoughts run rampant. I used to wish for days as quiet as the night. Is it too late to take that back? “Shelter in Place”, “Safer at Home” Logic...

A restaurant worker, class valedictorian and a nurse all come from different worlds, but are brought together by one thing: how the reality of their lives and jobs changed during the COVID-19 health and...

Being locked up with my five-year-old daughter is very difficult because she does not understand what the pandemic is. Trying to explain to her why she cannot go to daycare or go to the park is very hard....

The sound of the sewing machine filled the house after work. On the weekends. Each mask takes about an hour to make, a little less if done in an assembly line. Cut. Pin, pin, pin. Sew, sew, sew. Turn...

For the past several years I have carried sketchbooks with me everywhere. Some were tiny enough to fit in a pocket, others were broad enough to capture a landscape. Some had good cotton paper, others had...

Life in the pandemic has been nothing like business as usual! Like others I have grown accustomed to a life unlike anything I have ever experienced  in my lifetime. First, on the personal side: I...

It’s 6 a.m. and the sun is still not up. I gather my glasses, car keys, work keys and I’m on my way out. I can’t forget my mask. I make my 30-minute commute to Novato where I work. I can't forget...

My name is Ivania Monterroso, I have been at the JC for 3 years. I started in an ESL noncredit class and now I am an ESL10 transfer-level English student. I’m married with two kids. My daughter is 16...

Etsubdink Alemu is a first-year college student at SRJC All I hear and see everywhere is about coronavirus. This pandemic changed every plan I had for the summer and spring break. I had exciting plans...

Marlene Zavala is from El Salvador and attends SRJC.   I’ve been looking forward to my ESL graduation since I started to learn English at Maxine Waters, a public school in Los Angeles in 2017....

Two month have passed since people were talking about how spend their time during spring break, but the plans changed. Spring break was different from others days because of the virus pandemic. The normal...

Since the shelter-in-place started, it has been difficult to cope. I used to be able to go hiking with my friends, I used to be able to take face to face classes, and I used to work about twelve hours...

CoronaVirus is something really scary happening at the moment. The virus is in the air, killing people, making people suffer and so much more. It affects so many people including myself. People can’t...

When I heard that there would be a drastic change in lifestyle due to the pandemic, I shuddered in my own skin. I knew that I was suffering from health problems that were making life unbelievably hard...

I am a student in English as a second language (ESL 100) at SRJC. This is the end of my first year at college. I conducted a survey in order...

This pandemic has caused more change than anyone could have ever expected. Things like this don’t always seem to be so concerning until suddenly it flips your whole life around. It changes your whole...

James Cornell is a Santa Rosa Junior College junior and owner of Jasher Photography. He submitted this photo story titled "Quarantine Shopping" detailing his family's intricate process for buying, sanitizing...

As someone who dives into new adventures while maintaining a busy schedule, I use my freedom to exude toxicity. A toxic home life, to be precise. One ruled by narcissistic rules and walking on eggshells. When...

Times are changing because of the pandemic, in ways we never saw, much less imagined. I never imagined going through this new way of life. And all these impressive changes that people around the world...

Two months ago, COVID-19 changed everybody’s lives. We used to have a “normal” life, but now times have changed. From the moment we stopped hugging each other, it generated a big change in our lives....

Shortly after the coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, I sat in my home thinking about all the things that are going on. The world is in lockdown,...

There are no questions about the horrible things that are happening right now. This quarantine situation has got us real good, like if it was some cruel prank by the gods, some sort of punishment to make...

(Alyse Kiara Deatherage is due to graduate from Mount San Jacinto College in May 2020. She is editor-in-Chief for MSJC’s student-run newspaper The Talon.)   When my second oldest sister and...

It was to be my hump week, the week that I got to make up for being forced to take a week off my day job as one of SRJC’s custodians. And then the new age plague, the Spanish flu 2.0, COVID-19 hit Sonoma...

Ten years ago I transplanted an orange tree and put it outside my bedroom window. I vividly remembered the fragrance of orange blossom from a teenage trip to Spain. I wanted to relive that memory. Maybe...

VIRUS  MORNING I sit again another morning incognito alone quiet home surrounded by bird morning silence adrift moving in my heart this stillness and quiet so quiet in this only bird...

The quarantine has been a whirlwind of emotions for me: outside of medication juggling with my psychiatrist (due to feeling like I wanted to die even before the quarantine had started); I have experienced...

Tom Chown fills three roles at Santa Rosa Junior College. He provides photography for public relations events and for the theater arts department and its Summer Repertory Theater series; he  also...

I went to a store today. For the first time in a week, I went to a store and low and behold I ran into a friend. This wasn't even a good friend of mine and yet we instantly recognized each other from the...

The coronavirus pandemic, much like the Sonoma County fires, has shown our community members all of the beautiful things we took for granted. From dressing up and eating in a nice restaurant, to shopping...

Of what, I wonder; laden clouds gather above the dry earth, an ocean of stones.   Shelter we built; wind’s caprice shatters against rock walls, granite labyrinths.   Walls flattened; violent...

As a full-contact journalist, I often find myself following in the footsteps of my "spirit animal," Jack London. At least, that is what I keep telling myself each time I move to a new city for a new...

Alnihayat Qariba   eons ago, on anonymous boulders, the ancients had carved the warning signs we would never see through our opaque lens of inhumanity biota invectors polluted with dis-ease shed...

My life has completely changed since being quarantined. I was rarely ever home in my daily life because I was bouncing from school to work and to being with friends. Both my parents and I have been home...

A few months ago, I yearned for the comfort of my new home, but if I spend one more month here I might lose it. My mind that is. Two years after the Tubbs fire engulfed my home, my family and I finally...

I remember for a long, long time I was locked away while everyone else played and danced.   Curled in fetal position crying fat ugly tears as my best years blew away like dandelion spores in...

C19 Villanelle Each day I draw the curtains back to see An empty street so early in the day I’m here, behind the glass, can you see me? So much goes on in our community It’s quiet now—...

Black Hole The bike path, almost bereft of people. One or two loners, mask enhanced, walk their dogs with brisk determination. The smells of spring, fragrant iris, wet dirt, honeysuckle, blossoming...

I am an 81-year old gay elder and an instructor with SRJC’s Older Adults Program.  As a long-time advocate for my LGBT peers, I was very excited and grateful when I was hired by the college to offer...

I listen to the heartbreaking stories of many of my students - those who lost jobs, who don't have adequate tech skills to do online classes, who have children at home, which creates unmanageable stress...

Following is an interview between Oak Leaf staff writer Griffin Schouten and her friend and fellow  student Isabella Riddell, 22, about Isabella’s pregnancy experience during the COVID-19 pandemic....

Abnormally anxious. That’s how the Oxford dictionary sums up the plight of being a hypochondriac. I’d describe my disorder as a carefully compartmentalized super-caution of Western medicine, but “abnormally...

This pandemic has really shifted my life unexpectedly.  I had many exciting plans for spring break that didn’t go as planned, like going to the city with friends and watching a concert. Social distancing...

When I first learned about the shelter-in-place order I was quite alarmed. I would read articles that would lead me into a frantic panic and it would keep me up at night. I learned to keep myself from...

I ordered an Oculus Quest in mid-March around the time that the quarantines started. I’ve wanted a virtual reality headset for a long time, and I felt like this would be a pretty good time to get one....

In the first days as the world around us began to shut down I spent my time stocking up my apartment with items like frozen food, giant bags of cat litter, a ton of cat food and of course our society’s...

In the first few days of the shelter-in-place order, my family and I were at a vacation rental in Bodega Bay for my dad’s birthday. Within those first few days, there was a lot of anxiety, questions...

The Oak Leaf invites all students, faculty, administrators and staff to submit work describing how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting your lives, in an effort to document the college's path through...

As a student, this pandemic really put my life into perspective. Back when life was normal I would complain about never getting enough sleep, debate whether or not I wanted to wake up early for my morning...

Over the course of this quarantine, I will admit it, I’ve been spending my days indulging in the devil’s lettuce and using it as a means of treating my emotions.  Previously, weed had just been...

Part I Greetings from the edge of the known world! By which I mean human civilization at this uncanny hour. I’m a survivalist from way back, having grown up during the waning days of the Cold War,...

The following musings from The Oak Leaf staff describe life in Sonoma County during the coronavirus outbreak. Check back for rolling updates. Thursday, March 19, 2020 8:30 p.m. Kayla Beaton: I...