This is what the pandemic looked like to children of different ages, from different communities and even different countries.
This LAist Studios podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and our listeners get 10% off their first month of online therapy at BetterHelp.com/LAist
Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live.
This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
Sponsors include:
Match with a licensed therapist when you go to talkspace.com and get $100 off your first month with the promo code WILD.
This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
[SEG A: ERICK PERSONAL INTRO]
ERICK: Alright, you ready? Ok.
[Clears throat]
ERICK: There are so many things about the pandemic epoch of my life that reminds me of my childhood. Growing up in South East LA during the 90s.
There was a lot going on in the world and on the streets of my neighborhood that gave me a similar anxiety of this ever present danger. But it was probably a lot harder on my older brother Paul, who spent half of his childhood undocumented and in and out of trouble.
One thing I've thought about a lot, is that I totally didn't understand what Paul was going through. I don't think Paul understood what I was going through. And the grownups in our lives, absolutely didn't get what we were going through as kids.
We were probably all too busy surviving our respective predicament to ever stop and wonder.
One thing is for certain, I don't want to repeat that cycle. I thought about this recently, when I was talking to my brother's nine year old son Adrian about how he felt during the stress of the pandemic. This is a hell of a mess. The kids in our lives have had to grow up in.
Adrian is the youngest Galindo and I was very curious to hear his thoughts. And not just his, but the thoughts of kids everywhere. Because we might have seen the pandemic and a year at home one way, but they have their own perspective.
So here it is.
The pandemic through the eyes of grandchildren, sons, daughters, sobrinos, sobrinas the kids.
ADRIAN: I’m Adrian Paul Galindo. And this is Wild.
THEME MUX SWELL: I Got Everything by Mz.007
ANGEL: This is WILD — A show about what it was like to grow up during the pandemic. Season 1: Home Forever.
[SEG B: INTERVIEW]
AMEILIA: Hi my name’s Amelia and I’m 5 years old.
MUX SWELL
ADRIAN: My name is Adrian Galindo and I am in the fourth grade. NATE: Hi, my name is Nathan Ramos, and I am 12 years old.
ANGIE: My name is Angelica Sanchez, but my friends call me Angie and I'm 14 years old.
ELOSIA: Hola. Me llamo es Eloisa Sayes. Tengo 12 años y soy de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Jayla: I'm Jayla. I'm 18 and I'm a senior.
Rah-San: I'm, I'm Rah-San Bailey. I'm a senior at Venice high school.
Dinari: Um, my name Dinari Boykin. I'm 18 years old and I'm in the class of 2021.
MUX ENDS
Ameila: It started a few months ago.
Angie: I realized this was serious. When I got called to the office, I thought I was in trouble, and so I went and everyone in the office was like running around. I thought it was only gonna last like two weeks to a month, maybe. I never imagined it a whole year. I thought I was going to go into my freshman year of high school in person.
Amelia: And then you stop.
AMELIA: Going to school from home was weird.
Angie: Oh. I went to school online for high school for the beginning, well still. Now. I'm doing online virtually. At the beginning, I loved it. Cause I was home. You know, I was like, this is what every kid dreams of to just do school from home. Like we get to stay home … Adrian: Right now — we only go to school for three hours. I'm okay with that.
Dinari: The best thing about it, you know, I could lay down on my bed.
Angie: But then as it kept going, um, it became okay.
Rah-San: Um, being at home is like great in that I'm in probably the most comfortable space I can be in while I'm still like, learning and getting like my curriculum and everything like that. The only thing about that is of course, just kind of having too much access to leisure, I guess.
Nate: Because you know, for me, um, [laughs] that's pretty much what all teenagers have in common. You know, they want to bury themselves in their room and not do anything.
Rah-San: I feel like it's super easy to slack off, like in school at the very least I had a teacher to like, look at me and be like, Oh, get off your phone. Or Hey, like, You're not focusing, like look up, but my camera's off. I'll be like on social media scrolling through looking at stuff and no one can really check me.
Angie: I never felt like the pandemic has brought — Oh, like way more responsibilities, maybe just like one or two, like telling my siblings, “Okay, gotta get into class now, you know, it's lunch. It's this tim.”, Constantly reminding them, “This is the time we're supposed to go back.” So that way they know. Cause sometimes I did forget they would go like five minutes over.
Adrian: When you're online, it makes your eyes kind of tired.
Jayla: Academically, it started getting frustrating because the teachers, they were trying their best, you can tell they were, but it still wasn't clicking, especially for my other classmates. So it was just, like, confusing in a way. Eloisa: Y ponele con la virtualidad es más difícil como la comunicación, viste ?
Dinari: Man... Worst thing.... The worst thing was the teacher keep lagging out, and couldn't hear the teacher and you don’t know she's saying so now you don't know what to do on your work...Rah-San: So this kind of online interface takes that away. Like there's not as much interaction. I feel like if I have a conversation, everyone's a part of it. And that makes things like not as special. So it takes away from it.
MUX IN
Amelia: and a lotta people wear crocs at school even though they’re s’posed to wear shoes!
MUX OUT
AMELIA: Making friends is really complicated
Amelia: Phoebe, which is my best friend now.Yeah, she's a pick-up so it's hard to get her, because then she’s got to leave and I got to go on the bus. I really love Phoebe. She's my best friend.
Rah-San: And for the majority of high school, I was in like either a relationship in a romantic sense, or I had like a close friend. And I feel like what has happened with a lot of my friends is that they kind of revolve their lives around their friend group. And in doing that, they kind of lost their individuality. So when they were ripped away from their friend group, they had to be forced to face themselves. And it was either kind of like, look at yourself and evaluate who you are and be okay with that. Or just understand that you're not adequate.
Jayla: I lost a lot of friends. I lost a lot of friends through the pandemic. Not because of any like bad thing. It just, we wasn't talking. It definitely shows who cares and who didn't to a certain, you know, to a certain extent. Eloisa: Fue raro porque cuando ves a alguien después de mucho tiempo lo ves como si fuera un robot no se como explicar...como que lo ves y decis “surreal.”
Amelia: I can’t understand.
ANGEL: Wild will return after this commercial break.
MUX — Babylon (Instrumental) by Fenton Joseph
__________ MID ROLL BREAK _____________ 7:32
MUX— Babylon (Instrumental) by Fenton Joseph
ANGEL:Now back to the show
[SEG C: INTERVIEW PT 2]
AMELIA: There were a lot of school things we missed out on. Angie: Uh, I was sad. Mostly because we were barely starting to do the fun stuff.
Nate: So the things I like to do are pretty much, I like to draw. I like to play instruments like piano, guitar. And my most favorite thing is acting and/or editing. Yeah, there was actually a few projects. Yeah there were a few projects they did a wizard of Oz play. Uh, sadly that got canceled before we can ever, we could ever actually perform.
Rah-San: But that last part of high school where I'm supposed to be like enjoying my years, going to prom, doing senior stuff, like going out, having fun in the summer in the sun, whatever, like that's gone.
Jayla: And the worst thing. was my prom - My senior prom and my junior prom I was supposed to have because I was looking forward to that since my freshman year. I found the dress I wanted, I showed my mom and we was about to put the deposit down, but it was like the week before the pandemic hit, like the day of when they said no school.
Dinari: My, my goal was to go to college for basketball, play basketball, we ain’t even get to start our season till February it's February you feelin me. It was just so different. Like, I, it just didn't feel like it didn't feel like a true basketball season. Because I remember like, when I was a freshman, like, yeah, I can't wait till my senior night. Cause I see how the senior’s senior night was, it was packed and they should get mad love, and everybody was there. But when it come to my senior night, it was just nobody. Angie: You know, we only have like a few more weeks of schoo,l of classwork. And then after that would be like, we would go have like a pool party, you know, to hang out and we would go to Disneyland. We would go to retreats. Yeah. I was sad when I found out that it was going to be longer than a month.
Rah-San: And the, the me from elementary school and from middle school who idolized, like being a high schooler and hanging out with my friends and like having those fun times, like the inner child within me is just kind of like depressed, depraved, you know? Like you never got those experiences.
Eloisa: A mi mas que lo que … de las materias de la escuela… no me llama mucho la atención o ponele ser maestra. Pero a mi me gusta mucho dibujar entonces por ahí una diseñadora gráfica…Y como que es una manera de entretenerme mas que nada porque más allá de eso no podía salir nada y bueno me puse a hacer eso.
Amelia: i’m…..doing nothing
MUX IN: This Summer (with oohs) (Instrumental) by Easy McCoy
AMELIA: But finding new ways to have fun was cool.
Nate: It was difficult trying to teach myself how to do it, but I also liked it because I got to create my own thing. Whereas like in school, they would tell me what to do. To do it myself. That was a totally different thing because I can do stuff on my own. I can, I can pitch my own idea. I can. act in my own way. I can edit what I want.
MUSIC OUT
Dinari: Basically since like there’s not a lot goin on, I’ve been trying to go to any camp that was available. Um, just doing self training myself to try and stay in shape in the gym. That's all I can do right now. Like just be patient and work out and just be ready when anything happens.
Nate: If anything, this pandemic has helped me get more into filming and editing. Because I can be locked in my room and I can learn how to edit. But my sister would have usually come into my room and, you know, she tried to play with me.
Angie: You get way more family time, you know, than before. Um, yes. You might go into arguments and, um, you know, like butt heads, but at the end you really see your family more.
Eloisa: Como que antes tenía que estar cinco horas en la escuela y veía un ratito a la tarde a mis papas o a la mañana...pero ahora estuvimos encerrados así en comillas y como que los pude ver más.
Ameila: And we have this big playground and this big slide that’s like “bwahh” and it’s so high, and then you just slide down, it has bumps, and you just start and it’s so so much fun
MUX IN: This Summer (with oohs) (Instrumental) by Easy McCoy
AMELIA: There were special moments too.
Jayla: The little blessings come through the pandemic. A lot of good things happen. It wasn't just bad, bad, but things happen for a reason. And I see why. Um, well, today I found out I got the $19,000 schol-, like $19,000 grant from the school and we'll be announcing May 1st. Um, that was definitely a blessing. That was something I wasn't expecting. And it shows that my, you know, my works, my hard work still paid off with, or without a pandemic.
Dinari: It taught me how to be ready, to be, be more like open minded about certain things and like, just to prepare me for anything that can happen in life.
Rah-San: This is going to sound really cliche, but I found myself within the pandemic, like a lot of my peers have. And one of the main things about that is like, I've been on like a spiritual journey. I've started like reading again. I've started like taking care of myself. Self-care rituals. I even like, at times will go on dates with myself and just go to a park and read or just walk around and just kind of experience a life within the moment and through my own lens, rather than actively focusing on like other people and stuff like that. So I don't feel like the same person at all.
Amelia: Yes, cause my tooth is out!
Nate: I think this pandemic has just taught me to appreciate stuff before it's gone.
AMELIA: Like this moment right now.
MUX OUT
[SEG D: ERICK PERSONAL OUTRO]
ERICK: You know what’s wild? My parents had five kids. Me, my two little brothers, and my little sister were all born in the U.S. But my older brother Paul became a U.S. citizen after he was married and had three kids. And his beautiful family got to attend his citizenship ceremony.
Growing up with a mixed status family was wild because I spent a lot of time being afraid of la migra but I’m not sure I fully understood what my brother Paul must have gone through as an undocumented child, and even most of his life up until he became a U.S. Citizen.
It was such a dope moment of stress releasing, perseverance winning out, and straight up patriotism.
But after listening to all these wise kids talking about their perspective on the pandemic , I think the best way to see my brother’s immigrant journey realized is through the eyes of his 14-year-old daughter Dynah:
Dynah: I knew, it was like very important, because it was like a really, really big deal to my dad, and it meant a lot to him. And he had been talking about it for a while. Um... So it was... I was really nervous. I don't know why I was just really nervous. Honestly, I was scared that it was like, it was gonna... it was staged and like, they were gonna take them away or something that's I was like nervous about because and then there was a lot of people in there, so I got a little anxious as well that that's another thing that made me nervous. But once we walked out, and I saw my dad in his suit, and he had his like certificate, I was like, really, really happy for him. I got like, tears in my eyes, because I knew that there's like a big, like anticipated moment for him. And for all of us, honestly. So I was like, really, really excited and happy and proud. And glad that they didn't take my dad.
ERICK: Damn. “Glad they didn’t take my dad.” Our parents really do pass down everything they got to us, even if it’s a combination of toughness, triumph and trauma.
But maybe that’s a good thing. Because that’s what life is, you know? And though we carry the baggage of all our ancestors, we also carry the spirit of resilience that all the kids on today's show fully embody.
THEME MUX IN — I Got Everything (Theme Song) by Mz.007
[SEGMENT E: HIGHLIGHTS]
Megan: Highlights
Victoria: I woke up early. I had a nice cold glass of water. Put my yoga mat in the living room and just took half an hour for myself.
Shaka: I went out with some friends of mine. We went to a roof top and I remember having a sip of my tequila and leaning back in my seat and looking and saying I’m so happy the world is opening up and just… how pretty all the people were.
Jenny Yang teaser: My highlight today is I am warm and fed. I get to talk to people like you.
ERICK That was Jenny Yang — a stand up comedian that takes the many worlds she’s from — and combines into one. That’s on the next episode of WILD. MUX SWELL — I Got Everything (Theme Song) by Mz.007
[CREDITS]
Hi, I'm Diana. And I'm Julian, and we're gonna redo the credits.
This episode of Wild was written and produced by Erick Galindo, Megan Tan and Victoria Alejandro.
It was also produced by Shaka Mali, Marina Peña, Eduardo Perez, and Lushik Wahba.
It was sound designed by Lushik Wahba and mixed and engineered by Eduardo Perez (That’s my nino by the way).
Megan Tan is our Senior Producer. Our Producers are Victoria Alejandro and Lushik Wahba. Marina Peña is our associate producer and fact checker. Shaka Mali is an associate producer at large and our announcer. Erick Galindo is our host and editor. Jessica Pilot is our Talent Producer. Our Executive Producers are Antonia Cereijido and Leo G.
Thanks to all the parents for the assists on this one. And to our special guest appearances by Adrian Galindo, Angelica Sanchez, Amelia Khun, Dynah Galindo, Dinari Boykin. Eloisa Sayes, Jayla Boykin, Nathan Ramos and Rah-San Bailey.
The theme song is I Got Everything by Mz.007
Our website, LAistStudios.com, is designed by Andy Cheatwood and the digital and marketing teams at LAist Studios.
The marketing team of LAist Studios created our branding.
Special Thanks to the team at LAist Studios, including: Taylor Coffman, Kristen Hayford, Kristen Muller, and Leo G.
WILD is a production of LAist Studios.
This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
END MUX –– I Got Everything (Instrumental) by Mz.007
[GOODBYE]
WOO! I nailed it. I think...
I’m Erick G — I’ll catch you next time
