Life under quarantine has altered the dynamics of many romantic relationships. Many Bowie couples went from spending 8 hours together at school to becoming completely isolated in their own homes. 

Grace Burden and Robby Nethercut are one of the couples coping with the social distancing and shelter in place orders that are currently being enforced for the novel COVID-19 pandemic.  

“We’re getting to see each other once or twice a week for a few hours at a time,” Burden said. “It’s not as much as before, but it’s better than nothing because of the given circumstances.” 

Because of the pandemic, many seniors are disappointed with the outcome of their final months of high school. However, senior couple Alyssa Magallanezz and Jaden Yakerson decided to continue the traditional prom traditions despite the pandemic. 

“We unfortunately don’t get to go to prom together but Jaden still wanted to ask me,” Magallanezz said. “He put together a video and broadcasted it on the news and showed up at my house one morning with flowers.”

Suddenly being in a long-distance relationship has forced Laurel Schultz and Tyler Thomason to get creative with communication.

“Going from seeing each other almost daily to maybe once or twice a week was definitely a challenge,” Schultz said “We usually go to a park or a parking lot and sit in the backs of our cars to talk so we are practicing social distancing everytime,” Schultz said. 

Being in quarantine for more than two months now, has strengthened the value of many high school relationships. 

“The biggest thing we’ve taken away from this quarantine experience is to never take our time spent together for granted because we never know when we could see each other,” Nethercut said. “The biggest thing to remember is to stay positive and be there for each other even if you can’t see each other.”