Dear Wang Yuyan:
How do you do? Recently one of our dorm buildings was locked down due to the
epidemic outbreak. All the life necessities are supplied by you. First, I appreciate your
devotion to us. Without your day and night work, we couldn’t be over the hump. I know that
you are doing your best the serves the students isolated in the dorm and concerned about their
mental state
In this letter, we are investigating the current state of students and hopefully, we will
come up with new methods to help students better adjust to quarantine life.
From my personal experience, I find that isolated life is much tougher than we imagine.
I stayed up all night long, being crapulent from pressure. According to the SDG: Ensure
healthy lives and promote well-being for all ages. my life during the quarantine is unhealthy.
However, you may think this is just my personal inner thought, the situation may be better
than I went through.
Then I search for professional documents that psychology experts write. Doctor Hatice
Kübra Barcın-Güzeldere describes the quarantine mental state as “the prevalence of anxiety
disorder, depressive symptoms, perceived stress, and post-traumatic stress disorder” (44).
Taking his argument beyond Turks. I believe his conclusion is not appropriate enough to
describe China’s college students feeling. as Dr.Tang Yilin mentioned in the article
“Investigation of college students' psychological behavior during the period of campus
lockdown,” Dr.Tang points out that “about 15% miss their parents very much, 39% of the
students are unhappy with the lockdown policy and feels sorry for themselves”(171-172).
Considering the two authors’ ideas. despite the prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms,
China’s college students are also facing the fear of falling behind the homework, unsatisfactory
with the campus policy, and extreme homesickness.
Now you may imagine how anxious they are when facing the upcoming exam and their
final writing project. Worth still, they can’t even step out of their dorm. It is proven that
exercise can reduce the possibility of aggravating the symptoms in patients with
mild depression. Of course, people can do indoor exercise, but since we are in the dorm, this
poky little room could not even hold a yoga mat. it is already very hard for people in
quarantine to maintain their previous movement, let alone use sports to fight against pressure.
How about eating? I put on 3 pounds during my quarantine. Though I got instant
satisfaction from eating fried meat sent by the academy, I felt more regretful and anxious
considering my weight and P.E. grades. This is my intuitive thought. As I learn deeper,
Dr.Hatice Kübra Barcın-Güzeldere exactly prove my intuitive thought. In his article “The
Association Between Body Mass Index, Emotional Eating and Perceived Stress during
COVID-19 Partial Quarantine in Healthy Adults,” he points out that stress appears to be
increasing during the COVID-19 pandemic, and most importantly, perceived stress is
associated with changes in BMI because stress causes overeating. miss wang, you may find it
wrong because we are now looking for the bad effect of the quarantine, instead of ways to
solve it. But this is actually a circulation. Research proved that Individuals with higher BMI
have been associated with a higher propensity to emotional eating and higher stress levels.
which means, if we eat more, BMI will be higher, this triggers stronger anxiety, and of
course, then you will eat more. So the key point for college students to overcome
comparative pressure and work stress is to have a healthier diet. Then comes the true
problem: the food is supplied by our academy. We have no choice but to pick what we could
have.
I search for 2 versions of the quarantine menu. (info provided by Luo Hanjun and Cao
Yihong)
breakfast Egg, milk, egg
fried rice,
porridge
Egg, yogurt,
potato, cream
bread.
Vegetable fried
mushroom,
small Meat Dump
ling
Porridge,
steamed bun,
Egg, milk
Egg, milk,
steamed stuffed bu
n
egg tart
lunch Scrambled egg
with leek,
broccoli, sliced
chicken, lettuce
braised
spareribs, stirfried pakchoi,
fried pork with
dried tofu,
shrimps with
white gourd
braised large ribs,
cabbage in
vinegar, stir-fried
asparagus, pork
slices stir-fried
leek sprouts,
scrambled egg with
tomato, vegetable,
zucchini, melon
soup, meatball
/
dinner Twice-cooked
pork, mapo bean
Dongpo pork,
sliced pork stirmushroom fried
meat, twiceMeatloaf steamed
egg, egg yolk
/
curd, lettuce,
stewed beef with
potatoes,
shredded pork
soup with pickled
mustard
fried celery,
Steamed
vegetable, fried
green vegetable,
tomato, and egg
soup
cooked meat, leek
fried potatoes,
fried spinach,
mung bean soup
pumpkin, cabbage,
spinach
Though the information can’t represent all the colleges in China, it at least indicates
some problems. Half of the dishes are fried and the breakfast food is usually greasy and fried,
they never have fruit.
Combining all the sources, we can conclude that the quarantined student is not merely
poor because of isolation, but also huge pressure, regret, and anger. They are looking for
ways desperately to save themselves, however, it seems that many of the windows have been
closed. These complex emotions mix together, making them struggle with lives.
Though I eat up all the food you supplied, and I really appreciate the free meal you
provided. If you continue to provide such quarantine meals, this may drive us crazy! if the
menu hasn’t been changed, students may gain more weight and be trapped in a vicious circle.
Finally, fail their ECE exam and need to retake it.
I was told that the school paid 50 yuan for each person/day, which is very kind. therefore,
you provide our meals with more expensive meat rather than vegetables. If schools provide
more vegetables and fruit instead of fried meat, this will not only benefit students from
pressure and also reduce the cost. To be more specific, if people have more total fruit,
whole fruit, vegetables, greens and beans, whole and refined grains, seafood, and plant-based
protein foods, this will reduce the perceived occupational stress as dr. Nicole S. Schultz
mentions in the article “Impact of physical activity, diet quality and stress on cardiometabolic
health in school employees” (29-30). This means students will feel calm and relaxed when
the online midterm approach!
I understand it is certainly impolite to come up with complaint regardless of your hard
work. But this idea will both benefit students and the campus. I will be more than obliged if
my advice is kindly considered.
Sincerely yours，
Lindsay