Izzy Guerrero, 14
When I walk into her room, Izzy is already slouched and spread out on her bed. This is a familiar sight, so I’m not surprised. There’s something Zen about this place. Something carefully curated. Prepared. Aesthetic heavy. Like every square inch has been made on purpose. It’s bright, and everything is blue. This place has cleanest air in the house. Just walking in makes you want to take a deep breath.
On a regular Friday, Izzy would usually be walking the halls of Mamaroneck High School. I picture her with a giant backpack, books in hand, trudging through the overpass, the way I used to when I was in 9th grade. But the reality is, that’s not Izzy. She has a certain cool about her. A genuity that’s rare to find in a 14 year-old. A certainty that I only dreamed of possessing as a Freshman. Izzy makes it look effortless. She knows exactly what she wants, and she’s not afraid to ask for it.
Today, Izzy just wants things to get back to normal. She hasn’t sat down in a classroom for two weeks now. Instead, she’s stuck inside with her (very cool) family. I miss the people that I don’t even know that well, she says. Like the people who make up my every day that I never even think about. I think that’s what I miss the most. I can still talk to my friends. But like the people who sit next to me in class that I never talk to? I miss them a lot. I think she’s hitting on something that a lot of us haven’t been able to verbalize yet. The long and short of it – we miss living our life. The one that is uniquely ours. The little moments of our days. The small people and interactions who make us up. I can’t help but to think of my favorite quote from the book The Opposite of Loneliness when I hear Izzy share her sentiment -- “We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I could say that’s what I want in life. What I’m grateful and thankful to have found, and what I’m scared of losing. It’s not quite love and it’s not quite community; it’s just this feeling that there are people, an abundance of people, who are in this together.” And that’s when I know Izzy is beyond her years. Wise. Because within just a few seconds she is capable of making you think, really think, about where you are in life, and why you’re there, and where you’re going next.
When I start to ask Izzy questions about who she is, I get a lot of “I don’t knows.” I find that funny because it’s so clear that actually, Izzy always knows. Hi I’m Izzy Guerrero. I’m 14 years old and I’m of the human species, she jokes. And then she dives into the ways she will never take YOLO for granted again. I wonder, as she lists off her favorite traits about her group of friends, how this time will shape her and her peers. The generation of kids who have been through 9/11, The Iraq War, an age of school shootings, Trump’s America, and now The Corona Virus. I wonder if they will be the ones to save us all. The ones who follow directions so that we can keep living. The ones who call for a cease fire, or finally put their feet down on global warming. I wonder if that’s fair. And if they can feel the weight of the world on their shoulders.
Like most Gen-Z kids, Izzy’s first language is Instagram, and she’s completely fluent in Tik Tok. It’s no surprise– Izzy grew up in front of the camera. We recorded everything she did and posted it to our Facebook timelines from the moment she came out of the womb. We talk about how she had no say in that at all. How she’s been documenting her existence since the beginning of time. How all her friends have too. Maybe, I think, that’s how she’s mastered the art of simultaneously being an open and closed all at once, only sharing what she wants and when she wants. She’s had a lifetime worth of practice.
Izzy teaches me TIk Tok dances at least twice a day. It’s my favorite time. Something I miss when I’m not around her. Something I know is finite, like i better drink it up while I still have it. Before I get too emotional, she touts that she’s been on the app for almost two years now. She is self-proclaimed pro in analyzing how influencers are changing the landscape of her favorite video app. I don’t want this to become like, the next Instagram, so formal and filtered. What has made it so fun is that it’s NOT that. Izzy has a way of thriving in places where she can be herself, and I think this is why. She rejects whatever label society has tried to place on her. Once she smells a fraud, Izzy calls bullshit.
What I notice most about Izzy though, is the way she cares about the world. It’s like she owns every little bit of it. There’s a fire behind her eyes when she talks that I hope my daughters have someday too. It’s funny, she says. We are the ones that are sick, but from this, our planet is healing. Did you know that the air pollution in china has dropped so much that you can see the difference from space? No? I didn’t either. Now Izzy says she can see more birds outside her window. That LA has hit record low smog numbers. That maybe this is our chance to right our wrongs. Her eyebrows perk up when she talks about the things that make her inspired. If our planet is gone, then we are gone. So I really don’t understand why we all don’t care more. Izzy makes things so simple. Boils things down to right and wrong. I’m sure she has the roadmap to the future in her back pocket.
After this is all over, Izzy says she is never taking for granted the every-day freedoms we have again. She’s going to start saying yes more. Living outside with people in ways she never took the time to before. Give into her FOMO, and just do the damn thing. I’m proud. And I can’t wait for the world to see Izzy outside these four walls.
I think it’s kids like Izzy that will change our world. And I think we should all be listening more too. To what they think, and what they know, and where they are telling us to go. At the end of all this, i’m just along for the ride. But it’s going to be Izzy, and her friends, scrolling through their timelines, or lip syncing on Tik Tok, in. the drivers seat, and simultaneously saving our lives.
This is a part of my new series, Quarantine Conversations, where I have honest conversations with the people around me about how Coronavirus has shifted our daily routines and mindsets.