It’s the new silence that I hear the most. The trucks that I used fear cycling to training are fewer now, but there is no training or meeting with my friends either. I miss that messing, running, laughter and playing with my team; winning, losing and trying. I miss the mud, exhaustion and goodies in the club or the chicken fillet roll from the deli on the way home.

The silence reveals new noises in the clean air. I hear breezes whispering and hiding around corners as I walk. I hear so many birds and their chorus all across the day, especially at dawn.

My brothers are home from college and I like that

I notice the new silence at dusk too, when the birds disappear into the bare trees when the dark falls and they are safe away from the foxes, badgers, mink, stoat and the red squirrels that inhabit the whispering woods behind our house.

My brothers are home from college and I like that. I can dig in the vegetable garden anytime I want. I have it ready to plant out the seeds that I have been germinating on the windowsills in the house to provide our food. I can sow my carrots, onions, leeks, beetroot, lettuce and cabbage even though I won’t eat many of them yet.

It’s a terrible thing to say but I miss school

It’s a challenge to keep my dog Bundee from digging them up after I have them planted because he is very curious and enthusiastic flying around my garden patch. And as I watch him tearing around I think of all the children in towns and cities locked up with no gardens and no place to play and I feel sad for them.

It’s a terrible thing to say but I miss school, the routine and the craic with my friends. I still do the homework sent to me on my tablet, but it’s more difficult and less real without the teachers, or most of them anyway!

I worry for my mother who has to work so hard as a nurse

Over two years ago I bought a calf with my savings and reared and minded him. Two days ago I sold him to the factory, but the price has fallen because of the lockdown and I got less for him than I was expecting. Demand has dropped as lots of people have lost their jobs and are spending less on food.

I live on a farm and am lucky that the coronavirus has not affected me as much as others. I worry for my mother who has to work so hard as a nurse in the hospital, that she will be in danger and also bring it home. She is careful to follow the guidelines to reduce the risk and my hands have never been so clean.

I try not to listen to the news or go on social media too much and I just live everyday as it comes.

I hope this passes soon but I don’t think everything will go back to how it was, but this might be a good thing if we learn from it.

Tiernan Finn is in second year in St Joseph’s College, Ballinasloe, Co Galway.

The NewsBrands Ireland COVID-19 student journalism competition had three categories; junior, intermediate and senior. Students were tasked with writing an opinion piece or feature article on their experience of the current crisis.

Read more

Teenagers tell the story at Press Pass Competition

Reader Writes: let your dog help lower your anxiety