Alone together: Pandemic living arrangements aren't always ideal

What's life like for Ottawa's young people as they navigate the new realities of the pandemic? CBC Ottawa is following three people in their 20s and 30s — one living alone, one with a new roommate and one who moved back home — to find out how COVID-19 is affecting everything from their living situations to romance to careers.

Here are their COVID-19 diaries. Interviews have been edited for style and clarity.

Josh Kweon, 24: A stranger moved in with me

Life during quarantine has been both strange and mundane.

I wake up at 5:30 a.m., head to work, home for 6 p.m. Eat, sleep and repeat until the weekend.

At home, I had a roommate who was like a best friend. We lived together for four years, but he had to leave suddenly.

Finding a new roommate during quarantine was rough. My new roommate moved in in August. At first, it was stressful getting on the same page.

Finding a new roommate during quarantine was rough.- Josh Kweon

Even now, some things still need to be ironed out — what's shared, what's not, who's on cleaning duty, who's not. 

I work full time as a security guard. He studies full time. He can stay up as late as he wants. I can't. The noise level has been a little loud.

Finding the right person you can get along with is probably one of the hardest struggles I've faced so far.

I started looking for apartments on the side, but I realized I can't afford to live alone. 

I thought to myself in the end that I'm pretty lucky to be where I am, and just hope that things get better from next year on. 

The pandemic was really lonely at first, but you find ways to distract yourself. 

I try to visit my mom and sister in Kingston as much as I can, when it's safe.

Our house is surrounded by a lot of trees. Just being there and not having to worry about anyone else, it's nice. 

In the end, the loneliness is still kind of there. 

Charlotte Scott-Frater, 22: I lost my independence

I didn't expect to be living back at home with my parents, but now I'm here for the long haul. 

I finished my undergrad degree in Montreal and moved back home to Ottawa, starting my master's degree at Waterloo, but from my childhood bedroom.

I'm where I was in high school all over again, but now I'm 22. 

I'm really, really lonely.

It's really hard to feel like I'm not the most isolated I've ever been.- Charlotte Scott-Frater

None of my friends from high school are in town. My friends from university aren't from Ottawa.

In Montreal, I did everything with my roommates. We cooked for each other, we cleaned together. We'd get drunk and yell about Jane Austen. 

Now I don't get out much. My job as a teaching assistant is done virtually, and my classes are online.

There are weeks when I don't leave the house for four-day stretches.

Yes, I'm connected with friends digitally, but FaceTime doesn't scratch the fundamental itch.

Living with my parents, I don't have the degree of independence I did before. 

Don't get me wrong, I have a really good relationship with them. They're supportive and helped me set up a routine to keep me going.

I wake up around 9 a.m., and my mom or I will go get coffee. (I never drank coffee before the pandemic, and now I drink coffee all the time.)

It's really hard to feel like I'm not the most isolated I've ever been.

Amy Ede, 37: I'm erased from the COVID narrative

It's difficult as a single person who lives alone, when you don't see yourself included in the narrative about what's happening.

Not only that, I'm a racialized person, a mixed Dene woman from K'atl'odeeche First Nation in Hay River, N.W.T., whose people are facing violence across Turtle Island.

During the pandemic, public health has mostly focused on family, kids and parents, and it makes me feel erased. 

For me, being single is not a transition period before I arrive at this hetero-normative Holy Grail of living in the suburbs and having kids.

Looking at a long winter alone, I know it's going to be hard.- Amy Ede

I live in an apartment in Centretown and have been here about seven years.

No one has been inside except for a plumber for the past seven months. I haven't been in anyone else's home.

I think the biggest challenge I'm facing with COVID-19 is my small bubble of my mom and myself, and not being able to find anyone with a small enough bubble to join it.

I do karaoke and fitness dance videos by myself in my living room, I do crosswords, I cook a lot and treat myself to takeout. During the summer, I've been able to see people at patios.

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But I am an extrovert, and my energy drains when I'm not talking to or helping others. 

I just try to be kind to myself, not force myself to be productive at all times. 

Looking at a long winter alone, I know it's going to be hard.