Page 41 - COVID Consortium Journal - An Edited Collection of Student Art and Writing

Life During COVID

Michael Walters, Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School

When I first heard about coronavirus it sounded fake. There
wasn’t any case in the United States yet, I think. I thought that
if COVID came to the United States we were already going to have
a cure as we had for Ebola. I also believed that I went through one
outbreak, what’s another right? But this was different. I was shocked
on how people were contracting it. Then out of nowhere everyone is
talking about it. I was going to school paranoid. Thinking I might
contract it I looked at everyone who sneezed, coughed or anything
with a mean mug. I kept seeing on social media that schools were
closing due to the virus. I kept asking myself why my school wasn’t
closing. It took a minute for my school to close so my mom pulled me
from school early for her and my safety. I started my quarantine a lit-
tle earlier than everyone. I remember I went to my barber and he was
saying that this was my last cut for a while because he has to close
due to the virus. That’s when I knew that it was serious everytime I
went to the store. I kept seeing more and more businesses closed. I
stepped outside and for miles saw gates down, and not a person in
sight. I started to feel like it was the end. I was feeling down, even
restaurants were closed, that really hurt me not being able to order
food. Corona messed up Easter for me and my family.

The days started to seem longer in quarantine. To make the
days go faster I started cooking with my mom. I made salmon, lemon
pepper chicken and soup. I cooked for a while but like everything else
it got boring. I started to workout, I made it my objective to workout
everyday until quarantine is over. I also had the house to myself a lot
which made everything 10x worse while I was home staring at walls
doing sit-ups while my mom was at work. My mom is an essential
worker, meaning even during the pandemic she was working and she
told me that everytime she comes in she is sprayed down with Lysol.
I found it funny but at least she wasn’t stuck in the house. I started
to go outside but with precaution. Because I started my quarantine
earlier than everyone I found out the school closed a little later but
when I found out I was happy, you know “yay no more school.” But
the first week out of school felt like a boring summer vacation. I was
waking up eating and sleeping. I was tired of doing the same thing

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