A.F

15

05/12/2021

The Bahamas

I first heard of Covid 19 at the beginning of 2020 and began feeling the impacts on March 10th 2020

Before the pandemic I was suffering from depression, Anxiety and other (un-diagnosed) mental heath conditions. I had friends, but wasn't close with many of them and my family situation was very poor. After covid-19 began i was able to take time alone to work on my self and was able to drastically improve my mental health. My friendships took a toll at the beginning of the pandemic, however I gained newer stronger friendships while bettering old ones. My family situation while improving only a little is now on the mend. I am happy to say (in a sick kinda way) that the pandemic was actually a good thing for my life, even though i am well aware that many others have suffered horribly during this time.

At this exact moment I am a little stressed and tired, however in general I am satisfied, growing, thankful and hopeful about the future. Before the pandemic I had horrendous coping methods. Now-er days I relive stress by listening to 'good' music, talking to friends, talking walks, doing yoga, going to the gym and sometimes simply crying it out because it is ok to feel the stress. In my opinion it isn't always about 'coping', but also about working through the emotion and reaching out --as i often try to do--when help is needed.

Nothing has really surprised me during the Pandemic, not that there haven't been a lot of socking happenings over the last 2 years, but nothing has been so 'crazy' considering the state of affaires. In my community at the start of things there were crazy long lockdowns, a wealth of restrictions and a self evident amount of panic among the general public. As restrictions reduced, schools and shops re-opened and things returned to normal, in some sense of the word, the greatest changes have been: online school, mask waring, social distancing and hand sanitizers posted outside of ever store.

I am not a business owner, but I have talked to a few. Many of them expressed that they have either gone out of business for good, or that there is a severe decrease demand for their products especially those requiring close contact.

I am not an essential worker however, the essential workers in my circle have been : following social distance rules, double masking, practicing good hygiene, getting vaccinated and being tested for covid weekly.

Not an employee.

Technically I am working from home, as a student. In addition my parents have been working form home and we all experience: the typical tech and wi-fi issues, being 'on top' of each other, feeling burnt out or unmotivated, a lack of space and quiet to work in, an emotional disconnect between our selves and our peers/colleges. working form home can be seriously demotivating and family members often 'buck heads'. Being at home also means that schedules are either completely free or entirely 'jam-packed'.

Yes, apart from me there are several younger children. Most days are a little rocky because they have to be instructed and 'bossed' about in-order to attempt to bring structure to their day. In addition they essentially have to be homeschooled which is a full time job. And to make the stress level real, they [the children's] emotional needs have tripled due to a lack of social interactions. Overall it's manageable, but it certainly is not ideal....none of this is.

I am a student and school was canceled. when school was first canceled around mid-March there was obviously not easy solution. None the less my school moved online after a few weeks and I was able to complete my last few months of school online. Over summer 2020 I changed school and despite hoping to be in-person, I have spent this last school year completely online. Hopefully if a few things sort themselves out I will be online this fall.

At the start of the pandemic I had multiple forms of social media, currently I have narrowed my social media to just three apps (none of which i actually post on). I use Pintrerest for inspiration, Snap chat for reaching out to friends and youtube mainly for school or finding at home workouts.

The most major event I have had to postpone is moving. There is so many documents and forms to fill, and covid keeps pushing our deadlines for certain things back. It feels like every time I get close to moving something covid-related causes the whole thing to fall through.

At the very start of the pandemic my family had 1 cat and 2 guinea pigs, one of which has now sadly passed. Any way, my family adopted 2 kittens, who recently turned one, and so far things have been great with all my pets. For the first 8 months of having our new kittens one of them got very sick with a STAF infection. This has been an issues that has reoccured once since but we have been seeking treatment for him. During covid this was very challenging because vets and medication was not always available. On a day to day basis having the pets (3 cats, 1 guinea pig) has been great! They are a great indication of when I am not doing well because their litter boxes and food gets neglected; subsequently this means i also have to get out of my rut in order to care for them (a good thing in my opinion). The pets are also very comforting and a wonderful way to pass my time playing with them ect. I am so thankful I am able to have all these pets and I am thankful for the positivity they have brought to my life.

During a pandemic positivity is becoming increasingly difficult to find. But at school I have been an active member of the community and have participated in global Round Square meetings.

No one I know personally has contracted covid, but a few students at my school have. It was scary to think that they had a virus that could kill them, but I was also great to see how they handled it like champs. They got tested, treated, stayed home and kept themselves informed.

I am VERY thankful to not have lost anyone (apart form a pet) during the pandemic.

I wish I new how long it would last. I think having an Idea of how many weeks, months and years this whole thing would last would help me be more prepped. Knowing the time-frame for the pandemic, though very unrealistic, would allow me to plan my future in a more realistic way.

The pandemic was one of the single most unplanned and unfortunate events of the early 2020s. However it was also a time of change, togetherness, triumph and a test of human ingenuity. So, even though millions lost their lives, jobs, homes and food; many of us still lived and thrived to share this story of how an invisible virus took down the world and how we as a human race worked to gain it back.

The 'new normal', to me, looks like a hybrid of covid-times and pre-covid-times. Online resources, online shopping ect will forever be more popular then in-person activities. School and work (especially) will take on a hybrid model, utilize online forums like Zoom more often and find working/learning from home more acceptable. Social activities will mean so much more, but so will online relationships. The world will find this new normal where we don't accept certain behaviors and where we now more than ever accept other behaviors. The world is going to do a complete 180.

No, this has been a great experience, thank you.

A.F

COVID-19 (Disease)

Southern Adirondack Library System

05/12/2021

Southern Adirondack Library System

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

English

Covid History

12652731806

Coronavirus Pandemic