The Covid Diary
Life Before Covid
Before covid, my life was the same as any other high school kid. I was in my junior year, and as always, I was looking forward to the upcoming baseball season. I was anxious to complete my junior year in high school and become a senior. I was expecting that to happen in the same school setting I had been in for ten and a half years, but that obviously was not the case.
Dawning Realization
I learned about the spread of Covid-19 through a little bit of social media, but where I learned most of my news was actually my biology teacher. He was telling us that he would not be surprised if this new virus affects us in a big way, very soon. At first, I wasn’t convinced, but the next day, I was sitting at home watching a basketball game on TV when I realized this is definitely going to be a problem. The game I was watching was suddenly stopped and eventually postponed, because someone was exposed to Covid-19. A little bit later the whole NBA shut down.
As an athlete coming up on my junior year baseball season, this concerned me and my family for what is going to happen in the near future.
Studenting
School was an up and down rollercoaster for me once it moved to the online format. I was out of school, and was doing online classes, so I took more hours at my work. At first I was doing a good job managing my school with my work. However that didn’t really last, and I started slacking on getting my school work done. It was definitely a challenge for me to focus on school work when I wasn’t physically in school.
What in the world…
Covid Impacts and people’s responses
During the Pandemic, I worked in a grocery store. Therefore, I got to experience a lot of the impacts covid had created first hand. There were new procedures that needed to be followed, like wearing masks, cleaning more often, washing your hands more often, etc. However, the thing that stuck out to me the most, was the way people’s attitude changed. Everybody got very tense, and you could definitely feel it everyday. Everyone had a different opinion on everything that had to do with Covid-19, making my job, which is customer service, very difficult.
A big source people used to express their opinions on everything was social media. Everyday I would see more and more posts from people who are trying to express their opinion and persuade others into agreeing with them. I could definitely see how this impacted peoples opinions on covid, whether is was true or false. In an article on the Northwestern University’s News Page, Yuan Luo, chief artificial Intelligence in medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, he made a comment on how social media made an impact. Luo stated, “Be aware anything you see on twitter is shaping your attitude. You need to become aware of this before you let others’ tweets and opinions shape yours and you become part of that megaphone.” I agree with this quote because I believe when a lot of people see something on the internet, its automatically true in their minds, when that might not actually be the case.
Article Used:
March 01, 2021. AI shows attitude toward COVID-19 is more ‘infectious’ than the disease itself. Accessed June 3, 2021. https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2021/03/ai-shows-public-attitude-toward-covid-19-is-more-infectious-than-disease-itself/.
Presidential campaigning and the election
The impact covid-19 had on the 2020 election was huge. Not just with how each candidate planned to fight the virus, but with the way America handled the election as a whole. In my opinion, I think a lot of the voting was based on covid reasons alone, while not really thinking about other important things that will be impacted by the president of the United States. Mitchell Stollenberger, a political science professor said, “President George H.W. Bush experienced high poll numbers and favorable views from the public on his handling of the 1991 Gulf War, but operation Desert Storm ended in February 1991-over eight months before the presidential election-and Bush ended up losing.” What Sollenberger stated is a good example where a big event can single handedly change the election.
Article Used:
“How COVID-19 Could Affect the U.S. Presidential Election.” Dearborn, April 9, 2020. https://umdearborn.edu/news/all-news/articles/how-covid-19-could-affect-us-presidential-election.
Immigration and Covid-19
Covid-19 made the challenge of immigrating into the United States even more difficult than it already was. As Covid-19 began to worsen here in the States, things began to shut down, including international travel. Borders were shutting down and countries were not wanting anyone going in or out. Obviously, this would make things difficult for people who have been attempting to immigrate into the United States. Lots of people who were waiting approval to be allowed in the U.S. got turned away at the border because of the pandemic, forcing them to close their case. An article from the American Immigration Council called, The Impact of COVID-19 on Noncitizens and Across the U.S. Immigration System says, “Over 147,000 people have been expelled at the southern border. In addition, all migrant protection protocols hearings at the border for asylum seekers sent to Mexico have been suspended indefinitely.
Article Used:
“The Impact of COVID-19 on Noncitizens and Across the U.S. Immigration System.” American Immigration Council, April 28, 2021. https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/impact-covid-19-us-immigration-system#:~:text=The%20Effect%20of%20COVID%2D19%20on%20Immigration%20Processing%20Inside%20the,reopening%20process%20in%20certain%20locations.&text=This%20delayed%20the%20ability%20of,immigrants%20to%20become%20U.S.%20citizens.
Journey Towards Resilience
During the Pandemic, I worked at a grocery store, where you see and talk to people all day long. I am the type of person who can’t go without interaction, so working was still a good thing that I could do during this time. I made sure to allow myself enough time to hangout with my friends and go do stuff with them as much as possible. I think it is good that we were still able to see each other through everything that had been going on.
In late winter, football got approved by the state to be played, so I got to participate in my senior year of football. The new regulations because of covid, were only a minor setback and it was still a great season. Right after football season was over, I jumped right into baseball season and had a great time in that as well, making it to the conference championship. Sports are my happy place and I am grateful I got to participate through all the craziness.
Some other things I have done:
- Watch my favorite sports on TV again after everything was shut down
- A little bit of video games
- Hang with Friends
- Participate in sports
What I Have Learned and Will Remember:
I have learned not to take anything for granted because you never know when something could be taken away from you. I lost my entire Junior Year baseball season and half of my Junior year as a whole. I also lost my entire senior year, along with a lot of other opportunities. I will always remember these as examples for why I should never take anything for granted.
Hopes For The Future:
I am hoping to be able to go to college. I’m going to go to Community College where I can get an education on something that will help me get a good job for the future. I hope nothing like this pandemic ever happens again, but if we do, I hope we are able to handle it quicker and better. I hope I take every opportunity that presents itself to me because I don’t know if it will be taken away.
