We are living in a pandemic situation, the CDC (Center for Disease Control) calls the Coronavirus. I am 14 years old and the closest I have ever been to a pandemic was watching movies. Suddenly, people everywhere are wearing masks, practicing safe distancing and watching what they touch. A typical trip to the store is no longer normal as businesses run out of stock items, customers hoarding toilet paper and tempers are flaring. Confusion, fear, and worry are replacing the happy smiles of the general public. How many times do I touch my face each day? Is that person infected as I back up from their raspy cough? Are there enough tests? This whole quarantine thing is starting to get old.
My family has health conditions that make them vulnerable to this unseen potential killer. A parent on the hospital quarantine ward brought this virus to a serious level in our house. Thankfully the test was negative and they returned home in a couple of days. For me the hardest part was having spring break turning into an isolating struggle, no longer being able to hang out with my friends at school and gossip over the latest horror story of public shame. Now I am reduced to texting and the occasional phone call.
Just the other day, my girlfriend came to give me souvenirs from her recent trip to California. We could not even come in contact, her parents drove her to my house and I stood inside, behind a glass door and watched as she set the gift down. Before she ran off, we stood there for a minute, realizing this was a new normal and cried about it.
Everyone tells me to blame China. I can’t even go to the store to get a dang video game, because apparently video games are now a “Non-essential item” and the aisles are completely blocked off. My generation is used to the speed of technology and instant pleasure, now we are forced to be patient and creative. I blame the quarantine.
–T. Branham, Norman, OK; sent by his Grandmother Jean Wood