Recession

COVID-19 started to spread in China, and the disease travelled across the globe, stopping by each and every country one by one. Slowly taking over and destroying. Separating us from the outside world and forcing us to lock-down everything and gradually spiral down into isolation.

At first, I thought quarantine was going to be wonderful. Quarantine meant no school and no school meant I would get a rest from all the mental torture. I’d also get rest from having to write every day; well, that’s what I thought at least. Turns out that when some things get better, other problems appear. I then quickly realised that I started missing my friends and the home learning became harder since nobody was there to clarify and explain the work. The quarantine that I expected to be peaceful and calm, turned out to be full of troubles and difficulties (and boredom was one of them). Although boredom was something I could cope with, there were many other issues that I had on mind such as family problems.

Arguing with my parents became something that happened a lot and, when I say a lot, I mean arguing every day. Not being able to go outside, meet your friends and get your things off your mind, affected how I communicated with my parents. I never share my problems with them and it's simply because they don’t understand me. They think I exaggerate things, so I just keep them to myself. Keeping all sorts of problems to myself - whether they are vital or not - gives rise to my anger and there are times when my anger takes control. I end up saying things I know I shouldn’t be saying and doing things I know I shouldn’t be doing. And when I finally think this is the worst it can get, life finds its ways I guess and makes things tougher for me. Right after I have dealt with boredom and conflicts with my parents, more personal problems came along.

I started to miss, not only my friends, but my loved ones too. Every year, and every summer, I go back to my country to meet up with them (my grandmother, my grandad, cousins and so on…) but it wasn’t possible to do so this year. My family members, such as my grandmother and my grandad, are old and they need my parents to help them or at least visit them. Sadly, during the pandemic, bad luck entered our family. My grandad tested positive with corona and was taken to the hospital and my grandmother, who was also sent to the hospital, felt really sick and lost full control in her right arm. My other grandmother - I have two - has a farm and lives alone. She fell down by the stables and had to crawl all the way to her house to get to the phone. This news shocked me. I felt like my family was slowly tearing apart. My parents couldn’t do anything. They couldn’t travel to help them and this was all because of COVID19. Soon it only got worse and on the 24th of November 2020, 3:15am, my grandad passed away with nobody by his side.

Everyone in my family seemed to be quieter than usual. Especially my mum. She wasn’t herself anymore. She was blaming herself for not being there for her dad. My mum cried throughout the day and probably the night too. Noticing how distressed everyone was, made me tear up and cry too. Only then did I truly understood how corona affected us. I guess I never understood how serious corona was until it reached my own family. I couldn’t even attend my grandad’s funeral, which I found really unfair and upsetting, but I couldn't do anything about it. I felt hopeless.

All the troubles I had this year really made me think ‘Was I the only one who was going through all this?’ Looking at the increase of corona cases told me that many people were torn away from their family, friends and children. I also realised that if I wrote my story, there would be people out there who could relate (people that might read my story and feel less alone in this massive world).

Even if some can't relate, corona has taught us a lesson. Corona showed us how much our loved ones truly mean to us. The pandemic revealed to us the lack of teamwork between countries, and finally, the quarantine gave us the realisation of how much we needed the outside, nature and our friends. Was this meant to happen? We will never know, but we will never forget what we experienced and hopefully, nothing like this will happen again.

Everyone is wishing for 2020 to go away,

But even if it does, will the bad things change?

Will Corona be curable?

Will we ever get good luck?

No matter what happens,

We can't give up.