This has been an absolutely terrifying and stressful few weeks. I never thought I would have to be stressed out about whether the pizza box I had delivered could or would make myself or family sick. The children are learning from home in a way we never thought possible. Everyone is trying their hardest to remain calm.
I stumbled upon this journal entry written by my tween this week for school and I wanted to share. These kids are scared, yet stronger then we think.
Thursday, March 26th 2020
Written by my 12 year old daughter
I have never quite experienced anything like this. We are off of school for a long amount of time, we have to learn everything online which I’m not used to at all. It’s crazy how fast this virus spread. It started on the complete opposite side of the world, and here it is now, creeping its way up Long Island. In the beginning, it wasn’t as scary. Although I know it can’t affect me too badly, there are still all of these risks. We can’t hang out with our friends, we can’t go anywhere really such as my dance classes (which I am really upset about), or any sports, or restaurants. I had my birthday over this break and it wasn’t the best birthday like I’d imagined. I was supposed to have a party at a restaurant with my friends, but it was cancelled. But, everything has to be worse before it can get better. When the flu first became a thing, it was terrible and extremely bad. Now, it’s just a common illness that you can get an injection to prevent. I really hope that this virus will just completely vanish, or become something common to get, but isn’t as bad and most importantly, won’t have everyone go into lock-down mode.
It’s taken a toll on me a little bit because I thrive better in a classroom in school than online at home. I never want to go to school but now that I can’t, I just want to go back. But I don’t know if I will be able to do that any time soon. For now I have been taking online dance classes, and doing daily workouts. I have been face-timing my friends either to do schoolwork together, or to just talk about things. Now there is just nothing really to talk about because, well, we haven’t done anything interesting lately! In my free time I play games, but it seems like with homeschooling, and dance lessons, I barely have any free time. I feel like I’ve had more work at home than I ever do in school. But that’s probably just because I’m not used to it yet. Once I get used to it, it will become more of a normal thing in my routine. I have never lived to see an illness, or tragic war happen. But now, I’m 12, and it’s happening before my very eyes. Reading about it online doesn’t help much, but however does keep you involved. But anyways, that’s all I have for now. Maybe I’ll have something more interesting to talk about tomorrow. But probably not.