How Coronavirus affected my Life?
Ever since the breakout of the coronavirus, my life has been completely disrupted. When the virus first emerged around January of this year, my first thoughts went to my family in China. As a first generation immigrant, many of my family members still lives in China. I never thought the virus would make it to the United States. At first it seemed to be an event happening on the other side of the planet. I remember my family in America talking about the issue, and assuring each other that it was going to be fine and not to panic. But slowly, one incident after another, the virus creeped onto other countries and exploded upon contact.
When the first coronavirus case was announced in Boston, it felt completely unreal. I did not think it would reach this point at all. But more and more people were diagnosed, but yet the public did not seem to be aware of the situation. I remember sitting at lunch with my friends, discussing the seriousness of the situation. Even though we know that the virus isn’t necessarily deadly to ourselves, none of us want to contract it and potentially infect our parents or elders in our families who might be vulnerable to it. Most of my friends and classmates all agreed that school should not operate since there are over two thousand students attending and that made school a dangerous place due to the population density. However, Many people still believed everything was fine and there would not be any impact on their lives. Soon, however, they were proven to be completely wrong. Not only is the coronavirus in Boston, but it’s spreading rapidly throughout all of America.
Soon, the governor officially announced the shutdown of schools after much hesitation. It was hard for the governor to make that decision because many less fortunate public school students depend on the free breakfast and lunch, but it was a necessary decision. Now students were left to adapt to a new environment of doing coursework at home. It was difficult adjusting to the new learning environment for me. Although I get more rest, most of the course material had to be self-learned. Basically all of Monday through Friday are spent doing school work and my internship workshop work. Sophomore I obviously made the wrong decision to take both AP Language and Composition and AP Chemistry at the same time. Those courses were already difficult and now I have to learn them at home. At least most of the materials for the AP tests were already covered and we are only reviewing content. On Saturdays, my family gathers in the living room and we would play mahjong all day. I guess that’s my family’s way of staying strong during this time, by being together once a week and doing a family activity. On Sundays, I have to attend an SAT class in the morning.
For now, I’m uncertain about what will happen during fall of this year. Will school reopen or will we continue online classes? How will colleges be doing interviews? When will this all end and I can finally go outside and hang out with friends again? My mother owns a small local business in Chinatown. Business has closed for her around late March and they weren’t really making money either from the previous years. So my mother is considering giving up on the business. I don’t really know what will happen later, but I hope everything will be okay. For now, we are staying home.
Since technology is so advanced at this point of time, I mostly connect with friends online even before quarantine. That hasn’t really changed and I still chat with my friends online. Sometimes we would talk about random things we did during the day or what we ate for lunch.
At home, I mostly read fiction or comics when I do have free time, mainly Sunday afternoons. Otherwise I’m constantly busy with school work, SAT preparations, internships, and researching colleges as I am a junior already. Sometimes, it feels like nothing has really changed except for the environment where I work. Other times, it feels like everything is so different from before. I hope everyone gets through this period of unease together.