In my seventeen years of living, I’ve never experienced such a crisis. People extremely sick, lives being taken away, students conditioning how to manage remote learning, and businesses closed. Many times I’ve seen movies where a pandemic takes over society. Their normal lives are not seen for a while and I never believed this would have occurred in real life
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The city of Lawrence is now in quarantine due to a virus that is killing people globally. It was initiated in November 2019 in China and began to spread all over the world. Sadly, it ended up in Lawrence and many were infected which resulted in social distancing. In one way, this pandemic brought many families together. In our normal lives, there are various hardworking parents who work seven days a week to have their children feel like kings and queens.
Currently, many people are home jobless and worried about how they will pay their expenses. Mommy and daddy have high stress since they had just refinanced the house before this all occurred. Many families are facing difficulties, looking at how to cope with this pandemic.
My mixed emotions stress me out each day. I feel depressed because I’m in quarantine. I feel nervous because online learning isn’t my best way of learning. Lastly, I feel joy waking up every morning to a breakfast table with my family. We’ve never been able to spend this much time together since we all work and my sisters and I go to school. Not only do I feel satisfied because I am with my family but also I have more time with my kitten.
February 28, 2020, my parents got me a kitten for my sadness and stress. They knew how much stress I had with school and how much I love kittens. My kitten’s name is Autumn. She’s an orange and white kitten and is the cutest thing ever. Autumn was bought from MSPCA and had a lower price because she is also different. She used to be abused by her previous owners and is an extremely sad distant kitten. When she was brought home to me, we connected and she came right to me. It was almost like we felt each other’s sadness. For this reason, I love my kitten since she is one and only.
Each morning we sleep in until 10, eat breakfast together and by the afternoon, she’s lying on my bed while I do homework. To me, this kitten is like the chocolate cake a fat kid loves. I never knew a pet animal would bring such contentment. If it wasn’t for this kitten I don’t know what I would’ve done. Usually, in my normal life, I go for a drive to distract my mind. Without being in quarantine I sought ways to get rid of my sadness but now my kitten does it all.
The day we are released from quarantine I will finally be able to inhale a different air beside my kittens breathing since were always together. The first place I am going is to the park with my kitten, where we can both receive fresh air. This coronavirus needs to end soon so people could stop getting sick and dying. This is a tragedy that needs to end soon.
Many families are praying for this to end since everyone is tired of this pandemic. Together let’s pray so we can go on with our normal life. “Sometimes all it takes is one prayer to change everything.” Do you pray?
Editor’s Note: Shauna Melgar is a Lawrence High School Early College student at NECC. She wrote this for an English Composition 102 class and agreed to share her story with the NECC Observer.
