Before COVID, I was very happy, but when COVID hit, I was scared about being locked in my house. There was nothing to do and I think that this was one of the biggest struggles. Adaptation. It took me many months to adapt to living like this, and it really scared and confused me. Once I adapted, I was happy and glad.

Before I found out about Covid-19 I was on a trip in Italy. When we arrived in Naples the took our temperature and I was confused. I knew there was a virus in China but I did not know it was in Italy yet. We had a great trip and when we got back to LA we heard there indeed was a virus up it Italy. We were shocked and felt almost every emotion. We were happy we got done with the trip before Italy shutdown, but we were sad we were going to be going into Quarantine.

Before Covid-19 in the year 2020 in February I was going to school normally and not thinking much of the virus I heard of that was in China. I thought it was just a small virus and we continued with our daily life. A few days later as I was waking up and eating my cheerios for breakfast and I told my parents that the faculty of Oaks Christian Middle School was talking about closing the school for a week or two and they were telling me that we would find a cure for the virus and the school wouldn't close. I believed that nothing would change but as the time was coming nearer I realized that we would be quarantined for a few weeks. A few days later as we started preparing to have online school I was hopeful it would only be a few weeks and here I am 8 months later telling the story.

Before Covid i was at school, playing sports, seeing friends, watching movies, going out to eat and other normal things. I then heard the news of a virus in China but didn't think much of it. Then i heard the news of it spreading across the world and they brought up the idea of online school but i thought that would be too good to be true. My school then anounced that it would happen and we had a long weekend as the teachers prepared for online school. we finally started and I thought it was the most amazing thing to do school from home. I luckily got a haircut before everything closed. Now I would like to get back to school because doing it online is very boring and i want to talk to friends again.

Today, I sat at my desk to write about Covid-19. Before this all happened, I was happy at school, until they told us around March 2019, we had to do zoom for about 2 weeks. We did zoom for about 2 weeks and then got some bad news about Covid. We had to stay on zoom for the rest of the year and even for the next year. I was really sad that we had to stay on zoom for about 9 months after. We were also told that we had to stay at our house for a couple of months. So we got all of the snacks we liked before everything shuts down. Everyone was really sad that we couldn't see our friends but a lot of people got new dogs because we were home all the time. Hopefully we get to do everything normal soon.

My life was normal, I had school then sports. Friends on the weekends. I could go to a store without a mask or not have to wait for a person to walk out before I could go in. Little did I know all of these things would turn out for the worst.

Before Covid-19, life was normal. I went to school every day. I could actually stand closer than 6 feet apart to my friends. I didn't have to wear a mask everywhere I went, and people could actually eat inside. Businesses were open for business. Everything was normal and enjoyable.

My thanksgiving this year was different than what I’m used to; my family has always had large gatherings at a grandparents’ house. This year it was just us, we made a small meal and had fun but it felt off without my entire loud crazy family.

It was Thursday, November 26, 2020. Thanksgiving day. It was unlike any other Thanksgiving I had ever had. My usual Thanksgiving day would be me going to each of my grandparent's houses for dinner. But this year was different. We decided to go to only one grandparent's house this year. So we went to their house and instead of walking inside and having dinner, we had to stay in our car. My grandma came out with a little tray of food and handed it to us. It had turkey, gravy, salt, pepper, and pie. It was very hard for me to do this because I couldn't hug my grandparents (or anyone for that matter) and I couldn't go inside the house. This Thanksgiving was much different than any other.

the object of this is to show people how i managed to stay safe during the pandemic

My life before COVID was just going to school, sports (tennis and dance), then going home to eat dinner and going to bed so I can repeat the process the next day. Now during COVID I wake up and go straight to my computer to start school, after I finish school I practice online dance lessons and sometimes play tennis and then I eat dinner and go to bed. I think I knew things were going to change when my sisters school shut down and my friends and I started talking about this new disease that is spreading.

For my COVID Thanksgiving, I was able to drive 7 hours to see my cousins who I haven't seen in a while. We cooked a small meal and all ate it together on Thanksgiving day. We weren't allowed to have any friends over and we weren't allowed to leave the house that often. In the end it was fun but it got boring from not being able to do much.

Hello, I am a 14-year-old girl in 2020. Before the virus hit the United States it was really normal. I got up at 7:30, went to school, got home at 2:55, then went to swimming practice. Me and my friends already knew that this was not going to be a normal year. Before covid, a few other things happened. Australia burnt down and World war 3 almost started. This happened in a really short amount of time. The first time I heard about the virus is when the kids on a school field trip to Italy came back. None of them were sick, but they got out of there just before Italy shut down. There were a few rumors about how the virus started. At first, I heard it was from a snake then I heard it was because someone in China ate a bat. The second one turned out the be true. I was not really worried about the virus at first because I thought that China would have the common sense to lock down their country the second they realized how bad it was and how quickly it spreads, but no of course they don't. Before my school shut down I was at a golf tournament for school. Some of the other school teams did not come because their school had already gotten shut down. On the fourth hole, some of the girls on the other team got an email from the school that they were going to shut down. At that point, I started to get a little worried. By the end of the round, I felt a buzz in my pocket. I knew exactly what it was about, and so did everyone else.

So when this whole thing started people knew what it was but no one really thought of it. Nothing really changed besides that people started to use sanitizer and things like that to stay clean. After a while there were rumors that things were going to close down. Then those rumors became true, school started to go online and everything started to close down. People were buying toilet paper and necessities and it was hard to find those things in any stores, masks were mandated and everything was closed and we were on a mandatory lockdown. I am a person that loves going to restaurants and taking out food just wasn't good, so i was trying to make food a lot at my house and I have almost burnt down my house multiple times. Life was really boring and you couldn’t see friends or family. U would facetime with relatives and friends all the time because of this. That is basically what happened from my perspective of the pandemic.

Before COVID I didn't really like my life. That was mostly due to lack of sleep and the fact that I had been spending way too much time analyzing the social hierarchy of my seventh grade class. I felt alone at that point in February. Now I laugh at that feeling, because I didn't know the true meaning of alone. In early February I had started practicing for the track season and I was acing all of my classes. The closure of everything and the cancellation of sports was made worse by the fact that my high jump coach had told me that could potentially jump 5' 5" this year (that easily qualifies you to go to state championships in high school). Right before Kobe Bryant's death I first heard the word coronavirus. I dismissed it knowing that I never knew anything about current events and that it would pass. The week after the basketball legend died in a helicopter crash, I heard that unfamiliar word again. This time I asked what it was, and nobody could tell me much. All I got out of my friends was that it was a flu-like virus that was tearing through China and soon after that, Italy. My first inkling that this virus was going to be a big deal was when my best friend's mom went to 3 different stores to get 20 bottles of hand sanitizer. Of course it was a joke at that point, but after that the 'jokes' came fast and furious. First, panic over a group of students that went on an art history trip to Italy. Next, one of my classmate's parodies to the song "Break My Stride" based on the coronavirus (he sang it during English class and our teacher seem rather unnerved by it). After that, the first documented cases in the US and the beginning of the toilet paper shortages. Then, a joke about the coronavirus solving the problem of overpopulation in Asia. All of this leading up to a phone call in which my family was informed by a doctor that our school would be closed down within the next two weeks.

Everything was going great, I was doing good in school and I loved being able to go to the beach and spend time with my family. When all of a sudden I got a news alert on my phone about an outbreak about something called COVID- 19. I ran to my parent's room and asked them what it was. They told me it was a disease with flu-like symptoms that has already affected thousands of people. Places had started to shut down and the next thing I knew there was a stay-at-home order. During this time I was making a move from Puerto Rico back to California and was scared about having to fly. We wore masks the whole flight and weren't allowed to take them off unless we were eating or drinking. Once we landed in California we walked through many doors that had built-in thermometers that we're taking our temperatures. Fast forward a few months I had been accepted into Oaks Christian and was ecstatic. I couldn't wait to make new friends and try out for the dance team. A week later we had gotten an email saying that school was shut down until further notice and that we would take our classes via zoom. As expected I was bummed out because I was starting my eighth-grade year in a new school online. I couldn't make any connections and had/ still have to stare at my computer for 80 minute periods 4 times a day. Overall, COVID-19 had made my eight grade year very different than I had hoped it would be.

It was in February of 2020 and that's when things started to change. It was a morning, I don't remember the exact day, but I was watching the news and I heard that resturants, stores, and almost everything was closing in China due to a virus that was rapidly spreading. It was chaos, airports were closing and no one was allowed into the USA from China. Later on in March, the virus started spreading here in the USA too. Schools had informed us that we would close for a week and then we'd most likely return after that. Meanwhile, grocery store shelves were close to empty and toilet paper was gone, no one could find any. Then, my parents got a call from my school saying that we weren't going to go back to school for a month or so, but eventually we never returned for the rest of the year. It was a hard ajustment. Currently, it is December of 2020 and we still don't know when we will go back to school or even when this virus will be gone for good.

I was scrolling through Tiktok just like a normal day. Everyone was talking about this virus from China, so I felt the need to do some research. This is where I found out what it was, and how to protect myself.

In February, I was in school. People started talking about this virus that started in China that was killing people and getting people very sick. It was in China so I thought that it wouldn't reach the U.S. Then when I got home I asked my parents about it. Then a couple weeks later they said that the virus got into the U.S. The virus spread all around the world.

In late February headlines broke out of a virus in China that was killing masses of people, I think most people in the U.S. thought that we were safe at first because there was a whole ocean in between them and us. Then, word spread that hoards of people were getting the virus in Europe. Then I think that a lot of us were starting to get worried. Eventually, in mid-March, we started having cases in California and we had to go to school online. This was unfortunate because it was right as the Spring sports season was beginning, it was fine though, because everybody thought that we would be back in school by mid-April. And here we are in mid-December, still not back in school.

When I first heard about the Corona virus I didn't think it was a big deal. I thought that scientists would find an antidote and it would go away after a few weeks, but I was very wrong. The first time I realized COVID was a big deal was when school was canceled. At first I thought it was cool, we were gonna get a few weeks off of school, but what i didn't realize was that we would be quarantined for over 10 months. Everything started closing, restaurants, movie theaters, and sports. We switched to online school which was very hard. The school work was easier but many students had no motivation anymore. it was very annoying to have to stare at a screen all day. The Corona virus pandemic was very boring time to live in.

Not necisarily a story just the experience of me and the people around me. During the lock down, a lot of my friends' mental health, myself included started going down. Our day to day life was unexciting, boring, and for whatever reason, negative emotions felt amplified. Not being able to see friends anymore, not going to actual school, not interacting with actual people made us feel real lonely. At least thats the way I felt.

At the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 was nothing but a distant problem. Something to pitty other countries for having. Then one day, we found out that the Corona Virus was here, amoungst us in the United States, even in our own local comunity. When that happened I was very worried because my mom was going to a club with some people whom originally came from China to the US. My entire family was wonderig if we were safe. My parents were on the verge of taking me out of school right when the schools shut down for good. After that happened my family shut ourselves off from the world, we weren't allowed to see even our neighbors or our closest friends. I was racing mountain bikes competitively for the Newbury Park Mountain Bike Team, and at the time that was my only form of interraction what so ever. When that shut down, I didn't know what to do. I was so bored! We stayed in isolation for another month and a halfe. We decided to pass the time by build big mountain bike jumps in our backyard, but even that got old after a while. Then, finally, we were allowed to go outside of our house/backyard. The first thing we did was go reconnect with our friends whom are all mountain bikers. We were all just getting back in to it, but things were relaxing little by little. Untill things finally started to open back up. As soon as Mammoth opened we rushed up there for a week. The mountain bike park was crazy. There was almost nobody there, and we were required to load our own bikes and had to keep masks on the whole time. We loved it so much that we came back just 3 weeks later. The second time things were a little more relaxed. We were still required to wear a mask in line, but not while riding. We were aslo not required to load our own bikes. After that we came back home. We only had a few days untill school was going to go back online. When school started everything was pretty similar to last year when we were on ZOOM. I was fine untill the end of November when Thanks Giving happened and there were lots of people traveling. COVID-19 started to spike again and my family started to take things more seriously. Up untill this point when i am writing this, nothing has chaged from then. I'm hoping this will all be over soon.

During my thanksgiving, I couldn't see any of my outside family which sucked. But I got toes thereafter but I had to wear a mask. I don't have any pictures but an example would be like a simple trip to target is so hard because of prices being raised and having to wear a mask

In February, life was as normal as ever. I had no idea how much my entire world would change in just a few weeks. I was hugging my friends and sharing food, taking the bus to school and spending my weekends at the mall, not a care or fear in my mind. Then, in early March, that all changed as my city went into lockdown. I was terrified that there were 26 cases of Coronavirus in my county, which is nothing compared to the almost 8,000 cases a day we are facing now. I don't know if this is the halfway point, or just the beginning, but I sure hope life can be like it was in February again soon.

My Thanksgiving wasn’t the same as all the other ones because my typical Thanksgiving is with my grandparents, cousins, uncles, and aunts. Since there is a global pandemic, we had to keep it small. So we had a small Thanksgiving with just my two sisters and my parents. My grandparents did stop by, but only for twenty minutes and we had to stay six feet apart. I didn’t have to get all dressed up, or even change out of the clothes I woke up in. My family didn’t even have a turkey this year! In February, there was no such thing as Corona. You didn’t have to wear a mask or social distance. I went to my friend’s houses and hung out in big groups. I was going to school every day and visiting my grandparents once a week. Around this time there were rumors that Covid was going to come to America and that maybe our schools would close but I never believed it. When I would hear about Corona I never ever thought that some of my loved ones would end up getting it. When people starting saying that our schools might close I was excited to have a shot break off of school, but little did I know it would be a nine month break. In February, I was careless and didn’t have to worry about washing my hands or staying six feet apart.

In the month of February, I was just going to school as usual and I was doing my schoolwork. I was in 7th grade before Covid-19 occurred and I was just a student at a private school. A couple of my friends were talking about this new virus and they seemed worried about it. I did not hear about this virus on the news yet, so I just thought it was already under enough control. I believed that the scientists would find a cure without delay and that there was no reason to worry. Also, I did not think that it was possible for it to spread so quickly. Soon, this virus was spreading faster than ever, and I was becoming more worried. I was afraid that it will spread in America, and I was right. I watched the news after school, and I saw that countries were shutting down and schools were closing. Then, my parents received a message about my school closing. I did not know how I felt about this and I was still in shock. After, I remembered that an indication of this virus spreading occurred to me before. It was when my friends started to discuss about this new virus way before it became a global pandemic. I should have known that life could only get worse from here. Then, the quarantine started.

To the February 2020 me, it was a normal day in my life. I woke up at 7 o'clock to get ready for school that started at 8 o'clock. My mom was reading something on her phone when I got downstairs to eat breakfast. She told me of this new virus that was going around in China. My heart started to drop. I had my family over there and most of them are my grandparents whose health isn't exactly in the best condition. I was worried about them, not think for a second how it could spread to the US. I got into the car with my sister who sends me to school. She got her podcast ready, the BBC World News Podcast. It was normal for her to play it in the morning when she gets ready for work. I listened along, not really focusing on what they were saying. But this podcast was a bit different than before. It talked about how there was a new outbreak of an unknown virus in Wuhan, China. I started to feel worried again. Whenever my mom told me something, I would think about it and then later forget about it. But this story was now on the BBC World News podcast which means that something is going to happen. I knew that my family lived away from Wuhan so I thought that it would be safe. I listened to the end of that story, thinking about it until I reached school. I walked up the stairs and never really thought about it again until a few weeks later. My family in China said that they had to stay inside their house and could not leave unless they needed groceries. To me, this meant that it was getting serious. But this was not the worst news I heard that week. The worst is that there is someone in the US that has the virus. I knew then that things are starting to be extremely different than before and I was not far from being right.

It was a normal day like any other. I got up, took a shower, brushed my teeth, and put on my uniform. I then headed downstairs to go eat breakfast. I got downstairs, had an egg, and then I got my backpack and got in the car. My dad dropped me off and then I had my classes. After school I heard people talking about a sickness but I kind of ignored them and proceeded down the stairs to carpool. My mom picked me up and then we headed home and I did homework and relaxed. The next day I got up did the usual and headed for school. I heard more people talking about this illness and I was kind of like. Oh well its flu season so it's probably the flu and so I cared on not expecting what would come next.

In the beginning of February I was living a really good life. I got to see friends all the time, dance with my friends, and just was learning a lot in school and life was good. Little did I know in one snap life could have changed so much. I get home from school March 12, 2020 and heard the news that School was closing for 2 weeks. I really did need the break from school and thought of it as a "long spring break". But soon it turned into more weeks than months. I hated online School at first, long zooms then right when they are done I got to work on my thousands of assignments due that day. No motivation to dance or do anything. I would lay down on my phone and procrastinate all school assignments. Finally, summer hits and some Covid laws were lifted. I got to see a few friends and go surfing everyday. This was what I loved during summer. I even got motivated to dance again. My dance studio then opened and I was off of zoom. I loved getting to dance in person again. Summer soon ended and back to the online school life. This school year has been really good because I adapted to the online education, and started to not procrastinate. Sadly, my studio got back online but it was okay with me. This thanksgiving and halloween were so weird because we had no family over and it was just not the same experience. In conclusion, this pandemic has been rough but I have learned a lot and grew in many different ways.

It was 2020, a new decade, a fresh start. Myself and the rest of Gen-Z all thought, "This is our time". Lots of us posted on social media all excited for new beginnings. Life was perfect. I was a seventh grader who loved to dance, and I went to my studio five times a week after school. Life was routine. I would wake up, and get ready for the day. I would shower, blow dry my hair, do my makeup, and get dressed. I was so worried about what every one thought of me, the same as many thirteen year olds are. I packed my back pack, said goodbye to my dog Rowdy-Girl, got in the car, and tool the five minute drive to a place I never looked forward to going: school. Class began at 8:05, and I made sure I was never late. I opened my locker, which was always organized, got my books, and walked into my first period class. Following my second class, I had a break for 20 minutes. My friends and I went to the cafeteria and got lots of snacks. It was nice to have some time to see friends. 3 more periods, then lunch. Each day was growing moribund and the same. 2 last periods, and we were released and so happy to go home after a long day of learning. Then I would get ready for dance, and have so much fun doing the sport that I love. Sure a few bad things happened in the early months of 2020. There was almost what people were calling "World War 3" due to conflicting views between America and Iran. A famous basketball player named Kobe Bryant. Many called him a legend and saw him as an inspiration. He sadly passed away in a terrible plane crash which involved his daughter and some of her teammates as well. However, the year was still overall alright. I got to perform in my school's dance show, I developed a live for surfing, and I felt like I was on top of the world. However a huge boulder was about to knock me down. Some virus was spreading around China, but none of us thought anything of it.

It was March 15, 2020, and everybody had been hearing about this crazy virus in China that was killing people. The first American had gotten it and brought it over. Everybody was scared. Back in February my schedule was normal. I'd wake up at 7:00 AM and get to school at 7:45 AM. I remember the morning on the 15th where we had been hearing about this virus getting serious and then when I came downstairs and my told me that the school had just sent an email that we had 2 more days of regular school and then we'd go online. They said that we would come back before the end of the year but I knew that wasn't going to happen.

My life in February was normal and pleasant. I was starting the baseball season and wrapping up basketball during this time. I remember on Valentine's Day a couple of friends and I went to the mall to hang out and have some fun. We were running around not knowing it would be the last time we would be allowed to. I mean just think about a normal 13-year-old boy's life. It was the best time of my life in 7th grade. I would hop around with my two main friend groups and talk about what teenagers talk about, sports, sleep, weekends. My friend Easton would run around on campus going up to random people and well actually you never knew what he was about to do. That's what I love about my friends, always lively and enjoying life. My normal day looked like getting up at 7 then getting to school around 8 and hustling to first period. Then after listening to people talk about math or something like that go to the next class, until we got to break. When we got to break and had just about the most intense games of basketball that you have ever seen. After a couple more classes we did the same thing at lunch. Then after like two more classes, I think, we headed on down to the locker room to get changed for baseball. We always had clean practices, little to no errors, and great hitting. Then I would pretend to do homework when I got home then I would actually do homework. Then I was in bed by 11:00. Then on March 13 we showed up to school and people were talking everywhere and the teachers met in the pod to talk some more, we didn't know what was happening so we went with the genius idea to tell everyone to go home and buy toilet paper. When I heard that a virus from a bat was spreading from China I knew something was wrong. Really? They can do better. It actually came from a lab because in China there are 1.4 billion people and because they are a communist country they don't care about their people. Also, think about it, corona only affects older people or people with respiratory problems (mostly old people). Making you think yet? Put the pieces together. Comes from a government-run lab, kills off older people, 1.4 billion people, a communist country, population control. It didn't come from a bat, you people are being lied to, there is a safe, cheap cure; hydroxychloroquine. They don't want you to know that because they want you to rely on the government. Sounds a lot like socialism. People don't think about the facts (99.92% recovery by the way), they just trust whatever they are told, whether that be through social media, TV shows, news, and other platforms. Do you know who wants to divide, break down, and control? The government and the devil. The situation we are in now is making the government look like a savior to us. Because WE (we being the government) have the vaccine, WE can flatten the curve, WE can be together by staying apart. See what I'm saying with this? They are seeing how far they can push us. No normal life before this matters until we know what's happening now. If we the people don't do something about this we will never go back to normal. I know that it was supposed to be about normal life in February but I want the facts in the history books.

My Life before COVID was simple and organized. I had a schedule of what I would do everyday. First I would get ready for the day and go to school. After school, I would get something to eat and then play basketball at the YMCA. Life was normal before COVID-19.

In January of 2020 I first heard of Corona Virus. I only jokes and memes about it on social media. All I knew was that it was a sickness being passed around in China. I really didn't take it seriously and neither did anyone else at school, but I really wish I had. In march my peers and I were informed that the virus had reached the US and even penetrated California's border. Yet still, we did not take it seriously. My teachers told us that they were being prepared to give us an online education, but that it probably would not be necessary so we were not concerned. I continued life normally. I went to school, soccer practice, I hung out with friends careless of what was going on in the world. That Friday after being informed that my teachers were being prepared to educate us online, my fellow students and I were told that school was being canceled and in the coming week we would be receiving a virtual education. The week after all we did at school was learn how we would be learning from home. I was actually a little excited because I would get to sleep in, do less work, but that excitement did not last long. Within a week I loathed online school entirely. I lost all motivation to learn and do my best. To add on to this, my family began to fight 24/7. Resentments grew among each of us. Everything was closed and we were put on lockdown, the government ordered us not to leave our home. At this time I wished for nothing more than to go back before the Pandemic.

My name is Athena Errico and I am an 8th grade student at Oaks Christian currently, but at the time I was in seventh grade. It was January-February, I love to ski and I have been skiing my whole life, recently I have been trying to get into racing. I had just heard of the corona outbreak in China and was instantly worried. I had my first compition coming up for skiing and my parents told me I couldnt go because it was Chinese New Year and many people from China go to that specific ski mountain every year to celebrate. A few weeks later at school I had heard about schools in the area shutting down due to corona. Then about a week later I noticed my teachers canceling quizzes and giving very little homework. At lunch many off the kids talked about corona and the group of people who went with a teacher named Mrs. Hacker to Italy over break, there where roomers they all got COVID. Then a girl was not in school and many poeple thought she had COVID. Thats when I new things where going to change. COVID! COVID! COVID! that was all anyone ever talked about. Soon my parents wouldnt let me go to the grocery stores with them and wouldn't let me go to friends houses unless they new the parents well. Then my school shut down and that's when everything got really strange.

It's thanksgiving in November 2020 for me it's a very casual day during the lockdown. seems like Joe biden won the election, King Von dioed not too long ago, also Kobe, Chadwick Boseman and Pop Smoke died recently. My family doesn't celebrate thanksgiving but this year we decided to go to my uncle's restaurant Novikov Miami but other than that nothing was really that special. Im in miami because my dad came here for his work but my school is online so it wasn’t really a problem and im going back to California soon. I like to go to the gym daily also i play Xbox with my friends almost every day. I play games such as Fight Night Champion, GTA 5, Warzone, UFC 4, Watch Dogs Legion and 2K.

Before the pandemic, I had a typical life. I had to wake up at around 6-6:30am to be able to get to school, which was 40 or so minutes away from our house. I drove in our new Tesla with my dad who worked at Joni and Friends. I also had begun carpooling with my friend Carly. We would sit in the back seats together as we talked about a fandom that we're both in and met through. Sometimes I would draw on ibisPaintX with my iPad mini with a stylus and a glove I crocheted that goes around my wrist and only extends over my pinkie finger so that when I rest my hand on the screen it doesn't interfere with the program. Sometimes I would crochet little dolls. After school, I would either have volleyball practice, go to Carly's house, or go to my father's work and do homework, play games, or read fanfictions while he finished his work day. If I had volleyball, I would sit at the pickup place while I waited for my dad and he would come pick me up and take me home. At home, I would eat, shower, read a bit possibly, and go to bed. The fist clue I got about my life changing was the news of the quarantined ship from China. At the time, it was just another 'oh look at them, that must suck, oh well' news report but it soon escalated into 'everyone is quarantined now'

It is currently February 12, 2020. I am on the plane to go to Italy for 2 weeks on an extraordinary adventure with my friends from Oaks Christian. I land in Paris at first and I see the Eiffel tower as it is my birthday today. I couldn't have imagined my 13th birthday any better than to be in Paris. I have a great week touring all over Italy and I had np idea that my life was going to change forever. As I got to the airport in Italy to go back to California, they took my temperature and I thought it was very strange because they have never done that in the past. The security guard said because a new virus is appearing and they want to be cautious. I was kind of scared but I just looked past it. Then as we were in the airport one of the people in our group started throwing up everywhere and I got really nervous that they might have this new virus. I later realized she was fine but it was still scary. When I landed back into California, they I couldn't go to school for 2 whole weeks because the quarantined me because I was in Italy. I looked on my phone at the news and realized that Italy is surging with coronavirus cases. I ended up not have COVID-19 but it was still a time in my life I will never forget.

Compared to my life back in February, my life now is exceedingly different. I was still attending in-person school at Oaks Christian, and I had no idea how drastically my life would change. For example, back in February, I was on a track team called the "Thousand Oaks Flyers". My practices for that track team would later get cancelled in March, but back then I was having the time of my life and running with one of my best friends, Olivia. I was also participating in a swim team called Class Aquatics, which practices, or used to practice, at the Oaks Christian High School pool. I did not enjoy being on the swim team, and I would later get the courage to tell my parents that I wanted to quit. Back in February, I was always busy on the weekends and weekdays, from hanging out with my best friends, to always being at a sports practice. One sign that something was wrong, or about to be wrong, is that my parents, my dad is a surgeon and my mom is a nurse, were constantly talking about some kind of virus that was growing and spreading throughout Asia and most of Europe. When I asked them about it, they said that it was a virus that originated in China and was spreading. I initially laughed it off, and thought that I had nothing to worry about, when some relatives that live in Asia shipped my family and my grandmother packs of N-95 masks, and told us all to "be safe". Shortly after that, my first Covid-19 cases were reported in the U.S. and also in California. My parents were starting to get worried, but I wasn't until some teachers at school told me that the school might have to shut down if more Covid-19, or coronavirus cases were diagnosed. Shortly after that, in March, Oaks Christian switched to an online learning school program, and my family and I went into a "quarantine lockdown". That is what my life in February, and early March, of 2020 was like, and some events that were happening in my day-to-day life, and also all around the world.

During my COVID-19 Thanksgiving, I only gathered with people I have been in touch before. Thanksgiving that day never felt like a normal Thanksgiving, but it felt forced like we were supposed to act normal and there was not a pandemic. The restrictions for covid were not even allowing us to have family over so technically my family. During the day, I had some fun with my cousins(they live across the street) and had the weirdest Thanksgiving dinner. I could barely gather with anyone and it was very quiet-my family has already been around each other so we really had nothing to talk about much. Overall, I am hoping for change and I do hope people stay at home more to get over this pandemic so we can live we did before this whole situation.

In February I knew nothing about Corona. My older sister Megan went on a mission trip with our school to Molokai Hawaii. My mom and my twin Emily heard about corona and how it was spreading from China to Italy and beyond. We got really scared because Megan was flying home the next day. Thankfully she got home. But after her trip she got sick for 1 week. Then each person in our family got a little something not as bad as Megan though. February was basically normal, sports, school, theater, friends no worries. We knew that this was going to be big when Megan came home sick.

Everything started out fine, but as the month progressed volleyball games got canceled, toilet paper started going out of stock, and people started going crazy for canned food. Everyone stayed far away from one another and were trapped in a prison that we call home. We all got confused as to why everyone was also going crazy over cleaning supplies. Little did all of us know that this was just the beginning of the travesty.

In February of 2020 I was 13 living my best life. I was playing beach volleyball everyday and going to school. I was allowed to go outside and play with my friends and I never thought that would change. No one wore masks but now I can't imagine life without them. I was doing tournaments at the beach every weekend but now I'm lucky to be doing even one. There was toilet paper on the shelves. If you even get a roll now it seems like you have won the lottery. Everyday before felt different new opportunities and new goals to achieve. Ever since, it's all the same. Everyday feels like it goes by so fast and yet so slow. On March 13, 2020 was when it started to feel real. We were in class and everyone was preparing to shut down. In each class we were preparing and problem solving for the next few weeks online. Well what we thought was a few weeks. A longer spring break turned into 10 months. I remember saying goodbye to all my friends even though, we thought we were coming back but, we hugged each other like it was the last time. And it was. Friends I thought I would know forever just drifted. My first day of online school was ruff. I had a hard time logging into zoom and my eyes hurt at the end of the day. Now it's a part of my daily schedule. It is my new normal.

In February I was doing what I usually do. I go to school and I play sports with my friends. The first time I looked at the news I saw something called the coronavirus. I didn't know what this was. It was new to me. The news showed that it was an illness in China. I didn't think it was going to be so big. It was just a normal illness in China. Until it spread to other countries. Then continents. It spread to Europe, then Australia, then eventually the USA. They started shutting everything down. I got a little scared but not as much. I still got together with my friends to play sports and hung out with them. Then they shut down the school. We had to do online school, but I got used to it after the first couple of weeks. Instead of doing sports in leagues, my friends and I would play in the park instead. The thing that affected me the most was I couldn't travel to Europe this year. If you wanted to travel in airplanes, there would be a lot of precautions and we would have to wear masks the whole time, so we figured out that it wasn't worth it to go and we would have to wait until next year. In conclusion, the coronavirus was scary at first, but after a month or two, everything went back to normal for me and wasn't as scary.

Early into the year (January-March) this all began, and I was thrown into a world of change, excitement, and difficulty, but before all of this, I myself knew 2020 wasn't going to be a normal year. For me, it started out great, I was on a ski trip after new years and was just relaxed because I was out of school and having fun, but in these times I kept hearing of terrible things happening in the world, one of these being the coronavirus, I didn't pay any attention to it and expected it to be a problem only in China and other countries far from California, but as the year progressed, stuff started to get more severe, and by late February/early March, stuff started to get serious as it got into the USA, and March 13 is now a day I will forever remember as the last normal day in 2020, after that, online school started, which was easy to begin with and it was fun because I was still able to go to my local store and talk to my friends online, the last semester of 7th grade was easy and fun, and Summer came around and I was able to hang out with my friends a little bit, then 8th grade started, and it started out fun, but as we entered December, everything is starting to get worse and the cases are increasing because the virus likes colder weather, so much has gone wrong this month, my. yearly ski trip that I mentioned art the start is cancelled and so much is going wrong, lets hope 2021 is better, and we can get this stuff behind us all.

This year's Thanksgiving was different than most years. My family and I usually spend Thanksgiving in Lake Arrowhead and luckily we were still able to go its year. We also still got to spend thanksgiving with my cousins, aunt, uncle and nana like we usually which was fun. One of the things we love to in Lake Arrowhead is shop in the village but this year some of the stores in the village were going out of business because of the coronavirus. In the other shops that were still open we had to wear masks and there were lines outside of some of them. Another thing that was different was that a lot of our favorite restaurants were closed for seating and instead we had to pick up the food. Our family still had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner and we ate turkey and all the normal foods we would usually eat. However, when we went to the local grocery store they were sold out of all of food and the grocery was packed even more than it usually is because people were getting worried about not having another food while were in lockdown.

On Wednesday, the 2 days before my school told us we were going online, I had my oaks Christian interview for going to school the following year. I remember going to my interview and then everything covid blowing up in my face the same day. I got accepted to oaks Christian the day I had my interview, and then the next day we were told starting Monday we would be going online. That Friday, we were working on setting up for online school, all of the tests and quizzes were canceled. My friends and I didn't think it would get this far, we thought we would go do online school for 3 weeks, and then come back. We thought we would be able to hang out at each other's houses and do online school there. We were told that the flu was worse and that it was a big deal and that it would be over soon. We quickly were put on lockdown and we didn't see each other for months.

My life before Covid-19 was going very well. I was traveling for competitions and doing sports, actually going to school in person normally, and I was able to see the rest of my family. I was very happy, and then everything began to fall apart. Back in January, I found out about the virus, and how it was in China. Everybody thought that it was a joke and we would all laugh when someone talked about it, but we never thought that it would spread to the USA, or cause an emergency global pandemic. I was actually at a competition the weekend before everything shut down, completely unaware of what was about to happen. We got home from the competition and the next day at school, I began to hear that other schools were shutting down and canceling school temporarily. That is when it all hit me. Our school was shutting down, stores were shutting down, restaurants were shutting down, everything was closed, and I thought that the world was ending. Who knew that right after coming back from a normal competition and a regular life that everything was changing. I definitely didn’t. The worst and funniest part about everything shutting down in an emergency rush, was the outage of toilet paper. Everyone was stalking up on toilet paper, for a reason I am not aware of, causing almost all stores and online websites to be completely out of it. People began to panic for this reason, and that is when people began to hoard things like dry foods, toilet paper, water, and that is when getting essential items became a huge struggle. Everyone basically had to fight to get the things they needed. Covid-19 changed the whole world, and it was definitely not expected.

It was a regular time of day, at least in my head. Everything was fine, everything was normal. There were hints of something occurring that would not end well, though. I heard some of my friends on campus at Oaks Christian Middle School theorizing on what infected China. I had no clue what they were talking about, until they should me a map of infections for Covid-19. There were a couple hundred cases in China at the time. I figured it was just a jump of a flu. I was dead wrong. Every day, I can see my friends looking at the screen in horror at the numbers jumping up. It went 300, 800, 1500, 2600 every day. I then just forgot about it to save me some un-wanted pressure. A week passes now, and my friends beckon me to take another look at the map. When I looked at that map, it was when I knew Humanity would take a bullet. I look to the top-right of the screen. Total Infected Cases: ~1000000. All of China was red. Italy was starting to bleed of the vile color. Europe was not looking so good either. And then, the worst part. My friend zooms the map to Los Angeles, roughly close to us. Total Infected Cases: ~300. From then on, I knew this was the beginning of the end...