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2020-03
Dealing with my anxiety
As most young adults my age, I suffer from severe anxiety. Dealing with anxiety daily, can be very challenging at times, especially during a pandemic. I have been fighting a battle with anxiety most of my life. At this point, I am really used to the extra thoughts in my head. I have learned to help manage it, but not completely get rid of it. I believe that anxiety has made me who I am, in a way, because I do not remember a time where I was not struggling. In 2020, a pandemic instantly flooded the world. This completely impacted my entire life. I was not able to experience my last year in high school, I was not able to be around the one person that helped me with my anxiety, etc. I was forced to wear a mask that I could barely breathe in. I lost touch with most of my friends that I developed over my lifetime. This instant wave of depression suddenly hit me. I was so nervous on what would happen next, and how long will this last. People were dying from this pandemic. I constantly worried about if the sickness would hurt one of my family members or someone important to me. Over the time of being in quarantine, I thought to myself ways on how I could relax and not worry so much about the pandemic. I told myself every day, “Everything happens for a reason”. This is what I truly believe and for some reason it really does calm me down. I am Catholic. I am a very deep believer in God. To me, trusting in the Lord is the best anxiety reliever around. Covid-19 is still around today. Without Covid-19, I would not be where I am today. Although this pandemic has an abundance of negative impacts on my life, it also had some positive ones, too. I would not have attended Duquesne University, met so many amazing people, and made a plethora of memories that I would not trade in for. I believe talking about my anxiety, especially during the pandemic, is very critical because I am not the only one who is suffering, too. Everyone is nervous about what is going to happen next. To me, this is HUGE on helping me with my anxiety. I can finally think to myself that I am not alone. I believe that people who suffer from anxiety, especially from the pandemic started in 2020, can have a place to go if they are nervous. When I was struggling, I felt alone, and I was the only person who felt this way. My story will allow people to realize that they are not alone. Everyone is dealing with this stress and anxiety that I suffered from. My story tells people that I have worries and doubts, too. The pandemic not only had negative impacts, but they also had positive impacts. Focusing on the positives, will distract you from the anxiety and worrying. My story should help prove that. My story should allow people to see and find new ways to cope with the stress. I hope my story leaves a positive impact on people who did or are struggling. Everyone is in this together, and nobody will be alone in this major impact on the world. -
2022-02-06
A never ending battle on COVID-19
It’s been nearly two years since the start of the pandemic, and if you ask some people, the state of this disaster hasn’t improved a whole lot. I turned 20 a few days ago, which marks my second birthday that has passed since the official start of Covid, which if I’m remembering correctly was March 13th, 2020. I’ll never forget the announcement made over the Pine Richland High School loudspeakers that day. Sitting in the back of the statistics classroom, the statement told us that we would have no school for the next two weeks, which at the time beat any time off we’d ever had prior. Fast forward two years later and we still wear masks indoors. We still have to wash or sanitize our hands after just about any surface we touch to hope we don’t get the virus. Even more importantly, I haven’t been able to see some of my family for years now. Driving all the way out to New York would be risky since they aren’t in the best health, and it’s not worth taking any chances with how bad this virus can be for some people. The worst part of it all has to be that we don’t know when this is going to end. It’s been long enough that the pandemic has become political, with rivalries between those who choose and refuse to get the vaccine, but will it ever stop? Will there ever be a point in time that we can all feel safe enough to be able to do anything without living in fear of this virus? I never expected to be sitting here years after this all started writing how just about anything is still affected by Covid, but I guess I’ve gotten used to it. After all of this, though, the whole “you never know what you got until it’s gone” saying really does remain true. -
2020-03-16
Focusing on Physical Health During the Pandemic
The COVID pandemic of 2020 affected many lives including my own. For me, it greatly affected my ability to focus on my physical health. When we were all sent home from school to finish our semester online, the gyms closed. This drove a wedge between me and where I wanted to be physically. While I could still do calisthenics at my house, I was unable to do the heavy weight training that I had grown so accustomed to. This caused me to lose some of the muscle mass I had spent so much time trying to gain. Not only that, I also lost the one place I could go to be alone with my thoughts. While I’m at the gym, I can focus on problems inside my mind while also making myself stronger. I don’t have to deal with any unnecessary external interactions with others while I’m at the gym. While I was at home, I would sometimes find myself being irritated by my family with nowhere to go. During these times, I would end up going outside or locking myself away in my room. Since I had nowhere to blow off the steam, I could only sit there and let the irritation manifest into anger. While calisthenics were good for my physical shape, they did not help me the same way heavy weights did. To fix that issue, I took up boxing with two gloves and a small yoga mat. I put the mat up against the wall and began teaching myself how to box. This was helping. While I had to deal with the occasional interruption by my family, I finally found an activity that helped me effectively blow off steam. Still, I always knew that none of this was going to last. I knew I needed to get back into the gym in order to feel like myself again. Much like many others, I waited until the day when mine reopened again. When my gym reopened, I considered the pandemic to finally be over in my eyes. -
2021-09
Appreciating Family
When reflecting back on my own experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic, there are a lot of things that come to mind: how my freshmen year of college was completely upended, how I did not feel safe to return to my part-tine job, and especially how nerve-wracking it was to watch world leaders navigate through a crisis we had yet to see in our lifetime. Acknowledging these difficulties that I personally faced, along with the challenges people across the world faced, is crucial because, unfortunately, fear is apart of this story that history will tell; however, I have always found myself someone who tries to remain rather optimistic, which I find myself doing as I share my story. Though I hesitate to call the COVID-19 pandemic a ‘blessing in disguise,’ it did open my eyes and help me to become much more grateful for one huge aspect of my life: my family. I have been very privileged to have a close and loving family my entire life, though it took me a while to realize what a privilege this was. Sitting down each night to dinner and having a lively conversation with my mom, dad, and younger brother was the norm to me, so I rarely considered the notion that that wasn’t the same for everybody else. When the pandemic first struck and shut down life as we knew it, I – a 19-year-old college student – suddenly found myself back at home living every single day with my family. This was a very jarring shift for me after experiencing the freedom that college granted me, but I quicky began to see how lucky I was to have a loving and accepting family to get through this difficult time with. Of course, this is not to say I never got frustrated with constantly being around my family, but it made me appreciate all the good moments that we had together. Together, we formed a stronger bond as a family that helped us to get through the physical and mental toll the pandemic had brought. From trying new meals together, watching new shows/movies together, to creating wacky videos to share with our friends and family, and so much more, I began to appreciate all the little moments we had together. As things somewhat begin to return to a state of ‘normalcy,’ I continue to reflect on this time I spent with my family, and I cannot help but feel a huge sense of gratitude. I truly have learned to appreciate everything they have done for me (and continue to do), as well as learned to appreciate many more facets of my life. Nowadays, I find myself much more cognizant of the seemingly simple things and not taking them for granted. It is strange to think that something such as a global pandemic can be the thing that really cements an idea or feeling in our minds, but that is what COVID-19 did for me and my appreciation for my wonderful family. -
2020-09-03
Telling Them
COVID-19 had been set back after set back since March when colleges and universities closed. I was slightly behind as I was extremely ill, with what my doctors now believe was the coronavirus, in January at the beginning of the semester. I had been dreading this day since August when my summer classes had ended. I had to tell my parents. I didn’t know how so I had waited until I had relocated into Pittsburgh again and my transfer was complete into the pre-pharmacy program instead of the professional program. This pandemic and my lack of motivation had ruined my chances of going to pharmacy school. I watched my dreams slip one year further away. I had to tell them. I was supposed to be matriculating into the professional phase this year but here I am in my third year of college being stuck taking another year of college at an expensive private school. I had to tell them. Between getting sick and losing 15 pounds in two weeks and being stuck home for months, the pandemic had taken a serious toll on me physically and mentally. I had to tell them. I called my mom after she got out of work on September 2nd, 2020 and she could immediately tell something was wrong. I had been preparing myself to do this for almost a month and it still wasn’t enough to hear the disappointment in my mothers voice. My parents had never been anything other than supportive even when I made mistakes but here I was terrified of what might come of this. My parents and I discussed what my options could be, maybe I could concentrate on a minor while I take the last few classes I needed to continue into pharmacy school, or maybe I could take a gap semester and gain some experience in a hospital pharmacy. I cried and cried to my mom hating the fact she was disappointed in me and thought her and my dad would hate me. The next morning, after my mom had calmed down, I received the text message saying everything would be okay and as a family we would work it out. My family and I decided I would stay at Duquesne for the full year and I would work towards a business minor. I had to tell them and once I did I started to see the silver lining within the pandemic… I had never been as close to my parents as I was currently.