Items

• 
  2022-07-20

  Graduating in A Pandemic

  Disclaimer: I understand that my story is not as unique or impactful as others. Many people's lives were ruined beyond repair. My derailment is quite insignificant when compared to the devastation of others. It is however, my story, and I have decided to share it anyway. Perhaps it will add to the narrative of why recent graduates are struggling the way they are. In May of 2021, I graduated from one of the top public universities in the United States with honors, distinction, a 4.0 GPA, and the outstanding senior award for my department. Despite the pandemic, there was still an expectation to do great things. All of my professors, friends, and family constantly told me what an exciting future I had ahead of me. The pandemic had other plans. All of the graduate programs I had decided to apply to were not accepting applicants due to the pandemic. They did not have the funding or ability to allow new graduate students to conduct research. Instead I tried to apply to jobs within my field, but because their buildings were closed to the public, they were letting people go, not hiring on. Without scholarship money or a well paying job, I could no longer afford my apartment. Many of my friends had moved back into their parents house and I thought to do the same. Unfortunately, like many other couples during the pandemic, the forced proximity had made my parents' house volatile. I could not move home, because my parents decided to move across the country and get a divorce. I tried to move in with my paternal grandparents, but my grandma was to ill. She ended up dying that summer. After a summer of floating around, living out of my car and random family members houses, I moved in with my maternal grandparents. At this point I felt miserable. It seemed like my entire life had fallen apart in the span of two months. I went from the top of my class, a bright future ahead of me to working minimum wage. Just as I was beginning to feel like I was back on solid ground after moving in with my maternal grandparents, my grandfather died too. I felt cursed. A year later, I am working an amazing job within my field, living in a condo with friends, and on track to receive a master's degree this winter. Things are finally looking up, but I don't know if I will ever fully emotionally recover from living through this pandemic.
• 
  2021-08-05

  How COVID Affected My Family

  COVID took a huge tole on my family. We were unable to have getting togethers for almost a year since my grandparents are older. This was hard for us because we have multiple get togethers in a year. Last August, both of my great grandparents tested positive with COVID. They both have many underlying health conditions that made their fight hard. My great grandma pulled through but my great grandpa did not. This was a very hard loss for my family because his passing was the first in our close family. The worst part about all of it was that they would not let any of us in the hospital to say goodbye. We had his funeral outside so all of my older relatives could attend and stay safe. COVID years were hard for my family and I am very glad we are finally on the other side of it.
• 
  2020-06-21

  2020

  This story shows my experience throughout the pandemic, it is important to me because it was an event that strongly impacted my life.
• 
  2022-04-09

  Covid sped up my great grandmothers death

  My great grandmother was diagnosed with dementia and was living in a nursing home for a few years, she started to get worse when the pandemic started so but we weren't able to visit her due to covid-19. She began to become very depressed due to the lack of visits and her son (my grandfather) had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in June and was given up to 6 months to live. My grand father died on October 19th of 2020, my great grandmother caught covid while in her nursing home and on November 20th 2020 my great grandmother died from covid-19. Even though she was dying of dementia, covid sped up the process and caused her to die alone in a nursing home. I couldn't even burry her like she would have wanted because the nursing home had her cremated for contamination purposes. I would give anything to be able to hold her hand as she passed and give her a proper funeral that she would have wanted but covid compromised this.
• 
  2021-10-08

  My covied-19 experience: Ella McMullen

  My name is Ella McMullen, I live in Nampa Idaho. I go to Lone Star middle school. When Covied-19 started I was 11 years old, Covied has affected millions of people. My family is one of them. When my mom and dad got covied my brother, sister, and I all went to live with my grandparents. We lived with my grandparents for about 3 weeks. While we were living with my grandparents, my mom got the bad side of Covied. She ended up having to go to the hospital, she had to go because of her breathing. She had to have around 14 litters of air while she was in the hospital. Thankfully, she was only there for about a week. When she got out, she had to still be on air. So, it was difficult when we had to go out because we had to make sure we had the air tank full, and we had an extra one with us just in case. My mother was on air for about 6 months. After my mom got better, she was really stressed. My dad was still sick, but he thankfully did not go to the hospital. My dad was only sick for about 2 weeks. He got the safer side of covied. That is how covied affected my life.
• 
  2020-08-06

  Native American / Navajo Elders

  I live relatively close to the Navajo reservation and my elderly father lived with me during the pandemic. The experiences of suffering of Navajo elders so close by is heartbreaking but tells the story of deep divides in resources and experiences.
• 
  2021-09-27

  Unexpected

  It's a descriptive story of how covid has affected my life and its important to me because it has a long term affect.
• 2020-03

  Grandma and COVID-19

  During the height of the pandemic in 2020, my family and I were super concerned about keeping the older members of our family safe. Keeping our 80+ year-old grandma safe was a challenge since she was under the impression that she was tougher than the virus, a mindset that seems to be shared across a lot of the elderly community. We tried not to visit her during the first couple months of the lockdowns, but eventually we went over to her house with masks on and stayed 6 feet apart. The pandemic created a difficult dilemma in which people wanted to keep their older loved ones safe, so they stayed away, but at the same time, the elderly were incredibly lonely as they had relied on family visits for stimulation and company. Now my entire family is vaccinated, so we can safely visit our grandmother, but the fear still lingers.
• 
  2020

  The Importance of Family During Covid-19

  Throughout the pandemic, my parents tried to navigate the line between being flexible yet cautious. They did their best to keep my siblings and I safe while also trying to understand and accommodate our needs as young adults to connect with our peers. It was important that they balanced the health and well-being of not only our immediate family but our extended family as well. For as long as I can remember, my family has spent every holiday, birthday, and any other major or minor event with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. My family, as well as my dad’s side of the family, are all local to Pittsburgh, so I have been lucky enough to grow up with them. My dad is one of five and all together there is fourteen of us grandchildren. In January of 2020, right before covid had started, our grandmother passed away from pancreatic cancer. This was a very hard time for my family as we were all incredibly close to her. However, as I look back, I am almost grateful that she is at peace and did not have to experience the crazy covid world in which we are currently living in. My uncle also had pancreatic cancer and had been living with it since his diagnosis in 2012. Our family did everything we could to get him the best treatment and keep him as healthy as possible. Covid made it extremely difficult to be with my family and it was something that I was not used to as I spend much of my time with them. However, our uncle was always our number one thought through it all as he was very at risk due to his underlying health conditions. Months and months went by without seeing my family and we had to continue to cancel get togethers due to my family members health concerns. Not seeing my family frequently was a struggle as I felt disconnected from them and events happening in their lives. My uncle began to fall very ill in September of 2020 and I felt that I was unaware of the extent of his illness. The disconnect and miscommunication from quarantine and covid made it very difficult to get through his time of sickness. Unfortunately, my uncle had passed away shortly after falling ill. It was difficult to think of all of the time we as a family could’ve spent together over the course of the pandemic and all of the memories we could have been making with our uncle before he passed. The pandemic had negatively affected many aspects of life in general but losing a loved one in addition is indescribable. As horrible as the pandemic has been, it has taught me many important lessons in life. I have always loved and appreciated my family but the events that occurred during the pandemic had only brought me closer to them and made us stronger in the end.
• 
  2020-04-18

  Keeping Parents and Grandparents Safe While Social Distancing

  A blog post from Banner Health on how to keep elderly family members safe
• 
  2021-06-30

  COVAX initiative helps vaccinate the elderly in Peru

  COVAX is one of the organizations helping get vaccines to Peruvians. This story focuses on older adults in Lima, Peru receiving their vaccines and the prospect of reunification with family. The video shows several people waiting or receiving their COVID-19 vaccine shot, and encouraging other people to get vaccinated as well. The location is a school called Libertor Jose de San Martin. In Peru over 2 million people have contracted COVID-19 and 200,000 people have died. The pandemic is still in many ways an epidemic in this region of the world, and until we can control the disease globally, there's no hope for a true "return to normal."
• 
  2021-07-27

  Out of Touch

  When I spent the Thanksgiving 2019 holiday with my family at my grandparent’s house, I had no idea that my hug goodbye would be the last hug I could share with my grandmother for a very long while. With the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the CDC pushed multiple changes to prevent the spread of the virus which included social distancing. Both my grandparents are at high risk with underlying health conditions, so possible exposure to the virus was not an option for them. For us, social distancing also meant family distancing. Thankfully, I was able to have regular meetings with them on their front porch. We kept one of the front doors closed to separate us, and we talked from a safe distance. It was not the same as what I was used to and I missed the closeness that we once had, but they were moments to cherish as I did not know when I would get to hug them again. Sadly, I was not the only individual forced to find new ways to stay in touch with family members. All over the internet, heartbreaking pictures and videos surfaced showing families separated by hospital windows, mothers giving birth without family in the delivery room to support them and hold their new baby, and people ‘touching’ their loved one’s hands through glass barriers. These moments showed how the coronavirus left many families out of touch. Once the virus started to slow down and vaccines became accessible, I was finally able to spend more time with my grandparents without the physical barrier. Lots of people are talking about a ‘new normal’ now that cities are reopening and people are getting to go back to their lives. For me, getting to hug my grandmother again was a sign that everything would be okay, and life finally felt normal.
• 
  2021-04-17

  13-year-old in Pfizer Covid vaccine trial who wants to be an epidemiologist: ‘I like to learn everything I can

  Recently CNBC has released an article on my story in the Pfizer Vaccine Trial. I got interviewed about a week ago, and I helped in the making of the article. It is on a division of CNBC called CNBC Make It. CNBC Make It is a section of CNBC that specializes in money, wellness, and heartwarming stories. I have gotten to know the writer, Cory Stieg, well and it was great working with her. The article goes into detail about how the trial works and my experience with the trial. This experience has been amazing from both ends, Pfizer and CNBC. I hope that I inspired others to make a change in the world and to try and pursue your passions. Link to Article in Description
• 
  2021-03-30

  #JOTPYFuture from compassrosetattoo

  hope to be back in the classroom helping kids recover from the trauma of this past year. I can’t wait to see my grandparents in person again! But I don’t expect the word to be what it was before. Not sure what that might look like. #jotpyfuture
• 
  2021-01-21

  While holding hands husband, wife die from COVID-19 days after 70th wedding anniversary

  The increasing death toll from COVID-19 has devastated many families on a personal level. One instance illustrates that like no other. An Ohio couple that had recently celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary both passed away minutes apart, leaving behind seven decades of memories, five children, 13 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren. Dick and Shirley Meek celebrated their anniversary on Dec. 22. It was then when they innocuously told their children they were feeling a little under the weather. "They said to all us kids, 'we think we're getting colds,'" said Kelly Meek. But suddenly, things got bad and it was evident this was no mere cold. On Jan. 8, they both tested positive for COVID-19. When things started to worsen for both of them, the family asked for them to be together for their final moments. Hospital staff found a room for two beds and the necessary equipment. Dick and Shirley died in each other's arms on Jan. 16. They were due to get the COVID-19 vaccine on Jan. 19.
• 
  2021-02-12

  New Year, New Hope

  This Year of the Ox is coming in much differently than the Year of the Rat. Last year, with the smallest shadow cast over the new year with news of a SARS type virus spreading through China, we were still able to celebrate normally, and thought those who had taken to wearing masks were exaggerating the seriousness of the disease. We had new year’s dinner with family, the kids wore their traditional outfits to school and fed red envelopes to the lion dancers, the city held their annual parade, and we even celebrated at Disneyland’s California Adventure, with local community groups coming in to perform and celebrate. Whether you say “新年快乐,” “Chúc Mừng Năm Mới,” or simply “Happy New Year,” Lunar New year is a huge celebration in our community and that celebration certainly isn’t happening in the same way this year. However, even though it’s tempting to focus on the fact that we’re sequestered at home and are physically separated from family, friends, and big celebrations, there is much optimism with the hope of the vaccine. All day, my phone’s been buzzing with new year messages, most of which end with “may the new year bring better tidings” or “may this new year bring much health.” Even talking to my in-laws for the new year today had an extra sense of joy, because they shared they are getting their second dose of the vaccine on Thursday. With light at the end of the tunnel, we are able to talk for the first time about maybe being able to see each other in person by the spring. When my son played piano for them virtually, I imagined it won’t be too long until these FaceTime visits will be replaced by the real thing. So here’s to the new year - may we all see health and peace.
• 
  2021-02-08

  Senior living home, flower shop making it possible to ‘adopt a grandparent’ for Valentines day

  A flower shop in Medford, Wisconsin is letting people adopt a grandparent at a local nursing home. The flower shop plans to deliver flowers to all the nursing home residents on February 12th, just in time for Valentine's Day. Extra flowers will be given to other local nursing homes.
• 2021-01-27

  Losing Grandma

  A week and a half ago was my grandmother's 90th birthday. I shared here about our family's disappointment at not getting to have a big party and instead visiting her at her window. Now she's in the ER, awaiting a transfer to hospice. It doesn't seem to be COVID, although the tests aren't back yet. No one knows what happened or why. There are no ICU beds available and resources in general are limited to investigate why a 90 year old woman who was fine 12 hours earlier is now unresponsive and on a ventilator. No one can go visit her. We're not sure if we will be able to visit her at the hospice. Grandma has had health scares before but nothing like this. Before we would be coordinating visitors and making sure someone was by to see her everyday, even if she was unconscious. Now we’re limited to the family group text as my aunt follows up with doctors by phone and relays information to the rest of us. She’s pulled through before but this time feels different. The doctors are all stretched so thin and resources are so limited that all the odds are against her. I used to take Grandma out at least once or twice a month. We’d go to a movie or just lunch. Maybe run some errands. I haven’t seen her without a window between us in nearly a year. I’m probably never going to get to hug her again.
• 
  2021-02-25

  COVID Statistics

  As of now, there have been roughly 100.17 million COVID cases worldwide. Of those 100 million people that have had COVID, about 2.14 million have died. This means that the death rate of COVID-19 is about 2%. Most people who get the virus have little to no symptoms, and recover quickly. However, the elderly and people with underlying health conditions are more likely to develop complications because of COVID (respiratory tract infection). Luckily, everyone I knew who got COVID were pretty healthy. My cousin Michael, who just graduated from UC David and is training with the Marines, contracted COVID and recovered very quickly. My family cancelled our Christmas celebration in Burbank to prevent my 94 year old grandpa from getting COVID. He is definitely in the high-risk category because of his age. I am thankful that no one close to me has died of COVID, and I pray for those who have passed away.
• 2021

  statistics

  when covid first started in march, I was checking the rising statistics every day and trying to stay positive. Who knew it would be still high in January. Now, the cases seem to be going down everywhere, which is really good. The countries with the highest cases seem to be the united states and united kingdom, but they are both thankfully going down. People i know have affected these statistics, for my grandparents and parents got covid, but no one died from it. In august/september, the cases were going down a lot, but went super high again when the holidays came around. Now that the cases are going down again with no holidays coming up, I feel like we are getting to a good point. Its been a stressful year but I learned alot from it and improved myself.
• 2021-01-24

  Food, COVID-19, and my Mother

  My mom raised her children around food. She made sure everything revolved around it just like the Earth revolves around the Sun. We ate whether we wanted to or not, as food was her way of showing love. Mom is now in her late 70's and still works miracles in the kitchen. When we visited my parents' house (pre-pandemic), she fed us until we could not eat anymore, then declared we were still hungry and loaded our plates with more. That is what Mexican moms do, she always says. Even though we protest, my husband, kids, and I love it. All of this changed once COVID-19 hit. Worried about my parents catching the virus, we did not see much of them in 2020. When we did, it was from a distance in their backyard and not for very long. It took an enormous toll on my mom. My parents cannot visit with their children and grandchildren, but almost just as worse, my mom has no one to cook for but my dad. Although she still enjoys cooking for him, it is not the same. Although we all know what food means to her, none of us realized just how much until this pandemic hit. Normally, she is rarely sick, loves to hike, and enjoys going to aerobics with her friends. However, lately, she has felt melancholy, is getting headaches, and is sleeping more. This is extremely unusual for her, which has us all very concerned. This pandemic is wearing on her both physically and emotionally. This feisty woman is slowing down, which is scary to us all. Over the past year, we continue to tell her we want to come over but would never forgive ourselves if we unknowingly pass the virus to her or my dad. Mom did not and still does not understand. She just wants what she wants, which is her family surrounding her. My dad is much more pragmatic about this situation, but mom will not have any of it. She is incredibly frustrated and is not afraid to tell us about it. Luckily, both of my parents just got their first dose of the vaccine last week. My dad said this gives them renewed hope that their family will be together again soon. I hear this hope when I speak on the phone with my mom. She is ready to get busy again in the kitchen. I cannot wait to eat her homemade tortillas straight off the stove, her spicy chili, and all of her other tasty dishes. People are now talking about the 'new normal.' I do not want a new normal. I want to get back all that this pandemic has taken from us, including my family crowding around a table full of my mom’s food.
• 2021-01-22

  Covid Symptoms

  Covid presents with tons of symptoms and although I haven't seen any of them first hand I have heard a story of my friend who had Covid when it first started and even though she is now negative, she still can't taste certain foods. It is different for everyone and some people are even A-symptomatic meaning they are carriers. My family members have had some Covid scares including my grandparents which was very scary considering its very dangerous for them to get it. One person happened to stop by their house who had Covid and didn't know it and nearly gave it to them.
• 2020-01-22

  Experiences of Covid Symptoms

  Currently, we know much about the symptoms of covid. For some people, it just like a flu, for others, all you get is a cough. My grandfather got covid, and all he got from it was a heavy cough. I got covid, and I barely even had a cough.
• 2021-01-22

  My Experience with COVID Symptoms

  When COVID-19 had just started I had heard a lot of people had gotten sick, but no one that I had known. Fast forward a couple of months into the pandemic I get the news that my friend had gotten COVID when I had just seen her a couple of days ago. She has five siblings, one of them was a toddler, her older sister who had a one-year-old was staying with them, and she was pregnant for the second time. Thank god everyone ended up all right including the baby who had not even been born yet. Out of the 9 people that were living in their house at the time only two of them got it bad. The second oldest siblings along with her mom had body aches, a fever, a headache, lost their sense of taste, had a couch, stuffed nose, and couldn't get out of bed for a week. The rest of them only had a cough and a stuffed nose. Lucky they weren't infectious yet when we saw them so my family did not contract the virus from them. Another time this happened, my dad had a business meeting with his co-worker. Three days late his co-worker had tested positive for coronavirus. Once again our minds filled with worry. My grandma was staying with us at the time and because of her age, she was high risk so we sent her along with my uncle to a hotel nearby our house. We waited till we reached the five-day mark and my parents went and got tested. Luckily they tested negative and my grandma and uncle came back home and we celebrated the New Year all together with some negative COVID tests.
• 2021-01-22

  My grandma and grandpa having Covid-19.

  My grandma and grandpa had Covid in November, before thanksgiving. My grandma got it from a nurse that had it from her work and then she got it and passed it on to my grandpa. My grandma had it for 3-4 weeks. She had a fever, cough, lost of taste, shortness of breath, body aches. My grandpa had it for about 2 weeks. He had body aches, headaches and a slight cough. My grandma has to go to the Los Robles Hospital because she had shortness of breath. The doctors helped her by giving her some oxygen, some antibiotics, steroids, plasma with with antibodies, Vitamin D and C, and Zinc. My grandpa did not have to go to the hospital. They are all fine now but that was a little scary when my grandma had to go to the hospital.
• 2021-01-22

  How covid has affected me

  Me personally has not been affected to much by covid. No one in my family or friends has even tested positive. The hard part for me is that i am not allowed to see my grandparents without wearing a mask and social distancing. My nana is ok we go to lunch and hang out sometimes but my grandparents are paranoid. Luckily my grandparents got the vaccine early with no side affects and now once we get it we will be able to see each other.
• 2020-11

  How People I Know Testing Positive Has Affected My Life

  My grandparents tested positive right after Thanksgiving, but we didn't go up there since they were not feeling well. Other than that, my orthodontist and his wife tested positive, but I haven't had/needed an appointment in quite a while. That is just about it.
• 
  2020-05-28

  Trail Runs

  A close-knit family can mean a lot of noise, a lot of home cooking, and a lot of downright work. Care in a large family doesn’t understand the word pandemic or isolation; it only understands that you’re there or you’re not. COVID meant to my family the opposite of what it meant to everyone else on the planet, we would need to be physically closer to help care for those who need it. Instead of focusing on the smells and noises caring for others, I choose to remember the feel of damp earth under my feet and the smell of new ferns in the forest. I remember the whisper of water in the creek signaling the halfway point on Thursdays or the smell of the rainwater pond at the end of Tuesday. I can laugh at the smell of a wet dog; who got into both and had to be bathed twice a week for the entire summer. We took turns going for morning runs or hikes so that one person would always be home with my grandparents. My grandfather was needing more and more supervision daily that my grandmother couldn’t handle on her own. Ironically enough without COVID, we wouldn’t have been able to do the things we did. Now, instead of remembering the smell of hand sanitizer; I remember the clean air in my lungs and the smell of the trail on those morning runs in northern Arizona. I have downloaded a sound effect from https://www.freesoundslibrary.com/mountain-river-sounds/ that reminds me of one of the places I went to get away from the chaos of COVID.
• 2020-01-11

  What Christmas was like with Covid-19

  My Christmas was pretty normal, to be honest. The main difference was I was not able the see my grandparents. That was very sad because I spend Christmas with them almost every year. I was able to talk to my whole family everywhere over zoom witch is something we have never done. That was fun to talk to some of my family that I don't talk to very often. But other than that my Christmas was pretty normal.
• 2020-01-07

  consider how Christmas was different for you this year because of covid-19

  This year with Covid-19 going on my Christmas was a little different. Every year on Christmas day we go to my grandparent's house and all of my cousins that live in town go to my grandparent's house but my other cousins that live in Virginia cannot come down to spend Christmas with us this year because of Covid-19. We all go over and exchange gifts and eat dinner as a family. I feel if covid-19 wasn't around I fell like all holidays would be extra good just because we get to see our close family members.
• 2021-01-07

  Covid Christmas

  This Christmas was kinda different than any other christmas for me. Covid did not really effect my family but what happened was that my cousins got covid on Christmas Eve Eve. So that effected a lot of our Christmas plans. We were supposed to go to my Nana and Papas but we could not because of our cousins and we did not want to risk giving covid to my papa. Then Christmas morning was normal because my Nana came over and we opened up gifts and i got a new gaming microphone. They my sister had her friend over at night and we played What Do you Meme and watched Christmas Vacation. That is what my Christmas looked like.
• 2021-01-07

  A COVID Christmas

  Every year, all of my relatives that live in Europe fly to California and celebrate Christmas with us. We make our traditional lamb on Christmas morning along with our favorite Armenian food. I look forward to Christmas every year but this year was different. The airports were all shut down and they weren't letting people who don't live in the U.S fly in. Because of this, all of my relatives stayed in Europe for this Christmas and we missed them greatly. I woke up my family at 8:00 am dragging them out of bed. Still wanting to include our grandparents we called them on Christmas morning once we were all up and opened presents over facetime. We told them how much we missed them and could not wait to see them again. We still enjoyed our Christmas this year, but there were just some things that we needed to fix to have a safe COVID free Christmas.
• 2020-12-25

  How Christmas Was different for me in the year of 2020

  This year, with the pandemic going around Christmas was a little different. There were several new situations that occurred one of them being the fact that my grandparents couldn't stay long. Due to the fact that COVID-19 mainly only affects people with preexisting conditions or old age, my grandparents had to go before we opened presents. Another new thing this year caused by COVID is that with the free time, my sister who would've been in college spent her free time training a puppy that got to be with us at Christmas time. Besides for situations such as those we had a normal Christmas with family, presents, and church. With church however, to keep things outside and moving with groups separated they die a tour where you met volunteers who told stories dressed as people who were present for the birth of Jesus.
• 2020-12-25

  Christmas Vacation

  It was Christmas Eve. As usual I can't sleep because well you know Christmas. And I remember this was the fist time in 4 years that we had Christmas at our house. Because of covid my grandma come up from where she lived which is in San Diego. So I toss and turn and then all of the sudden my younger brother Milo opens the door and says "Its Christmas! Wake up wake up!" So I got up and realized it was Christmas, yeah it was! I walked down stairs and saw all of the presents. My grandma came over and we started I wanted an iPhone for Christmas and I wasn't sure I would get it. When it was my turn to open my gift I shook it and it made the sound that legos make so I was like ok so a lego not a phone. I opened it and it was a little box that had legos in it. Then I looked deeper in the box and there it was a phone. And that was it.
• 2021-01-07

  Covid Christmas

  I got out of school for Christmas break. Once I was out of school, I felt like it just was a normal weekend due to being online. Usually, I celebrate with my friends at school but we couldn't do that. I just tried to excite myself for Christmas but I just felt empty because I knew I couldn't see my whole family. Its Christmas. Usually, on Christmas Eve I get home from being with my uncle and grandparents. But we did not go to that so I was really down. I walked downstairs to the presents. I waited for my sister to get up. She got up we were ready to open gifts. My grandma was not scared of covid and still came even we told her not to. We were still happy to see her. It was fun opening gifts. But after I had fun, I realized we weren't going to be able to see my other grandparents after opening gifts. Usually, we go to our other family but not this time. I was sad because usually after opening gifts I am excited to go. I spent time with my one grandparent and also had fun with my parents and sister. But even though we had a fun time, it wasn't the same.
• 2020-12-25

  Christmas

  This year was pretty much the same as a normal Christmas. We had my grandparents over, opened presents under the tree, and had a big Christmas dinner. The only thing that didn't go as planned was my family from New York was supposed to come over, but they are at high risk with health problems.
• 2021-01-07

  COVID-19 Christmas

  This year, Christmas was normal for the most part. I had my one side of my family's grandparents and cousins over but I was not able to see the other side of my family. We didn't go shopping or to amusement parks like usual but we still had fun. I played golf and watched my cousins play tennis. I got shoes for Christmas and a guitar. I am super grateful that we stayed healthy.
• 2021-01-07

  Quarantine Christmas

  On Christmas day every year my family's cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents come to our house. We would open our gifts and play with them for a while and after a few hour they would all leave. Later that day we go to our other cousins house to eat dinner. Covid-19 didn't have a huge affect on my Christmas but a few things changed. One thing that we couldn't do was have people over, we only had our grandparents over. Other than that, my Christmas was the same as any other year.
• 0001-01-07

  Christmas in Covid

  My Christmas this year was essentially the same with some differenced, on Christmas Eve we watched Church online instead of in person, and wewent to our Grandparents house that are on my dads side and we saw our cousins and ate food. The only thing different about this is that we would have usually gone to "Farfalles" to eat dinner with our grandparents and then would have gone to our grandparents house later to open gifts. On Christmas our other grandparents came over after we had opened gifts and spent time with them and we mad this resepee that has been in the family for generation. On the Monday after Christmas we went to our Grandpa's condo in mammoth like usual.
• 2021-01-07

  My 2020 Christmas

  This Christmas in the year 2020 was not much different as I expected than other years. The only really change was that my grandparents couldn't come. For as long as I remember I have spent every christmas with my grandparents. Also, because of the pandemic, all restaurant seating is closed. My family and I usually go out to dinner every christmas eve. But this year, we had it at home, which was not really odd since we only started going out for dinner christmas eve a few years ago. Other than those changes, we still did everything the same, we decorated, made cookies, got christmas pajamas, and more. However, it did not feel like christmas. Even though everything we did was the same pretty much, it did not feel like christmas. Listening to christmas music did not even make me feel like it was christmas. To sum up, my 2020 christmas was still pretty much the same.
• 2020-12-14

  My 2020 Thanksgiving

  This Thanksgiving of the year 2020, was different among all of my Thanksgivings in many ways. My family and I did not have our usually gathering this year. My grandparents were not able to due to COVID-19 the global pandemic, we did not want to put them at any risk. It also did not really feel like Thanksgiving at all, since we were not in school in person, I still cannot believe we have been doing school online since March! Wow how time has flied by. This year it was really hard for me to get into the fall spirit, yes I carved pumpkins, made pumpkin pie, and drank many iced pumpkin spiced lattes from Starbucks, nothing made it feel like Thanksgiving. Growing up I have always craved that feeling of leaving school, walking out those doors, knowing your not going to go back for a week. Oh how amazing that feels. But this year, that never happened. All I had to do to leave school was close my laptop, that's it. I was already at home, nothing had changed. Even though we did not to anything jurastically different it still did not feel like Thanksgiving, not even one bit. I never ever in a million years thought I would say this, but, I miss school, I want to go back so bad. I can not wait, I can not wait. To whoever is reading this probably years from now, please never take anything for granted, not even toilet paper. Yeah, toilet paper, it was impossible to find it anywhere, and even if you did, it was really bad, like worse than public restroom bad. Well, anyways Thanksgiving 2020 was a total bust and I can not wait for the day to come when everything goes back to normal, no more limits on how many people can enter a store at a time, no more temperature checks, getting to eat inside at restaurants! Never thought that would be something I would not be able to do, and the thing I know we all want most, is no more face masks. Yes, we have to wear face masks these little peices of paper that we wear on our face that cover our nose and mouth to help us maybe not get the virus. Half of my 8th grade year is gone already, and oh boy, I can't wait to go back to normal, I just really can't wait.
• 2020-12-14

  My Covid-Thanksgiving

  The year 2020 has been a very strange year, and my families Thanksgiving experience was an odd one. Since we couldn't have a large family dinner, we ended up bringing food to both of my grandparents. I was really bummed to not be able to spend quality time with them, but I was still glad to get the opportunity to see them. After we left our grandparents, we went to our cousin's beach house. We were scrambling throughout the city trying to find an open restaurant for our Thanksgiving dinner. None of the restaurants were open, but we luckily got a call from our friend to have our Thanksgiving meal with them. The lesson I learned from this day was that having close family and friends really matters and that they can get you out of any tough situation. Overall, my Thanksgiving during the pandemic was not an ideal one, but it was still a blessing to be able to be with my family and friends nonetheless.
• 2020-11-25

  The Quiet Thanksgiving

  Never would I have thought that my Thanksgiving would be like this. My Thanksgiving usually is with my whole family. But this year it wasn’t. My grandparents are scared of covid and did not come over. My other family, like my uncle, were scared to put my grandparents in danger. It was weird not looking forward to seeing my grandparents. My parents and sister decided to just eat at home together. Usually when we go to the market. It is crowded but now, no one was there due to covid. It felt like a ghost town. We enjoyed our meal and it felt like a regular Thanksgiving meal but I still had that lonely feel of my other family. It wasn’t an awful Thanksgiving, it just wasn’t the same.
• 2020-11-26T14:00:00

  My Thanksgiving in Covid

  This Thanksgiving was a little weird, because my family was supposed to have Thanksgiving dinner with my grandparents on my mother's side on Wednesday, and then go up to my other grandparents afterwards to have another Thanksgiving dinner with them on Thanksgiving day, but they were not feeling well, so we canceled, and moved the Wednesday dinner to Thursday. My cousin, aunt and uncle (all on my mother's side) usually come, but my aunt and uncle were scared of getting Covid 19, so they did not come. Fast forward to Thanksgiving day, my dad starts preparing the turkey at around 12:00 p.m., and finished it at around 2:00 p.m., so we went to our grandparents' house soon after. My mom, dad, and some others prepared the rest of the food, and while they did that I was tasked with the job of setting the table and putting food in the appropriate spots when said food was finished being made. Then we ate the dinner, and that went normally, with the exception of there being less people. Then we packed up the left over food, said our good-byes and went back home, where we rested for a while, then ate a "dinner" of something-that-is-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue-but-I-can-not-remember while watching something if I remember correctly (It wasn't the Mandalorian®, because the next episode would have come out Friday...). Then we all went to bed and slept.
• 2020-12-11

  Something Not to be Grateful For

  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.
• 2020-11-26

  Thanksgiving in 2020

  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.
• 2020-12-10

  My Experience

  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.
• 2020-12-10

  The Story That I Knew Was Coming

  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.
• 
  2020-04

  Family facetime

  At the start of lockdown it became clear that my family would not be able to see each other for a while. Most of my family lives in Sydney, some of us live in Melbourne, regional Victoria and Canada. In response, my sister initiated a Coffey Family FaceTime every night at 6:30pm with whoever was available. However, this meant teaching my grandmothers how to use Facebook and how to start a call. More than 8 months later and both my grandmothers still can’t turn their video on without direction and also can’t start Facebook calls. This call kept us together when we felt far away. Celebrating father’s day and birthdays and anniversaries on FaceTime made some moments more memorable and some feel more lonely. Face timing each other was fun until there was a family dinner in Sydney and you couldn’t leave the state. However, there were fun moments, stirring up my parents dogs by yelling “walkies” or “dindins” and then leaving the call, FaceTiming on empty trams and using the weird face effects to confuse my grandmother about who’s camera was whose. The call gave structure to the days spent inside and caused me to talk to my grandmothers and extended family more about the current world events. HIST30060
• 
  2020-06-01

  Grandpa and Me

  During the pandemic just like many individuals i was unable to see my family for a long time which I was struggling with. My grandpa who I usually take to once a week was especially struggling through the pandemic because he wasn't even aloud to leave the house for 4 months. I was planning to go and see him since he was getting sicker but obviously could not. We ended up on FaceTime almost every day just talking about college and what was happening in Chicago. My grandpa was a huge part of my life and being able to help him through the pandemic made me feel so much better. During the pandemic, I was just feeling sad and more homesick than usual. Since school was online I had a lot more time on my hands which led to me and grandpa talking over FaceTime all the time. He had taught me and my roommates how to play poker which was so much fun and gave us something to do at night. Unfortunately, Grandpa had starting getting really sick and had to go to the hospital and be by himself since no one was allowed to accompany him. He had eventually gotten even sicker in the hospital and passed away. I was thankful that I got to talk to him the day before he went in the hospital because it was the last conversation I go to have with him. Eventually I was able to meet my family in Chicago so that we could bury him but because of the pandemic we could not hold a funeral to honor him which was very sad. While not being able have a funeral us as a family still celebrated his life together . I know many people out loved ones during this pandemic which is terrible, but it reminded me towards the end that even with all that was happening my grandpa found the positives in life until the end. I learned through him that no matter what life or the world throws your way you can always share the love and make each day count.