Items

• 2020-07-15

  COVID: An Online Story

  We live in a new world. This is a world inundated by social media and technology, a world by which our connections are bound by a glowing screen that exonerates us from our day-to-day trappings. In this online world I had friends of eight years who I had met through the massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft, but that was not all we bonded on. As we grew up together we expounded on things both small and large, interests in girls or drama at our High Schools, political arenas we had no conceptualization of, and even philosophical or religious debates that dragged on endlessly and only served to fuel our unending thirst for knowledge. This bond transcended geographic location, each of us where from different parts of the continental US. I learned new things about local American cultures that shocked my Angeleno conscious. But when the pandemic hit, we found a distance between us that was measured by complicated school schedules, budding responsibilities, and a sheer desire to perfect areas of our life that we felt were lacking. The typical adage amongst contemporaries in this pandemic is that gamers were particularly blessed for being natural introverts willing to spend inordinate amount of time alone and being comfortable with it, but for us there was a newfound stress and distance that came with obligations from work and school, and our kids, that transformed our bond into a gaping chasm. Connections that were solid as ever became distant and longing, as the pandemic plunged us into a world that was uncertain, filled with stress, and plagued by civil unrest, we ourselves became a microcosm of society at large, divided. Political discussions became long-drawn out political arguments, viewpoints regarding the validity of COVID became crass and filled with cynicism or a countered desire to explain the seriousness of its impact. This all fell to the wayside when my friend, an integral part of our four, became sick, and was intubated in July. He was a smoker, young, about 22, but he was gone for many weeks. Nobody heard a word from him. He was on death's door. And for whatever reason, perhaps it was my naivete, COVID was the last thing that came to my mind as for reasons to why he wasn't "logging on" anymore. The reality of it was much more severe than I had thought. He lost 25 lbs, and he was already a skinny enough guy. Luckily he survived, but the effects from COVID, the doctor's say, may be permanent. It's simply unknown. He couldn't smell, and it still took tremendous effort to walk, formerly a disbeliever in COVID, he now swears its validity as a precautionary tale to all of our friend group who now know never to take this beyond the seriousness it deserves.