Items

• 2021-01-26

  COVID Satistics

  COVID 19 has been horrible for all of us. Many people have been lost and many families have been affected. According to Statista since January 25, 2021, over 25.1 million people have been affected by the coronavirus across the United States. California, New York, Florida, and Houston are the states that are reporting the highest numbers. Since January 25, California has the leading number of cases at 3,168,528, then Texas with 2,250,421, right behind is Florida with 1,649,449, and lastly New York with 1,335,695. In total, these four states add up to 8,404,093 cases out of 25 million. After a year of experiencing this horrific disease, I am very happy that there is finally a vaccine. My uncle works in the emergency department of a hospital so he could be getting exposed to people with COVID daily. Since there is now a vaccine I am not as worried when he leaves to work. Because he is a health official he has already gotten the vaccine and luckily had no side effects. A couple of weeks later my grandma got the vaccine because she is high risk and fortunately she is not experiencing any side effects either. Now that everything is calming down and COVID is becoming a new norm like the Flu, I have learned many things throughout this pandemic. Although the pandemic was horrible for everyone including my family, it helped give me a wake-up call. I realized that every day is not guaranteed. You can do everything right but still, end up hurt or even worse dead. Throughout this pandemic, I have made a promise to myself that I will work harder for the things I want, spend more time with my family, and cherish the moments I am given.
• 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.
• 2021-01-20

  COVID Procedures

  As we all know COVID has been going on for a while now and many procedures have been put in place to help stop the spread. I agree with all of the procedures because I do think that they help us stay safe, but sometimes they do become a little annoying. For example, when I first heard about having to wear a mask everywhere that covers half of your face I was worried. I had never worn a mask before COVID had started, and when I would put on something like it, I would start to freak out because I would feel like I couldn't breathe. I have traveled back and forth a lot during the pandemic so I had to wear masks for 13 hours straight with no breaks. The first time I had to wear a mask felt weird and uncomfortable but I kept reminding myself that it was not that big of a deal and I could take it off soon. Months into the COVID pandemic wearing a mask had become a part of my daily routine. I started to not care about it because I had already gotten used to wearing them. Although I am still looking forward to when we don't have to wear masks and the pandemic is over, wearing one does not bother me anymore. Another procedure put in place was having to quarantine. Quarantine was not a big deal to me at all and I never understood why it annoyed so many people. I quarantined with my family and I do think that it brought us closer together in the end. Overall, all of the procedures put in place have helped us to stay safe, and it was something that we just had to get used to and accept as our new normal.
• 2021-01-15

  Learning Virtually

  When COVID 19 started I was a little excited to try out online school because I didn't have to get up early and put on my uniform. My routine while doing school via zoom was to wake up 10 minutes before class to brush my teeth, wash my face, and change which I really enjoyed because I love to sleep in. Since I live so far away it was very convenient to wake up at 7:50 instead of 6:30 and not having to drive for an hour. There is always traffic on the freeway or some kind of accident so I enjoyed being able to do things from home. Fast forward a couple of months the first semester of my 8th-grade year is already over. I am a new kid this year and wasn't really able to socialize with anyone or make many friends. Because of this, I felt that it was going to be harder to make new friends once we get back to in-person school. The days started to feel longer and I started to forget what it felt like to be back on campus and get to hang out and talk with my friends. The breaks we had felt shorter and during class, I was barely able to sit still. August 2020-December 2020 were some of the hardest months I have ever had to go through especially with school. Although we now have to wear masks, I am thrilled that we get to be back on campus and learn in person.
• 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.
• 2020-12-11

  School during a Pandemic

  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.