Items

• 
  2022-02-27

  The Covid-19 Pandemic

  This is a essay explaining my life throughout the pandemic.
• 
  2020-03

  My experience with Covid-19

  The beginning of my story takes place at my old highschool which is Union Square Academy for Health sciences. The rest takes place at neighborhood which is Queens, Ridgewood.
• 2020-04-16

  Happy Birthday...

  Today is April 16th, 2020. Instead of waking my mom up with breakfast in bed, she sends me a photo of herself layered in protective gear. At the time my mother was working at one of the largest hospitals in Queens. She went from working four days a week to working six-seven days a week as the rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations increased. Today is her birthday and instead of celebrating life, she is surrounded by fear, death, and uncertainty. Thank you Mom for being strong and putting your life at risk as an essential worker. Happy Birthday
• 2020-04-10

  Good Friday

  It was early Friday morning and I could not fall back asleep. I kept hearing murmurs from the room next door. My stomach began rumbling and I began to worry. Something was definitely off. My feet touched the cold floor and my hands grazed the doorknob but someone else on the other side beat me to opening the door. My dad's face was covered in fear and worry. I asked him what was wrong and like parents do they shield you to protect you from bad news. He told me everything was fine and to go back to bed. Minutes passed but it seemed like hours and I still could not find sleep. My dad burst into the door and told me to call an ambulance for my mother because she was having trouble breathing. My hands began to shake, my body was trembling as I picked up my phone and dialled 911. I stood in my parents room watching over my mother and her saying her last goodbyes to my brother and I. I could not even manage the words out of my mouth as I spoke to the person over the phone. It all happened so fast. My younger brother and I were imploring my mom to hold on and that help was on the way. Within minutes the paramedics arrived. They checked her vital signs and determined my mother was fine and was having a panic attack. That was the day my life changed. Everyone in the world was going through this. Who would have thought we all would have been in a lockdown. My mother became overwhelmed with the situation. Everytime you would turn on the TV, Covid-19 was always headlining. Hearing ambulances come and go every so often right outside your apartment. Sometimes even hearing people cry at the top of their lungs because a family member had passed away. People losing jobs and not being able to work. It was hard hearing all of this. It became such a burden to her that she herself got ill. However, going through this experience helped my family appreciate one another even more. We helped each other out and we enjoyed the small things whether it was making a joke or watching a movie. Funny enough it happened right before Easter as well and my mother being religious and all saw it as a sign. In a way we did have a lot to be thankful for. A second chance to rebuild our family.
• 
  2021-03-26

  Choosing between Work and Health

  This short piece shares the struggles and experiences of choosing between working as an essential worker and worrying about my family's health during the peak of the pandemic.
• 
  2021-02-19

  Looking back at 2020 - A COVID 19 infested year

  As a student in my last semester in Brooklyn college, I was looking forward to an easy semester with electives since I was done with all of my major classes. However, a downfall for me was that there was a very interesting internship which I wanted to proceed with but couldn’t because the program was no longer available because of budget issues that were caused by the coronavirus. This internship was going to provide me with an insight of what my career will look like but that never happened. As an employee of the city of New York, I was still required to work in some form. For example, instead of coming to work physically we transformed our workplace to “zoom” meeting where our work would be done in 2-4 hours and we would still get paid for 8 hours. I saw this as an opportunity to take advantage of since I heard other employees who requested to still show up physically and were dropping like flies with the corona virus, one after another. However, mid-year, around June or July, employees were required to help out in other agencies such as the 311 center because of the increase of food shortages and other aid citizens needed. Eventually, in September we were allowed to go back to work physically – something I was looking forward to since I was more comfortable being where I knew the place and the people. Mentally and physically, COVID 19 prevented me and many others from staying physically active which led to me gaining unhealthy weight. It was a nonstop binge of eating and just sitting down. Granted, there were opportunities to go out for a walk or work out in the park – but those were chances that I wasn’t going to take because I knew I have a mother with underlying conditions which I had to do everything to prevent her from getting the virus. One thing that I did learn to do during these times is to cut and trim my own hair. Also, this was a perfect time for me to enhance my skills in freehand sketching since thats something I'm good at. Nevertheless, COVID 19 was an experience like no other that everyone had to grow through, and we continue to just learn and grow from it.