Items

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  2021-02-16

  My Covid-19 Experience

  The emergence of Covid-19 definitely took me by surprise. I remember discussing in one of my classes on the Brooklyn College campus of how potentially serious the virus was in early March of 2020. The majority of the class agreed that the virus was probably not going to get out of hand and it was just being over-covered in the media. Then a couple weeks later, we were stunned of how quick the situation surrounding the virus in the U.S. became which lead to Brooklyn College shutting down the campus and going virtual online. It was an overwhelming and challenging experience adjusting to having five classes from in person to online. What made it more challenging was contracting the virus myself in April where I experienced extreme fatigue, chills and a fever a couple nights, and lost of taste and smell. Through it all, I kept my faith in Jesus and trusted Him to heal me from the sickness and get through the semester. Thankfully, I passed all of my classes at the end of the semester and recovered fully within a couple weeks. My entire family was infected with the virus including my parents but they overcame it as well. Lastly, seeing all of the death totals on the news and staggering scenes such as freezer trucks taking bodies from hospitals to be buried or cremated were both alarming and saddening. What gave me hope was the general high survival rate despite the high number of reported infections and my faith in Christ who warned us in through the Bible (Mathew 24:3-8) that perilous times would come in the last days, including pestilences. As the pandemic continues to evolve, I continue to pray for those who lost loved ones, our country and the world that we would all become stronger, wiser, and closer to Jesus after this unfortunate experience.
• 
  2020-07-07

  A Moment in Time

  When the pandemic started effecting businesses that is when I saw things really start to shift. Family members, coworkers, and friends were losing their jobs or being converted to working remotely. For majority of the adults in my life, I remember feeling their worry of their future and their children's futures as well. Most jobs were unpredictible and there were still bills to pay. Kids were no longer attending school in person so this added another layer of stress. Worksheets needed to be printed out daily as well as the constant back and forth with teachers via email to enter the virtual classrooms through zoom links and passwords. In my home things were a bit all over the place. We are a big family of eight so things tend to be this way. A typical day in quarantine was as follows, I was considered an essential worker so I would leave to work before anyone woke up and when I came home I would take over the household so my parents could finally be able to work. My parents had to work remotely while simultaneously managing my five siblings that are all under the age of 12. Three of the five children were attending school remotely which meant preparing all the necessary worksheets, tablets/computers, and zoom links. The remaining two children are under the age of two and require a lot more hands on attention throughout the day. Luckily, we were able to have a fulltime babysitter before the pandemic hit but once the numbers of cases went up my family couldn't risk having anyone come into the home. At the time, nobody knew when the shutdown would end or what would have to change for everyone to feel safe leaving their homes but it was definitely an opportunity to really connect and grow as a family. It is rare that a family has an experience as a whole and I am glad we were all able to work together and make the most of this time. Regardless of age, this pandemic has effected us all incredibly and I will definitely look back at this strange time and appreciate the quality time I was able to have with my family.
• 
  2020-03-01

  Mental Health Effects of COVID-19

  COVID-19 was an experience that presented the ideal conditions that would challenge our mental health. The fear of the unknown, fear of losing loved ones, fear of missing out on our precious years of life as well as not knowing when we'll see our close family and friends. We are separated from society unable to see our loved ones, schools are closed, many people lost their jobs or were unable to work to prevent the spread of this horrifying disease. As we're locked into our homes, we confine ourselves in our own minds which can often be our worst enemies at times for people like me. We need to be occupied and be around loved ones in order to stray away from negativity. During these times being surrounded by close family and friends was a luxury we couldn't afford because of the virus and ultimately many people like myself picked up hobbies to distract ourselves from the dreadful events occurring all over the world. During my summer break, I began learning to paint and would spend about a couple hours a day painting with my friends over Zoom which would either sometimes turn out to be a competition between us of who would do the best or we would just freely paint while listening to some calming music and keeping each other company. Although I am not very artistic or good at acrylic painting there was something very therapeutic about it. My entire focus and attention was solely on doing my best to recreate the painting from the tutorial I was watching on YouTube or trying to win the friendly competition with my friends and this helped me steer away from pondering about what's been going on in the world and was very stress-relieving. In a way my COVID-19 experience taught me a lot about my mental health and helped me find ways to make the best of the situation and not take anything for granted. Now a couple months into quarantine I still paint from time to time although not as much because the semester started and being bombarded with assignments and tests but I do make time for it if I find that I need to release my stress.
• 
  2020-06-13

  When the ideal bar mitzvah is a Zoom Mitzvah

  My boy-girl twins had their b'nai mitzvah during the pandemic. It went from me planning a big party, to me trying to make them feel happy about themselves on Zoom. But the secret is: This was possibly the best thing that could have happened! My son is autistic, and we were struggling with how he would deal with the sensory overload of performing in a large synagogue. I wrote a story about it that was published in the Forward, and I want to share it here.