"No school for two weeks” my mom had said. Those words felt so good to hear but soon would forever change me and the whole world around me. I knew a virus was spreading, however, I never really thought much of it. Rumors about this virus were everywhere, and I did not know what to believe. I did not expect my life to be possibly changed forever or at least for a few years. I was just excited to have a break from school and be ready to come back in two weeks. I should have thought that two weeks off from school had to have a downside to it Because it did. Those “two weeks” turned into multiple months of isolation, I would come to learn. However, those months felt like years.

 Being quarantined for months was an adjustment because I was not used to sitting inside and doing nothing. I was always that person who was outside and active and always had something to do. The first cases of COVID were reported in my city, and I started to feel uneasy. Would we ever go back to school? Will this pandemic continue to spread? As a kid, I needed answers. Little did I know, no one had the answers. Our world was in pure shock. Living through a pandemic is my first example of exposure to real-world problems as a kid, and I would be forced to live in isolation for months. 

To start, my story of living in isolation is quite uneventful. The dark and gloomy days went by slowly. My story in quarantine could be compared to a rollercoaster with no hills. My family had not felt the effects of the virus yet, however, I knew people who had covid and their life seemed miserable. I was just a kid, who loved basketball and hanging out with his friends, so I was not the most creative person one will meet. Being unable to play basketball or be with my friends surely was driving me crazy. All of the confusion and uncertainty throughout my household was getting to me. I was sleeping until 1 o'clock and I had nothing to do that was keeping me from sleeping longer. Things would soon get better for me as school started and that kept me occupied for at least a little. Quarantine also intertwined with much of my summer. I would soon find that Video games were a good way to entertain myself throughout the long days. Playing games such as NBA 2K 21 and Fortnite was one of the very few things I did during the day. During quarantine, I also got much closer to my parents than I ever had been by playing cards and board games.

When I first got tested for the virus, millions of thoughts swarmed my mind. Goosebumps swarmed my body like mosquitos in the woods and I was unable to think straight. Would I survive? Would I be able to see my parents? Another part of me didn’t think it could be the worst thing to test positive, as we are in lockdown anyways. Luckily, the test was negative, and I was fine. This would be the first out of many times I would get tested for COVID.

In conclusion, this whole pandemic is sort of like the beginning of my adulthood, where I was forced to interpret real-world problems that a kid could never understand. However, there still is so much uncertainty with a virus that is nearly in full effect nearly two years later. As much as I hated wearing masks and quarantining, it was a challenge that I had never faced. I faced so many problems that changed me and my attitude on life. I learned to wake up earlier because the earlier you wake up, the more life you get to live. With the world we live in now, I have learned to live every moment like it is your last because you never know when your last minutes in this world will be. I learned to take more risks and be more outgoing. The pandemic is still affecting our world today, as flights are canceled, cases are surging, and a “vaccine” that ironically makes people sick is surely still causing loads of uncertainty throughout the world.