By Lauren Sweet My name is Lauren Sweet. I am seventeen and I’m a junior at West Valley High School in Fairbanks, Alaska. In the last seven days there has been a count of 115 COVID cases reported in Fairbanks. COVID became a serious concern for me when it started to cause a decrease in how much food is transported to us and when my whole life got put on hold. I’m more concerned about what it’s causing than the actual sickness itself.
COVID has caused me to lose a pretty decent amount of things. For example, I wasn’t able to fly and see my grandpa for the first time in years this summer due to the planes getting shut down and states closing. It prevented me from getting a job when I really needed one. I wasn’t able to get all the treatment I needed for my kidneys making the process prolonged. Instead of getting it cleared up within a few months, I’m still dealing with it and they can’t do much about it since they don’t want many people in the hospital unless it's an emergency. My dog; my best friend in the entire world got a bad disease that can kill quickly if not treated and almost wasn’t able to be helped. That terrified me the most because I don’t know how to cope without my childhood best friend. I lost that in person talking skill that was really hard for me to gain, as I was always such a quiet child to the point where teachers or family friends would ask if I was mute. Now I have to go back through that whole process again because COVID took school and soccer. Besides everything I’ve lost, I’ve gained quite a bit too. Due to not getting treated very well for my kidneys, I got to get a puppy. I would have never been able to get one if COVID hadn't happened. I gained the ability to focus on myself, especially my mental health, and I’ve been doing so much better than I’ve ever been. I learned to love nature more and the beauty of just getting off your phone and just taking off on a road trip. I can work out more with more free time and I’m now at a weight I’m really happy with. Since I can’t go out to movies or stores as much I’ve been able to save more money for emergencies. I’ve learned to be happy with who I have and what I have, since a lot of people are really struggling. I get to spend more time with my dad since I’m now home at the times he’s off work. I used to have really bad sleep terrors and sleep paralysis from stress and since COVID I haven’t been stressing as much and now I only get them about twice a month. Even if I’ve lost more than I gained, I still prefer the things I have gained. Under the sickness and sadness was a blessing in disguise to make me appreciate everything more and I’m so thankful for that.
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