by Claire Hull, 04/08/2020, Traverse City, mi

Middle School 6-8 Category

Have you ever imagined your life being turned upside down in a matter of a couple weeks? Well it wasn’t just mine that was changed, it was everyone. We were all entering uncharted territory, no one knew what to do, we’d never encountered this before.

The news was both informative and caused mass hysteria. It was two-sided most of the time, one person would state what they thought was a fact, then another would come along proving it wrong. It had everyone scared and uncertain for their health, their livelihood and their financial well being.

My family and I are normally busy people and did not like not being able to do things and was feeling anxious for all of this to be over. On the plus side, we have been spending a lot of time together and getting a lot of home projects done. Meals and board games have been a big deal because we get to spend more time together. As a community we are getting back to a simpler time, a time where we value family and our time together.

We have been seeing empty store parking lots, empty store shelves, non essential businesses converting to essential products such as: Bauer who normally makes hockey equipment, now manufacturing face shields for healthcare workers and local distilleries have been changing from producing alcohol to making higher alcohol levels too make hand sanitizers for the jails and local businesses and for us to buy. We have also been observing face masks and latex gloves sold out in stores, on the ground of parking lots and being worn by almost everyone. Another thing we’ve been noticing people hoarding things such as toilet paper, paper towels and medical equipment.

This time was hard being a part of an essential workers family. My mom’s shifts was changed to 7 days on, 7 days off. Which was hard because she has to be careful around the inmates and sanitizing everything. A worry she had was that, what if she gets it at work and comes home and spreads it to us.

If we go through this again, I suggest only keeping as much toilet paper and paper towels as needed and not hoarding things which will mean leaving some for others that actually need them. I also suggest keeping yourself busy meaning go for walks, runs and hikes. Just get out of the house in general. You should also stock up on food but don’t just start chowing down otherwise you will face Quarantine 15 which means when quarantined you will most likely gain 15 lbs from boredom eating.

One thing I would tell my kids about this is that it was hard but it wasn’t just me that went through it, everyone did.