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by Olivia Bageris, 04/17/2020, Traverse City, MI

Middle School 6-8 Category


After months, weeks, days, and hours of listening to Carl Azuz on CNN 10 in Ms. O’Neils class stated how the number of cases and deaths in Wuhan, China rose by the second. Soon they started talking about other cities, countries, and states catching the virus. Then all the sudden it hit Michigan and that’s when my phone started to blow up with friends and family texting me if school is going to be canceled? Soon enough it was. Everyone goes to the store stocking up on toilet paper, cleaning supplies, and canned food, the shelves with nothing on them and stores empty! The first few days at home were not bad, finishing the work provided, cleaning some rooms in our house, and my sister and I getting along. Then came the next week when my sister and I were on each other’s nerves and not having anywhere to go and be with people other than your household and that’s when I announced I was officially bored! With keeping busy by work and dog walks it just wasn’t the same. Not many people out walking and there wasn’t the joy there usually is in downtown Traverse City. Soon people on the block are filling the sidewalks with sidewalk chalk trying to get smiles instead of tears of sadness on their faces. Just then is when winter decided to come back and that is when they announced the schools shutting down for the whole entire year. Nothing was the same and all I could think about was “last year this time we were in 90 degree weather in Mexico, this year we are in 30 degree weather in Traverse City, Michigan stuck inside our houses.” That is when everyone is asking themselves “how many walks can our dog get today?” With everyone stuck at their houses I think everyone is going a little stir crazy! But, there is hope everynight from 8:00-8:02 ringing bells, chalk and signs all over thanking healthcare workers, teddy bears and hearts in people’s windows, and people flickering their porch lights 10 times at 9:00. People are really showing how we need other people and are all connected! Though we are all going through many tough obstacles and adversity, we are all in this together! We are still connected through these terrifying times to people we love or miss just 6 feet apart, through technology, or even talking through windows.