by Tyson Bright, 04/09/2020, Traverse city, MI

Middle School 6-8 Category

It is day 26 of quarantine in Traverse City Michigan, I haven’t been able to see any of my friends because it is required we stay in our homes. I keep thinking that this is going to end soon but in reality we haven’t even hit the peak yet. My parents keep asking me if i’m doing okay and it’s the same answer every time “no, i’m bored and i want to hangout with my friends.” If you go on a drive to anywhere in the city there is no one on the roads because everyone is inside, when my mom goes to the grocery I’m allowed to come but I have to stay in the car because the stores are only allowing 1 person per household in the store. Soon there is only going to be one person from the house aloud to leave and that means for kids under 16 they are locked in their house until this dies down. Some people are still required to work such as my father, he is considered essential and he has to go to work everyday and he has to ask all his coworkers questions to make sure they don’t have the virus.
The news is constantly changing, and there has been multiple arguments between governors, mayors, presidents, vice presidents, doctors and so on. It is very tough to have to make these decisions of closing schools and businesses. Many downtown businesses may have to close down after this because they can’t get any revenue from the population because they are closed. All i’ve been hearing from the news is that the cases of COVID-19 are rising and it seems like everyday the record is set even higher for the number of deaths that day.
Right now all i’m thinking about is how much i wish this would go back to normal. Most of my friends and I are hoping this all comes to close before th school year so we can finish our last year at the middle school strong, but we all know that’s not going to happen. My mom keeps saying “You have to stay hopeful but, you also have to think realistically.” She’s basically saying you can hope that this dies down quickly but don’t keep saying “oh I know we will go back to school this is all blown way out of proportion.” because in reality it’s not. We are still waiting to see what ends up happening with all of this, because for all we know this is just the beginning.