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by Lucy Johnson, 06/05/2020, Gaylord, MI

Middle School 6-8 Category


Lucy Johnson
My experience in quarantine

March 20, 2020, journal entry
There is a new virus that originally quickly spread in China. Before we knew it, it was all over the world and became known as a pandemic. My school just closed March 13th and we are supposed to get back April 6th, but with the way things are going, I don’t think we will be back by then; the virus is spreading rapidly. It is really boring just sitting around at home not able to do much. I can’t get together with friends, so the only fun thing I can do is go horseback riding. I never thought I would miss school… but it would be better than doing nothing. At least I would see friends.

I rubbed my groggy eyes to try and wake myself up a little bit more as I stumbled out of bed and into the kitchen. My mom was waiting there for me with a weird look on her face. “What’s wrong” I asked, a thousand scenarios running through my head, but I never expected her to say…
“Schools out for three weeks.”
“What, are you sure, why?” I said while trying to process this information.
“Covid-19 is spreading rapidly, and the governor ordered a lock-down of schools until April 6th.” she responded, and from the look on her face, she couldn’t process this was happening either.

March 23rd, 2020, journal entry
We just found out that the Governor is closing all non-essential businesses until April 13th. That means my dad [who owns Mid North Printing in Gaylord] had to close, and we can’t go back to school until April 13th which is a week later than we were originally expecting. I believe we would be lucky to get back by April 13th though. I think we are going to be starting online school April 6th.

March 30th, 2020, journal entry
Today is my birthday! It was really weird being quarantined and not able to have a birthday party,but it was still a good day. I started it off with pancakes and bacon, and then I opened a couple gifts. In the afternoon I went horseback riding despite the mist. When I got back, all of my friends came honking into my driveway in their cars. It was amazing to see all of them even if we had to stay 6 feet apart. They sang me happy birthday and left. I finished off the day with presents, homemade mac-and-cheese for dinner, and ice cream cake for dessert. It was a weird day, but it was still amazing!

April 2nd, 2020, journal entry
School just got closed for the rest of the year. I was kind of expecting it, but I am still upset. I feel really bad for the seniors. They won’t have prom, spring sports, traditional graduation, and all of the spring activities that they have been looking forward to for the whole year. We are going to start online school because we can’t just skip to the next grade. I just hope that everything is back to normal by summer, and that the pandemic cases dramatically decrease.

It was a beautiful May morning. The birds were chirping and the sun was up. I wanted so badly to go outside and enjoy the scenery, but I knew I should start my online school. I got a bowl of cereal, walked up to the computer, and got to work. My classes went pretty fast, and I was done by one in the afternoon, so I got to enjoy the rest of the day. Although I didn’t like online school, it did go by faster, so I got more free time than if I was in a face to face classroom.

School is wrapping up and things are going back to normal. I am so glad that normal life is starting to resume. Although this time has been hard, it has taught me something very important. I have learned that we need our friends, family, and community really badly, and we need to enjoy every minute we have with them.