75 Living Through the Unknown with Covid-19

I was physically in Canada, downtown Hamilton for the whole duration of Covid. Lockdown occurred during my grade 9 year, near the start of the second semester.

Lockdown initially started off as a break meant to only last a few days, leaving everyone excited for an extra-long weekend. However, this soon descended into a full-blown pandemic, leading to the start of online school and the change of many aspects within everyone’s daily lives.

The most direct change was the limitation of in-person contact. Luckily, technology has reached a point where communication is more accessible and in reach than ever before. Although I could not physically meet my peers, many of them live near me, our proximity gave me a sense of closeness. Paired with consistent online communication, this filled the void where many others felt isolation or loneliness. I was very fortunate to have friends who craved the same amount of social interaction as me.

Covid made the theme of ‘fear of the unknown’ really resonate with me. Simply ‘not knowing’ is what caused many negative issues to occur in past pandemics and illnesses. No one knew what to expect as this entire situation was unprecedented for society as a whole. When (and if) this pandemic would be over was a pressing issue and thought cemented not only in the minds of people, but in daily conversation. How do we move forward from both a medical and societal perspective?

A week into the start of the pandemic (end of March, 2019), my nephew, the first grandchild in our family, was born. This undoubtedly set a tone of positivity within our family and drastically changed our day-to-day as we really got to spend much more time with him than usual due to the lockdown. As the youngest sibling, I knew nothing about children, this caused fear of the unknown, but in a more positive light.

To be blunt, the pandemic timing for me was the ‘best’ it could have been. If the pandemic had occurred in my life now, I would be crushed, raving about missing my university experience and not being able to see my friends or study at Thode. But as a 13-14 year old, I did not have that much freedom yet that I was sad about it being taken from me. Missing required grade 9 courses versus a 12th years’ elective is a completely different scenario.

It genuinely feels like a different era reflecting back on it, grade 10 was a blur, being the only school year to be fully virtual. Having a good group of friends and family really allowed me to luck out in what could have been a much more dreadful environment. Still, at this point in time I was fiending to go back to ‘normal’ and attend in-person school. I saw my friends a handful of times while socially distancing throughout this school year. Lockdown protocols were always shifting, leaving everyone more anxious when strictness was enforced. Days would blur together without a semblance of differentiation that is gained from in-person learning and social interaction. I had no idea what to expect of the future, would I continue the rest of my education and life virtually? Are waves of Covid going to keep recurring, leaving us in an endless cycle of lockdowns? There was no consistent answer as everyone was in the dark, no one could predict the upcoming months of a new pandemic.

I very much lucked out in the grand scope of things, while every year of education is important, I would argue that grade 10 is the least impactful. Grade 9 is a major social change and character building year, grade 11 is when the student classes are majority elective and can be applied to postsecondary, and grade 12 is the final year with prom, university applications, and graduation. Because of this timing, I do not think many students in my year were heavily impacted by long-term effects of online classes. Of course I do speak broadly, I am sure many people had a negative experience where this year stunted their learning growth and potential. It was much harder to stay motivated and participate with only online classes, but from my personal experiences, no one I know has encountered this on any major level. Again, this was because grade 10 was general education, not specific electives I would have wanted in-person.

We had the opportunity to return to in-person learning in grade 11, allowing us to recuperate from the effects of online learning. Covid did have an impact, changing many social dynamics and enforcing limitations set in place to reduce the spread of illness. This did cause a period where everyone was adjusting to new societal norms, however, by year 12 life was essentially back to ‘normal’. No more Covid scares, potentially a random case would pop up on the news. Social events could occur without fear of illness, social distancing wasn’t enforced anymore, and masks were slowly becoming non mandatory.

Grade 12 and onwards genuinely felt like Covid never happened. It really felt as if we experienced an unprecedented ‘arc’. I am now in my second year of university, and we are very lucky to continue living without the burdens placed upon us by Covid and back to a life where uncertainty does not hang above us.