101 Remembering Covid 5 Years Later

Anonymous

When Covid officially broke out, I was 15 years old, living in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.  I was freshly 15 when the outbreak happened and lockdowns started and 16 when some restrictions were lifted. I had just started my second semester of grade 10 at Regiopolis Notre Dame Catholic High School. The first time I heard talk of a virus I had just come back from a Caribbean cruise with my mother in February. We returned to hear talk of a ‘Wuhan virus’, said to be either created by China or from Chinese people eating bats and cats. After March break, borders were closed, we were not sent back to school, and full lockdown commenced.  My Covid experience and day–to–day life was ultimately shaped by the fact that both my parents were front line workers. My father a police officer for the city of Kingston and my mother a child aid worker. While my mother’s workplace closed and they were instructed to work from home, only doing house calls and apprehensions, which now had to be done using their own vehicles, if absolutely necessary because a child had been deemed to be at severe risk. For my father, however, when lockdowns first started he had to move downstairs. He worked 4 days on, 4 days off but at the beginning that didn’t matter. As time went by, we changed the house so that he would leave and enter through the downstairs, disinfect and shower before he came into the main areas of the house and could engage with the family. My father also farms, so we had our own source of meat and other things that took some pressure off of the stockpiling and empty store shelves. When needed, he did the grocery shopping alone, basically in a hazmat suit and would disinfect and change the food containers before anything was brought into the house. My parents were the only ones who left the house. However, living on the farm allowed me the privilege of going out for long unbothered walks. When virtual school started in that second semester of grade 10, for me, it was okay. School had previously caused some anxiety because of the people and large crowds. So virtual school I think helped me to focus on my work and being a student. However, when virtual school began, I noticed and heard talk of more tools that were created to make cheating easier to do and get away with. I do think virtual schooling has had some negative long-term effects on my peers and my friends. Those online English classes that were brushed off have led to not being able to write their own essays contributing to the rise in AI and in academic dishonesty. I also think of the negative impacts that my peers and I face because we lost out on two to three years of in person exams, speeches and other school activities previously designed to help students feel confident in public speaking and prepare us for university. When the schools reopened, for myself personally, my high school did octo–semesters, one course at a time for 20 days. That was my grade 11 until we went back into lockdown and used virtual learning to finish the school year. Having missed out on all those previously stated activities, I did feel underprepared for the looming grade 12 and university that followed. My high school teachers, guidance counselors, and other school staff did nothing to provide extra support or guidance for my peers and me. Once in grade 12, university presentations were not what they had been before, there was less support for students even though we had less of clue what we were doing. But looking back, one of the biggest challenges I faced in Covid was the butterfly effect from the Black Lives Matter protests. Approaching the summer of 2020, cops were really disliked because of the enforcement of lockdown rules. When the #Metoo and Black Lives Matter protests started, my father, who is a white cop was being berated, had objects thrown at him and was called things like ‘nazi’ while on shift. That was very hard on him and it was hard to watch him experience that because as a person of color he has been my number one supporter. When I think of something good that came out of Covid, at least to me it feels like it woke a lot of people up or at least it opened my eyes. Although it was far from ideal, it reminded society of the impermanence and fragility of life. I notice now more young people travelling, having untraditional jobs, and not waiting to be older to enjoy life. When I think of connecting my Covid experience to a course theme, it would be the common theme of blame. Throughout the entire time Covid was happening and we were in and out of lockdowns, there was always the need to blame someone or something. What originally started as blaming China, then bats, went to blaming the governments and then blaming those who, like my father, had to enforce the lockdown rules.