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Wuhan Diary Reflection

The pandemic didn’t affect my education as much as my personal life. To maintain good grades, I had to adapt to online school. That meant creating a separate learning environment in my room, organizing my assignments, and setting aside leisure time. These boundaries would sometimes be crossed and lead to a lack of motivation, but I’ve managed to overcome those moments. School in the pandemic has been a learning experience and early preparation for college.

My personal life took a strike from the virus; my family and friends were deeply affected by health risks and finances. One thing I’ll remember years from now is the shortage of facemasks that came with the virus. My mother is a CNA. She worked with many patients who got the virus from infected family members. Her job implemented basic preventative measures, but they weren’t totally effective since many nurses caught the virus. During the earlier stages of quarantine, masks were hard to find. She had to wear the same masks for multiple days; and just like in Wuhan, she resulted to washing the masks. The first month of the pandemic was a scary time for my mother because she feared bringing the virus home, but she couldn’t afford quitting her job.

The pandemic also affected my father’s job. His job closed by the end of March and remained closed for five months. To keep up with bills, my father needed another job. Amazon was providing jobs to a lot of recently unemployed people. Many people, including my father, signed up for temporary positions. My father ended up taking a permanent position at Amazon even after his first job returned to regular hours.

Besides worrying about the risks my mother faced and my father’s job security, I was also worried about my friend’s health. One of my best friends has sickle cell. Whenever she had her common painful episodes, she couldn’t go to the hospital. The hospitals were full just like in Wuhan. She also didn’t want to risk getting infected at the hospital. She was left with the option of taking prescribed painkillers such as opioids. Since the quarantine was lifted, she’s been at the hospital two times under extra precautions. I’m less afraid of her getting the virus now but the risk is still present. For those who are healthy, the virus is not a big deal; but for people with underlying conditions, the virus means something different. I can’t imagine how stressful it is to live when even a small dose of the virus is lethal to your body.