Quarantimes

I did not know it then, but that was my last baseball game of the year.

I thought that this was a serious outbreak, but I never imagined the virus coming to Mississippi. 

In those short lived moments, I was flourishing in 2020, and I knew this year was everything it was deemed to be. 

In the beginning, quarantine was imagined and compared to a spontaneous vacation. 

Life was good, spring break was great, all the while COVID-19 was creeping upon us, knocking on our door, I never expected it to break the door down, but it also decided to rob us. It robbed us of our way of life as we knew it, businesses shut down temporarily, restaurants closed their doors, desperately tried to make it seem as normal as possible, but ZOOM wasn’t a classroom. 

I miss the sound of the bat when I hit right on the sweet spot. I miss throwing someone out from right field. I miss being able to hang out at Sonic every night, piled up in the biggest car, and drinking a blue ocean water slushie. 

My family is like Wilson Castaway. They have become little more than catalysts of my descent into insanity. 

The virus is much worse than a nightmare. The surprising part about this whole pandemic is how it is not fake. It is not a dream, it is real. 

Though I do occasionally converse with my friends by using messenger or zoom, I find it to be noticeably uncomfortable compared to normal conversation. 

As soon as everything felt like it would be ok, my dance studio closed and I felt lost. 

But as distance learning was put into action, I began to enjoy the experience. I liked to work at my own pace and being a natural early-riser definitely benefited my learning. I even noticed that I was way more excited to see my classmates and instructors on a Zoom call than I ever had been in actual school. 

I even began to miss things that I never thought I would, like football tsunami workouts and even Mr. Daniels. 

I have learned that I am not the most self-motivated person, and it is nice to have someone to make me do things. 

I have a dream that this coronavirus will blow over and everyone will come out of their home more grateful than they were before. 

When the day comes that my children ask for help on their history paper about Covid-19 outbreak, they best have a bag of popcorn because it will be a long story. 

I will now take a spoon of salt with my sugar, for anything I once had is now something I miss. 

Change is a part of life. The only question is… are you willing to adapt?

- compiled from the quarantine memoirs of the Senior Class -