Age: 18-30

#covidstory

My grandfather had a stroke and was in the hospital for 15 days, only my grandmother could visit because of covid restrictions. I have three younger sisters, all who do online school, while my grandmother was visiting my grandfather during the day, I had to watch my sisters. It was an extremely stressful time and he still isn’t 100% recovered.

grateful to God and life for one more opportunity

2020 a year with much to tell. where you realized that life is the most beautiful thing that God has given us where we learned to be more human where we realized that it does not matter the title, position or how high it is when the virus Attack no position, we learned that life can go away in an instant definitely a difficult year all change if we are still counting being here alive let us thank God and strength for all those who lost a family member I wish for all that 2021 be a year in victory and let’s get out of this uncertainty healing and peace for the whole world amen

EJSJB2020 (Story #NA)

When Covid-19 was first being pushed into the American news stream in March 2020 I was a sophomore in high school getting ready for spring break with my friends. Around this time people’s emotions were very mixed, some of us were freaking out 2020 had already been so chaotic (We had a World War 3 scare, several celebrities had died, storms were hitting, etc.). Some of us weren’t all that concerned especially us Floridians. Every year we get storm scares and the like, overtime we’ve adapted so that most of the time it’s hard for the mainstream news to faze us, after all if we let that happen we’d be freaked out all the time. We thought: “This is just another thing they’re trying to worry us about” Let’s not forget that our election for U.S. president was coming up this year and candidates were already dropping out like flies, this was just adding onto the election frenzy. “It’s just another Flu” “It’ll be gone by summer” “It only really hurts babies and elderly people.” These are all things we told ourselves. These are all things we were wrong about. Young healthy people, college students, newly weds still in their honeymoon stage, new mothers, this virus did not discriminate. People were being wiped out! It wasn’t just the virus’ mass devastation that caused this pandemic to become an era for the history books though, people’s behavior in these times will be talked about for years to come. I hope future generations get a laugh out of reading about “The Toilet Paper Mania” for some reason people rushed into any store they could find, thousands of shoppers found themselves fighting over TOILET PAPER! As if that could stop the virus somehow. As chaotic s that was it still feels like 7 years ago rather than 7 months simply because of everything else that’s happened since then. The killing of several black people by police officers causeda resurgence in the black lives matter movement which led to months of protests in which the police fully militarized against people singing in the streets. There were also riots in which people looted local Targets which funded their city’s police department and regularly denied service to black customers. (It’s laughable, even Target is the enemy now). Looking online these days its rare to see a Twitter handle or Instagram bio without BLM or ACAB (which means all cops are bastardized) in it. Does anyone even remember the murder hornets? Or when President Trump basically called now presidential-elect Biden’s son a crackhead on national television? Or when hordes of celebrities got on their cellphones and recorded themselves naked and singing in order to “lift our spirits” during quarantine. 2020 has been an interesting year to say the least. There were some days when we had to collectively grieve together like when beloved actor Chadwick Boseman of “Black Panther”, “Thurgood”, “42” and “Get on Up” fame tragically passed away, and there were days when we all virtually laughed with and enjoyed each other’s company like in the online “Versuz” competitions between our favorite musical artists. In summary, we’ve gone through a lot in 2020 but at least students of the future won’t be bored when it gets to our chapter of humanity’s story.

EJSJB2020 (Story #NA)

The Year 2020 has been a roller coaster for me, due to COVID-19 I lost my job and it started to get hard for me to provide for myself or my family, on top of that my mother tested positive for Covid, I spent most of my time taking care of her and making sure she gets better. Even though the majority of the year wasn’t the best, I remained positive and still found a way to keep a smiled on my face, and that’s by surrounding myself with family and friends and always trying to turn this bad situation into a good one.

We need our families and friends.

Initially, COVID really impacted my mental health. I always knew how much my friends and family meant to me but I never expected to not be able to see them from several months at a time. Being in the house, not being able to run at parks or not being able to se my friends really made me feel a b it depressed. I was missing families birthdays and weddings were cancelled. I had recently graduated from college and couldn’t have a proper graduation or celebration. Everything felt wrong. I felt alone and I felt disconnect from the world. That is literally what was happening.

#2020 #covid-19

In 2020 coronavirus cases went up I even know someone personally that tested positive for corona.

Together

I personally seen my church help out tons of people every week with a good pantry . I feel like we all have to think about others in the pandemic. And we will overcome it by the grace of God

Starting My Business

2020 has allowed me to step out of my comfort zone and start my business so that I have multiple streams of income

Hope still lives

During the pandemic I had to stop working but my husband continued to work. Since we were living on one paycheck we couldn’t pay our bills or even take care of basic necessities like food and gas. But youth empowered to prosper started a food pantry that helped us soo much that we didnt need to buy food. We could focus our funds on paying Bill’s and etc. I then started to volunteer because of how they have helped my family. and assist others with getting food. though I filed for both unemployment and food stamps but because of my marital name was changed in my ID I was unqualified for unemployment and food stamps claimed we didnt qualify. I started looking for work but it was difficult because I needed a work from home job but I didnt have any experience. A couple months later I started working but because we were so backed up on our bills we had to play catch up but now were catching up and are able to pay our Bill’s on time.

Teachers care during the pandemic

The corona virus continues to impact my life as I am a preschool teacher. Extra work and measures are taken to keep the facility clean and running smoothly. As teachers we work together to keep the children and parents worry free and happy.