My name is Emily Sisenwein. This is a Personal Narrative that I wrote for my class called "Writing For Change." The prompt for this assignment was to explain a personal experience that impacted your life, and how you have grown from it. The most recent event that has impacted me a lot, and I decided to write about, was the Coronavirus pandemic. This piece states my whole experience through the pandemic, how it affected me in school, and how I have grown from it.
Nothing Lasts Forever
by Emily Sisenwein ‘26 Published in Teen Ink on October 28, 2022.
Covid, a breathtaking virus, started to spread around the United States. It took its victims one by one making everyone doubtful of what our world had become. For me, I felt like our world had fallen into pieces, almost like we were in a thunderstorm that wouldn’t end, and Covid was the lightning that struck people down one by one.
It was my 6th grade year in middle school, and I had just gotten home from a long day of work filled school. That day at community meeting we talked about the new virus, Covid-19. We discussed the possibility of shutting down school as a safety protocol. People eyeing their friends filled the room. None of us were sure if it was going to happen or not. The idea of not having school sounded amazing, at the time. That night I was browsing through my email, I clicked the refresh button and a new email popped up. It was a forwarded message from my mom, I clicked on it and it said “ Dear Watershed Community, BVSD and SVVSD both announced that they were going to close now due to concerns about COVID-19 spread.” My first thought was being excited about not having school, but then I thought about it again, I mumbled under my breath “What is happening?” My heart dropped after saying that sentence. I felt like there were butterflies fluttering in my stomach. Not the good kind, the kind of butterflies that you get when you know something bad is going to happen.
After I read that email, the world changed overnight. The whole world went into a lock down quarantine. I had to wear a mask every time I stepped foot out of my house. We had online classes until the end of the school year. At this time I was 12 years old and the only thought I ever had in my head was “Is the world ending?”I felt that constant overwhelming thought over and over again, like it was a hammer pounding my brain.
Five months later we started school again in person, we had to wear masks still so then if someone got Covid it wouldn’t spread all around the school, and we had to do online school again. I absolutely hated online school, and I never wanted to experience it again. I hated sitting in front of my computer for hours, as the computer screen slowly melted my brain. I wanted to be back in school and see people again, so things would start to feel normal. But in person school didn’t last for long, we went back to online school because there was an outbreak of Covid in the Highschool. The amount of anger I had from going back and forth from online classes to in person classes, was a lot. Nothing felt normal anymore, and nothing felt enjoyable anymore. I was all around just sad.
The back and forth created even more stress than before, and the question “Is the world ending” was still a constant thought in my mind. When we went back to online school I felt more lonely than I did the first time. I felt like I was locked in a cage like an animal at a zoo, and there was no way out. I didn’t feel like communicating with any of my friends or family. I felt trapped.
It wasn’t long before I started my 8th grade year and we went back to school, but still had to wear masks. By then I was used to going back and forth and I was happy to feel comfortable in school again. We even got to the point where we didn’t have to wear masks, because they came out with a vaccine for Covid. When I went to get my Covid vaccine I was the happiest I had been in a while. Usually I'm not a big fan of shots, but this shot was different. This shot was going to hopefully change the rest of my life forever. As soon as I stepped out of that pharmacy, I could finally take a breath of fresh air. That vaccine was our last hope for things to be normal again, and it worked. After two years of feeling trapped like a bird in a cage, I was finally free.
Finally in my first year of Highschool, the pandemic has leveled out a lot, I have woken up from a bad dream. So I ask myself again, is the world ending? Nope, well at least not in my lifetime. Bad things will happen, and it might impact me a lot or even just a little. I just need to keep reminding myself that nothing lasts forever.
Nothing Lasts Forever is found here on Teen Ink.
