Palatine, IL:

When the virus first started to spread to America, I didn’t think much about it and brushed it off instead of facing reality. The pandemic taught me not to take anything for granted because all my junior year of high school plans and summer plans to go to France got canceled in a matter of days.

I was also lucky enough not to have been badly affected by the pandemic, as nobody in my family got sick or had any financial issues. I started to pick up a lot of new skills and hobbies while being stuck at home instead of being too upset about the fact that all my original plans were canceled. I started to play guitar, continued to improve on piano, and got in shape, which brought me a lot of comfort in the middle of everything.

After I finally got to meet my friends in the summer, I realized how much I missed them after not seeing them for 3 months and I’m so grateful we are all safe. It was initially tough to get adjusted to everything when it first started to change, but now I feel a much better sense of hope knowing that everything will eventually go back to normal.

I’ve learned to adjust to the change knowing that everybody else is in the same position as well and that at the end of the day this pandemic has taught me not to be naive enough to believe that all my expectations will come true. In a situation that’s out of my control, I think it’s most important not to get too caught up dwelling on what I’ve lost, and instead focus on what I have and make the most of it.