Quarantine

By Jaz

Class: H

(Quarantine )

Having to think about when I’ve had a turning point in my life was kind of sad. Not objectively sad, but kind of a bummer when I was thinking about it, because once I decided to use both of my remaining brain cells, it wasn't that hard to find. Turning points in our life are all around us, and everyone has them, some examples being the first day of school, or going to middle school. You may think that these are things that aren’t of much importance, but they are the things that change who you are. I was sure I didn't have something new or interesting about my life that I could share, except there is this one thing that everyone is going through for the first time. What might that be? You guessed it: quarantine. Yay! We found something interesting about me that was new for everyone, so no one can upstage it.

Being part of something new that everyone is going through is a lot of pressure. The first few weeks of quarantine were intense, in an apocalyptic sort of way. We never left the house except for groceries, and really just stayed put. After the first few weeks of quarantine, we got used to the rhythm: school had returned online, friends were talking online, and we were getting used to it. The weeks flew by, and soon it was already summer. 

During summer I didn't do much, it was just the same old, same old. Just like the first few weeks of quarantine, summer flew by as well. Even now as I try and remember what I did during the summer, I still cannot remember. But as a loose generalization, during summer I started to do photography with my best friend. Before you yell at me for socializing, our families were together for a few weeks before quarantine, so if they had had it we would as well, and vice versa. We were a bubble, being with each other at all times, them being our only social interactions. And just like that, summer had ended. 

After summer ended I was really exited to see my friends again (Bodie, Call, and Luke. They go away during the summer.). One of the things I love to do the most with them is playing dnd, we played together for the whole time we have been friends. Around the first month of school they reached out saying that we should start a new campaign. I was so exited, and couldn't wait! Just like that we were back in our rhythm with dnd once a week. Around two months after we started I got a call, one of our players family had many of the symptoms of covid. My heart raced. 

I have heard many stories of how covid has affected many families and how there are many deaths from having it; Before this I had never had anyone that I know have symptoms, so I didn't know how to handle this.

Back to the story, after hearing that I was really surprised because I had been tested the same week and it came out as negative, our group urged them to get tested (along with the rest of the family). Needless to say we did not play that week. The family tested that day. During the days of waiting for the results to come back we kept in touch, making sure they were okay. They handled it fine and were extremely safe about it. The day the tests got back we were all hopeful for it to come out as negative. Then I got the call from them. They said they did not have it! Everyone was super relieved, they were going to be fine.

As bad as that was none of us knew it was about to get much, much worse. On August 16, it was an oddly dark day for still transitioning from summer to fall. I had thought it was odd but didn't think much of it; a week or two later I was hearing about wildfires started by a storm and that they were creating a lot of smoke in the air. If I ever left the house, I would get a scratchy throat and smell it in the air.  Have you heard that one before? I thought about the time, maybe two years ago, when we had gotten bad smoke and had to wear masks to school. Let me tell you this right now, it was not fun. Needless to say, I was not excited to see the smoke was back. 

As an unrelated anecdote, my friend Callum (you may know him, about yea high, wears a hat, moved to Australia, may or may not be a fire bender) was moving to Australia the year that the fires were around. The same week that he left the fires receded in California, but in the next few weeks fires started in Australia. Yeah, that's right... I'm friends with a firebender or something. 

So as any sane person would do, I called him.

If you don't know the time difference between here and Australia, it’s about 18 hours, so I stayed up until 12 am and asked. 

“Callum, where are you right now?”

“Uhh school.”
“It's important, are you in the general vicinity of California?”

“No but why do you ask?”

“The fires are back.” 

The sad thing is that he was not in the U.S., so I could not blame him for this one. I know I said that the fires sucked and all, but surprisingly, it didn't affect me much. All the smoke did to me was make it uncomfortable to be outside, so I just didn't leave the house at all, not that I did before much anyways. Okay, fast forward a few months… the smoke is gone and we are getting used to “normal” life.
We are finally going back to in person school and finally seeing friends, getting in to a schedule, starting to just  get used to what we have. This is as much of a happy ever after we can get.