surviving havoc

By Gustavo Ornelas

Covid-19 is a virus that can be transmitted to others and hence receive its horrific symptoms throughout a fourteen day period. Though they just made a vaccine, millions of people have suffered the loss of their family members on a daily basis because of the devastating effects of the virus. And we are still dealing with the impact of this virus.

I have a friend who did not get the virus but who, due to staying at home, has witnessed the impact covid-19 had among other individuals. So I was curious about his perspective because he was essentially alone by himself, not socializing, and his senior year was ruined which is devastating because senior year tends to be the best year of high school that impacted him and and me as well in the especially since I have OCD and stress levels can high very high so I need a way to socialize, or hang outside but I didn’t have a way to do that, so we both were in some way impacted. Which is why I talked to him about his experience during this pandemic.

His name is Jurdy Velez and he is one of my good friends who’s been with me for some years. We would always hang out at school, and now as a senior, Jurdy really couldn’t get to experience senior year due to covid-19 shutting down school campuses, and well, I couldn’t hang out with him as well such as even playing a game we liked a lot called “dokkan battle” in advisory. And that was just fun, but well everything has a limit as some say.

Jurdy: Well, it affected me in some ways, some were bad some were good but mostly good if I’m going to be honest. Like some of the good things was that I got to stay at home most of the time, play my video games, watch my anime, play my pokemon games, like just play a lot and chill. And the bad thing about it was like I couldn’t go out with friends and school is a little more difficult because it is hard to pay attention.

Jurdy of course didn’t expect covid-19 to get worse. He thought it would leave sooner or later, so he kept doing his thing and going outside with his friends, and unfortunately, he lost that experience of hanging out with all his friends too.

Gustavo: Did you ever think covid-19 would get this bad?

Jurdy: no, reason because it didn’t seem like it would be that big of a deal because it was on the other side of the planet, and we thought we were safe but we were proven wrong.

Though he couldn’t go outside, he had hopes of returning to school one day and just having fun and learning in his class. But that didn’t happen and he had to face a new path which was studying through zoom which he didn’t enjoy and he was quite mad at Trump for not taking action; otherwise this all wouldn’t have happened.

Jurdy: Yeah, I’m mad, probably everybody else is mad because this dude didn’t tell us about the pandemic till like I think it was seven months after. He is like “Yeah I knew about it” but did nothing. I’m disappointed that I had to spend all my school year in my house through a screen.

Jurdy always had fun at school, he would play with all of us and that includes me such as in soccer, basketball, and just have fun when it came to break and lunch. It was great memories for him, but now those memories are the only thing left in his heart because he couldn’t make more memories this year. But at the same time he was thankful for covid because it helped the environment. Thus, I’m also thankful at the same time as well because we both know the impact this virus had on the environment since we take environmental science so that was really nice to see.

Jurdy: They were great memories to me because I got to hang out with all my friends. I remembered the first game we played with our group was tennis. It was interesting because one of my good friends was the one who said we should do it. But since we didn’t have the tennis rackets we used our hands. And then after that we played basketball and it was really fun and soccer too, they were all fun experiences for me. And it made me very active. But I have become more lazy. Something I learned was that everyone was quarantined, the skies were cleaner and all that like there was less pollution coming out so not many greenhouse gases were emitted and all that.

That being said, a lot of people were facing problems with money because they were getting unemployed and just didn’t have a job, and that affected my mom because she cleans houses with a guy, but due to covid-19, some of the houses they cleaned were cancelled because the owners were too scared to have people inside their house since they believe they would get the virus, so money wasn’t looking too good for her. But unlike Jurdy, his parents didn’t have to go through that because his parents more likely already knew what to do and had good connections.

Jurdy: I think it has been the same because my mom doesn’t really work and my dad just takes jobs from random people like he goes to houses because he knows them pretty well. Not random people but he knows them pretty well, like he still gets paid really well so it hasn’t affected us that badly because we also know our neighbors and the rent isn’t as high.

However, even if he didn’t have to experience what other people went through, he highly felt some sympathy towards those individuals, but at the same time these people had to work and some contracted the virus which made other people get infected, but Jurdy understood them, he knew they had to provide for their family just like my parents where they still had to work no matter what because since I’m going to university, and they had to work in order to pay for college tuition.

Jurdy: I think they were just kind of sad that they caught it, personally I don’t know how I would feel but like some people probably lost family members because of this so they were feeling very sad because they probably were feeling that they were the ones that spread it or something. But I feel like those people were trying to provide for their family so they had to go to work because rent isn’t cheap out here, you have to pay quite a bit and like the only way to pay for it is do your job even with the risk.

Nonetheless, there were people who weren’t really working but just wanted to go outside ignoring the protocols. Jurdy wasn’t one of those people. He had a better mindset, but at the same time he also knew how they could have potentially felt which is why he believed that they just wanted to have fun even though they made a horrible decision.

Jurdy: I feel like they just made a horrible decision, they heard that they were not going to be in school for a bit so they wanted to do the most of it by just going out with friends, hanging out because they didn’t think it was that big at the very beginning like they just wanted to hang out.

Apart from Jurdy, I felt very dark and saddened during this devastating time. I couldn’t really socialize in real life nor could play outside and that was my only escape that would help me relieve my stress levels. Once my stress levels started going up,

I wasn’t feeling like I always did, energetic, happy, and more. I felt like a butterfly without wings, hopeless. And that took a major toll on my mental health because I couldn’t go outside, I had to only play video games which made me frustrated because losing in call of duty sucks, and overall I just couldn’t do what I usually did back then such as going to the gym which would relax me.

He is thankful though that he has a stronger immune system when compared to others since he is Mexican, and why different types of race respond differently to covid-19.

Jurdy: You know how [our teacher] Mr khong said that people from the homeland have a stronger immune system because they are more used to the things there, they were raised in Mexico in a place with lot of diseases that they could probably catch, and your immune system would evolve into something that wouldn’t catches diseases as easily.

Coming back to school is one of the student’s main hopes. I personally want to go back to school and if I had the chance, I absolutely would just so that I can see my friends and have a great time just like jurdy would too. However, it more likely will be different than what it was back then with safety protocols. We would just feel somewhat forced since it would feel like we are being controlled, but it’s for the better I guess.

Gustavo: Would it be different coming back to school?

Jurdy: It would still be different because people would stay like 6 feet apart in lunch lines, people wouldn’t handshake as much, and like even if you have the cure, you can still have it and you wouldn’t know and you can still spread it so you gotta be cautious at all times.

A lot of people also didn’t think covid-19 would be that bad where even Jurdy who is a smart intellectual didn’t expect that either. And certainly it was quite the shocker for him and even some teachers.

Jurdy: I didn’t think it would be this bad honestly, it was said to be the virus spread in one country then it went all over the world so I’m pretty sure everyone was surprised and so am I because they said only two weeks as when they first let us out of school so they thought it was gonna pass but no, we have been in here for a whole year.

More importantly, we are all in some way related to our teachers. And I related to them certainly in a big way such as not enjoying the zoom calls since a problem with the internet would completely ruin your mood, and it was just harder to learn as well as being more stressful since seeing a screen for hours on a daily basis can impact you. Maybe giving you headaches, eye pain, dizziness, and more. And I say these symptoms because I experienced them throughout this school year and it was horrendous. Thus, Jurdy is very vulnerable to that as well which is why he felt bad for the teachers because they have been working so hard this entire year.

Jurdy: I feel bad for the teachers because they have to do everything through zoom and AP environmental and PE fitness because I heard last year that in AP environmental they would allow us outside and in PE fitness you would work out with other people and try to improve your body and all that, now the teachers don’t even know if the students are paying attention.

Ultimately, neither I nor jurdy enjoyed this year. It felt very stressful, short, and like if we were in a videogame of horror such as in a apocalipse where we couldn’t do our normal activities otherwise there is the risk of getting infected. And one thing I learned is that nothing can replace time nor can cure the pain of the people who lost family members. Some of us have gone through major dark moments to the point you you don’t know what to do and you are very confused. It’s difficult having a lack of activity and extreme boredom during the year that you thought would be the best of your life, but it turned out to be the worst.

Nonetheless, Jurdy also has been quite happy lately because of dokkan battle which is a dragon ball game that is fun. I also have been exercising at home which has made this quarantine way better. And I will never lose my smile and excitement because I know the economy will open up eventually.