Since the beginning of the pandemic it has been very hard and scary. When it first started, I was sick. Over time it become extremely hard for me to breath without coughing constantly to the point of my sides being in constant pain even from the smallest breath. Luckily when I went to urgent care and they checked my symptoms and temperature they determined that I did not have Covid-19. Although I was never tested either so I may have had it and if I did, I was able to get better. They gave me some medicine and an inhaler to use and within days I was feeling much like myself with just the sides hurting which wasn’t a big issue for me. Still going out in public was always intimidating because I don’t know who has it or anything just that I needed to stay home. I wasn’t very good at that either but I was by myself walking around so I wasn’t in groups or crowds.
Then the protests started up and everything got bad again. The number of cases went back up and everyone who was part of that helped that which isnt’ a good thing for the cases in Covid-19 to go up. My thoughts on the protest tho most would not agree. I think people were going off what media put out first and then acted on impulse instead of waiting for full information to be let out. There was so much more that happened when it comes to George Floyd which what came after shatter mine and my families word. My aunt who is my moms best friend since they were little passed away. She was my family and it hurt so bad when she passed because I had to wait outside the hospital for hours because that is all that I could do they wouldn’t let me in. George Floyd got this entire thing for him but not my aunt. Covid-19 robbed her of a proper funeral and me from saying goodbye. I had to say that over the phone and even then she couldn’t see me and I couldn’t see her. She wasn’t able to speak so I never got to hear her voice one last time because the hospital wouldn’t let me in and church only let a few people in as well. That’s what Covid-19 had done to me and it scares me still.
Submitted by Michael Mendenhall, San Diego County – San Diego.