My Experience With COVID-19

Blake’s experiences with with this global pandemic.

I+have+my+mask+on+to+help+prevent+myself+from+getting+Corona.

Blake Townsend

I have my mask on to help prevent myself from getting Corona.

This whole Corona virus has really change everyone’s life over the past month or so. Schools out for everyone over the United States, most jobs are closed, and nobody can be around any family or friends because of Social distancing. Nobody really has any idea when this whole worldwide pandemic will end and there really hasn’t been any good news up to this point. I know I’m not the only one that wants everything back to normal everyone just wants to be back at school with their friends and to be having a good time as a teenager in high school but like I said nobody knows when that will be. So, until then we all sit inside and hope for good news sooner rather than later so we can go back to what we love doing.

Playing basketball in gym at school.

I couldn’t tell you exactly what day it was when they closed down all the schools but when I heard they did I was so happy because who doesn’t love getting out of school, let alone for the rest of the year. Little did I know that this whole thing was going to get a lot worse. That same night I remembered I got a message from our baseball coach telling us that the baseball season had been canceled for the rest of the year, that’s when I realized that this Corona thing was going to be worse than I thought. Nothing much had changed the week after that, I was enjoying my time off from school and hanging out with friends and was just having a great time. Then one morning the mayor of Virginia had come on television and said that they were going to close most businesses down, close all fields, and enforce Social Distancing. I didn’t really think much of it because I didn’t understand the whole “Social Distancing” idea and my parents along with some of my friend’s parents were too into it either so we kept hanging out and were having a great time, but again little did I know this whole thing was about to get a lot worse.

My parents started seeing that this pandemic was getting a lot worse and it wasn’t just affecting older people and that it was killing kids my age as well. Once we started to see this, we took it a lot more seriously. I’m not allowed to hang out with friends unless they have been quarantined as well, I have to wear a mask everywhere I go to keep me from getting the virus and I can’t go to any fields to play baseball or even just throw. I never saw this pandemic getting this bad. At first, I didn’t think much of it but now I really see how much of an issue this is. My mom’s work has been closed sense the mayor closed them but my dad still goes every day, which isn’t a bad thing because you can’t just have no income coming in because then you have to worry about financial things.

Baseball game from before COVID-19 was around. (Blake Townsend)

Social Distancing is probably what I’ve struggled with the most during this virus. It’s weird going out in public and having X’s on the ground telling you were to stand. having a maximum capacity in stores and having to wait your turn to go inside to get things you need, and even only having so many people in an aisle at one time. Some of the top doctors say that social distancing will be around for up to 2-3 years. I couldn’t imagine it personally being around longer than June, but I think we all know it’ll be around for much longer than that if the COVID-19 numbers continue to go up at the rate they have been.

The governor has now started the “phase 1” rule and is trying to start getting everything back to normal. So far so good, i think we have been in this phase for 2 weeks now and i haven’t heard about and spike in the numbers yet which is a really good sign! The governor has enforced a rule that everyone must wear a mask in public places including restaurants. I saw a tweet from the head of all law enforcement saying that the police were not going to enforce this rule therefore you really don’t have to wear a mask in public all the time. Me personally i think its a great idea to have people wear mask all the time in public, i don’t know how that would work in restaurants with eating but they could wear them outside the building and social distance the tables so nobodies at risk of getting the virus. The max people you can have in a group is still 10 for “phase 1” and for “phase 2” the amount is 50 i believe. My birthday is coming up in July so i’m hoping that the virus gets better so i can have a good amount of people at the party i’m hoping to have.

Because of phase 1 i can start hanging out with friends outside!

Nobody is quite sure when this virus will get better or go away for sure, but if we all follow the rules and precautions then this virus will go away with time. We have seen nothing but good signs so far and were hoping that it just gets better form here. I never thought i’d miss school or something so normal as being able to hangout with friends go to the store and just shop and not have to worry about bringing a mask with me or if i can even get into the store. Baseball is finally starting back up for travel teams and i’m looking forward to playing in the tournaments and traveling around with the guys on my team.