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Q: What were your first thoughts when you first heard of Covid-19 in general?

A: *I was pretty scared!

Q: What were ur first thoughts about quarantine?

A: *I felt bad for young people. Oh No!

Q: How are you and your life and your feeling different today than a year ago? For Better or for worse?

A: *I appreciate people around me more, and I’m a year older (it’s my birthday on May 10th).

Q: What would you like to tell yourself a year ago vs. right now?

A: *Do more exercise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:)

Q:Have you taken up any new hobbies or interests, like many others, over the past year?

A: *I started listening to Audiobooks(more).!  ,,

Q:Have you realized anything through these hobbies or interests?

A: *Life life to the fullest, have a social life, (you never know when another Covid (pandemic) might hit).

Q: Do you have anything similar in your life similar to the quarantine or anything that you seem might have “prepared” you for the pandemic and its quarantine that followed?

A:  *No.

What has the Covid-19 Pandemic made you realize?

Am: *Life is too short and unpredictable to not be lived to the fullest.

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GOOD LUCK, ME!
G O O D  L. U C K  H A L E H !
Haleh! Have, Fun! Take Chances! TAKE RISKS! MAKE UR DREAM COME TRUE! DREAM BIG!

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Q: What were your first thoughts when you first heard of Covid-19 in general?

A: *It’s not a big deal.

Q: What were ur first thoughts about quarantine?

A: *How am I going to spend two weeks without seeing anyone? I also only thought that it was going to be two weeks (Long).

Q: How are you and your life and your feeling different today than a year ago? For Better or for worse?

A: *I had to grow a lot (mentally) on having most of the things that I did to distract myself, be cancelled. Forced me to take a pause and reflect on the state of things in my life. This was uncomfortable but also helped me make changes in my career and relationships and future goals and perception of myself and (life). Sitting here over a year later, it definitely hasn’t been easy or comfortable but I am grateful that I had the opportunity to pause and grow, so that I have found peace and I’m excited for the post-pandemic version of me. :)

Q: What would you like to tell yourself a year ago vs. right now?

A: *You are infinitely stronger and more capable than you think, family is everything, and banana bread 🍌 🍞 is overrated. Take yourself on a walk everyday like a dog, you’ll feel better. FaceTime is a glorious invention but it is also okay to take space for yourself when you want. There is such a thing as too many Amazon purchases, but not such a thing as too many face masks to combat your mask-(ac)ne.

Q:Have you taken up any new hobbies or interests, like many others, over the past year?

A: *Painting, DJ-ing, Formula 1 Racing 🏎 (watching, clearly not driving), yoga 🧘‍♀️, spending time outside, and solo bathroom dance parties, online trivia, eating everything others have learned to bake.

Q:Have you realized anything through these hobbies or interests?

A: *You really can buy anything you want on Amazon, and, your future husband is a Formula 1 driver, baking bread is hard, but eating it isn’t 😋 🤤. The best way to end the day is watching the sunset outdoors or going on a walk on to see/watch the sunset. there is an infinite amount of music on Spotify. And it can be really nice to enjoy your own company and be your own (best) friend.

Q: Do you have anything similar in your life similar to the quarantine or anything that you seem might have “prepared” you for the pandemic and its quarantine that followed?

A:  *No. Most of my pre-pandemic life was dependent on making plans and seeing other people. I didn’t realize just how much of an extrovert I am, until that wasn’t an option anymore/taken away from me. The beginning of the pandemic was honestly really hard just in terms of learning how to be still, and, learn how to be alone/function alone.

What has the Covid-19 Pandemic made you realize?

Am: *Beyond family being the number 1 thing, the most important relationship you will ever have in your life is yourself. (And) You have to learn to be kind to yourself and put yourself first, whether that means having a silly dance party, or skincare routine, to focusing on your goals for the future, and to how you can challenge yourself to get there.

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In addition to canceling my trip to Universal Studios, my family was forced to cancel our Spring Break trip to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. Everyone in our family was excited for this trip, everything that it entailed, and our plans for the overall trip. However, it was inevitable that we had to cancel our trip plans, in order to stay safe and comply with the safety rules. When Covid hit, I stopped going to swim practice in a result to keep everyone safe. I still have not returned to swim again but plan to do so soon, this can be quite intimidating because I have not swam for a year, and my team was two levels away from the National Team, meaning it was/is very difficult to keep up with everyone, especially after not swimming for a year. Although, most things had to be cancelled, I got a chance to listen to Caeleb Dressel over a Zoom Meeting for swim, which was a pivotal experience. Covid-19 has also hit my family hard because it has personally affected some of my family members. My dad got Covid, along with two of my uncles. My dad and one of my uncles thankfully both fully recovered, however, my other uncle unfortunately passed away due to Covid hitting his heart. Although this is a terrible and sad experience, I truly do believe that it made my family stronger, in a way. In these ways, I am different than a year ago. This pandemic 😷 has made me realize that it does get better in the end, work out for the better, and that you are stronger than you look or perceive yourself to be.

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When the Covid-19 guidelines and restrictions were put into place, my family was drastically hit because both of my parents worked (and still continue to) in the healthcare industry. As doctors, they both still had to go to work everyday, they didn’t really, fully, get the “work-from-home” option. While my dad still had some “Tele-Health” meetings, they both had to go full time to work, daily. Because of these added risks, my family had to be extra careful with the safety precautions, and I remember not being allowed to go anywhere, at all. In the midst of this, my family convinced my sister to come down from Washington D.C., where she lives, to quarantine with us, just to be as safe as possible, and to get her out of a city. This made sense to me, however, the whole quarantine and Covid situation was a lot to grasp for me, especially because everything had seemed so normal, until it then began to fall apart, all at once. Because of Covid-19 and quarantine, I had to cancel my Universal Studios trip with the Junior High Band, exactly a week after we got out of school. I remember the day we got released from school, as clear as if it was yesterday. It was Immigration Day, where everyone picked a group and chose where they were from, in the time period of Ellis Island. All was going well throughout the day, until we were all rustled into the auditorium to watch a movie at the end of the day. At the end of the movie, when everyone was just hanging out and talking, a kid at the back of the auditorium yelled, “NO SCHOOL FOR TWO WEEKS!” After this,everyone thought that this would be temporary and, really, only 2 weeks long. I guess everyone really got proved wrong with that one!

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When Covid first started I felt fine, honestly, I had heard that it was overseas in China, in a small region and I never really thought that it was going to reach us. When it first reached the California ports through the cruise ships, I thought that it would be contained, and that those passengers would be quarantined for the appropriate amount of time, and that everything would be fine, and be able to move on like normal. However, this didn’t fully happen, while quarantine attempts were put into place, it ultimately spread across the nation. When the Coronavirus really, fully started spreading, what shocked me was how some countries had not taken the proper measures to protect its people and citizens from the extremely fatal virus. Some countries, however, did an outstanding job with containing the virus, that they practically diminished it on their land. At first I thought that people were underreacting because they never imagined or comprehended that it might reach their waters, land, homes, or even their families. Although they had fair reason to think this way, no one really put in an action plan, “just in-case.” These “just in-case” plans, could have been extremely crucial.

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Quarantine

Houses become our friend,

Old friends, lost, but not forgotten,

All disappearing behind windows and doors,

Waiting for the day to see each other again,

A formula in a syringe, holds our future,

Full of safety,

And hope,

For this is Quarantine.

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In quarantine I started getting back into knitting 🧶. I liked loom knitting the most so I continued doing that and ended up making some hats. I enjoyed this so much that I even made a baby hat for Starfish. 🧢 She never actually wore it but I managed to snag this photo of her looking less-than-thrilled to be wearing it 🤪😜 👒 🎩.

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At the beginning of quarantine, I, like many others decided to take up baking as a hobby. Although my mom doesn’t enjoy baking or making sweet stuff, I finally convinced her to let me make this “semi-healthy” cereal, Greek yogurt, fruit tart. It came out alright, however, it did end up collapsing on us. But it still tasted delicious! :)

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I remember seeing this at the beginning of quarantine and remembering how much I, and everyone else, could relate to it.

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I remember seeing this meme during the beginning of quarantine and thought about how true and hilarious it was!

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Starfish has grown up so much, and has become so long. She stretches her body and just lays down in front of you to be pet. Her new best friends are the fish in our aquarium and she even presses her hands up against the glass, thinking that she is going to catch one. She even sticks her tail and hands in the openings! She even falls asleep on the fish tank lid.!

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Hurricane ETA, November 9th 2020

Hurricane ETA wreaked havoc, and flooded most of South Florida. It even flooded our school football field! Because of this everyone had to stay and do school from home for almost a week.

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Back in Late July- Early August my family and I got a baby kitten for a quarantine pet and buddy. We were never a pet family, but I was surprised that after years of begging my mom finally gave in. We were originally supposed to get a dog, but we realized that that would not work with our lifestyles! In the end we settled on our cat Starfish.!

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I also started watching Stranger Things in quarantine. When the show first came out I truly didn’t understand all the hype and popularity around the show, thinking of it as “overrated.” That was until I watched the show of course. During Winter Break, I had nothing to do, so I started watching the show. It was great! I loved it so much that I had to watch it again. I have watched it 2 1/2 times up until this day. It is so gooooood!

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I started watching Gilmore Girls during quarantine again. I had watched it with my sister when she was around 16-20 and I was around 5-9. However, I don’t remember most of it since I watched it years ago, so I decided to start watching the long seasons again. It’s so long!

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April 28th 2021

This headline from April 28th 2021 shows how India’s Covid-19 numbers are rising. These numbers are the highest that they have ever had. It seems that even thought people are getting the vaccine, that we cannot escape the virus. They are going up so fast that the country practically ran out of oxygen machines.

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Biden Swearing In Ceremony

Joe Biden got sworn in as the 46th President of the United States, on January 20th, 2021. They obviously had to compromise and improvise on how to invite people because of the pandemic, but they go it done. There were still able to have a ceremony with limited attendee guest numbers, masks, and Covid safety precautions.

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April 29th 2021

This photo, at the Inauguration, of Bernie Sanders, became a very popular meme, after he was found sitting with this expression!