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I interviewed my oldest sister to see her thoughts about the pandemic and how it has changed her.

Me- What has the pandemic made you realize?

Sister- How interconnected we all are and how fast paced and desensitized my life was from constant travel!

Also the scale at which mainstream media contributes to the rising mental health crisis we are experiencing in America

Me- What what’s your first reaction hearing about COVID-19 when it first became a pandemic last year?

Sister-At first it seemed like that was a thing happening only in China. And then it impacted everyone.

I trusted that my family would be taking every precaution to stay healthy and so would my local community in SF.

I did a lot of research on recovery time for previous pandemics, found that 12-18 months was an expected outcome, and buckled up.

What a crazy ride

Me- How was your life change the first going on quarantine last year?

Sister-How hasn’t it may be an easier question

My pace of life is exponentially slower. I have been teaching yoga online, deeply enjoying time in the kitchen, spending more time with friends in nature and at home vs the default restaurant/bar activities. I avoid the news pretty much altogether, am much more conscious of my digestive and immune system health, connected to my neighbors and overall much happier.

COVID brought a lot of darkness, and it also brought an equal amount of light to those open to seeing it. As a global unit we have a much more heightened sense of awareness around our actions and I anticipate the positive ripple effects of that will continue for generations to come.

As long as we don’t forget!

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I interviewed my friend Carol to see her thoughts about the pandemic and how it has changed her.

Me- What has the pandemic made you realize?

Carol-“It made me realize that we take things for granted, I personally haven’t been able to see my family for about 2 years now, and every time I went to visit them in Brazil it would be casual but now it’s important because the only time I have with them is short.”

Me- What what’s your first reaction hearing about COVID-19 when it first became a pandemic last year?

Carol- “When I first heard we were going into lockdown and do online school I didn’t think it would be a big deal or that it would last long but obviously I was wrong cause after 1 year it’s still happening..”

Me- How was your life change the first going on quarantine last year?

Carol-“My personal life hasn’t changed much because I still go outside and hangout with my friends regardless but other things like masks and social distancing have affected us all.”

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Free Verse - The Questions You Have

Dear, Lainie
What happened to the friends you currently call family?

Friends...
Right now they are everything to you
They might be well gone
But remember they made your 13-year-old self the happiest

Did you make all of our dreams come true?

Dreams...
You currently have a lot you want to accomplish
If you don’t proceed with any of them, it's alright
As long as your proud of how far you have gotten

Are you still me?

Well of course you are physically but, do you still...
Love the sound of thunder on a cold night
Blast music at 3 a.m and dance with your sister
Get scared of feeling alone

Whatever direction in life you have gone I hope you never forget where you started.

From, Lainie

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Over 2020 it felt like every day something else bad would happen. Waking up in the morning and hearing what else has gone wrong was a daily assurance.

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Though quarantine was a challenge for extroverts who enjoy talking to people. It was a blessing in disguise for introverts who avoid talking to people at all costs. While many people had a challenge with being alone introverts have been waiting for this opportunity all their life.

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At the beginning of the pandemic, everyone thought quarantine was going to be a two-week break. That never did happen, quarantine ended up being almost a full year. No one ever saw that coming when the government kept adding more weeks to the lockdown.

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How has your life changed since first going on quarantine last year?

My life has changed an enormous amount throughout the pandemic. I feel like my life changed for the better, I have improved on myself a lot. Before quarantine, I wasn't in the best headspace and wasn't focused on myself. I have never been the most social person but I used to rely on my friends a lot. Not seeing them over quarantine was hard but I evolved and I've figured out how to be independent and to focus on myself more.  Over quarantine, I learned who my real friends were and who would stick with me through hard times. Due to this, I lost a lot of friends but I also got closer to the people I now call my best friends. Overall my life has changed drastically because of quarantine and I have grown as a person.

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Do you see any examples of racism, inequality, etc in events that have happened as a result of the pandemic?

As a result of the pandemic, there has been racism towards people of Chinese descent. Since the virus originated in China people believe they brought it to the United States. Chinese and Asian people are being wrongfully accused, are getting dined services, and are targeted for racial injustices. Due to their looks being traced back into the stereotype of Chinese people. This is incredibly wrong because yes, it originated in China but their culture and appearance have nothing to do with the pandemic. People are using the pandemic as an excuse to be racist towards people of Chinese descent

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What were your first reactions to hearing about COVID-19 when it first became a pandemic last year? Did you think people were over-reacting? Under reacting?

The first case of Covid-19 started hitting the news towards the end of my 7th-grade year. At first, I thought it was going to be one of those things that you hear on the news but it never affects you personally. Before the first spike of COVID cases, I thought everyone was just overreacting. Once more people were being infected and it spread all over the world. Especially when we never came back to school after our "two-week break", that was when I understood why people were taking it seriously.

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At the start of 2020 the outbreak of Covid-19 started, at first, everyone thought nothing. Once it started impacting people’s lives and killing people everyone took it more seriously. After a while of the case numbers rising the World Health Organization took a stand and declared a national emergency and from this, almost all countries went into lockdown to attempt at stopping the spread.

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2020 what was supposed to be one of the best years yet started badly from the beginning. In January 2020 one of the major headlines was about how wildfires were taking place in Australia. These fires killed so much land and animals while spreading, they got so out of hand that 33 people died from them. The fires were just the beginning of how messed up 2020 was about to get

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Kobe Bryant a professional basketball player was in a fatal helicopter crash along with his daughter and six other passengers. This happened in January 2020, that day was extremely sad as he left an incredible impact on not only the basketball industry but the whole world. Kobe and his daughter Gigi will forever be missed and known as one of the best players.

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Over quarantine many holidays went by, one of them being Christmas which is when almost all of my family gets together to cook and prepare for Christmas day. Unfortunately, due to covid, we weren't able to do that this year. My family found ways to continue our traditions this year even though we had to carry out our activities over zoom. This is me on the phone with my grandma as she's teaching me how to make collard greens.

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On our spring break road trip we also went to Washington, D.C., for a little bit. We went on an amazing tour of all of Washingtons' monuments. I took this photo along with many more on the trip.

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After COVID settled down a little bit my family went to Virginia for spring break.  One of my sisters and I had so much fun in the mountains looking at the incredible views and wildlife even though there was no phone service it was still amazing.

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I’ve been into photography for a while now and I got a camera for my birthday and since I was stuck at home most of the time I took a lot of photos with the camera of my pets. I have 2 dogs and 3 cats, this is my oldest dog named Charity

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Another thing I started doing over the pandemic was I steered watching TikTok in my spare time. Tiktok started to become popular over quarantine when everyone was stuck at home. I created two accounts one of them is my spam account that I post on whenever I’m bored for all of my close friends to see. I still like to spend my time on TikTok today as there are multiple types of videos to entertain me.

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Over quarantine, I started a new show to occupy my time. I started to watch the 15 season show, Criminal Minds on Netflix at the start of last April. I finished around the start of the school year and it is one of my favorite shows. I found all of the cases they had to solve interesting and it got me looking into criminology more. The show has the perfect amount of suspense to keep me watching for 15 seasons, it was one of my favorite shows I watched over quarantine and I even got some of my friends hooked.