Student
By Gladys
"Everyone was trying to keep their sanity in check because of how long they were locked inside their own homes."
Gladys: Hello. My name is Gladys Sanchez. I am eighteen years old and I go to Richmond High School where I work hard to prepare myself for college. I am a very supportive and caring person that loves this beautiful planet. I got the opportunity to interview Giselle Sanchez, my middle older sister. I interviewed Giselle in our small apartment located in San Pablo, where we both grew up as children. I thought her experience with the pandemic was interesting because she's the type of person who keeps her emotions to herself, but speaks her mind to other people. I believed hearing what she had to say was very meaningful in this time and age.
Gladys: So what is your name and how old are you?
Giselle: I'm Giselle and my age is 21.
Gladys: How do you feel towards this year?
Giselle: Well, I have a lot riding on this year, especially since I'm a third year, um, at San Francisco State University. So I have a lot of, um, important classes, so this year… I know it's going to be stressful, but I hope to make the best of it.
Gladys: Where were you when COVID hit and what was going through your mind when you heard about the news?
Giselle: I was in my English class when we first heard news of, like, COVID and how serious it would be. I remember the teacher saying how the high school close to our campus currently had two cases of COVID and all the students… we kind of didn't know how serious it was, but we were kind of all excited and hoping that it was serious enough for all of us to go home and not come into a school and not have campus and have all this free time to be at home.
So, there was that, but also it was very scary because if you saw the news, like, of how serious it was, how many, um, older people were being affected by it, it was scary. And especially how twisted the media is with false information.
Gladys: What has your experience with COVID been like?
Giselle: Pretty upsetting. I had a lot of missed plans because of it, a lot of delayed concerts I really wanted to go to, a lot of things I wanted to do; like for my twenty-first birthday, I wanted to do like a big thing. But obviously because of COVID, there's a limit to how many things a person could do with certain amount of people to ensure that everybody's safe and healthy. But it was just the hassle of having all your plans that you've been looking forward to for years, months, just… go up in the air and make you frustrated.
Gladys: How was it dealing with the pandemic mentally and being quarantined?
Giselle: At first, I thought it was pretty cool because I got plenty of time to just do stuff on my own, chill at home, eat whatever I want, not see enough people. It was, like, it was a good thing at first. But then after, I'd say maybe like three weeks, that's when like, isolation kind of kicked in and like, you were kind of just like, “Oh my gosh, I'm staring at the same four walls, I can't go out. There's nothing open. I have to stay indoors. I can't see my friend who's visiting from LA. I can't see this and that” because there's always a risk of bringing in the disease home or taking it out or something like that. So… yeah. At first it was really cool, but then after a while it was just, you've spent too much time alone and indoors, that it's suffocating.
Gladys: Did you ever get COVID? If so, how was your experience with all the symptoms and getting the vaccine?
Giselle: I think I got COVID—like, I'm 1,000 percent I got COVID before the pandemic was even shutting everything down. I got it November. And I was so unbelievably sick; I thought I was going to die. But, after that, I got tested positive during 2020. I'm asymptomatic, so I didn't have any of the symptoms. I was just, I just got tested positive and I had to isolate. And for the vaccine, honestly, it was super easy, especially since I was currently working at Walgreens, like they offered the vaccine. All I had to do is just sign up on my break and that was it. So that wasn't hard at all.
Gladys: Dear Gladys S. Nicole, I want you to know that you will be facing the lowest point in your life. Don't worry. You will recover from the pits of hell. You've overcome so much these couple of years, and you've learned what you did wrong and what you need to continue doing. The pandemic had many highlights throughout the years it's been active, but the most memorable events that occurred are resources were scarce, everyone's mental state was at the lowest, and there were so many more events occurring at the same time as the pandemic. Back in 2019, when the world heard about the COVID-19 news, chaos dropped and everyone went crazy for the food, but mainly, the toilet paper.
It was funny at the time, yet scary, when you were the only one that had nothing to survive the long quarantine. When society reflects on the pandemic 100 years from now, they'll explain it as if everyone in the world were killing each other for the products in order to survive. The fact that people thought the pandemic would be a V-shaped recovery, but ended up being longer than expected, will be talked about for many years to come. To be honest, I think it will be in history books in the future for our children to read about. Everyone's mental state was at the lowest. Everyone was trying to keep their sanity in check because of how long they were locked inside their own homes.
Personally, I cried. I ate too much or not at all. I stopped doing work. Thought so negatively and did nothing at all. We all had to go online through Zoom for classes, jobs, interviews, et cetera. While the pandemic was going on there were many other things happening around the world. Like forest fires that were so big, it made the sky and sun red.
Another virus came up and many protests against police violence occurred all during COVID-19. From 2019 to now, 2022, the pandemic is still going on, but we're in-person school and we're wearing masks. Still no one knows when this will end.
Love, Sanchez.