Storyteller: Courtney Pieper
Allison is a 19-year-old teenager. At the beginning of the year her life revolved around work, school, and friends, by the end of the year, her life consists of mainly working. For many teenagers, this year was supposed to be their senior year of high school, the year that they got the chance to do all the fun senior activities. It had started like any school year, the seniors were tasked with all the hard-senior work the first semester, and were only waiting for the second semester, were most of the fun activities took place. Sadly, for the first time ever, thousands of teenagers were upset about the closing of school. As the events that many high schoolers dreamt about for four years was suddenly ripped away from them. Graduation, prom, saying goodbye to the classmates you spent 12 years growing with and the teachers who saw you happy when you got a good grade, or sad when you were going through a rough patch, or even mad as you were a teenager trying to navigate your way through high school. For many teenagers, including Allison, this pandemic changed her life drastically.
The first time Allison really heard about COVID-19 was when the schools had shut down back in March. From their her life slowly began to become dull, as she could not see her friends, could not see her extended family and was reduced to just picking up shifts at work as people began to quarantine at home. She lost the chance to have a normal college experience, as her classes had been moved to online. While not having a normal college experience was sad, she also gained more hours at work as she is not busy with being in class and has been able to save more money for college.
From this pandemic Allison has noted that due to wearing a mask 8 hours a day, she has struggled with being able to breath and hear people around her. The masks make her tired and exhausted. Out of everything though, she has learned that she can push herself further and further.
MIPandemicStory 