Gage, Midland County

Storyteller: Toby Rey

Gage was starting work for his spring job when he first heard of COVID-19 and soon learned that he would not be making as much money over the summer as he would have liked. Gage a 19-year-old with a younger brother named Jack and a younger sister named Ava lives in Midland Michigan and was saving up for his next year of college. This is when things were suddenly shut down due to Covid-19.

Gage had first heard about the virus when at the dinner table with his family, his dad started talking about it giving his concerns and even saying he thought it may come to America. This did not worry Gage at first as it seemed the virus was so far away, he had nothing to worry about. But soon it started spreading like wildfire throughout America places started to close and things got real. His spring job was shut down due to restrictions and Gages family was confined to their house. They took the quarantine very seriously only going out for food and other necessities.

Gages family like many others decided that they would follow the rules of the lockdown and stay safe inside. This led to him losing out on a lot of things he would normally do. Instead of hanging out with friends or his girlfriend he had to stay inside. His last classes of the year were changed to online and because it was his teachers first time doing this he felt as if he lost out on some of his education. Gage also could no longer participate in his summer sports league. But he also gained some positives when Covid-19 hit. Gage decided to go to Delta this year due to the virus, and this actually helped him save money because he didn’t have to spend it at a big university. During the quarantine he also had a lot of free time to bond with his family and find new hobbies that he still does today.

When looking at what happened throughout the pandemic Gage realized that Americans cannot be inconvenienced no matter what and will always try to live their normal day to day lives. He believes that if people had just followed the rules we may not have as many restrictions today.