Riley, St. Charles

Storyteller: Alexus Knapik

Riley Morey was a high school senior when the pandemic began to spread in China when it came over to the United States things got scary. Social media was blowing up over this and it’s all she ever saw. She was in school and then her life flipped and it became kind of sad and stressful until realizing there was good in everything that was going on. Being 18 years old and working for a smaller business it was nerve-wracking because she didn’t know what was going to happen with school, her social life, and the family business. 

Things went from completely normal to totally different in the matter of a few days. Riley’s senior year was cut short and she was working full time to fill her extra time, along with hanging out with friends. When the shutdown came around she began to stay around only her family and stayed at home. She wasn’t used to not seeing friends or being out doing something, so this was a bit hard at first. The business got shut down for a few weeks and she caught up on sleep and bonded with her family and her dog more than she has in a long time. Although it was a bit weird at first she thinks it was kind of nice having some extra time to connect with people. Everyone began to wear different kinds of masks and people got creative when making them. She noticed people began working fast to make the masks more comfortable. 

Riley was looking forward to a trip to California, prom, and graduation. These all got taken away from her and she wasn’t able to finish some of the important parts that were supposed to make the last year of high school great. Riley made the best out of it and started to get ready to move forward and get ready for the next step in life like college. She also began to house shop. When things calmed down a bit she made a ton of new friends and outdoor activities like riding a dirtbike and going to the dunes were places where she could social distance and still have fun. Looking at the events that happened Riley learned to never take anything for granted and live in the moment. Anything can come and change what you thought you had planned.