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The Impact of Coronavirus on my Daily Life, a perspective from Poland by Patrycja Wanat, 13

The Impact of Coronavirus on my Daily Life By Patrycja Wanat, 13 So far, COVID-19 has influenced my daily life immensely, and I know for a fact that it has affected other people’s daily life tremendously as well. I now have online school, can’t gather with my family and friends, and there are queues in every shop, and additionally where I live, in Poland, starting on April 16, everybody must wear face masks whether they want to or not. I consider it a wonderful idea: whereas yes, healthy people don’t have to wear face masks, but you never know if you have the coronavirus or not–in a lot of cases, people can’t notice that they do, they recognize they have it whenever it’s too late. The changes that are beneficial are that COVID-19 has decreased air pollution levels. For example, I can observe in my city where I live the changes in the sky, it’s cleared from the smog and it’s more pure in tone than it ever was. Another change that’s positive is that as more and more people are staying at home to practice self-isolation, pet adoptions from shelters in Poland have seen a huge increase as folks look for companionship in stray cats and dogs. The disadvantages of COVID-19 are obvious–people are dying from it! No one has found a vaccine for it, people can’t visit their families and friends, and in my area where I live, one big disadvantage is that people are losing their jobs. Like most countries, Poland has closed its borders, and that’s why nobody can send any packages to another country, nor receive them. The economic crisis is going to be the biggest one yet. The thing that makes me most anxious when I think about COVID-19 is how poor countries that cannot afford all the medical equipment cope. I’m very grateful and lucky that I have a phone and I can contact my friends and family, and that I live in a country that has all the medical equipment. The thing that makes me most hopeful are the news on the TV that give signs of hope, like I heard recently that China appears to believe it’s brought its coronavirus emergency under control. News like that make me want to have a little faith and belief that the self-isolating is working, and that maybe soon we’ll see a colossal decrease of cases of COVID-19. A particular experience that represents a change to my life most recently was whenever I was at the shops with my mum, and we were in the queue waiting patiently, until one woman started yelling at an elderly lady, shouting “Move! You’re too close to me! Everyone listen up! This lady is blowing at my hair!”. That lady didn’t stand so close on purpose, she didn’t even realize. The angry woman should have said it normally to the elder woman that she’s too close, not disrespectfully shout at her so the whole shop heard her! A quick summary–coronavirus had a huge impact on everybody’s life.     Patrycja Wanat, 13 Rajsko, Poland

New Life, a perspective from a South Korean living in India, by Jeongwon Choi, 13

New Life By Jeongwon Choi, 13 Hello, I am one of the many kids who are locked inside their houses. But not many of them might understand how I feel. I am from South Korea, and I came to India because of my dad’s work last year. Since I am away from home, I was kind of worried when I heard of a new virus and they still haven’t found the cure. Dad explained to me to not worry and that the virus is just in China. Besides, not all people die because of it. My mom and sister were all fussy about it and how they might get sick even if it has just started in China. That moment, I jokingly said that this virus is gonna take over the world and lead to WORLD DESTRUCTION . A few days later, well, that’s pretty much it I think. It’s spread all over the world, and it feels like nobody is interacting with anybody now. Life is… different. First of all, we’re all locked up. A lot of people are groaning on my email and chat about how boring this is and how they want to see each other. Well, I guess it’s similar to me… but I am kind of enjoying this stay-at-home lockdown. I am more of a house person and I like the online school, because I don’t have to wake up so early and get dressed frantically. Well, erase that school part. The first few days were OK, since we were just getting introduced and I could listen to music. But suddenly, my gmail started vomiting homework and meetings. I didn’t know how to use all these new apps, or to do any of that. Now I’m kinda used to this, but I like the original school better. The weekends are not much better. My parents make me do all this Korean work, saying that “India teaches differently than Korea” and that “you won’t get used to the Korean school if you don’t study these here,” and also, they make me exercise every day saying “the weaker you are, the higher the possibility of getting Covid-19” even if we didn’t usually exercise before the lockdown. Also, they feed me vitamin D saying that I don’t get much sun. We also didn’t see much sun before Corona, but I can’t argue with them. One of the things about Corona I like is… Korea. It says all over the news that Korea is doing a great job, and death rates are low compared to how many people are in Corona. I want to say that I am VERY much proud of my country! I wish other countries could do this way, and prevent as much damage as they can from this awful virus.     Jeongwon Choi, 13 Mumbai, India

My experience of COVID-19, a bulletin from Switzerland by Vivaan Kartik, 11

My Experience of COVID-19 By Vivaan Kartik, 11 My back was hunched as I trudged down the path, I had all my school books stuffed in my school bag. My mind was exploding as I tried to grasp the full implications of the inevitable. Our school was closing down for five weeks, at least….. The COVID-19 originated in a wet market in Wuhan, China and this is not the first time that a virus has been transferred through a wet market. The first cases of COVID-19 came into existence in December 2019 when Chinese doctors treated many ‘pneumonia-like’ cases. Not long after Japan, South Korea and Thailand confirmed cases. On January 30th the WHO declared it as a ‘Global Health Emergency’. After that there was no stopping this new disease. The virus was wreaking havoc on public life. Soon what used to be huge and bustling cities turned into ‘ghost towns’ as officials imposed lock downs and stricter rules of social distancing. Schools, leisure activities, restaurants and offices were closed. Only necessities were spared. In a state of frenzy, people started overloading on soaps, staple foods, toilet rolls, etc. The supplies were exhausted and the shelves were wiped clean. COVID-19 is indeed an unprecedented crisis for humanity. As I look back, I had my share of disappointments too when school closure was announced. The prestigious math competition in Luxembourg in which I was to represent my school got cancelled and all of my year’s efforts seemed nullified. My birthday party got cancelled. The spring time was arriving and I hated to see all that lovely sunshine and our holiday plans to Greece lay waste. There are a few good things that happened too, like the global CO2 emissions plummeted. Now, with so much time on our hands we as a family are interacting way more than usual and are able to enjoy quality time with each other–more board games, more movie nights and the list is endless. Even as an individual I have got this time to unwind from a very tight schedule and the constant rush to get somewhere on time. The experience of online schooling was a totally new and exciting one for me. I felt very grown up. Newton discovered his first law of motion while he was hiding from the Black Death! No one expects us to make such a ground breaking discovery but I have used this time to develop new skills (badminton and cooking), gain knowledge on interesting subjects (Periodic Table and Forces), and hone my existing language skills (learning the Hindi script and enhancing my German vocabulary by reading the Harry Potter series in German). After all, an empty mind is a devil’s workshop. When Pandora opens the box hundreds of black and evil creatures fly out. But then, a white and lovely creature, Hope flutters out too. Hope, which will get us through these times of distress, and a time when the future is literally unknown.     Vivaan Kartik, 11 Horgen, Switzerland