The biggest thing I had to live without during this pandemic was not being able to see my older sister, Kristina. She lives in Greenville and traveling down to Durham was a safety issue and a big precaution issue towards herself. I haven’t seen her since last Christmas and this has been the longest seven months of my life. Kristina is my rock and my best friend so going without being able to physically see and touch her is hard.
Going without Kristina means going without a regular summer. Every summer I am usually out of the house, trying to find things to do or going on a vacation with my family, including my sister. This year I not only didn’t go on a vacation but I didn’t go anywhere at that unless it was a quick run to the store.
The stores started closing early and the idea of having a lot of people in them at once made you not want to go anymore. The malls weren’t opened until late summer and when they did open, there was a capacity limit in each store so you had to wait in a long line. I didn’t really even have ideas about what to do because you couldn’t really go anywhere. Places were either closed or just had too many people around.
Every summer I usually go to the beach with my household family and my sister and have a good time, but this year I only went for three days which felt like one, without Kristina. My short beach trip wasn’t like how it usually is. We didn’t really go into stores and we didn’t go on the boardwalk but for one brief time and that was when we were in a car. We weren’t able to really walk the beach during the day because it’s too many people out there together and with no face coverage. Most of all I didn’t have Kristina with me.
I’m extremely upset about how this year went and is still going. This was supposed to be one of those “New year, New Me.” type of year. March came around and all of those new beginnings were thrown out of the window. I’m still looking for a job and with the virus going around you kind of have to be aware of which one place you apply to. Instead of announcing the “new year, new me,” it’s “I forgot my mask…”
