Don't Know What You've Got 'Til It's Gone

By: Zaima Rahman, 7th Grade

​Wednesday, April 1st, 2020

Dear Diary,
​
It was announced 2 weeks ago that school will be closing due to the current coronavirus pandemic. I’m not going to lie, at first, I was really excited because this meant that I could stay home for the next month and coming, and I didn’t have to wake up early or go to school for a whole 9 hours. However, a couple of days have passed, and I am not enjoying this “vacation” as much as I thought I would. First of all, everyone in my house is panicking about the spread of the virus, which means that my paranoid mom is making the whole family wash their hands literally every ten minutes.

Seriously, my mom is so paranoid, she started wiping EVERYTHING with disinfectant wipes, from the doorknobs to my notebook and even the bananas. Also, I thought that one of the best parts about not having school was that I could go outside to the park or hang out with my friends, but because of social distancing, I can’t even do that. I was also looking forward to attending a concert in May with a couple of my friends, but that event has been postponed to who-knows-when.

To add on to tall of this, I now have to attend online classes, which is not really that bad, but it is kind of stressing me out because I don’t exactly have a definite space to study in my super-cramped house. Did I mention how hard it is to be stuck at home? With nine people in the house, the TV is always being hogged by either my four year old cousin or my grandparents. I feel like I’m a prisoner locked up in a jail cell. I found myself laying on my bed and staring up at the ceiling fan 3 times today already. I want to go outside so bad now. A couple of weeks ago, I would have done anything to be able to stay home in my bed and sleep all day. How the tables have turned!

Apparently, I also miss school. Over the past few weeks, I realized that school is the only place that I am really able to socialize since I don’t really like people and the few friends that I do have at school are the only people my age that I am comfortable talking to. I miss messing around with my friends and playing UNO during lunch and insulting each other for the mere purpose of humor.

I guess all of those Disney Channel movies were true; You really don’t realize how much you appreciate something, until it is gone.

Sincerely,
​Zaima