My Experience During the Pandemic
When I last took this course I didn’t have much to say. I guess I still don’t. I’m not a good writer & I don’t think or remember in much depth. But I’m making 2021 about doing better so I might as well try to write something of value.
When the global news first hit of a virus from the Wuhan province of China rapidly spreading that could potentially infect people throughout the entirety of the world. Hearing of the news I made one spot on & one incorrect prediction; the incorrect one, in hindsight, embarrassing me. I incorrectly asserted that the virus wont become a major presence in American life nor would, in my view, it become a serious public health problem. I was mistaken. What I did get right was that this virus would be used as an excuse to institute draconian public orders & industrial shutdowns. To my horror, I was correct.
I am not in employment, I never went outside much, & I didn’t have much of a social life, so what ensued after the first case was recorded in New Mexico didn’t really impact me much. Besides, I had my own issues that I had to worry about that were adversely affecting everything in my life. So I spent months going through the motions of what I was dealing with. Of course, I’m a political nerd so I paid attention to the news & was horrified by how the whole gamut of politicians were responding to this crisis. On the right the President & his allies were denying the importance & efficacy of mask wearing & social distancing. On the left, their proposals to stop the spread bordered on totalitarian. So even though my life wasn’t impacted in any literal way, it did take a toll seeing my country melt down in the way it was.
Then came college. I wasn’t prepared to do schooling online; I lacked the maturity & discipline. It’s safe to say I performed poorly by any metric. So here I am today, disillusioned completely with mainstream politics & electoral politics largely due to this pandemic, my academics in a horrible state because I’m an autistic kid forced to contend with an unfamiliar way of learning. But COVID hasn’t affected my life that much.
I hope I didn’t waste the readers time. I know some of the contents of this article may be offensive or provocative to some, but my intention was not to incite anger over politics, it was simply to tell my story & (hopefully) pass this class this time around.
