One challenge I faced during the pandemic was that i became very distant and Depressed. Before the pandemic I used to always be with friends and family because I never liked being home or going straight home. I also would visit my grandma and aunt who lived together very frequently since it was like 15 minutes away from my high school. Covid prevented all that since I only lived with my mom and I kinda stopped talking to anyone from school and seeing family. Many of my relatives were scared to go anywhere and most got affected by the virus and I was only thinking about the worst and how I couldn’t be there for them and how everyone was facing all of this alone. During all this was my junior year of high school which turned remote and I couldn’t even focus on school.
The best thing I could do was try and pass the time by watching movie and sitcoms with my mom. We mainly liked watching Brooklyn 99 and unsolved murder documentaries but we watched anything that caught our eye. During 2020 summer I decided to start working which helped me have purpose and a reason to go out and start interacting with friends and family again since I didn’t even want to go out before. My job was in the lower east side so I would get the chance to stay with my grandma on my work days while also meeting up with friends in the area. All of this gave me way more focus and energy in school even though I was still remote .
I know a friend who went through a similar situation and she distanced herself, so I can tell how hard it is to be in this situation.
I can relate with you on this, I’m a family oriented person to the extreme and it was tough not being able to see my family during the unprecedented times we were living in. It felt like we were living the worst possible dream ever out of a movie it was the worst.
I agree the pandemic really spread me apart from my friends and relatives. I was not able to play basketball anymore and I didn’t realize during all those times I spent with my friends they would come to a end.
Very good description of feeling depressed due to isolation. Good details of your coping mechanism — watching shows (good detail — naming the shows). putting purpose in your life with a job, how the job got you out to see the important people in your life.