My life has changed so much since COVID-19 has stepped in. It feels like the world is spinning in the opposite direction for me. 

In the month of Dec. 2020, my uncle went from New York to Pakistan to attend a wedding where no masks were worn, which is the reason he got Covid. My uncle and family are the only ones that live in America, so we don’t visit our family that often. Corona is making things difficult for us day by day. My grandma is alone and my mom needs to go and make her a legal citizen so she can come and stay with us. 

As an eLearner, there isn’t anyone home to make sure my little sister and I  are okay, so sometimes I will have to go to my dad’s store or a friend’s house since my older sister, Ameera who is almost 26, is now working. My grandpa, from my mom’s side, also died and my grandma from my dad’s side died recently, so our family is already delicate. 

My family and I have been on a journey and corona just tops it all.  My sister was about to apply to medical school and things just got complicated after Corona came out, so her studies have also been stopped. We haven’t been able to see my brother in Thailand either because they won’t let him travel here. We are restricted from seeing each other, which sometimes makes us think about how ungrateful we are for the things we see everyday. Our mother, father, siblings, grandparents are always there for us, standing beside us waiting to assist, while we don’t even take a glance at them. 

As an eLearner I haven’t been able to learn the way I’m used to but it’s okay since I am quick at adapting to new environments. On the other hand, I got rid of the people that made me upset with myself, that made me feel insecure and found people I could trust. I spend almost an hour everyday talking to my close friends about family problems and school. Those are the people I want to surround myself by.  

For other people it might not be about death but financial issues. There are some people who lost their jobs, homeless and are dealing with the death of their close ones. I know some of us are just continuing with our lives, not caring about this virus, but I strongly encourage you to look around and just imagine taking out something you love, will you be able to survive? Will you be the same person you are now? These are the questions that I ask myself. 

Obviously I want my family to be close to me, but one day I have to let them go. That’s what I keep reminding myself. 2020 has been a horrifying year for me, and I hope 2021 will change that.