Through the current pandemic, I’ve seen a million different people, with a million different stories, doing a million different things to cope. As young adults, it’s been difficult, we haven’t been able to socialize, continue with extracurricular and do all the typical stupid teenager business. It’s been hard to cope for myself, but then I look a generation younger and my heart aches even more. Some of my fondest memories as a kid are just playing soccer and tag with my friends during recess. Being young and alive was truly fulfilling. I have a younger sister who’s currently in first grade. I watch her go through online classes to learn things much easier done in person, and I watch her struggle.
As a child, you develop the worldview that eventually shapes your entire life. When your worldview is one of disarray and loneliness, what do you shape your life to be? These kids are being ignored because they still have the rest of their lives to live, but without a sturdy foundation, not a single building will stand. This means that kids that don’t develop the skills they need will suffer, and suffer tremendously.
My heart gets heavier when I think about kids who already have trouble making friends. As a child, I was antisocial and I was shy. This caused me to be nothing short of a target for the vendetta of all schools, bullying. Kids like me are never going to get the chance to foster the skills they need to grow. These kids are never going to get the chance to have a normal childhood, which seems small but it’s awful.
Every day I hear my sister’s first-grade class, and it inspires me to keep going. If kids who can barely grasp the understanding of the gravity of our situation can understand and deal with it, as though they were fully grown adults, so can we. I sit and listen to these kids who don’t know much more than a pandemic and all I can think about is the bravery they show without knowing it. Being a kid is getting rough and dirty in the mud, exchanging Pokemon cards or whatever the most current trend is. It is not fearing a disease, worrying about the state of the world, about family and friends, being surrounded by rising death rates and by statistics of numbers they cannot even count to. As a society, we need to do better to fix this pandemic, we need to do better for the young adults, the teenagers and most importantly, the kids. Stay home, for their sake.
