A letter from August 5th, 2020

Dear FutureMe, Hey, I am you from 5 years ago and today is the first day of school. I am just a seventh grader who is 12 years old. You are probably 17 by now. This is the year 2020, the year of chaos. Do you remember the coronavirus and how scared you felt? I still remember the time in March where coronavirus was a very scary thing. People were stocking up food, toilet paper, tissues, masks, and gloves. My family stocked up food for at least a month but people were still scared for their lives. I predicted the virus would end in a month but I was wrong. People are getting unemployed, just so many people were jobless. Lately I thought about all this stuff and if it will ever come to an end.. While being stuck at home for at least 3 months I lost track of time. I slept and woke up whenever I wanted to. Time really didn't matter. But I’m lucky I was born in the 21st century, a time of the internet, because without the internet I don't know what I would’ve done and I know I’m not the only one who is grateful for the internet. Life was really boring. Online schools are fine, it still isn’t the same as normal school but we can manage. I think schools will reopen in December but I can't be sure this virus is unpredictable. I never had a proper 6th grade graduation because of this virus and the grades didn't even count. Schools closed in March and all of 4th quarter was online school. I really thought that schools would reopen in 2 weeks but it was closed for the entire quarter and still is. I have been trying to stay positive by doing yoga. I miss going on vacations and having fun. We are living in a time of uncertainty and fear. In this difficult time I have learned to help my mother in her chores and to help my sister. I tried to stay in touch with my friends by facetime and texting. In this difficult time I learned to stay in touch with my family. I was really looking forward to a few activities our class had planned for the 4th quarter but that wasn’t possible. I really hope you could tell your kids about covid-19. I still worry sometimes if we will ever find a cure for the virus or if it would ever fully be eradicated. What if the virus stays with us for our entire lives! It did take 15 years to find a cure for smallpox and the spanish virus did **** over 50 million people, what if we make the same mistake? I can only hope we don’t. So far 4 million people have the virus in America alone and so many have lost their lives. My only goal in this pandemic is to stay safe and hope that a scientist finds the vaccine. I hope you graduated from your favorite subject and are doing well in school. I just want you to remember all of this since you lived through history. Stay Positive at all Times! From, Middle Schooler Soha U