A letter from Mar 15, 2023

Dear FutureMe, Covid-19, originally known as coronavirus, affected my life in various ways. Covid was a really rough time for me, at least when it was around its peak. The ways it affected me socially and mentally was not amazing. I was in Mexico in September of 2021. Me and my family were going to be living in an Airbnb until we could get citizenship. I remember doing online school and how I was sort of depressed. I had no friends and I felt like everything my parents were doing was really just for them, since they were getting older. One night we went out for some dinner, it was all a good and fun night until we left. My mom, little brother, and oldest brother were gonna stay with my mom while me, my dad, and older brother brought our rental car to my brothers and mom. But my little brother ran off with us. My mom was really stressed that night and upset at my dad. Eventually we got to the car, but we got stopped by a police officer. Mexican police officers are known for being corrupt, and with our luck, he stopped us and told my father through google translate that if my dad didn’t give him 300 dollars, then he would have my dad arrested. The thing is, I remember that night like it was yesterday. I remember my 12 or 13 year old brother at the time, telling me to stay calm. I was extremely scared that night and didn’t know what was going on. Me and my older brother were in the far back of the car. So the police officer couldn’t really hear what we were saying. Later that night, when we were back at the Airbnb, I remember my mom being upset and yelling at my dad about letting my little brother come with him without telling her. That whole night was like a living hell for me. I remember telling my 17-18 year old brother at the time that my dad was practically robbed. A couple days after that we left the Airbnb because the place was stinky and my parents didn’t want to stay there. We went to this nice resort in Cancun. I think my parents were thinking that we weren’t going to have a real vacation and they felt bad because, well I’m not really sure, maybe it was because they knew they were being selfish for moving to a different country. Trying to make up for moving away from all of our friends and family. Anyway, I remember checking in at the resort. It was a really nice area, lots of glass items and pretty furniture. This kind woman gave us these delicious drinks while we were waiting for my parents to finish. They were an orange color, I think it was some type of fruit blend. It was really good. We got two rooms at this place, because my parents wanted their own room, and because we simply couldn’t fit in one room. The showers there were nice, and honestly I enjoyed long showers there a lot. Dinner there was okay, they had 4 different places to eat, 5 if you include the little hut by the pools that gave you free food. “Free” food. 3 of the restaurants gave you “free” food as well. My favorite one was the one we went to on the last day. There were these amazing quesadillas that had this great meat inside. I can’t recall what kind of meat, but it was very delicious. We went to the beach a couple of times, there was an amazing view of this pretty teal-blue water stretching out for miles. It was honestly beautiful and I miss that view. My parents would only let us go to the ocean water on green and yellow days, ( it was a system for how choppy/dangerous the waters were. ) Green meant safe, yellow meant be advised, red meant don't go out. From our hotel windows, you could somewhat see the ocean, it was a very pretty view. Although you sort of had to stand on a chair if you were short, like me at the time. I remember seeing a yellow day after 3-4 days of red days. I was really happy we got to go out. One day when we were out swimming in the ocean, my oldest brother found this beautiful conch, it was this extremely colorful and vibrant pink. He wanted to practice his Spanish so he went up to this family of three, the little kid was about 3-4 years old, so the little kid couldn’t go out and swim. My brother approached them in Spanish and he said he found this pretty conch and he wanted to give it to them. I was really happy for him and I am still shocked he knew/knows that much Spanish. My mom was kind of mad though because she didn’t end up finding that beautiful of a conch. I was shell hunting in the waters that day, I really wanted a pretty conch and I sadly didn’t end up finding a gorgeous conch like the one my brothers found. I got this uglier conch that had lots of holes in it. Although I didn’t find a perfect conch, I really like mine because it’s different and cool. Like me >:). We went to the pools a couple of times. I remember we always stayed at the less busy one ( there were two ) because the other one was always packed with people, but my family liked having more privacy so it was all worth it. We went to the other one one day though. It was very loud but there were some nice spots. The day I hated the most though was a Thursday or Sunday, I can’t really remember but that's what I think. I remember my parents were in their room. We thought they were asleep, but my dad wasn't. I remember him waking us up, on the verge of tears. He told us that our mom had a seizure. I didn’t really know what a seizure was but I knew it was not a good or normal thing. As soon as my dad told us that, he said we were going to be heading back soon enough. Whether my mom liked it or not. Although we didn’t have a house, we would figure something out. And we did. It was very rough but we got through it. I remember being in my parents room, and my mom talking about how we weren’t going back. Looking back, I feel bad for my dad because the situation he was in was really tough. But of course we ended up going back. My mom was depressed for a few months after that, I think she saw the fantasy land they were living in and how wrong her and my dad were. It was tough finding a place to stay but my mom found one in st. george. I think she liked how there was a pool there and how secluded it was.