Prompt 1: No single pandemic

     On March 13, 2020, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic began to pick up in the United States. My grandmother (who typically lives in Houston) was staying with us kids in Minnesota. My parents were out of town, and possibly out of the country, when school was canceled for “two weeks.” My parents weren’t apprehensive and decided to stay there, leaving my siblings and me at home. It wasn’t until the NBA cancelled the season that my father became worried and decided to come home. 

See, the Persful family usually is always on the move. It was a common occurrence for me to call my dad to see what he wanted for dinner, and his response would be something like, “oh, I’m in Paris for a meeting.” Since we were little, my brother and I have been flying by ourselves, and I left the country 4 times unaccompanied while in high school; the Persful family was always on the move. 

Since the pandemic, 2020 has been the only time I can remember that we all were together for a long time. My father and I painted in our studio every day, I walked the dogs, we learned to cook, and we had way more intentionality in being with each other. My father was considered a front-line worker since he provided important manufacturing pieces for the COVID isolation sites and emergency camps.  His work typically happened on the computer instead of in-person meetings. My school was fortunate enough to already have the technological resources available to continue online instruction, so my day-to-day life only really changed in the social sense. This part of the pandemic was peaceful. 

On the other hand, the beginning of covid was one of the more stressful times in my life. My mother went to work every day at the hospital, caring for her cancer patients. She experienced severe anxiety early in the pandemic. I remember her crying in the supermarket vegetable aisle because she was worried about who had touched the food and if it could have been contaminated with COVID.  My mother would change her clothes in the garage every day and leave her shoes outside, run upstairs as fast as she could, and take a boiling hot shower. She was afraid of getting us sick, and the heaviness of her worry was sensed by our household. 

Reflecting, COVID was a complexity of blessing and curses. While I am grateful for the change in pace provided for my family, it was also a time of deep anxiety and isolation. As a child of two front-line workers, it was a thought in my head that my parents would be the first ones to get sick. With the uncertainty of the severity of COVID, this was a terrifying thought.