“Before I started my freshman year at LFA, my mom got remarried and we moved in with my stepdad. I spent so much time away from home that I never settled completely or warmed up to coexisting regularly in this new family dynamic while attending school. Being inside has been a very reflective and telling experience for me because it has allotted me the opportunity to grow even closer with my mother and to learn my stepfather. It has also given me so much time to think about myself, my challenges, and how I can become a more balanced, peaceful, and overall “happy” person. I have been working on healing my complicated and at times negative relationship with food and my body, I have started learning French, and I draw and paint almost every day. I think it’s interesting that I didn’t have time to pursue these endeavors and interests when things were “normal,” and I think that the growth we may experience over our time inside is very telling about what we need to shape and improve in our society.
I hope that people are kinder to each other. Since this emergency has begun, I have seen much more outreach and a greater effort to connect and strengthen communities worldwide. Given the ways in which the (U.S.) government and organizations have been able to help those who need it, I hope that we will see broader societal changes that result from developed empathy. Will schools continue handing out free iPads to students who need them? Will landlords become more lenient and let well-intentioned, struggling families stay in their homes? Will Congress recognize the importance of affordable health care and implement free national options? I hope so. I believe that it is sad that it will have taken a virus to incite change because Corona does not target one race, gender, sexuality, or social class. It is infuriating to hypothesize about the little that likely would have been done by the federal government in terms of resourcing and relief efforts if COVID-19 only infected a marginalized group…with all this being said it is my hope that we as a society, country, and species emerge from coronavirus not only with a vaccine, but also with a greater understanding of the importance of community, empathy, and justice in such a diverse and nuanced nation as the United States, and I would like to see these learned lessons applied to legislation!”