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Show Daniela Hartin Pre Law Leap Dr. Engar 8/27/20 I recall browsing Reddit in early January, stumbling through myriad articles, posts, and arcane photos from far away journalists discussing a rabid disease consuming Wuhan, China. Each day cases increased, multiplying, and the content began to seep quiet desperation. I had hoped that the virus would remain contained within China, a place so very far away, and at times, walled off from the world. Ignorance suppressed any envisionment that this virus would soon cause detrimental implications, and hope that there would be no impact on my most urgent concern. In January, my mother became unemployed due to her treatment of chemotherapy. The effect of the powerful chemicals was crippling, exterminating the odious, cancerous cells leave the body inept to do nothing more than rest and pray. We cautioned over her during these early months, as the virus pogo-sticked from country to country. The stories began to layer one upon the other, the horror in Northern Italy, while the wine continued to swill in Rome, the evening applaud in Barcelona for front liners, the mask deniers in red states and deaths climbing in Washington State and Manhattan. The battle of reality versus denial had begun and the propaganda wars rolled out, governments hid facts as doctors battled to show the true depth of the pandemic. My mom had been receiving unemployment for some months when our health insurance company sent a notice, stating she must return back to work, or the insurance would terminate. With a freshly compromised immune system, the last place my mother needed to be, was to be working in a health clinic, but there was no other viable option. The morning she left for work, a tenacious look covered her face, attempting to mask her skepticism. I recall the angst that trickled inside my body while watching her back out of the driveway, it was so quiet outside and nothing moved but her car piercing the morn. My mother worked as a phlebotomist, coming near numerous patients each day. The perplexing inability for insurance companies to reason knowing her fragile state, was both disheartening and maddening. Seclusion was the new way of life to ensure I could do my part at keeping my mother safe. I no longer was able to frequent friends and family, live loosely, instead, I could only turn to books to relocate my mind, find solace in words, and peace in poetry. Being forced to adapt to a new way of life, the world swiftly different, all the moving parts had new cogs- and it was difficult to process what actually was being taken away. Schools were placed online, businesses closed, millions of people, including my brothers and I left unemployed, new store policies were put in place, vigorously washing your hands became the new normal, and we began our year of living dangerously masked. While the world spun in place and established uncharted footholds of ineptitude, my mother with a persistent grace, denied the governments and greedy healthcare of making her a victim. Her unyielding pliancy has encouraged a forward-looking viewpoint. Chapters of this story still remain untold, as if there can be no conclusion. The world is dramatically and distinctively auspicious, with no return to how it once was, but we've proved our strength in combating the unknown, on taking on the manipulators of truth, and forging each day forward to take care on our own. |
