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Colton Thompson The Covid Era (909 words) I consider the beginning of fifth grade to be the last time my overall quality
of life was consistently getting better. We had just moved into a new house, I
went to Arizona for National Navajo Code Talker Day, school wasn't going too bad, we went on awesome vacations, and
2019 was just a great year in general. But not long after the school year
began, my parents told me my dad had pancreatic cancer. Things had gone downhill
before that because my parents had known but didn't let
us know for two or three months. Regardless, this is what I consider to be the
official turning point for the next two to three years. From there life
gradually went downhill, but most things were functioning as normally as
possible with a sick family member. There were ups and
downs, but for the most part it was as stable as could be. In late
2019 to early 2020 we learned that the cancer had spread, making things exponentially
worse. January of 2020 was also when Covid 19 first came about. I remember when kids started bringing gators and handkerchiefs to school
to wear in "protection" from the virus. They got in so much trouble, the
irony of that is hysterical. At the same time, I remember radio hosts urging
people not to cause an N95 shortage. It was probably less
than a month later when whatever the big regulatory governing body was
started urging people to wear a mask. Then, in March, while on spring
break, we were told we could not go back to school
for the fourteen days to "slow the spread." Eventually fourteen became indefinite,
and we never actually ended up going back to school. It was during this time that I think I left my house a total of four or five times.
On average, my grades became terrible. I don't think
I passed more than a single class during the online "learning." Also, during
this period, one night at dinner I said something along the
lines of, "Did yall hear? They found a potential cure to covid." My Dad then
replied in a soft tone with something like, "Listen to me. This virus thing is nothing you [and your siblings] should
worry about. If it is your mother and I will tell you." Never was I told that it was
something to worry about. This period came to an end when the cancer really
got bad. Hospice came into our home, and at the end, we had a kind of
hospital bed in our master bedroom. When I look at pictures I took on a
knock off GoPro I had gotten that Christmas there are pictures of things like
oxygen tanks sitting next to the stairwell. A few
weeks after school ended, my father died. Depending on how you look at it, he hung on
over a week to a month after the doctors had predicted. When my uncle came
out of the room, to tell me the bad news, he was obviously
distraught. "Where's Colton?" he asked my siblings in the living room. They told him
I was in the dinging room. Where I was, playing Roblox. He came over and said something
like, "Can I talk to you a sec?" I parked the bike I was driving in the game
and went over to him. He gave me a hug whispered into my ear, "He just passed" I don't quite know why, but I
was shocked. That whole week, and before I had convinced myself that he would
pull through. None of the people he was closest
to came to see him because they thought they would kill him two months early
with the world ending virus. Eventually going back to school was not easy. Fortunately, I went
to a charter school and got to go back full time. Nonetheless, it was still difficult.
They told us we had to wear masks, when we didn't,
someone who couldn't bear to have their child within a mile of a germ
sued the schools and we had to wear masks again. They told us we couldn't talk to our friends. They told us we could not
use lockers because they're germ lockboxes. During
all of this, my question is why did no one stand up? Why were people too
scared to say, "No, you can't tell me my business, my
church, my livelihood, provides no service to society and therefore is a
danger and needs to be shut down. You can't tell me I'll
lose my job because I chose to make a different personal medical decision
than the President." When nobody stands, it becomes that much easier for the
few that do stand to be slaughtered. C&C
Breakfast and Korean Kitchen was forced to
close because they didn't want to become bankrupt because
of the restrictions. When I refused to wear a mask in school my diabetic
teacher essentially asked me why my breathing was
more important than his life. I also had to sit with the dean and explain why
I hated masks. And now we find out none of it made a difference.
I have now learned, if the media says it is a conspiracy, it's
likely not a conspiracy. All of this, in the land of the afraid, and the
home of the regulated. Never again will I nor many other
members of the American public allow ourselves to be subjugated ever again. |
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