When this pandemic started I never thought it would’ve gotten this far or this bad. I imagined it would’ve been like Ebola it would be here for a month or two and then calm down I never expected to lose my job, have school close down, and much less live in fear.

At the young age of three I came down with Pneumonia. It was bad from what my family has told me all I know is I had surgery and now I have a small scar on my left rig cage area. Since this happened to me at such a young age, I tend to forget it happened so as you can imagine I was like almost any other teen thinking: “Corona can’t affect me I’m young and health.”

Boy was I wrong.

As soon as things began to get worse in Kansas and Governor Laura Kelly issued a Statewide Stay-At-Home order, my family reminded me that I was at a higher risk of catching the disease. Since then, I’ve tried to limit my time out in the public and I catch myself constantly checking the news for updates. Just as many teens at first I was happy that school was moving online until I realized it meant I wouldn’t be able to go outside without the fear of catching the virus and putting my family at risk.

Life has changed. I live in my room trying to find new hobbies or things to keep me busy as the difficult time passes, but you get tired of doing the same things everyday but that’s something I’m willing to sit through if it means I’ll be able to go to school next fall and live my senior year like I planned.

If you’re reading this and you’re one of the many teens that are still going out every weekend and hanging out with big groups of people but complaining about “being quarantine” please keep your family in mind, not only are you putting yourself at risk but your whole family. I know we all wanna have fun but we won’t get to enjoy our summer if we keep doing these things that put us at risk.

If you have young siblings/nephews/nieces keep them in mind there so young and have so much more to live and experience. If we all play our roll and do what we are advise this will all clam down and we will be able to enjoy all the things we miss so please stay safe in your homes and protect your loved ones from this virus.