In Place: Living in a Shelter in the
First Year of the Pandemic
by CHARLIE LOVE
My experience during the pandemic was a little different from others. The living situation I was in was not what I wanted it to be, but it was better than nothing. It all started when I moved in August 2019 because of financial reasons. My mother and I did not have anywhere to go and we were put immediately into an emergency shelter. I was very grateful that we had somewhere to stay, but I hated being there. School was my only escape. Every morning I would wake up excited to leave the shelter and see my friends and all my teachers. After school I would not go straight home, I would stay in the park with friends talking about anything in the book. Going back to the shelter was the worst part of my day, it was such a drag to get there. I would rarely miss school and if I did I had a doctor's appointment.
Who knew that on one random Friday in March 2020, it would be my last day of school. It was very sad to hear the mayor say that we couldn't go back to school because of how rapidly the virus was spreading. I became very depressed and hoped we could go back to school. I knew that my health and everyone's health in the school were important but I was very adamant about going back to school. My mother and I would watch the news every morning to see if anything changed, but there was no luck. I knew it was getting serious when the school was sending in work from Google Classroom. At the time I did not have a laptop, so our Assistant Principal Mr. Chong was very generous and brought the laptop to the shelter. During this time the school was very helpful and so were all my teachers.
The room I was staying in with my mom was starting to get smaller as the days passed. It had two twin size beds, a T.V., a bathroom and a mini fridge. Thank god we were not dirty, we made the room as neat as possible. Again, I was very grateful we had somewhere to stay, but my mother and I started to clash because of how small the space felt. My mother then lost her job, due to Covid and the only income we had was my father's and food stamps. We could only buy limited amounts of food because we had no space and the fridge was small. There was no stove so all I was eating was microwaved food and outside fast food. I gained a bunch of unwanted weight and slowly started to hate my body. My life started to feel very boring because of all the eating, sleeping and watching T.V.
There was a point where I felt stuck and I felt that we were never going to get out of the shelter. I wanted my own room, a kitchen, a dining room table and just the feeling of being stable. Because of Covid it slowed the process of my mother and me getting an apartment. We waited for a whole year until they gave us keys to our new apartment. That was the most exciting day ever. I was already thinking about life after Covid and having my friends and family come over.
Phone calls with my friends were the best because of all the laughs and all the “remember when” conversations. My friends and I would even talk about how we were going to hang out when all of this would be over. By the time we were able to hang out, our friendship broke apart. It was very sad to see that over the months of the pandemic, we were starting to grow apart. I would think to myself about how if we were at school our friendship would still be strong. There were many times I tried to rekindle my friendships but it didn't work out. It came to a point when I started focusing on myself and hanging out with friends who actually wanted to be my friend.
I can really say that Covid messed up my whole 12th grade experience. It stole the joy from seeing my teachers face to face, hanging out in the gym with my friends and meeting new people. Going to prom was one of my biggest dreams and Covid killed it. It makes me angry because why didn't the government have this under control? High school is pretty much over and I waited for this for the longest. I am very proud to say that even though Covid came around, I was still focused in school and never slacked off. I am very grateful that all my teachers and my mother were huge supporters for me during this tough time.
Who knew that on one random Friday in March 2020, it would be my last day of school. It was very sad to hear the mayor say that we couldn't go back to school because of how rapidly the virus was spreading. I became very depressed and hoped we could go back to school. I knew that my health and everyone's health in the school were important but I was very adamant about going back to school. My mother and I would watch the news every morning to see if anything changed, but there was no luck. I knew it was getting serious when the school was sending in work from Google Classroom. At the time I did not have a laptop, so our Assistant Principal Mr. Chong was very generous and brought the laptop to the shelter. During this time the school was very helpful and so were all my teachers.
The room I was staying in with my mom was starting to get smaller as the days passed. It had two twin size beds, a T.V., a bathroom and a mini fridge. Thank god we were not dirty, we made the room as neat as possible. Again, I was very grateful we had somewhere to stay, but my mother and I started to clash because of how small the space felt. My mother then lost her job, due to Covid and the only income we had was my father's and food stamps. We could only buy limited amounts of food because we had no space and the fridge was small. There was no stove so all I was eating was microwaved food and outside fast food. I gained a bunch of unwanted weight and slowly started to hate my body. My life started to feel very boring because of all the eating, sleeping and watching T.V.
There was a point where I felt stuck and I felt that we were never going to get out of the shelter. I wanted my own room, a kitchen, a dining room table and just the feeling of being stable. Because of Covid it slowed the process of my mother and me getting an apartment. We waited for a whole year until they gave us keys to our new apartment. That was the most exciting day ever. I was already thinking about life after Covid and having my friends and family come over.
Phone calls with my friends were the best because of all the laughs and all the “remember when” conversations. My friends and I would even talk about how we were going to hang out when all of this would be over. By the time we were able to hang out, our friendship broke apart. It was very sad to see that over the months of the pandemic, we were starting to grow apart. I would think to myself about how if we were at school our friendship would still be strong. There were many times I tried to rekindle my friendships but it didn't work out. It came to a point when I started focusing on myself and hanging out with friends who actually wanted to be my friend.
I can really say that Covid messed up my whole 12th grade experience. It stole the joy from seeing my teachers face to face, hanging out in the gym with my friends and meeting new people. Going to prom was one of my biggest dreams and Covid killed it. It makes me angry because why didn't the government have this under control? High school is pretty much over and I waited for this for the longest. I am very proud to say that even though Covid came around, I was still focused in school and never slacked off. I am very grateful that all my teachers and my mother were huge supporters for me during this tough time.
