Journaling about COVID-19

Growing up I always found history fascinating. I was always doing research on historical events but most of all I found myself drawn to the history of plagues and viruses. I can remember doing a great deal of research on the Black Plague and the methods they used to fight it. I then did research on the Spanish Flu Pandemic. All the time I was doing my research I found myself asking an important question. What would you do today if such a pandemic happened? Mind you this was a few years ago and I guess deep down I was hoping I would never have to find out but I was clearly wrong. Like many plagues and pandemics this one started in China. It then quickly traveled all around Europe hitting Italy the hardest and soon before we knew it the entire world was being hit. The U.S. now being hit the hardest as well. We never saw it coming and even when it did begin to rear it’s ugly head we never anticipated that things would go this far. We never imagined so many thousands to millions of people dying from this virus which takes mercy on no one. Now as hospitals in the big cities find themselves overwhelm with COVID-19 patients the world has turned into a modern day horror story. When this first began and I was told that I would have to take a leave from work to care for my son I found myself feeling helpless. I had worked in the healthcare field up until a back injury left me disabled. Not knowing what to do with myself I began cleaning, writing and doing more cleaning until I stumbled upon a leather clad journal I had bought and forgot about. It was then that I found myself journaling about the epidemic and how it was affecting not only my life, along with my son’s but also those across the world. I began clipping out every article I could find on COVID-19 from every local newspaper and pasting them inside the journal. I wanted to show how this all began and what progress was being made. I guess in many ways I am doing this journal for my son who at twelve is too young to understand completely what is going on. He just knows that school is shut down for the rest of the school year thus causing the teachers to scramble and put together online packets for the kids to do to finish out the school year. He doesn’t understand why he can’t go to the grocery store all the time or why he has to wear a mask when we do go out. The kids are hurting just as bad as the adults are and deep down many are confused and terrified. They are just better at dealing with that fear then us adults. So as I continue my journal with hopes that a cure or vaccine will soon be found before summer I also continue to educate myself with research. I am learning more things then I ever thought I would.