Article 4 – COVID-19 and How it Impacted My Everyday Life

Excel Daniel

In a world of uncertainties, where shocks and challenges are not uncommon, the year 2020 has brought with it more challenges than any other year in recent memories. It seems as though for every month of this particular year, there has been a new challenge. The month of March brought with it a special challenge that still haunts even to this day—the mandatory quarantine put in place to curb the spread of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This virus and the resultant quarantine affected our lives in various ways, whether at home, at work, or in the community at large. At the initial outbreak, or what the world has finally come to identify as the first wave of the virus, I was still a high school senior. In this essay, I will reflect on the variety of ways in which COVID-19 impacted me, ranging from my personal life, including all its trappings, to my school life.

It was about Christmas of 2019 that we heard about a new virus that originated from China. According to initial reports, the virus was said to have come from a snake or bat strain, and it was said to have the ability to spread very rapidly. I have to admit that when I first heard about the COVID virus, I thought it was a joke. I never imagined that it could do as much damage like it has done so far. Unsurprisingly, I was not the only one that thought it could never reach the heights it did. Back then, our favourite word was “Rona,” coined from the name of the virus “coronavirus.” I remember that my friends and I would joke around about the virus as young people would do, thinking that it would never get here. Unfortunately, all our jokes and false hopes were dashed when the federal government announced that the virus had come to our shores and that it was spreading speedily.

In a matter of weeks from its arrival, the virus had already reached our city of Winnipeg, and it was already claiming lives. So, it was no surprise when the provincial government announced different measures to help curb its spread. Part of the measures was a lockdown, which meant that students like me would have to go to school online. I ended up going to a university outside Winnipeg, the University College of the North (UCN) because my acceptance letter from UCN arrived a couple of days before the University of Manitoba’s letter. Those who frequently visited religious centres were also advised to stay at home. Incidentally, I also belong to this second group of people that was impacted by the lockdown measure. My family is strongly Pentecostal. Following the lockdown, gatherings involving fifty people or more were disallowed. The church that we attended had a regular attendance of over 100 worshippers – pre-pandemic era. With the lockdown, we could not go to church in person, and we had to attend online. Attending church online did feel very weird at first, and to some degree, it still feels weird. It feels less spiritual and intimate and more like “just- another-Zoom-call.” Similar to the experience when schooling had to go online, virtual church services also started off on shaky footings, especially with technical issues, which plagued the meetings for a couple of months. In the end, we were able to get the hang of it. Although it was not the same as physical gathering, it was all we had, and we had to make do with it.
Being a high school student at the time, I had to take up online schooling. This proved to be quite difficult. Schooling online presented multiple difficulties as most of us (teachers and students alike) were not acquainted with this learning method. Technical difficulties like slow internet and website failures and crashes also considerably hindered learning. Attending school online and not having the physical interaction with other students and teachers that I had been used to for these thirteen years made the online experience even more difficult. It was quite an unconventional learning experience that brought about new and odd issues—for example, yelling on top of my lungs on Zoom calls to get my teacher’s attention only to realize that I had been muted all the while. In the end, I managed to pull through with graduation, even though it was not a proper ceremony when compared to the ones I had witnessed other people have in the past. However, the graduation ceremony was only a minor issue compared to others that the virus brought in its wake.

During my high school years, I was also an athlete. I played soccer for my school team. Sadly, due to the virus’s emergence, its subsequent spread, and the lockdown measure that followed, the soccer season was abruptly cancelled. That singular event impacted me greatly because I had always been looking forward to playing soccer in my final year of high school. Not being able to ever experience or achieve this goal really upset me, and it added extra sadness to an already somber period of my life. Staying at home all day was also quite head- aching. My family has always lived together, but much like other families, we had not spent this much time together in a long time. My parents had to go to work, and my sister and I were usually at school. With the pandemic, we all had to be reacquainted with each other, and sometimes, we took walks to catch a wind of fresh air and let out frustrations.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected my life in multiple ways. Since its emergence, things have not been the same, and they will probably never be the same again. If the pandemic ever ends, the first thing we would have to come to terms with is that some of us would not be around anymore – fatalities of the virus. We will have to re-adjust to the new normal of being around each other without masks and interacting without having to unmute. Overall, I believe that those acts and actions that used to be normal before the pandemic will become strange to us, and we will have to re-learn them. Above all, this pandemic taught me something amazing. It taught me to appreciate and cherish those little moments and memories that I have with my loved ones, as I never know when I will get the chance to share such joys with them again.

Author’s Bio: Excel Daniel is a 17-year-old student, and he is in his first year of study at the University College of the North. He hopes to attain a degree in political science from either the University of Manitoba or the University of Winnipeg. Excel spent most of his early life in Nigeria, but he currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with his family after moving there five years ago.

Instructor’s Remarks: Excel Daniel was my student in the Composition and Creativity class, fall, 2020. In his reflective essay on the topic of the COVID-19 pandemic, “COVID-19 and How It Impacted My Everyday Life,” Excel writes about a few areas of his life that have been impacted by the pandemic. First, he was unable to play in a soccer tournament in his final year of high school. The second major point has to do with his religious commitment which was impacted by the pandemic with the restrictions on religious gatherings. Lastly, the challenges of adapting to new technologies for learning and church worship. Excel showed a lot of potential as a student in my class – Dr. Joseph Atoyebi