My Narratives Archives ~ Sagarika Blogs

Category: My Narratives

How Covid has affected my school life

Covid affected my life in many ways. But mostly, Covid has affected my school life, and I want to share my experience during this pandemic.

The 2020 school year was almost over; Just a couple months left. No one could concentrate on work, and everyone was daydreaming about how awesome their summer vacation would be. So when the news suddenly started talking about a virus that had started in China, it didn’t matter to us. But slowly, the news changed their story. Now the virus started to become a big deal. They called it Covid-19. Schools shut down, face masks and hand sanitizers were practically rationed, and our homes seemed to be the only place that was safe. Their was fear everywhere, and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people haunted us.

But life still continued, and Webex became the answer to quarantine. The amount of screen time in the daily life of a fifth grader increased – by a lot. But that wasn’t the problem; Sure, there were definitely more than a few glitches in our chromebooks, though that was to be expected. The problem was the mental impact this had on everyone; Most people, myself included, changed – emotionally or behaviorally. I was dealing with a lot of stress and anxiety, but nothing could be done about it. And there were too many questions; When would all this end? When would we be able to go back to school? Would we ever see our friends again?

I slowly became familiar with the routine: Wake up, log onto Webex, struggle to pay attention, experience glitches, and do boring online homework that had nothing to do with what we are learning about. I just could not concentrate. Things might be better if school just got cancelled. But quarantine wouldn’t let us go outside, enjoy the sunlight, be with friends – which summer is all about. Instead, all we had for entertainment was more screens; phones, video games, TV. I started to become lazy by eating more junk food, and having my eyes on a screen all day. I felt isolated from the world, my friends, and even my family. At the time, I thought it was the worst year of my life.

Then I realized that the people around me were going through the same difficulties. I missed out on fifth grade graduation, going on vacation in the summer, and even my first day of middle school. But everyone else did too. Some people might have even missed their first day of high school, or college, and I felt lucky that things were slowly working out for me; even if it wasn’t the way I hoped.

Half of the sixth grade school year was on Zoom – a better platform than Webex. The technical difficulties still continued, but it wasn’t nearly as bad. Things got better, because they set up a hybrid learning schedule; Our class divided into two cohorts, which took turns going to school every other day.

About a month later, they took it even further, and combined all the cohorts so that everyone could go to school everyday. We still had to wear masks, but at least we could hang out with all of our friends.

We got to participate in all the activities that wouldn’t have been as fun on Zoom. My mental health improved, and so did other people’s. Just when I thought things couldn’t possibly get better – they did. Because the Covid-19 vaccine was created. Slowly, all the adults, including my parents, became vaccinated, and I would too once I was 12. The coronavirus would never completely go away, but a lot of people can now be saved from it.

If there is anything that my experience during the pandemic has taught me, it is to have patience. Things will work out, even if it isn’t the way you hoped they would.

I rode the Incredicoaster at Disneyland

It was finally our turn to go! We had been waiting an hour just for this roller coaster, and I was bored out of my skull. I was here with my family in Disneyland, and this was only our first ride! It was called the Incredicoaster, and was a long train, with seats for two.

We finally got to the front of the line, so I hopped in, and my grandma got in beside me. My family and cousins were here too, so we took up the whole space. I was terrified of the Incredicoaster, but there was no turning back now. . .

During the Ride

The ride started fast, and it hurled us along the track, into the giant tunnel infront of us. As we rushed inside, the huge gust of wind blew into my face, making my cheeks flap. I was blinded by the strong wind for that one second. As soon as I could see again, I saw that little animated incredible characters were on the ceilings of the tunnel. Like Helen (the mom) was trying to feed the baby, but he threw-up purple goo all over the place! Right when the ride pushed us forward so fast, my head almost bumped with the lap bar infront of me. When it did that, the train twisted to the right and weaved in and out of tunnels with the animated characters from Incredibles projecting the walls doing all sorts of things.

But this was where the twist came. As we were distracted by characters, we didn’t know that the ride was accelerating us high into the sky. We didn’t know that until . . . BOOM! The ride pushed down, my stomach flipped, I screamed as loud as I could. We were getting closer and closer to the ground, to our doom. But it didn’t happen.

“Look!” my grandma pointed ahead of us and I followed her finger. “OMG, OMG, OMG!” I cried. Up ahead was . . .

I rode the Incredicoaster at Disneyland.

To Be Continued. . .

Down the Stairs – A Narrative written by me

I love visiting my grandparents. I love their house, actually, I should say mansion. Their house was humongous! I love the sweet smell of my grandma’s cooking (Indian sweets), the beautiful crystal chandelier that hangs from the ceiling of the living room, and the faint whiff of smoke from the kitchen. But I loved going up the stairs even more.

My parents had always warned me not to run up the stairs, because the game room was off-limits. But I would never listen to them. Besides, it’s not like I would fall off the stairs or something. I decided to wait until night time so I could finally run up the stairs and discover what was in the mysterious room.

After dinner, my mom came into my room to tuck me in bed for the night. But as soon as she stepped out of the room, I pushed my blankets away, and climbed out of the bed. Everyone was already in their rooms, so I tiptoed over to the staircase in the dark. I couldn’t see anything, but I knew my grandparents’ house like the back of my hand. However, I ran into a problem almost right away. . .

The Problem

When I had reached the staircase in the living room, just before I was about to step on the stairs, I heard a CLICK, and the lights went on, then I heard footsteps. It sounded like the footsteps were coming towards me. I quickly scanned the room to see if anyone was there. Just then, standing in the doorway of her bedroom, was my grandma.

“ What are you doing up here?” she questioned.

“ I..Uhh.. um, I was j-just umm..I was just getting a snack,” I stammered.

“ Oh, well you’re going the wrong way.” She pointed towards the kitchen, “the kitchen’s that way,”

“ Right, I forgot,” I lied.

I waited until she was gone, and then scanned the room to check if anyone else was there. There wasn’t, so I dashed up the stairs, taking them one at a time, but my mind was wandering about the game room, and how much fun I would have without anyone to tell me to stop.. . .

The Accident

I wasn’t paying attention to where I was stepping, and I was only on the sixth step when.. CRASH! My foot slipped from under me, and I fell, hitting the stairs with a thud. I could feel the tears coming, and BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! I went rolling down every single step, my body ached from all the pressure, and my cheeks were bruised from hitting down on the stairs so hard, I was screaming, laying on the bottom of the stairs, with every inch of my body so beaten up, I couldn’t even move.

Then suddenly, I heard a familiar CLICK and the lights flickered on.

This time, the footsteps sounded like huge feet banging down on the floor. They were coming closer, and closer.

Suddenly, “Sagarika!” my grandma exclaimed, picking me up from off the freezing floor ever so gently, “ What happened sweetie?!”

I couldn’t talk, I was too much in shock of what had just happened, so I just cried and buried my face into her dress.

She carried me over to my mom who yelled, “What happened? Are you ok?”

So I finally stopped crying, and told her how I wanted to see what was in the game room, so I had disobeyed her by trying to run up the stairs.

After I was finished, she hugged me, pulled me close and whispered,

“Well, did you learn your lesson?”

I had indeed learned my lesson, so I promised I would always listen to my parents. I had also learned that some things should stay a mystery. . .

Beach Day, A Narrative Written By Me

I woke up earlier than usual, excited for the day ahead. My dad had promised a beach day today on Saturday, and after the coronavirus going around, I thought this day would never come! Things got even better when my parents allowed me to pick a friend. Of course I chose my best friend Elle! We quickly got ready, packed our things, and drove over to her house. We looked amazing in our beach wear!

At the Beach

When we arrived, the first thing we did was dash over to the beautiful beach water and dive in. It was freezing cold, but definitely worth it! Swimming farther away from the shore, we waded our way towards the front. But what we didn’t realize was that there was too much seaweed blocking our paths, and we stumbled right over them. I struggled to untangle my leg, but just as I did, a huge wave came toppling over us, my face drowning under the freezing water. I finally managed to untangle my leg, and swam back to shore, choking out the water from my throat. My legs felt numb, and I looked around in search of Elle. My parents appeared, and I called out for my friend. Where was she?

That’s when I saw her, way out in the water, shouting for help. Panic crept inside my mind, and for a second, I thought she was going to drown; But I couldn’t let that happen, so I dove in the water once again and swam over to Elle. But she had already made her way to the shore, and I saw my dad leaping in and grabbing her hand just in time before the enormous wave came crashing down. Elle was okay, but I was still in the water. Ducking underneath the wave, I closed my eyes and mouth shut, waiting for the wave to pass over me, as I tried to swim back to shore.

I finally did, emerging from the beach to see my family laughing. So I giggled too, despite my legs being sore from crashing into the hard sand below me. I wanted to do it again, but Elle was ready to take a break. It was dangerous what had almost happened to her, so I agreed. We raced each other to our stuff, and spread out our towels on the sandy beach. Laying down under the sun, the warm glow helped us to relax, and forget about the incident in the water.

We ate some sweet tea biscuits and drank a lot of water. After that, I talked to my mother and made a plan to invite Elle over to my house after freshening up. So we all agreed. After dropping her off, we went home and took turns taking a shower. About 10 minutes later, Elle arrived at my house.

“Hey, come on in!” I welcomed her with a smile.

She smiled back and we hugged each other before she stepped inside. We had so much fun together, and I even taught her how to play Fortnite! It was the best Saturday of my life during Covid so far, but also the scariest.