On March 13th, 2020, Coffee County called out all schools and many people rushed to stores to pick up groceries, masks, and toilet paper. 

For months, places all around the world spent time inside “quarantined” trying to keep COVID-19 numbers down.

Although the general public would see the quarantine as mostly bad, I am going to petition why this time ended up being a success.

For kids, being locked indoors for two to three months seemed dreadful, and during the time I believe most of us thought it was. I, however, feel like this time was taken for granted. 

To start, I feel that kids had an option to have more freedom for the first time in years. For instance, I am a Senior in high school so I have been doing school work for thirteen years now. 

Outside of short breaks and summer breaks, this was our first true break from school. 

I feel that this helped kids, but it also hurt them too. Obviously, most kids did not take this time to study a subject or think about a future career, but I feel like this two-month-long break cut down on anxiety that kids would have throughout a normal school career from March until May.

According to some statistics, 16-20% of kids have extreme test anxiety. From personal experience, I feel that this statistic is closer to 50% or more. 

Outside of being out of school, lots of the time spent was with immediate family. I know that this isn’t the perfect situation for some families, but for many, it helped their families get closer and healthier. 

In my instance, it kept both my brothers at home doing online school and preparing for a future career. Personally, the quarantine brought my family together through different talks, gardening, and Spikeball matches. 

I feel that it connected my family and helped each of us be healthier through exercising and eating well. 

Lastly, I feel that it brought me closer to my friends. Usually, I would see my friends through school, but with quarantining we had to stay away. 

Through our old favorite game of Minecraft, all of my friends were able to become closer and spend time together without being with each other. 

Overall, I feel like the first quarantine gave many opportunities that we haven’t thought through all the way. It allowed us to grow away from anxiety, spend time with family, and spend time with friends.