What I Wish I Had Known

The quarantine came upon us very suddenly.  One day I was celebrating my best friend’s birthday.  And the next, I was unable to leave the house or see my friends again due to the lockdown.  Time machines do not exist, but if I could go back, here are a few things I wish I could have known.

You won’t be able to see your friends for a long time.  Maybe I would have hugged them a little longer, or made sure to hang out with them sooner.  I wouldn’t have said, “See you after break!” as we slammed our lockers, before sauntering out of school for the last time.  I might have baked them all cookies.  And I would have made sure to tell them that I love them.

You won’t be going back to school.  Although I had a nagging feeling that I should completely empty my locker of its contents, I ignored it.  I figured that I could get anything that I needed from my locker during musical practice.  Little did I know that musical practice would suddenly be cancelled.  My biggest regret is never playing on the grand piano in the high school’s library.  Freshman year, when I entered the library, I heard the sound of a fairly skilled musician playing the piano.  I promised myself that before I graduated, I would take a turn.  However, since the school schedule changed, with classes starting earlier and enrichment time in the morning being removed, I never quite found time to do so.  If I had known that I would not be returning to Rocky, I would have asked the librarians if I could, just once, play a song on the intriguing instrument.

Libraries will be closed.  Luckily, I stocked up on a few books before the lockdown, including information for my AP European essay and a copy of the Mythology textbook that we use at school.  My one regret is that I got the first book in The Traitor’s Game series, by Jennifer A. Nielsen, and ordered the third book, because it was brand new and I wanted to beat the rush.  Unfortunately, I did not place a hold on the second book until later, so now I am unable to read the whole series until libraries reopen.  On a brighter note, I have so many books in my house that I will never be in want of reading material.

You’ll have to be more careful of internet usage.  I know this isn’t an issue for everyone, but since my dad started working from home and my three siblings and I started e-learning, our internet usage has gone up significantly.  We need to be careful that we don’t go over our limit.  If I had known, I would have watched more Studio C and JKStudio videos while I could, and appreciated listening to my music more.

You’re going to make history.  Just by living through this time, we are doing something that has never been done before.  I’ve always had the dream that someday someone would read through my journals, like Laura Ingalls Wilder, and their eyes would be opened to what life was like in the past.  Now, that’s the case.  The Putnam Museum is collecting people’s writing about this time to put in their archives so they can display it later on.  Even this project, creating a sort of time capsule, is helping save our thoughts and experiences for future generations.  This isn’t the history I thought I would be living, but we don’t always get to choose our fate.

It will be hard, but you will get through this.  None of us expected this to happen.  The Coronavirus seemed so far away; I don’t think any of us really considered what would happen if our lives were touched by this pandemic.  But as we take one step at a time into the uncertain future, we can be assured that we are all in this together, and our lives will never quite be the same.