I can see them thinking, Oh no he’s trying to sell me something, how can I get rid of him?

The walls that once held me close and sheltered me from external threats became strangers that wouldn’t leave me alone.

I couldn’t find formula or diapers for my newborn, we had just lost a family member dear to my heart and I didn’t know what to do next.

I wondered, What am I doing here? In the middle of a pandemic, stuck in my room, and trapped in bed, I worried about living past this.

I couldn't sleep, and I prayed that the test would be negative so that I could sit for an exam that was scheduled in three days.

… the sound of my voice in my small room paled in comparison to what I was used to hearing when we sang as a full choir.

After recalling the scenarios I had watched, I was in their shoes, but I was lucky enough to be having a mild disease.

Before the pandemic, I am living paycheck to paycheck. I am working just to survive. It is an awful situation.

At times while working, if Naina screamed or cried, I immediately dialed my mom, asking, “What happened? I heard her crying.”

Early morning at 5 am, we left for our destination. It was an eight hour journey by road. We didn’t sleep the previous night.

The messages sit in the text box, the cursor blinking for seven minutes, before I delete them, one character at a time.

The PAUSE is bigger than COVID … but, the COVID PAUSE has bred love, connection, and renewed appreciation for our time in the Zelienople woods.

At the beginning of quarantine, the lack of traffic meant less time commuting and more free time, so my friends and I decided that we would start working out together over Zoom, to get in shape.

Five days later, my sister had a lot of difficulty breathing. When the paramedics arrived, she was terrified, and said, “I will not go to any hospital, I will rather pass at home with my mom.”

The moment I heard the squeaky sound of my boots on the airport floor, I felt chills run down my spine. The place was eerily still– one of the most populated airports was empty.

Together, we helped her knock on doors, asking each family if they could open their backyard door to let our neighbor look for her dog.

Before the pandemic, we didn’t have a close mom-daughter relationship. I never told her much of what was going on in my life, and when she asked, I seldom shared anything.

The dread of knowing that if I get sick again, I will enter a depressive episode due to the excessive and unrelenting fatigue I've felt throughout this past year, horrifies me.