[…] The pandemic closed down many things, but we had to continue with our lives. At the time quarantine began, I was in highschool, and had art class on my schedule. I drew the above picture to describe how I felt. I felt trapped inside my own apartment, yearning to go outside in the rain. I enjoy walking in the rain, so I drew the girl with her umbrella ready to go, but all she can do is stare out her window. Some people consider opening an umbrella inside as bad luck, but I wasn’t thinking of that. Instead, although everything else was drawn and traced in black contrasting with white, I drew a yellow umbrella. In this case, yellow symbolizes hope. Since yellow is also a color for happiness, I was hoping my happiness would remain with me, although my surroundings seemed to rain on what was supposed to be a great year.
One way I kept my joy was by giving. I tried to help others and worry less about the problems around me. This gave me strength.
Pictures of envelopes in which I wrote letters to neighbors, to help cope through the difficult times.
[..] On this multimodal documentation of my pandemic life, I decided to focus on the positive outcomes of the pandemic. It would be hard to include everything, and my pictures went from pictures to screenshots, but the focus is the same. This pandemic has taught me resilience and the importance of attitude. There are so many problems in the world, and when I watch the news, the virus is probably the least threatening thing right now. It appalls me to see how horribly people have acted towards each other in history, and how humans continue to demonstrate hateful traits. However, if I want to see a change, I know it must begin with myself. 2020 was a confusing year, but it allowed me to grow in endurance and patience. I’ve had opportunities that I might’ve never received otherwise. In the beginning, I did feel trapped and anxious for the future. Sometimes that feeling creeps inside of me again. Still, there’s been a before and after in me. I feel more ready than ever to tackle what the future should throw at me. If I was happy before, I’m happier now, because I’ve endured.
I think it’s great that you learned the importance of resilience and attitude during the pandemic, not just feeling trapped in the apartment throughout the quarantine, because I did feel the same way you did at the beginning of the quarantine, and I became more patient than usual during that time because I learned how to bake. And your words match the pictures you provided and I can feel what you are trying to say. Also, I like that you mention how you felt before and how you feel after, it shows how you have changed and why you are happier now. I think your writing is already clear enough, I can’t tell where there’s a problem, keep up the good work!
Thanks for your feedback!