Carissa, Watsonville

“The pandemic has become something so surreal and is now beyond belief. I don’t think we expected it to drag out for this long, and as the days go on, we slowly lose hope that there’ll be an end to this nightmare. COVID has affected me in vast terms. It’s taken over my mental health, destroyed my grades, heightened my fears for my undocumented friends and family, impacted my job, and ultimately reduced my human contact. My mother’s job has been put on halt since the beginning of the pandemic and she is suffering mental health complications because of this. My father is risking his life every day, as he works in the fields, coming home each time with the fear that he could have contracted the virus. I live in a low-income, under-developed community where the majority of people are Latino. The virus has impacted my community significantly. My community has been experiencing high rates of unemployment, lack of savings, job losses, furloughs, or reductions in wages and work hours. My family and community continue to beg for a sense of normality in the pandemic.”

Carissa, 18
Watsonville
10/29/20

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