“I’m working a lot. I am still apparently an essential employee, you know at seventeen years old, which is kind of crazy. But my mom has understood that, and a lot from me too ‘cause she’s been working overtime. She runs to ERs- meanwhile, at the same time, my dad is getting furlough so it’s a very different kind of thing. It’s a different experience and something I was not expecting . Also, kind of crazy, but just because last week my mom had symptoms of the virus and she’s a nurse, she can get tested- so she got tested. I didn’t get to see her for a week, basically, because we had to wait for the results. I stayed with my dad and thankfully she didn’t have it. Then this week my grandpa is in the hospital, we’re pretty sure it’s pneumonia- but now they’re just trying to rule everything out. So, they’re testing him for the coronavirus and it’s just so crazy to see how everytime it is a little sickness- you got to test it. I think it’s completely necessary to go the extra mile when it comes to testing. Especially because it’ll open things up pretty big too, because I can’t get tested. I work in food service, I serve hundreds of customers everyday. Frankly, for me- it makes me very uncomfortable that I’m not yet tested. I could have contracted it from a customer and I could be a carrier right now, but I don’t know because I can’t get tested. Having it be so that everytime you go in and it is something closely related, they test you for the virus. It’s important and I know that if my grandpa gets it, that will open me up to be able to get tested, and it will open it up for other people. I think it’s important to take it very seriously- to test it at any given chance that you can. And even if they don’t have the virus or they could be a carrier, that’s something that everyone should know. Because I definitely would not be working right now if I knew I was a carrier. It makes me very uncomfortable to know that I could be handing out this virus with every half chipotle chicken avocado melt I handout to a customer. The government controls everything that we can do at this time- every decision that they make will affect what we can and can’t do for the spread of this virus. It’s a big deal now, and I think mostly because the elections are right around the corner. It’s definitely going to prevent some people from voting. Once this is over, it’s never really going to be the same again- you can’t expect it to be. People are going to be so much more cautious about what they’re doing, what they’re interacting with, where they are. I don’t know that not a lot of people are going to feel comfortable leaving the house and going out to vote and so, unless measures are taken for different ways- like online voting and such. I just want to say in general, this is a life-changing thing, and as teenagers- we’re going through something that no one else has had to go through. And we are doing it at such young ages. It’s really weird for me to know that my dad is out of work, while I’m seventeen and I’m classified as an essential employee- where I’m working almost everyday, sometimes I am working all day. It’s so different and I know that this is a time I am never going to forget the experience I had because it’s so different from what I ever had to do before. I honestly can’t predict the next five to ten years, because there’s so much change- I don’t even know when this whole thing is going to blow over. And it’s never really gonna blow over, like I said I don’t think it’ll ever really be the same again. I think it’s gonna be for the better and for the worse. I mean, we obviously as a country- need to reevaluate what’s gonna happen in times like these because we weren’t prepared. We had time to get prepared- from what I know about all of this. We had to get ready and to save what we could and we didn’t really do it. I think that’s going to be interesting to see how people’s minds change. No words can really describe what we’re all going through right now because everyone is experiencing this in a different way. Whether it’s being stuck at home for a month, or your parents being far away from home because they can’t be near you because they work at the hospital. Nothing is ever going to be the same again. I think if we look back- I don’t even know. I honestly don’t have words to explain because there is nothing I can say that will change this.” says junior Gracey Davis.