Tyler Metzger

The COVID-19 outbreak caused many issues. My family is poor, my father, collecting social security after being fired from his job of 30 years about 3 years ago, and my mother, working at Wal-Mart. She has not received any pay raise at all, nor any hazard pays for continuing to work at Wal-Mart, as they refuse to take care of their employees. Along with this all my physical classes were also canceled and moved to an online class, which made everything in school infinitely more difficult to manage. My home internet is not reliable as it is an incredibly cheap DSL. The wi-fi drops randomly, and the speeds are too slow for most of my class’s Zoom meetings.

There’s now increased paranoia from both my parents, being part of the Baby Boomer generation. My mother, who hates guns, is now considering purchasing a handgun for her protection since she would be going to work so early in the morning it’s still dark out, and some days, not coming home until sunset. My father, meanwhile, believes the virus was man-made and is a ploy by the wealthy elite to wipe everyone else out. We’ve received no aid from anyone before the outbreak, and I imagine we will continue to not receive aid during and after the outbreak.

My peers are also all in despair, missing seeing other people, missing the human connection the physical classes brought. My neighbors are all at high risk for death during the pandemic as well, most being elderly and immunocompromised, while others are big, full families, with many children. I expected there to be no help for or from anyone before the pandemic, I expect none during, and I will continue to expect none after. I expect all this, and yet I continue to be disappointed.