When I first heard about COVID-19 spreading in China it was like February. I remember
teachers telling us to take it seriously but not to worry too much because it wouldn’t worsen to the point for schools to close. On February 21st, I went to a school party at night and I
slept at a friend’s place. I remember us looking at pictures of Wuhan the next morning, and
how it looked like a ghost town; we joked about Milan being like that, but even seeing that
cases were slightly but constantly rising that morning, we never thought of the possibility of a lockdown. Spoiler: we were wrong. A few hours later, schools were announced to close for a week, and two weeks later we had it all on lockdown. We were the first western country to be impacted by COVID-19, and we were completely crushed as no one was obviously prepared to handle such an emergency. Except for Rome, Northern Italy was definitely more affected than the South, and I’d say luckily, cause hospitals are way better in the North, especially in Lombardy, which was the most affected area. We tried our best and the situation slowly got better. Then the government got it all wrong: as summer vacations came, they opened clubs and discos without restrictions and now it’s all getting worse again. I’m afraid of a new lockdown.
Of course it has been a weird situation for all of us, and being 3 months on lockdown can only have a bad impact on people, especially children and teenagers, also from the point of view of education. But I think a positive side can always be found. This lockdown was the opportunity for me to slow down a little bit and learn to enjoy even the smallest things. I’ve learnt that nothing is owed and everything is precious. The inevitable boredom that came with quarantine made me find something to do, something new, or something I rarely do because I usually don’t have time to. So I drew a lot, I cooked, I sewed, I danced and made new choreographies, I made face masks, and I even learned how to play the guitar! I also got to spend a lot of time with my family, and I got really close to my sister: I really like the relationship we have now! In addition, I was lucky that no one I love was badly affected by coronavirus.
Of course, I missed my friends and my life, but I felt comforted thinking that everyone’s life had frozen, and we were all in the same situation.
What I’m trying to say is that of course we don’t want another lockdown, and of course we would have preferred no lockdown at all, but there’s always a good side of things, so don’t worry and be positive! :)
— Elena Guidali, 16
Milan, Italy
