My answer to “How are you doing?” could consist of a hundred different feelings, emotions, and complaints depending on the time of day you ask me (yes, it could be 4:30 am and I will still be awake to respond). During the past few weeks, I have been overcome with disappointment, anxiety, and frustration, as I am sure many have experienced as well. Early into being prohibited from seeing or being in close contact with my friends and relatives, the negatives of this situation were practically screaming in my face 24/7; I am home the remainder of the semester instead of being on our amazing campus, I cannot hangout with anyone besides my immediate family, but most importantly, people are suffering–and they should not have to be. I cannot imagine what healthcare workers, victims to this virus, and loved ones to these victims are going through. I am constantly seeing, hearing, and talking about what our current world is and WOW it is hard to stay positive; however, my lovely mother–the only other sane person living in my house–reminds my family and I to, “put things into perspective.” So, right at this moment, I am grateful.

My family and friends are all healthy and stable with a roof over our heads and food to eat, and to anyone else in this position: we are the luckiest people in the world. The weather is finally warming up and warm weather will always be a positive for me. Thanks to technology, my friends and I have been able to keep in touch, zooming and facetiming whenever we begin to get lonely. My Grammy and Grampy, arguably my favorite to people on this earth, live only a mile a day, so they have been able to take walks to my house and visit with my family (6 feet apart). I was able to rearrange and completely clean my room. My family has started to eat meals together again and watch an abundance of movies. I broke out the DS and Wii to help keep me occupied and have been saving a lot of money that would have been close to gone by the end of the semester. Lastly, I have my two cats, Dale and Brennan, that are nothing short of perfection to always be a source of company when I cannot handle the lunatics I am currently living with. A major positive to this is that pets across the nation are getting to spend all this time with their humans, which is always heartwarming. 

I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy, and I wish everyone the best while we get through this chaos. 

-Elizabeth Pohle