Ipsita Barnwal
12 Years Old
Grade 6
It’s Quarantine Time!
Hi, I’m Ipsita. Actually, I’m sure you already knew that considering I put it in the corner. Anyways, I’m going to tell you about how my quarantine has been going at home. The beginning of it was absolutely AMAZING. I was excited with all the free time. The teachers had no lesson plan, they were completely clueless. My mom was buying lots of snacks, I was playing more video games, it was great! But things started to go downhill after a couple of weeks. The teachers started giving us work, but not just anything. They tried to mash up teaching, classwork, and homework all into one. And the result of that was a humongous amount of homework everyday coming from 11 classes. Just great. And that’s how it’s been ever since. Depressing, I know. We still got lots of snacks and play opportunities, but with all my zoom classes and homework, (which, sadly, Kumon started to contribute to) I hardly got time for it. My sleep schedule got even MORE messed up (not that it was ever normal) and I generally just became an angry, grumpy person. Being near me wasn’t very pleasant, I’m sure a number of people could tell you that. At this point, I was tired of quarantine. Who knew too much free time could lead to this, well, misery? Yeah, the quarantine blues aren’t a joke. I, for sure was in them. Quarantine could only get better from the state that I was in. And it did. I was learning new, fun skills like cooking, baking and biking. And exercising old ones I haven’t done in awhile like painting and writing. Right, let me tell you about bike riding. So, we were taking a number of car rides and walks so we wouldn’t go insane being indoors all day long. Then, we pulled out two of my old bikes that I never really learned how to use. (Without training wheels, of course.) My brother used the smaller one with training wheels, and I decided to take the training wheels off of the larger one. It was a bit small, but I was learning, and I would get a bigger one once I knew how to ride, so it was ok. Ok. Day 1. A complete mess. We pumped up both of the bike’s tires with air, and took of the training wheels of mine. We set out onto the neighborhood road. It was fun, but painful. I didn’t fall or anything…but not being able to balance yet was giving me a number of cuts and scratches on my legs. Not fun. My brother was happily moving along (obviously, because he has the luxury of training wheels) where as I, well stumbled along. Day 2 I started to get the hang of it, I was practicing in the driveway a lot, and it was getting easier. Then, that afternoon, it finally clicked. I did it. Day 3 and 4, I was riding like anything. It was great! (Except for the few falls I did have in the learning process causing me pain, and that one time I crashed into my brother, tangling our bikes. Yikes.) Anyways, that was fun. I learned bike riding. (Should’ve learned it years ago, without a doubt, but at least it doesn’t feel like rocket science anymore.) Yeah, so we literally ride everyday. Yup, you heard me right. It’s that fun for us. Ok moving on from that. My mom and dad were making phone calls to the hospital. I was a little suspicious, considering they were calling a lot. But I though nothing of it at the time. The next day, my dad came to tell us that we were getting antibody testing. ANTIBODY TESTING, I thought? This can’t go down without blood. And that meant getting my blood drawn. I immediately felt my stomach drop. My brother freaked out too, of course, because he had to get a test too, but we convinced him otherwise until two days later. The big day. For those two days, I was looking up numbing creams, what needle hurt the least, how to calm down, trying to convince my parents not to make me do it, dying of pure fear, etc. I got my self together by the time we were driving to the hospital. My mom looked really tired of me because I kept asking the same two questions. “Will it hurt?” or “Will I be ok?” Yeah, I’ve been overreacting over the years to the point I got a therapist which diagnosed me with it. Not fun. Anyways, we were doing the paperwork and registration for the four of us, which took forever as it is so you can just imagine how it was for the four of us. We sat there for what felt like forever, and then we took turns going in twos to the blood drawing room. Me and my dad first, then my mom and my brother. I felt especially bad for my brother, still not knowing what awaited him. It was finally time for me and my dad to go. From the support of my family and my friends texts to me, I built up the courage to go first and get it over with. I was only scared of the pain, not the needle. I was ok with flu shots, but not so much this. Ok, so this guy who was drawing my blood was really nice. He had a really good hand and ensured that I would be fine. He wrapped my upper arm up in the elastic, and cleaned the blood draw site, He made me laugh to distract me from the needle going in, and once it was in, I was surprised. My exact words were “Wait, what? That’s it?” I looked at the blood in the tube traveling out of me. Interesting. Never tried to do that. I’ve always closed my eyes to try and prevent the pain. Then, the guy (I’m assuming he was a nurse) patched up the blood drawing site tightly. That wasn’t so bad after all! Then my dad went, not so hard for him because he’s done it a million times. When we came out, my mom could see me smiling underneath my mask and she said “see, that wasn’t so bad. Told ya!” We stood, all masked up because it was now my brother and moms turn. I told the nurse to watch out for my brother, because he still didn’t know he was getting his blood drawn too. We stood around hot in our masks and trying not to touch anything for obvious reasons, and especially because this was a hospital. I could hear my brother screaming, all of a sudden in the other room, and I cringed knowing why. Then he stopped. My mother went after, and then they came out. We all walked downstairs and saw a Panera Bread. I LOVE Panera. So, for the first time during quarantine, we ordered outside food. When it was ready, we took it home, and sanitized it, and ourselves. We wiped down all the food, took showers and we were ready to eat. I took a picture as a memory of this moment. Then we chowed down. Delicious! I couldn’t even explain how I was feeling inside because it was so good. Then, naturally I joined my Hindi class with my strawberry smoothie and showed people my first outside meal. After that, we took a nice bike ride. What a good day. The next day, we got something even better. LOMBARDO’S. We ordered our favorite food, and sanitized it when it came, Of course, I felt the need for a picture and took one. They make the best Eggplant Parmesan ever. They never disappoint with anything they make. Now let’s talk about Memorial Day. We went to Rye Playland. Obviously not on the rides, but on the boardwalk. We could’ve gone on the beach, but we forgot our stuff. So, all masked up, we set out onto the boardwalk. I was a little nervous, because it wasn’t highly sanitized like the hospital , but I survived. We saw a lot of well, I don’t really know what they were, but they looked like a kind of stingray-crab hybrid. Interesting. We took a lots of pictures during the boardwalk and it was generally a nice, refreshing trip! We were pretty tired at the end of our walk, so we decided not to ride our bikes despite bringing them. We came home, and had a nice tea time outside with snacks, after showering, of course. And that was the end of the day. Quarantine has been going pretty well. I definitely learned a lot from quarantine. You have to be patient, accept what you have, and most importantly, enjoy. You really have to enjoy yourself. Because if you don’t, quarantine will be really hard for you. I know from experience. Go outside! Live a little! Hope you enjoyed my quarantine story! Thanks for reading! Stay safe and healthy! Bye!
Dear Ipsi you have written such a beautiful essay. Believe me you made me feeling witnessing everything. As though l was with you. Really you are a gifted child. Your vocabulary was fantastic. Surely one day you will be a great writer. You made me feel proud
That was a amazing essay I LOVED it!!! ok bye.
Ipsi, that essay was amazing and even inspired me to start using my bike. Your a really gifted writer.
Very Nice Essay Ipsita, I am very proud of you
Very nice essay. Loved reading it. You are gifted writer.