Mask maker

By Emma, Age 12

I remember being so excited for a planned trip with my family to NYC. My mom was reading news about a virus on the other side of the world and decided to cancel our trip. I didn’t see what the big deal was. A week later, the whole world shut down! It felt really strange.

My 10th birthday was the following week…we celebrated with burgers and cake but no party. I kept myself busy sewing masks for family and friends with my sewing machine. It was really hard to find elastic. We had to take elastic out of my skirts, pajama pants and scrunchies in order to have enough. 

I was sad that our library was closed and we didn’t know when it would open again. We started listening to audio books and reading books on-line. Covid was very difficult but we spent our time taking long walks with our puppy, baking lots of treats, writing letters to friends and starting a vegetable garden in our yard.

Through all the struggle, I learned a valuable lesson…slowing down and doing things that filled my soul made my life richer. I feel better, happier and stronger now.