Connections through quarantine

By Nodumo, Age 11

March 13, 2020, we were taken out of school. There were thousands of people posting about how excited they were to get out of school for two weeks. It had been a month since the shut-down. I wasn’t able to talk to my best friend, Tamia. I’d tried everything I could. What could I possibly do to be able to talk to Tamia…? It was the next day and I was in school again. I’d just rather have been anywhere else than that Zoom meeting on a cloudy, dark Tuesday. That’s when I’d gotten a message from Ms. Marsha, “We’re going to put you in a Zoom room to practice your math with somebody.” I then joined the room and looked up to see Tamia. I began to grin ear to ear. We’d finished the problems early and planned a way to talk.

            “How about you text this iPad?” she asked. 

            “Yes, I’ll text it after school ends,” I said happily…

           It was then time for me to go to bed, I was tired but happy. I was finally able to spend time with Tamia. The Zoom links, emails, and texts all belong to me.