In March of 2020, specifically, March 13th changed all of everybody’s lives drastically. This is when it was announced that school would be closing and that Covid-19 has officially become a threat to society. This is also when it was announced everyone had to stay quarantined at home with their families all day for months, which for some people, could mean different things. For some people, quarantine could have helped them, but for others, it could’ve really hurt them because nobody ever really knows what’s going on in someone else’s life.

Covid-19 has affected so many people in so many different ways. Some people may have lost their job and now they’re not financially stable, or like hundreds of thousands of people who have lost a family member due to Covid, that could be affecting someone as well. Not only has it affected people in those areas, but it has also made many people very unhealthy, mentally and physically. Covid has affected many people’s physical health in ways from doing nothing at home all day to having all sports and activities canceled. Many people have started gaining weight and or other physical issues as well. It has also caused lots of people to be very unstable mentally, from being quarantined all day and not being able to see any friends or any other people outside of the family. It has also made lots of people very depressed or struggle with other mental illnesses as well.

“My mental health is definitely not as good as last year because of everything that happened with Covid. With all the many changes in our lives, it has made my mental health really bad. I definitely think my mental health changed and not in a good way. I feel that if Covid were to never have happened, my mental and physical health would not be the same, honestly, I feel like it would be better if it never happened,” said freshman Katherine Jovel.

Then again, it has helped some people. It gave lots of people time to work on themselves mentally and physically. Since everybody was quarantined for so long, lots of people took advantage of that time to work on their own health. For example, people were able to spend their off-time working out and bettering their physical health. Overall, quarantine has definitely had some positives.

“I think my mental health has changed a lot because I am getting more active and I’m learning to respond to myself more. Covid has really made me realize that I need to focus on myself. If Covid never happened, I feel that I would still be in a bad place with my mental health,” said freshman Taylor Rittenour.

“Over the past year, I would say that my mental health has pretty much stayed the same, but my physical health has definitely changed and for the better too. So overall, I’d say I had a good year health-wise. If Covid were to never happen, I think I wouldn’t be the same because throughout quarantine, I worked on myself and got myself physically healthy,” said freshman James Lacey.

“In the past year, my mental and physical health has changed a lot and I think it was for the better. I think that because over the quarantine, I had time to work on myself and get better mentally and physically. If Covid never happened, I think both my mental and physical health would be different since I wouldn’t have had the time over quarantine to work on myself,” said freshman Danilo Celedonio Santos.

Covid could have also helped and hurt some people. There are some people who are having a really tough time mentally but they were really working on themselves physically. Or maybe it was the opposite, like if someone really wasn’t happy with themselves physically but they were really proud of themselves mentally.

“In the past year my mental health has not been good at all, but my physical health has changed a lot and it’s so much better. I think that if Covid never happened, my mental and physical health would be totally different,” said freshman Christopher Robinson.

“My physical and mental health has changed dramatically in the past year. I think it was a good and bad change and Covid definitely has affected that. Spending time with my family for so long has really impacted the change. By staying home and doing nothing since all sports were canceled affected me in a negative way, but by staying at home, I was able to spend time with my family and figure out their hobbies, interests, and overall, just have a great time with them,” said freshman Danielle Moore.

Covid 19 has definitely affected everyone in many different ways such as hurting or helping people, even if it’s mentally, physically, or even just in life. However, everyone got through it together as a community and everybody is still going through it with the half virtual and half hybrid, but everyone has to keep fighting, wear a mask, and stay home to protect others!