From school to quarantine to school again, many people have been affected by COVID in many ways. A lot of people got put into quarantine because of getting exposed to someone who tested positive, not wearing masks, and not social distancing.

During March of last year, everyone went into quarantine after COVID cases started rising. Many students had to finish school online, then go into summer with many guidelines to follow.

Student Max Newby said, “At first we didn’t go out far for weeks on end due to the fear.”

During the majority of the summer Newby was in Arizona with his mom and sat in the sun by a pool for a lot of it. The rest of his family had stayed here in Omaha.

Another student at ENHS, Karlie Efaw, said she didn’t listen to the guidelines right away. During the summer she hung out with her friends almost everyday and kept it normal. Keeping the summer normal one last time before masks were required, social distancing, and many other things would make the summer a fun time without having to worry about masks and all the precautions.

Traveling around the country has been affected in both positive and negative ways. Efaw said she doesn’t travel much but she does like to go out with friends and COVID has made that harder because of having to wear masks and make more precautions like social distancing, closing stores, and people not wanting to leave.. 

Newby said that traveling hasn’t changed much for him. He has a bigger family so he gets to see them more. Many of his family lives in the state which makes it easier for him. 

Having to adjust to wearing masks has been tough for many people, but by now most people have gotten used to wearing them. 

Every now and then people might forget to wear them going places, but other than that most people in the US have a mask with them. 

Efaw said, “I would sometimes forget to wear my mask, which I still do to this day.”

Newby says that he rarely forgets except sometimes when going into school.

Continuing to work at a job has people complaining because there can be people who refuse to wear a mask.

Newby said, “I work at Hy-Vee and there will be people just strolling around without a mask like there isn’t a pandemic going on.”

Many people still refuse to this day about masks, but if they were to wear it would help decrease the amount of COVID patients. 

There have been many people pass away during this COVID pandemic, and some have lost people close to them. Newby said that he had an adult friend who had down syndrome and had sadly passed away during COVID. 

Efaw had liked having it for the very beginning because she didn’t have school for that time but as time went on it became hard for her.

All around, COVID has made many people’s lives worse than it might’ve been.