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Many of us have experienced restrictions on movement and social contact during the pandemic. Talk about any restrictions that have especially affected you.

Restrictions in this pandemic include places being closed, facemasks, social distancing, etc. Restrictions that have directly affected me are all of the above. I work with elderly people which means I have to be very careful. I have to wear a face mask all day every day. I have to sanitize and wash my hand regularly and sanitize surfaces regularly. Also, when I am in public, but not at work I also Have to wear a facemask because of the mask mandation. Another restriction is places being shut down. When covid first hit my high school shut down which was extremely hard to deal with. It came as a shock to everyone trying to learn how to deal with school online. My school also struggled with this. They made classes super easy and barely any homework. Students were and still are failing constantly. My school did open up but for two days a week. This made learning hard still. Other places that shut down include any public facility. This includes restaurants, book stores, etc. This made it hard for me to socialize. I could no longer go to a store with my friends or go out to eat. We were all basically stuck at home. Social distancing was the most annoying part of the pandemic. At school they would not/ will not let you sit by your friends. You can not share water or anything like that. They will not let you hug in that hallways. In my school, they made hallways only one-way traffic flow. This means you can not walk clockwise to get back to your class. You have to walk the entire school again. In public social distancing means that you can not be seated next to another group at a restaurant. No more than I believe six people to a table. It is really frustrating. not being able to be close to your friends and family. My mom even made social distancing restrictions for just me in our home. I worked with the elderly who had covid. That meant I was quarantined to my own basement. I completely understand this, but it made me really sad. Finally, one of the biggest restrictions that did not directly affect me but affected me emotionally happened t the nursing home I worked at. The nursing home closed down to visitors, which was horrific. I saw elderly people forget who their family was, cry over missing the, try to escape, and die without getting to say goodbye. The really took a toll on my mental health and I could never imagine what it did to those families. The hardest part was the fact that I worked with Alzheimer's and dementia patients. This meant that they forgot their families and then got angry because they did not know the person there for a window visit. I watched people die and families are devastated about not saying goodbye. Overall, I feel as though the restrictions made me sadder than anything else. I have mentioned before how I feel like the pandemic has affected me more mentally than anything else.