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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.

The coronavirus affected my life because I felt alone and isolated from my family and friends. I am a certified nurses aid/ nursing student at a hospital near Ann Arbor, Michigan so I had to isolate myself from my 2 year old son and fiancé for months. I was unable to have contact with my family or friends which caused some depression and anxiety because I wanted to protect them from this virus that no one had enough information about at the beginning. At the hospital I had been stressed and felt like we were losing a battle between running out of supplies, depriving our patients of familiarity/comfort, and being worn down from working long hours to cover short staffed shifts. Being a student Nurse during the pandemic is an imaginable task not being able to see your peers or being able have personal relationships with each other. I have felt disconnected and unmotivated to learn from a screen without being able to bounce ideas off of other classmates. I had reach a point in my second semester where all I was able to is sit at my computer and sob out of frustration/devastation because I had worked immensely hard to study and felt I was learning nothing. I know i was not alone after discussing it with other student but the fear of failure was terrifying and being isolated at your own house not having any interaction was lonely and depressing. Currently, I would say the situation is better I have not been isolated from my family since 2020 but there are still hardships especially at my place of employment. At the start of the pandemic I witnessed many families torn apart mostly the elderly who were admitted from care homes. It broke my spirit to know they were alone without there families to see them or that they have given up the will to fight in general. I think hospitals should have allowed loved ones say their goodbyes. I believe as a society we need to improve our communication and compassion for each other by calling or facetiming friends and family to implement some socialization to ensure mental well-being.