My experience with Covid-19 wasn’t easy, although I am sure it was nothing, compared to what the others go through. I got it when my dad came back from work very sick once. He just wanted to sleep the entire day and couldn’t eat anything other than soup. We started getting worried, but thought it was nothing. However my dad insisted on doing a test, and that night we saw the positive results come in the mail. We quarantined my dad in my brother's room, because there was a bathroom there so we wouldn’t have to share. My mom went in wearing a mask to take care of him and bring him medicine. I was very emotional, seeing my dad in this state, and when I really started panicking is when he got a tube around his nose to help him breathe. I was around my mom a lot, but then she started feeling unwell. I was very stressed and worried, because school was starting soon and I really wanted to go back instead of being on distance learning. The next morning I woke up feeling dizzy. I did a few online classes, but my mother ended up taking me to the doctor. The results came back positive for both of us. I was feeling very sad because that would mean I needed to stay in Turkey longer. I kept myself busy, I read 2 books in the span of a week, caught up on schoolwork, finished a series, but all while having a really bad cough and headache. My spirit lifted when my brother flew from Switzerland out of worry. He tried to help us, but there wasn’t much he could do obviously. He ran errands and brought us extra medicine, we all felt really grateful for his
presence. Towards the end of our sickness, when we weren’t contagious and feeling alright, my brother moved back in for a few days. Of course we all had to leave eventually. From getting covid myself, I learned to take the pandemic more seriously, and take more precautions.
Derya Dogan