NIKKI INDELICATO
Special to The Leader
Ever since March 10, 2020, my world has been flipped upside down.
The world has been on total lockdown in efforts to stop the spread of the terrible COVID-19 that has plagued our lives.
Since I returned home, I had to find this new sense of “normalcy” in an environment that was completely unfamiliar to me.
Every morning starts the same with waking up and (hopefully) seeing the sunshine bright through my blue-striped curtains.
My mom, dad and sister are usually up before me with a head start to their day while completing work around the house or doing schoolwork for the day.
The first stop after getting out of bed is to the shiny, gray refrigerator to figure out what my breakfast for the day will be.
I go and pick out the loaf of whole wheat bread and put a couple slices in the toaster to eat. I wait in anticipation for the beep to go off so I can finish making my breakfast.
After breakfast, I go and sit with my mom in our living room while she is watching something on the TV.
As the time goes on and it reaches closer to class time, my dad comes up from the basement where he works, and we switch places for the afternoon.
“The office is all yours,” my dad tells me as he joins my mom in our living room.
I go into the bright, white office full of electronics and office supplies and get ready to join my class and see my classmates for the day.
As it comes to class time, I hop onto my computer, join the class video chat and get ready to take notes and learn.
The professor sits and waits with a smile on her face as the number of students increases so she can get class started.
“Okay we are going to get started,” she says as she greets us. “How is everyone doing today? Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during this time.”
After class, the routine is quite similar to how the morning is conducted.
I join my family back upstairs and complete my homework due for the week ahead.
We gather as a family and have dinner together in our brightly lit dining room. The food from her crockpot fills the air and gives the house a delicious aroma.
Our plates are filled with sweet potatoes and carrots, along with a tasty ham that has been cooking in the crockpot all day.
Dinner time tends to be the only time we come together and spend time as a family. During the day, everyone is usually off on their own, trying to complete the tasks they set out to do.
The night resumes just as the day had with everyone going off and completing whatever else they needed to do for the day before finally relaxing.
My mom and dad head into the living room and continue to watch “Bones,” the television show they have been watching for months.
I join them in the living room, either sitting with my laptop or iPad working on homework or watching the same TV show from earlier.
At around 11 p.m. every night, we all go into our own bedrooms and finish up for the rest of the night. I get a good night’s sleep, just to wake up and complete the same day again in the morning.
Being stuck at home has made me take a step back from how my life used to be before the coronavirus introduced itself to the United States.
This has given me a chance to slow down and take a moment to appreciate everything around me and the time I’ve been given to actually spend it with my family rather than constantly living on-the-go.