Maddie H., Northmont Middle School
Sometimes its Good to Slow Down
Imagine you are looking out the window of your car. The car moves so fast that the shapes all blur together. It’s hard to focus on a single thing at a time. Before the pandemic, my life felt like looking out the window of a moving car. Every activity I had to do led into the next one, each of them bleeding into each other. There were so many things I had to do, it was hard to focus on just one. But when the Coronavirus pandemic hit, everything slowed down in the blink of an eye. Suddenly I went from one activity after the other, to nothing to do but be at home. While this was a big adjustment for me, the experience has taught me a valuable lesson. Sometimes it's better to slow down and focus on the little things that you can do and control.
During the middle of the pandemic, everyone in my house was constantly looking for something to keep them occupied. We often would take our two dogs, Mara and Luke, for walks. Through everything going on in the world, it was nice to be around such happy animals. We also went to Lake Cumberland in Kentucky many times, because my grandma lives down there and we have a boat. It was always so much fun taking these trips with our dogs.
The car ride was pretty long, usually somewhere between three and five hours, depending on traffic. In the car, they loved to snuggle up with you, or look out the window and see everything going on outside. Being on the boat with them was even better. They would jump into the water with us sometimes or sit in the boat in the shade. No matter what they were always in a good mood. However, one trip we decided to leave them both at home, because my oldest sister had work and would be home with them. After the long and fun weekend, we were finally home.
Sadly, minutes after we arrived, our dog Luke passed away. Although what happened was out of our control, we took some comfort knowing that we were able to spend almost six months at home with him everyday. At the beginning of the pandemic, I would have done anything to get things back to normal. Although what happened was out of our control, I’m glad that the pandemic slowed things down and gave me more time with Luke.
Slowing down and focusing on things I could control, like how I treated Luke, has really helped me to stay positive during this hard time. Even though my expectations of what 2020 was going to be were nowhere near the realities of the world today, I was taught this valuable lesson through it. I know that during the last six months I had with Luke I was able to be the best owner he could have. Doing and being good for him made me truly happy.
