I think the moment I realized how drastic things were changing, was a wednesday in March. Me and my boyfriend had gone to the store because we jokingly wanted “one last look” before everything was gone. We walked past the toilet paper section and we made a chair out of them, took a picture for laughs and then went on with our evening. I went back to the store two days later, and everything in that aisle was gone. Nothing was left, not even paper towels. I had forced myself to believe that the virus wasn't going to affect me, I would maybe be out of school in two weeks and then resume my normal day to day life. I wouldn't be out of a job for two months and I'd still see my friends everyday. My senior year, which is starting in August, would just be a normal senior year. Every assumption I made about these distorted times was wrong, and it ruined me. My generation has never had something terrible, that we can remember, happen to them. Sure some of us were alive when 9/11 happened, but it isn't something we have engraved in our brains forever. This pandemic is so insane because this generation, my generation, will forever be changed because of it. Especially because of social media. Through different platforms we've all sort of banded together, with half of us going through the deepest darkest trenches we've ever stumbled upon, and the other half completely thriving in this newfound isolation. The world as we know it will probably never be the same again. As much as myself and everyone else wants it to be, some things will never go back to the way they were before this huge interruption happened. But is that completely a bad thing? I think that we are all more self conscious about being cautious about what we do or where we go and how to protect our health wherever we go. I think airlines could possibly make masks mandatory in the lobbies for years on out. Schools could be completely rewrote and I personally know some students who loved online school so much that they are finishing out their school career online. All of these things were never expected to happen, no one knew what was to come, and I think that's why some people like myself struggled so heavily with what was going on in the world, and they got to the point where they just wanted to give up. People say there are two types of people in this world. Introverts and extroverts. Sure in some cases that's true, but is someone really just an introvert? Are they just a hugely outgoing social person who never wants to be alone? No. Every person is different, and every person has a different mix of introvert and extrovert in them. When you are young, a teenager, you are still growing up, you're learning about yourself, you're forming your own opinions and ideas about life and your beliefs, you really don't know how to take care of yourself. For me that was the case. I was thrusted into online school, me, a student who already struggles with school while being in school and five feet away from my all knowledgeable teacher. So imagine the panic I had when my teacher didn't answer my email in time and I had to submit my assignment in thirty minutes. It was bad. It got to the point where in May, I started working again and I seriously didn't do a whole two hours of school in all of May. My mental health got to the point where I would lay in bed crying all night because I was so stressed about the world around me, about school, about my life and what I was gonna do because I was borderline failing school. I was a mess, and it was so hard for me to see people accelerating in their schoolwork while I couldn't even open my laptop anymore. Schools in the fall are really going to have to be lenient with their students who like me struggled immensely with being thrown into online school, because I think that this is one of the worst things to come out of all of this, we are going to have to spend a whole year of review especially for the younger grades. The first time I went to the store and there was toilet paper was in June, the shelfs still weren't completely full. I started to imagine things were going back to normal and I was so excited that my senior year wouldn't be affected by this. I would be able to play tennis and still shake my opposers hand after the match, I would have my last homecoming. I sit here at the end of July and I know now that most of those things will not happen for me. Tennis is postponed until further notice, I will be attending school every other day while wearing a mask. My boyfriend's college has switched to online all year. Life is so different now, and the way everything is changing affects people's mental health in different ways. So during this time we should all be considerate and forgiving of the people around us, you never know what they are struggling with. Let's hope that this way of life isn't the new normal forever.