Wei Li

ESL 100

February 23, 2026

Dark Pandemic

       The experience that I will never forget is the COVID Pandemic, which was a challenging and difficult period that started in 2020. The beginning of 2020 should have been peaceful days during the Chinese New Year holiday. However, the sudden outbreak of the pandemic made my holiday different from the past. The peaceful holiday was completely changed by news that was spreading rapidly, and people started to feel anxious, even scared, including my family and me. As the news about the pandemic was reported, my family and I realized that the days to come would be challenging and difficult. The epidemic period was dark and hard for my family and me. The COVID Pandemic has influenced my education, and had a deep effect on my life.

Compared to my previous life, my family’s and my daily routine during pandemic had been changed completely. As the pandemic developed, all Chinese people were told to stay home. Our community published new regulations that forced residents to stay in their neighborhood. From then on, I rarely went out to eat or hang out with my friends. Buying food also became difficult. In my neighborhood, community volunteers went to my home and issued a pass for the next day to leave and buy food every night. Even though the situation of the pandemic got better over time, there were still many new rules for everyone in public places compared to the past. For example, people were forced to wear a mask when they went out. Because of this, I wore a mask if I went out and I would also check my pocket if there was an extra mask for replacement. In addition, I had to keep a one-meter distance from others when I was in public places. It was also a rule for every public place all over the country. Because of that, I didn’t live a normal life for many months.

The second effect of the epidemic was that I was in a unique but difficult education environment. After being forbidden to leave my neighborhood, all schools closed, and I had no choice but to take online classes. I didn’t enjoy Zoom because it made me miss a lot of time with my classmates. In addition, online studying couldn’t provide different kinds of personalized courses for me, like sports. It forced me to only focus on main subjects, so I lost many chances to develop social skills. Additionally, taking online classes was completely different from face-to-face classes, and it was also more difficult. Whenever I had difficult questions, I couldn’t ask teachers personally, so it was hard to figure out the answers. I could only take classes in front of the computer and try to follow teachers who were talking on the screen. Furthermore, because my room which was normally a relaxing place made me easily distracted. Thus, my education was seriously affected by the pandemic.


The biggest turning point due to the pandemic was that my family decided to leave the country. The serious event made my family consider having a new life.  During the pandemic, the stores my parents owned were not allowed to open. Not only couldn’t they earn money, but also needed to pay rent and other bills.  As a result, they lost so much but had no choice. After the pandemic ended, my parents could not afford to keep their stores open, and they were considering opening another business to make a living. However, due to the impact of the pandemic on the national economy, my family decided to move to the United States. They explored the Chinese business situation, but it was not optimistic. Moreover, my parents didn’t want to return to just normal workers in their family business as before.  After a serious discussion, my parents chose to restart our life in the United States.  Therefore, I left the place where I had been living for eighteen years and came here with my parents to restart our life.

       Living though the pandemic was a challenging experience, and it has also affected my family and me a lot. When I close my eyes, I can still imagine those moments that I experienced at the end of the year in 2020. I had a difficult experience, but those effects from the epidemic didn’t turn me into a negative person, they have made me become braver to face other challenges. I believe this experience is not only one dark event that I have to experience in my life. There will certainly be more in the future. However, I am not afraid of them at all because effects from the epidemic have made me know how to overcome difficult times.

Comments

  1. BillyApril 3, 2026 at 8:06 AM

    Hello, Li Wei. This is a meaningful story and it is impressing to me. You have written a very good essay. Your story makes me deeply know that how the COVID Pandemic influenced a family. Meanwhile, I am glad that you were not beaten by it.

    ReplyDelete

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