It’s the calm before the storm. Sitting on a hammock placed too closely to a tree I breathe deeply. The old limb it used to hang on has been cut down. The rope is now wrapped around the stump of that branch, inches away from the trunk of the tree. The air is warm and blows like a sweet cloud around me. Sitting crisscross in this green hammock swaying in the breeze, I relax. To my left rumbles the approaching train in the distance. It roars louder and louder until I can feel it near. I see its lights through the trees and then it fades away past the rock outlook. To my right is the silent highway. Every once in awhile a car passes by. I wonder where they’re going. Everything has seemed to slow down lately. The wind picks up and the loose sides of the hammock flutter like a bird trying to take off. I breathe in again. I hear the screeching of the train as it slows a bit and then it picks back up. The wind has calmed now. I lean back into the comfort of the hammock and reminisce on how things were a few weeks ago. A few weeks ago this was all a story. It was something far away. None of us thought it would effect us. If you would have told me then that everything would close down like it is now, I would have labeled you crazy, a conspiracist. All of those people are probably living easy now while the rest of us live in unease. In less than 48 hours I packed up all of my belongings and moved back home. I had tried to wait out the storm but as the wind picks up now, it was inevitably coming. 

This past week has been a roller coaster as I have moved home with more stuff than I left with. I now am living out of packed boxes, in denial of the change to come. I left behind friends, classmates, and people that were my everyday. Some goodbyes were never properly said as people disappeared. Campus emptied in less than a week. The day they told us all food except for the cafeteria was closing down was chaos. We all bought as much candy and drinks as we could in an attempt to spend our money for the year. The next day we were told that unless we had “special circumstances” we had to leave campus by Saturday. The front doors of the dorms were constantly open as students carted out their lives. I passed friends with clothes thrown in buckets and boxes that wouldn’t close. Everyone was in sort of a haze. Some of the people were ready for this and they left the night we heard classes were cancelled. Others, like myself, were holding on for the storm to pass. The storm hasn’t passed. In some ways it has only begun.

Everyday at home as I try to catch up on all the school I am behind on I hear the news in the background. It seems as if Trump is always talking to the American people. It seems as if everything is changing. I have been home for not even two weeks yet, and so much has happened. There is talk now about officially closing down cities. The fear isn’t just this pandemic (funny word that is) but also what this will do to our country financially. These times are so uncertain. There is no guarantee that we will be going back to school in the fall. There is no guarantee that my summer job is going to work out. House prices are dropping and the stock market is fluctuating. I keep hearing people compare this to the 1920s and in many ways they’re right, but this is something completely new. There have been movies, tv shows, books, and so much more about this, but before now that was all it was. It was a dystopian fantasy. Now things are falling into place and our country could be at the verge of a collapse. If we do not find a solution soon, this could be the end of our great empire. 

Eventually we are going to have to go back to our everyday lives. We cannot stay quarantined forever. There is no way our economy can last this way. I do not know how this is going to effect this country in the long run, but I do believe that there will be some differences even if we do recover. We will never fall so far into this fake reality that we have created. As Americans we have believed for so long that we are better than everyone else. This perspective is not realistic. We are human, as is the rest of the world. I am sure people during the Great Depression had thoughts like these. They didn’t take for granted having food on their tables or a warm house to sleep in. My great grandmother went through this, but she passed away early last year; that generation is almost gone. They have done their best to instill in us a thankfulness for what we have, but many of us have forgotten how fragile our comfortable lives are. 

I think it would be morbid to say that this experience is good, but I believe that God takes horrible things that we cannot understand and he turns it into his own kind of good. If we are able to get through this, maybe we will be a little bit more prepared. Maybe we will strive to learn more real life skills. Maybe this will inspire young kids to study medicine. Maybe someone out there will see the need for scientists. Maybe there is a young child watching the news who wants to help others or a child who never knew what stocks were before all of this. Maybe we can turn the horror of this into something that makes us stronger. We have done that in the past. Our nation is fragile, our comforts are not guaranteed, yet for some reason we always come back stronger after we suffer. Our nation has endured horrible pains before, we can work together to survive this one. 

For now we will continue to live in this uncertainty. We will cut back expenses and extracurriculars. We will work from home until we are told to go back to work. We will support our local businesses as much as we can. We will spend time with our families and cherish the closeness. We will encourage each other through phone calls and video calls. We will respect the decisions of our government and follow their guidelines. We will cook new foods and learn new skills. We will go outside and enjoy the spring weather. We will plant gardens and dance in the rain. We will not waste this time in fear, but we will use this time to restrengthen our nation. We will use this time to connect with our families. We will take this terrible event and make it into a historic miracle. 

It will be a time when communities come together. It will be a time that we tell our kids and grandkids about. They will laugh it off saying there goes grandpa again with his pandemic tales. We will knowingly look around the table and be filled with thankfulness that our kids don’t need to understand what happened. One day we will tell them again. We will remind them to not take their American lives for granted. We will remind them of their freedoms here in this country. They probably will take it as many of us have, and ignore the implications that it holds. Very few of us remember the sacrifices it took to get here. The fact that we can forget the pain is everything our ancestors fought for. They gave us opportunities that they could only dream of. Now it is our turn to do that for our future generations. Do not shy away the responsibility we now hold. We are not being asked to fight on the front lines of wars. We are being asked to follow protocols, respect instructions, and remain strong. 

Finally, we need to pray for our nation. We need to pray for the hurt and the sick. We need to pray for our tired doctors and nurses. Ask that the Lord will keep them healthy and given them strength that only comes from God. Pray for the leaders of this country. Ask God to unify them. Ask him to grant them unearthly wisdom. Pray for your community. Pray for the friends that you can no longer see. Pray for your families. Take all the fears you have now and turn to God. He promises us peace if we go to him in prayer. He has a plan greater than anything we can understand. In times of joy and in times of trial, we need to turn to him, knowing that he is in control.