LEWIS, 16

Afer fnishing secondary school not being able to sit my GCSEs, the whole country was put on lockdown following the rising number of daily cases. At frst, I thought this was exciting and adventurous: it felt just like a thriller movie. No school for months, lazing around the house all day doing nothing but playing video games, it was everything I ever wanted to grow up. However, as the weeks of waking up midday with no passion or targets to achieve, it started to irritate me. Te same four walls around me every day. My bedroom was no longer a place to escape society: it was a prison cell I had found myself spending all my time in. I had already rinsed Netfix of all its content and got bored with everything I used to enjoy doing in my spare time. I couldn’t go to live events such as gigs and football matches, which were both a big part of what I enjoyed doing in my spare time, I was restricted to seeing family members on opposite sides of windows and only went out to go to the shops to get the week’s food supply, this is when I decided I needed to start being active and setting myself targets. I began by doing 5k runs mainly to maintain my ftness and take use of the hour ftness rule set by the Government. Tis gave me an opportunity to escape from the continuous time loop I was living in. Furthermore, I decided to start biking places such as down the canal and onto the River

Trent to expand the temporary world I lived in. I found myself communicating more with my friends and family and, when the time was right, spending time with them, as I started to appreciate everything around me. I slowly began to realise the society before was gone and the only way forward was adapting.

Lewis