STACEY SMITH, 17

To all of our loved ones,

First of all, I want to say how much I have missed you all. Being apart for so long, it proves how much you mean to me. Te fact that I could only see you through a screen, it hurt. Te only way we could talk was through the phone. Tere was no meet up, no family days out planned. Within seconds it was all taken away from us. It feels as though we haven’t done anything in 2020. No memories were made which we would hold onto for the rest of our lives. Nothing special happened, no celebrations, nothing. Tere’s a pain in my heart to think of what we’ve all been through. But the truth is, we have done something this year. We survived. We survived it all.

Lockdown hands-down has been the worst experience of my life. Being isolated away from everyone. Constantly looking at the same four walls of my bedroom day in and day out. Life felt as though it was slowly slipping through my hands. I couldn’t catch a piece of it. Lockdown was keeping me captured in its cage, isolated from the world. I couldn’t do anything. Te beast that is Covid-19 had taken over all our lives. We became its prisoners and there was nothing we could do to escape. Te anxiety and the fear swirled around my body. It was always looming over me with no escape in sight. Te days seemed to draw out

longer as we followed the same routines. Te boredom followed onward, dragging out longer every single day. It hurt – it hurt so much. Te pain was too much. Life had been swept away from us and there was nothing we could do about it.

As lockdown continued on, we saw people try to carry on. Banana bread and chocolate brownies seemed to fll our social media screens. Late-night Zoom calls kept us connected, with family quizzes and meals prepared for us all. We tried to keep the positives high to mask out the heartbreak in the world. We stayed at home for those around us, as NHS workers powered through the months. Tey helped to save our loved ones – the true heroes without a cape. But we can’t forget the other key workers who helped keep our world afoat and running. Carers, policemen, fremen, supermarket workers: they all played their part during the pandemic. We will always be grateful for those people. Tey fought for us on the frontline. Tey never stopped working even at the hardest moments and to this day we show our love and support towards them. But one thing I will always be grateful for, is the support I had from my mum. We had a great bond beforehand, but now we’re even closer. She is my best friend. She hugged me when I was down. She sat with me as I cried all the pain out. She kept me smiling at the worst moments. But one thing she always did was love me and my little brother and

keep us safe. To us, she is our hero. She kept us on the path ahead. We all had someone who kept us going, and for me my mum was my rock and world. I couldn’t have done it without her by my side. And I know how lucky I am to have her with me.

2020 is slowly coming to an end. A year that will forever go down in history. Te year the world fought Covid-19 until the very last breath. Te fght continues to rage on, but all we can do is hope and pray. With the positive thoughts, we all still hold on to, we hope that this nightmare will soon end. As we slowly move on with these last few months, we will soon be in 2021, all we can ask for is to stay together and hope we can move on with our lives and be happy once again. My thoughts will always be with those who have lost someone to Covid-19. Tis year has truly been a hard one. Having to fght with the beast alone but also struggling with mental health has to be one of the hardest things. Battling a disease which is slowly taking over the world and now fghting your own battle. It starts slowly sufocating us, becoming more and more painful. I’m thankful for those around me and I’m thankful for those who have never stopped during this pandemic. We all joined together as one in order to save our lives. We will forever be grateful for those times where we smiled during these hard times. Every Tursday night when we clapped to show our appreciation for the NHS. 2020 will go down in

history for what we faced this year. Covid-19, countries in lockdown, plus the other events that occurred this year. We have lost so much of our lives, but we can only look ahead at the bright future that is heading our way. We will fnd a way out of this. We will fnd happiness again. And we will reunite with our family and friends soon. Tank you for everything and the support throughout 2020.

Stacey Smith x