The impact of Covid 19 has meant we have had to change how we do things, so while we have been doing Detached youth work we asked young people from the communities of Portobello Wakefield, Hemsworth and Calderdale what they thought. We had a number of replies which we will publish however this young person from Wakefield captured a lot of what the others were thinking.
We’ve been in lockdown for a large chunk of this year. It hasn’t been easy for any of us. When the lockdown was first announced I was shocked, what was 6 months felt like a lifetime to me. Missing out on seeing your friends, going out with your family and most importantly education. The real struggle began when school work started having to teach yourself around 5 different subjects on a day to day basis without any direction on where to start, no teacher meant no guidance. Coronavirus has brought lots of challenges into our lives which may have already been difficult. Many young people including myself have struggled with mental health during the first lockdown, constantly feeling overwhelmed by everything going on around you feeling fed up, dont worry Ive been there myself and its important to know that its ok to feel this way that its ok to cry. Having had no choice but to adapt to a different lifestyle in lockdown, doing school work from home and being stuck in my own surroundings, this period has by no means been easy. My mental health has suffered at times. With all the difficult feelings I have been ignoring for the past eight or so months coming to the forefront, I could no longer plod along and pretend everything was okay. In my opinion for me personally the second lockdown feels alot better Ive been able to get back on track with my mental health and have seen a massive improvement in myself overall. The beginning was hard I lost all of my motivation started to feel like giving up because I didnt see a point in anything whereas now Ive been able to have a good routine and made sure I had a good mindset which meant I was overall happy as a person. It’s amazing to see how much life can drastically change, and how quickly.
Lockdown has changed me for the better!
When I look back and reflect on what my life was like 6-8 months ago compared to now I cant seem to believe it, you start to appreciate things more , lockdown was a moment of realisation for me to not take things for granted and be greatful for everything I have.
Lockdown has been an opportunity for me to explore a different form of living and Ive been having to keep myself constantly busy… Im sure you have too. Some of the things I have done during lockdown is alot of exercise, doing a 10 minute working on a morning always makes you feel good about yourself. I did alot of running walking and making sure I was getting out of the house, I even danced on a few ocassions. I also made sure at the same time I was socialising and keeping in touch with my family and friends through zoom. I spent my evenings doing zoom quizes, me and my friends even organized a zoom birthday party. These were the moments I was most grateful for.
At first I didnt really have any concerns about the virus but then i sat down and i thought to myself two questions
1. Is my family going to be ok?
2. Is anything ever going to go back to normal?
We cant be certain everything is going to be normal but we can be certain that we are all going to get through it weve done it once and I believe we can do it again and again.
When we go off lockdown, 100% I am going back to my fitness lifestyle of going to the gym everyday and just having that freedom and working out.