My COVID-19 Shelter-in-Place Experience by Yulia K.

Our 2020 year began with big plans. First, we waited for my mom, who was coming from Russia to meet us in March. I hadn’t seen her for almost two years (except for Skype calls). We were going to travel to Southern California with her. 

In February, I heard a lot of news about the Corona virus and that it was spreading around the whole world very fast. Also, there was a lot of gossip that all schools would be closed. 

In one week after my mom arrived to the USA, my son’s school was closed due to the quarantine. First, I felt scared about my family, my parents, and grandmother. We worried that my mom couldn’t return to Russia because many air companies cancelled their flights and many countries started to close their borders. 

Despite everything, we had a great time with my mom. My sons were happy to meet her. We enjoyed spending time together and were happy that she visited us in this crazy time.

When my mom returned to Russia, we started to change our life, our habits, and our schedule because we were required to shelter in place. At first it was difficult to arrange our schedule to learn and work. Also, I was very sad because our summer plans were ruined. We were going to travel to Russia. We wanted to visit our families and friends. We haven’t seen them for three years. I hope we will be able to do it next summer. But despite everything, I have some positive points in this situation. I had time to realize some of my ideas and my husband took some useful courses online that we didn’t have time for before. And of course, I like to spend more time with my family.