Monday will start week two of six weeks that we will be out of school. The Governor of Washington state (where I live) has made it required for us to stay out for at least six weeks, and most non-essential businesses have been closed. Grocery stores are running out of stock by noon (daily), and I haven't seen anyone besides my parents in a week. We have lost three festivals, two concerts, our State choir contest, and the Play our theater program was supposed to put on. All of them have been canceled. Personally, this being my senior year, reacting to this has been a rollercoaster. All hope has proven to be false. Our senior Prom, our Graduation ceremony, my eighteenth birthday that I was supposed to celebrate with my two-time cancer surviving grandmother. It has all been put on the chopping block. I am so lucky to be healthy, and I am so lucky that everyone I know and care about is safe. I had a trip to Europe planned, where I and 84 other choir students were going to tour 7 different countries and perform in amazing venues. Unfortunately, this trip is officially canceled. We've lost $3,100 through the company's cancelation fee when over the past ten months we have been saving and working to try and make this happen. Finding positivity amongst all this has been overwhelmingly hard. There is an endless list of hardships this pandemic has put us through and will continue to put us through. That is why I turn to my people. The fandoms and stories that allowed me to escape in my worst moments as a kid, and now. The things I would watch, read, and do whenever I needed to escape. Whenever I needed to feel something other than sadness, other than pain, something other than this lost feeling that has overcome me. That is my positivity. That is all of ours. We come together on this app because we all have more than "common interests". We have a common escape. We are our own escape. Readers spend hours escaping to the pages that the writers spent days escaping to. Some call our dedication obsession and convince us that it's unhealthy. And sure, maybe it is. But what more can we do? I find my joy in the music I love to create, I've been playing my keyboard more, advancing on my guitar, and even writing more of my own music. I find joy in baking, I've made three batches of chocolate chip cookies, and I don't plan on stopping any time soon. I find joy in the movies and shows that I love, I finally got to watch and fall in love with Frozen II and I've gonna back and watched my favorite episodes of supernatural. I find joy in my fandoms. I came on this app and found this post. All these amazing people, just trying to spread positivity in this screwed up period of our lives. So this is my addition to this post. I'm sorry it's so long, but I needed to say all of this. I needed to prove to myself that there is positivity because at first, I had a really hard time finding something positive to write about. Anything I thought of, it just didn't seem good enough. But anything counts. Anything that makes you smile. Anything to get through it. Thank you all for being my positive thing. Thank you for being the group of strangers it took for me to realize that it's not all darkness and disappointment. Thank you for being my escape.
areudirty
theartofmadeline
origamiaround
stormborns
jacobvanloon
snowghoul
gummygunk
