Alex Jackson Fine

Fine by Alex Jackson

A collection of fragments I’ve either read or heard about the COVID-19 Pandemic

It’s just the flu, we’ll be fine. Remember Swine Flu? Remember Ebola? It’ll be just like that. People weren’t washing their hands before this? But I bought 20 packs of toilet paper, I’m good for whatever.

They can’t cancel class. They can’t take my life away from me like this. I can’t make this transition! Classes have been cancelled. I just lost my job. So many people are dead. And life as we know it has been cancelled indefinitely.

Are we taking this too seriously? Are we not taking this seriously enough? I’m young, I’ll be fine. But every time I cough, I wonder: Am I going to die? Surely enough if the virus doesn’t kill me, my mental health will.

I’ve been socially distant my whole life, so why is this so hard for people? I need to go to work to stay alive, I need to see my friends to stay alive. But we need to stay inside to stay alive.

I will never take my friends for granted ever again. I will never take seeing strangers in public for granted ever again. I will never take my freedom for granted ever again. They tell us we’ll be fine if we stay home, stay safe, but I’m going insane in here! Help!

How we’re going about things nowadays has changed. We’re moving online! We have no choice. Only leave your home for essentials. What constitutes an essential? Everything is closed, there’s nowhere to go anyway.

How long will this last? Who knows? Who could know? How long until things can go back to normal? Things will never go back to “normal.” Things will never be the same again.

But we’ll be fine.

Alex is a senior from Port Huron, MI. She’ll be graduating this May with a Bachelor's in Music, minors in Business Administration and English, and a certificate in Creative Writing. Alex has loved writing ever since she was young and knows that no matter what crazy path life takes her down, she'll always be a writer and hopes to publish at least one book someday. Aside from music and writing, Alex is also an avid fan of video games, board games, DnD, fantasy and sci-fi books/movies/TV shows, the outdoors, tea, her two birds Link and Tyrion, thinking about the world, and the smell of fresh laundry.

This is the second time that Isabella Gross has been published in the Central Review, but the first time she has been published for a short story. She is a junior studying English and is looking to apply for graduate school for Creative Writing. Bella is so thankful to her friends and family for their continued support. (And for sometimes proofreading her work!) She spent her fall semester in Scotland where she learned to read in Scots, met incredible people, and climbed mountains (literally and spiritually). She came home with inspiration and an insatiable hankering for sticky toffee pudding. She adopted her sweet, energetic (which is a kind synonym for crazy), one-year-old chihuahua mix called Buttercup in February. She does not have a dog-park boyfriend.