Mae Armstrong __________________________________________________ When I am Older… I will not remember the symptoms. I will not remember the dates. I will not remember where or how or when. I will remember calling my friends when I went for walks every day. I will remember counting out all fourteen days after I left my house. I will remember having to reassure frantic people that “it’s just allergies” whenever I sneezed. I will remember my mom telling her bosses what needed to be done weeks before they listened. I will remember how the Home Depot was closed and all of the construction companies were closed when wooden two-by-fours stood without drywall in the center of my bedroom for months on end. I will remember teaching my nine-year-old brother everything his absent teachers couldn’t. I will remember the three-in-the-morning rations raids that helped my siblings and I connect. I will remember the stress I felt trying to juggle my academics, my job, my family, my friends, and myself from the little desk in the corner of my bedroom. But above all else, I will remember that “there was no evidence of spread between humans” at the start of 2020.
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