As we all know, COVID-19 has been ongoing for close to a year now and it may be awhile until we come up with solutions to combat the virus and even better ways to have a temporary solution to be able to live normal lives. But how badly does this affect our normal lives? How does this affect children and adults and being able to gather together? Everyone is being affected by this ongoing pandemic and being close to your loved ones is crucial because knowing this virus, anyone can catch it, and unfortunately it can take any one of us.

As of November 2020, many people have gathered together for Halloween and enjoyed going trick or treating during this pandemic, while keeping social distancing and obeying pandemic rules. But compared to the Halloween of 2019 and 2020, it was a major difference. Last year’s halloween, the streets were filled with happy kids being able to wear a costume of their liking while collecting candy going from house to house getting a nice scare with parents there to comfort them, enjoying their time seeing their kids experience this frightful holiday. While this year, the streets were a ghost town. Here in Holyoke the houses were dark, my younger brother went out house to house around Holyoke High School having to wear his mask with his costume and getting nothing but 1 piece of candy per street. Outside of Holyoke many major cities had cancelled going out to Trick or Treat, so Holyoke residents got lucky that we were able to have this opportunity. But if this pandemic doesn’t get dealt with soon, who’s to say we’ll be celebrating anymore holidays anytime soon?

While Thanksgiving has gone by, it was a time for family and friends to come together, enjoy the time they have together, eat lots of food, and be thankful for one another. But technically getting together in large groups violates COVID guidelines. If lots of people were upset about Halloween being cancelled in lots of cities/states, we can imagine how they felt during Thanksgiving and possibly more future holidays. Having younger siblings myself, I know this affects children because some were not able to experience spending time with friends and family while celebrating this holiday. On thanksgiving many love watching football with their family, every year before this I have had a football game that most of my family would attend and this became some of my most cherished memories, but it was very different this year.

Continue to follow COVID protocols and possibly for holidays states may raise the gathering limit plus 5-10. But only for holidays. If you want a better future for you and your family to share these experiences together and create memories, it starts with you, be the change so that many others will be able to spend time again with family and live normal lives.