Dear Brittany,
You are probably just coming inside from your daily tanning on the deck, or maybe you moved to the driveway today to soak up every ray of sunshine that you could. You might be putting the towels you used into the laundry basket and hopping into the shower, checking out your new tanlines and washing off all that tanning oil that you lathered on coupled with the sweat you were drenched in. After your shower you grab something to eat – something simple like a granola bar or something – anything so you don’t pass out. Then you text the girls – Emily, Sydney, Julia, Olivia, and Kayla and see what’s going on. You get into your car, roll all the windows down and have the sunroof wide open while playing Jon’s Summer Country Playlist on full blast. You pull up alongside the curb in front of Emily’s house, parking behind Sydney. You roll up all your windows, get out of the car, and run towards Emily’s front door where her dog Sparky is eagerly awaiting your arrival. You say hi to her family and make your way to the basement where you wait for your other three girls to arrive. Once the gang’s all there, you make your way outside to her patio, arrange the chairs in a circle around the fire pit, light the fire and listen to music all night long. Maybe the boys – Kyle (Peaches) and Jordan show up, or maybe it’s a girls night – you guys probably play For The Girls. The crew stays outside until someone sees a weird bug or the mosquitoes become unbearable – but the party doesn’t stop there – you go back to Em’s basement and continue hanging out (doing literally anything – you and Sydney are probably doing something stupid to entertain the group). You leave Em’s at 1 AM – only because your mom and dad called you about a million times. You drop Olivia off at home and make it back to your house and call it a night.
Those times were so simple, I know you didn’t take them for granted, but you should be thankful. You have no idea what is about to come your way in a few months.
When you think of the months March – April you probably think: the middle of your Freshman Year Spring Semester at Salve Regina University – right? Well – WRONG, try Freshman Year Spring Semester at Da Crib University! Yep, you read that right, DA CRIB UNIVERSITY. You thought you’d be in Newport, RI right now? Yeahhh me too … But you’re back in Watertown, CT. And you love your house – we know that. But you don’t love the work you have to do from your bed because you don’t have a a library where you can grind out hours of work. You love your family but not when everyone is working on each other’s last nerve. But you guys are actually doing a pretty good job of being in quarantine for almost a month now, staying pretty positive, laughing, eating, working out and staying busy.
Why? All thanks to the Coronavirus aka COVID-19. Those words may be new to you, but these days, those words are said and heard all over the world at LEAST 5 times a day (certainly more in your house because your mom wants to stay up to date with the latest news – from FOX, CNN, WFSB, and the most inaccurate of all – FACEBOOK). So while you sit in your room sprawled on your bed, the world is a mess. All the schools are closed, college students home for the rest of the year, restaurants closed, and you’re really only supposed to leave the house to work (if you’re essential like Dad) or to get necessities and even then you have to wear a facemask, wear gloves and stay AT LEAST 6 feet apart from others.
Your spring break was extended by two weeks (which extended your semester) and at first you were overjoyed because you didn’t think this virus would affect you and your life. When you got the (first) email from Kelli Armstrong you thought you were given an extra week to hang out with family and friends… Well that’s wrong. Everything happened so fast… at first there were few cases of COVID in America. And then there were cases in neighboring states. And then there were cases in neighboring towns. And now there’s cases in your town and every surrounding town. And the deaths are going up and the cases are going up – and they are people you know of. You aren’t allowed out of the house because your family is one that is actually following the guidelines, unlike others. Which is obviously great, but not when others aren’t doing their part, which annoys you to no end. So you’re in your house, drowning in school work with no break from what feels like a nightmare (and also a future history lesson – weird…).
You’re doing pretty well though, working hard in school as usual, doing at home workouts to get that summer bod (if we even HAVE a summer at this point… since people aren’t taking it seriously). Despite being a little scared about it affecting your loved ones, you’re doing pretty well… Keep scrolling through VSCO and Instagram and finding quotes that warm your heart or make you laugh. Just stay calm and be positive – that’s all you can do for now. Along with washing your hands and practicing social distancing. And praying – you’ve been doing a lot of that lately.
We’ll get through this & I’ll catch ya on the flip (hopefully with a toned bod).
Warmest regards,
Brittany