Anonymous, 17 – New Haven CT
I’m 17 years old, 1 out of 5 other siblings and a student. I’ve been working since I was 15 to help my mother who is a single parent. Over the years I’ve watched her struggle and felt the desperate need to help. There have been times where she has lost her job and we didn’t know where our next meal was going to come from. We’d line up outside of the church on Chapel St. every Saturday to get a bag of groceries. Our financial struggles have taught us great lessons on how to appreciate and value what we have. It has shown us how to give back to the community that nourished us in our time of need.
As a young adult living in an urban community life is challenging. Many of us come from broken family structures, poor households who are barely making ends meet, and we are often witnessing violent crimes. Our lives have always been rollercoasters emotionally, mentally, and physically. We’ve always been depended on to “raise” our siblings while our parents work multiple jobs to get by. During this global pandemic we’re needed now more than ever to uphold our households. For many of us, our income from our part time jobs is the only cashflow because our parents have been laid off with no return to work date and unemployment benefits either don’t come or they’re ineligible. For example, rideshare drivers who work through Uber and Lyft pay taxes yet they’re ineligible to receive any compensation during this time.
My mother is an essential worker. She works 12 hour shifts everyday in the third shift and even though she’s tired she works hard because she has to put food on the table. I see how tired she is, I see how badly she’s struggling, and it really pains me to see her this way. My younger siblings are 10 and 11. Everyday I get up, make them breakfast, lunch and dinner, help them do their homework, clean up after them, and ensure that they shower, and go to bed on time. It’s especially hard on me because my older brother who lives with us isn’t able to do much to help me with them due to his mental disabilities. My mom is almost never home because she has to work so much during this pandemic and when she is home she’s trying to clean and cook something quick to go to sleep and the cycle continues the next day.
Junior year of highschool is the most challenging year for students, we’re taking SAT and AP exams all while juggling social lives, and trying to work. No one talks about the effects COVID-19 has had on us. For me, being in school was a way for me to escape my home situation. I could forget that my mom was struggling and my siblings weren’t well behaved. I could forget how embarrassed I felt when I’d get invited out with friends and I couldn’t go because all of my money was being used to pay bills. Being home has obligated me to be a parent to my siblings. COVID-19 has made my anxiety and depression worse. I’m afraid to leave my house because so many people I know are dying. I fear for my mother’s life because everyday she’s out there working she’s more vulnerable and if something happens to her we’ll have no one.
No one talks about the fears we have. The fear of our relatives going hungry and ending up homeless because they don’t qualify for assistance due to their legal statuses. The fear of losing our grandparents, our mothers and fathers. Our siblings. We spend each and every second scared that we may be spending our final moments together. I wish people realized that our mental health is more important than some online assignment with no real instruction. A lot of us are working hard, parenting our own siblings and trying to remain mentally stable in the process. Many forget that we are just kids. Our fear is not without reason. We’ve seen horrible things but never something like this. No one asks us how we’re coping. How we’re feeling during a battle where we’re armorless. I feel helpless, I’m scared to lose those I love, I’m scared that we’ll reopen Connecticut too soon and people I care about will get hurt. I’m afraid that after this has passed we will never be the same. The truth is we’re all putting up a front pretending that everything is okay meanwhile the world around us collapses. I wish this nightmare would end and we can all be normal again. I wish my mom could be my mom again.
Anonymous, 17 – New Haven CT
I’m 17 years old, 1 out of 5 other siblings and a student. I’ve been working since I was 15 to help my mother who is a single parent. Over the years I’ve watched her struggle and felt the desperate need to help. There have been times where she has lost her job and we didn’t know where our next meal was going to come from. We’d line up outside of the church on Chapel St. every Saturday to get a bag of groceries. Our financial struggles have taught us great lessons on how to appreciate and value what we have. It has shown us how to give back to the community that nourished us in our time of need.
As a young adult living in an urban community life is challenging. Many of us come from broken family structures, poor households who are barely making ends meet, and we are often witnessing violent crimes. Our lives have always been rollercoasters emotionally, mentally, and physically. We’ve always been depended on to “raise” our siblings while our parents work multiple jobs to get by. During this global pandemic we’re needed now more than ever to uphold our households. For many of us, our income from our part time jobs is the only cashflow because our parents have been laid off with no return to work date and unemployment benefits either don’t come or they’re ineligible. For example, rideshare drivers who work through Uber and Lyft pay taxes yet they’re ineligible to receive any compensation during this time.
My mother is an essential worker. She works 12 hour shifts everyday in the third shift and even though she’s tired she works hard because she has to put food on the table. I see how tired she is, I see how badly she’s struggling, and it really pains me to see her this way. My younger siblings are 10 and 11. Everyday I get up, make them breakfast, lunch and dinner, help them do their homework, clean up after them, and ensure that they shower, and go to bed on time. It’s especially hard on me because my older brother who lives with us isn’t able to do much to help me with them due to his mental disabilities. My mom is almost never home because she has to work so much during this pandemic and when she is home she’s trying to clean and cook something quick to go to sleep and the cycle continues the next day.
Junior year of highschool is the most challenging year for students, we’re taking SAT and AP exams all while juggling social lives, and trying to work. No one talks about the effects COVID-19 has had on us. For me, being in school was a way for me to escape my home situation. I could forget that my mom was struggling and my siblings weren’t well behaved. I could forget how embarrassed I felt when I’d get invited out with friends and I couldn’t go because all of my money was being used to pay bills. Being home has obligated me to be a parent to my siblings. COVID-19 has made my anxiety and depression worse. I’m afraid to leave my house because so many people I know are dying. I fear for my mother’s life because
everyday she’s out there working she’s more vulnerable and if something happens to her we’ll have no one.
No one talks about the fears we have. The fear of our relatives going hungry and ending up homeless because they don’t qualify for assistance due to their legal statuses. The fear of losing our grandparents, our mothers and fathers. Our siblings. We spend each and every second scared that we may be spending our final moments together. I wish people realized that our mental health is more important than some online assignment with no real instruction. A lot of us are working hard, parenting our own siblings and trying to remain mentally stable in the process. Many forget that we are just kids. Our fear is not without reason. We’ve seen horrible things but never something like this. No one asks us how we’re coping. How we’re feeling during a battle where we’re armorless. I feel helpless, I’m scared to lose those I love, I’m scared that we’ll reopen Connecticut too soon and people I care about will get hurt. I’m afraid that after this has passed we will never be the same. The truth is we’re all putting up a front pretending that everything is okay meanwhile the world around us collapses. I wish this nightmare would end and we can all be normal again. I wish my mom could be my mom again.