Let me set the tone: Currently the world is ending and all life as we know it is coming to an end.

Okay, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration, that is precisely how some people feel. Thanks to COVID-19, public schools and colleges have been closed, restaurants don’t let people sit and eat, everything is take out or delivery only, and worst of all supermarkets are out of toilet paper. Life is currently in an adjustment period because suddenly, this virus that we thought was China’s problem became our problem as well.

I remember overhearing someone talking about the coronavirus before it made its way to New York. They were saying it’s like the modern-day bubonic plague. I remember hearing this and thinking it was not such a big deal, and I would soon find out otherwise.

I got an email from my school, along with a group of students that were in the same room. As one student read the email out loud saying that the school was closing and classes were being shifted to online, it was like things had just got real. This virus that I thought was “not such a big deal” and “didn’t affect me,” just became a big deal and is now affecting the people around me and me. Along with me, a lot of my friends got our schedules destroyed.

My life revolves around school; two days in my week are just for classes, and one of my jobs is through work-study. One email from my school threw my life into limbo, and now that courses are online, that poses a challenge. I do not currently have a laptop and or wifi at my house. It was like things went from zero to a hundred real quick. On top of the school closing, my work-study job let me go. The supervisor was friendly about it, but there was just nothing they could have me work on. It just made me fully realize that there was no plan for any of this. I am making things work, which is the same for most of the city at this point.

I had to go out for groceries and I noticed this aura as I walked through Harlem. The atmosphere was an overwhelming feeling of uncertainty that flooded the air. It was as if everyone in the city felt uneasy at the same time. Feeling this aura made me feel strangely less like I was alone. When I was on an elevator, a lady told me that we as people should find the message in all of this chaos. And I feel like at that moment in Harlem I saw the message for me. People always focus on what makes us different from one another instead of how we are all the same. So while we are all in our homes waiting out the ‘end of the world,’ let’s all think of how we can help our fellow man even while being physically distant.

James Hill is a first-year student at Borough of Manhattan Community College CUNY, and a member of Young Invincibles’ Young Advocates Program.