Column: Valuing summer break

Thanks to the pandemic, I have a whole new experience of what life is like. I like to call it “the pandemic way.”

I love traveling. Any chance I get I will pack my things and head to the airport. For the first time ever I was afraid to travel, hearing rising death numbers haunted me.

My mom closed her shop early, and our family went on our last grocery trip before the pandemic started. We stayed at home for two weeks before the governor ordered the state emergency.

At first, everything felt like a whole week of Sundays. We prayed, cooked, watched TV, read and cleaned.

Our family business was not open during the pandemic, so our family wasn’t making any money. We were worried about how the next few months were going to be if the shop couldn’t reopen.

But, we were able to spend time together as a family. My mom works a lot, but during the pandemic, I got to spend time with her more and learn how to cook delicious food.

Since we just stayed at home and ate, our food ran out quickly. So, my family geared up and headed to the supermarket. We grabbed so much food and so many ingredients. We had Thai food Thursdays, Korean food Monday and Vietnamese Tuesday.

My mom said it felt like we traveled to three different countries in a week.

We started to get really bored inside the house, so we decided that we are going to be healthy and in shape when the pandemic is over. My family put on our tennis shoes and headed to the park to play, and sometimes we rode bikes together.

Even though we did not get to go on a trip together, pandemic living was a new experience for us. The thing that I really valued the most was that I got to spend more time with my family.

It was very difficult for our family, to have a family dinner together, before the pandemic. Our experiences helped me and my family connect more, and we now appreciate our times together.

Like Dr. Seuss said, “sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”