Covid BeatdownBy Brandon Hernandez Palma
During the great pandemic that struck us down like a foot on an ant pile, I felt like I couldn't do anything for a very long time. It hurt me, mentally as I felt so lazy and sad since everything was closed and empty. Most of us felt stuck in the familiar walls we kept seeing every single day for 2 years, even working through a screen felt boring but I stayed strong. a couple of days passed of the pandemic and I already found out what would help me cope for 2 years.
Despite those times, the only thing that helped me cope with it all was video games. It could have been anything else, like knitting, and farming,  but I just played a lot of video games for the whole time. But there was a reason why I chose video games for my savior. Growing up video games were a huge part of my life growing up, as in I didn't have many friends to talk with so I stayed home and played by myself. I felt as if everything around me disappeared and my worries would go away, but I learned so much from video games too.
 So when something bad happened during the pandemic, for example, I remember vividly what really hit hard when my parents were fighting and I was already stressed about COVID and the amount of homework I had from online learning, I got really angry. The next thing I knew the feeling when I got into the game felt so surreal the emotions I had one minute ago disappeared as fast as a blink of an eye, and all I was about was my video games. COVID might have hit us hard times but we all managed in our own ways.

– Brandon

Relationship:  Im/migrant who arrived as a child Im/migrant who arrived as a child