Covid-19 or Coronavirus is a large family of viruses that causes respiratory infections. This can range from the common cold to more serious diseases. It is known to be a strain of SARS-CoV-2, it has caused many deaths around the world and some people who have caught it can have lasting health problems. It can easily be spread and so prevention involves physical distancing, mask-wearing, hand hygiene and staying away from others if you feel sick. It was first reported in December 2019 and the UK first went into lockdown in March 2020. At the start of 2020 I was in my final year of Highschool and had my GSCEs later that year, I remember when the cases were rising in other countries, and we all joked about not doing our exams- little did we know that we were right. Our teachers all told us that there was no way we weren’t doing exams, students jokingly walked around school with big surgical masks on, about a week later we were sent home from school for ‘2 weeks’. We left school on a Tuesday and so didn’t get to say goodbye to each other, sign each other’s t-shirts or even say bye. It was so abrupt; I remember I was staying at home that day as I didn’t feel the best, but all my friends walked into school and were told to leave again. During the time we were off, our teachers would set us a lot of work to do, we didn’t even have any lessons on zoom. About a week of being off Boris Johnson made an announcement that said we wouldn’t be doing our exams, I was at one of my friends’ houses at the time, after we heard the announcement, we were so happy, we didn’t have to do exams or even go back to school. Some of my teachers carried on setting work but soon enough they would all write their ‘Goodbye notes’ to us, which is when reality hit that we really weren’t going back, I won’t see half of the people in my year anymore, we won’t get a prom. The March lockdown lasted till August 2020. During this lockdown, my sleep schedule went awful I basically turned nocturnal, I would sleep during the day and stay awake at night, it seemed like everyone my age was in the same boat. I started working for Angel Book Store in June 2020, this helped me fix my sleep schedule and I have also learnt many new things such as: how to make an excel spreadsheet, how to sort out accounts, how to check tracking, how to become independent and be trusted, I have designed the website, social media accounts and many more things. This allowed me to make a savings account in which I would put money in every week, now it has allowed me to pay for a holiday to America and for my car insurance. I have really enjoyed working for Angel Book Store as it has given me first-hand experience on how a business works, how it is run and what goes on in the background to make it successful. The Government funded an app called ‘NHS Track and Trace’ which would tell you if you have been in close contact with someone with the virus and so you would have to isolate for 14 days just to be safe, I have personally been pinged multiple times and so had to isolate multiple times although I have never had the virus (I test regularly). Isolation is so boring now; it wasn’t so bad when the whole country was in lockdown as everyone was in the same position. It is bad if you do get pinged as you can’t go into college and as the lessons aren’t online anymore you miss out on lots of work. Once at college I got pinged because a boy I sat next to for 20 minutes had it, it is so frustrating when you must isolate but it is always better to be safe rather than sorry and not take the risk of spreading it to people who have underlying conditions who could be seriously affected by it. When I first started college, we all had to wear masks, we were one of the only colleges at the time who still had to wear them, this was for the better though as in September 2020 the cases started to rise again and so another lockdown happened. This lockdown we had to do our lessons online on Teams which isn’t the best way to learn. We were learning online for nearly 3 months and then we were doing ‘blended learning’ which meant we had half the week in college and half online. We are still expected to do exams although we haven’t even been in college for the full 2 years. The Government had set a limit on how many people you could have at weddings and funerals. This was very upsetting as two of my family members had passed during covid and only a limited amount of people could go. One of my family members who had past his own son couldn’t come to the funeral because he lived in America and the restrictions wouldn’t allow him to come into the country, it wasn’t fair. My Mum and Stepdad got engaged in 2019 and had planned to have the wedding on the 26th of September 2020 however with the cases rising the wedding had to get postponed till September 2021. It was a pain for them to rearrange and re-book everything, very stressful to say the least. A few months before the wedding the Government had taken the limit off how many people could go to weddings, it was finally all working out, my mum was stressed as anything before the wedding hoping it would all go okay and covid wouldn’t ruin it. About a week before the wedding my mum’s best friend came over, she was the one who introduced them to each other, she found out she had Covid a few days after, my mum was stressed, if she had contracted it the wedding would be cancelled, they would lose it all. Luckily, after testing we were all negative and so the wedding could go ahead. It was a beautiful and perfect day and night. Me and my family are all fully vaccinated now to protect ourselves from the virus. When I was getting my second jab I passed out in the room, I am so bad with needles, and so they had to walk me to a room where I could fully lie down, they placed a blood pressure checker on my finger and arm. I am not looking forward for my booster. Recently, my parents went to a music festival in Minehead, and my Stepdad realised he couldn’t smell when my mum was making a chicken and vegetable soup, he also couldn’t taste the soup after it was ready. He did a lateral flow test and a faint line showed up and so I am staying with a friend and so I don’t catch it. He has been very tired with the virus; he has a very high temperature and still can’t taste or smell. My mum luckily hasn’t caught it off him either. Overall, covid has affected me and my family both negatively and positively, we have all bonded from staying at home together, I remember at the start of lockdown me, and my mum did online Zumba sessions together. We have met some people who we wouldn’t have met if we were on holiday. I have been given the opportunity to work and gain experience whilst being at home. I still haven’t had covid and I hope I don’t get it. Lots of my close friends have had covid, some were bad with-it others were okay. Make sure that you continue to stay safe, social distance and wear your mask as cases are rising and there is a new variant in the UK.

We all want to drive, its important to us, gives us independence, it’s a life skill. Being able to drive is a dream of mine. I started learning on my 17th Birthday and had hour and a half lesson once a week. I had booked my theory test for 2 months after my birthday. I revised and revised on the theory app, hours a day. I was so nervous this determined whether I could book my practical test or not. It was a cold rainy Sunday morning, me and my mum couldn’t figure out where the parking for building was- turns out there was none. I had to jump out of the car and quickly run to the theory centre. You had to arrive 15 minutes early if you didn’t then you couldn’t do the test. I arrived, handed the receptionist my license, listened to the instructions in the briefing room and then went on to do my test. The first section is multiple choice questions where you must get 43 out of 50 correct. After completing the section, I briefly checked over my answers and moved onto the hazard perception. This is probably the hardest part of the test; you need to click when you see a hazard and when it develops. You are played 14 clips and can get up to 5 marks, there is one clip which has two hazards where you can get 10 marks. You can get 44 out of 75 on this section. I have completed my test and the woman hands me a piece of paper this will tell me whether I had passed or failed. I don’t look at it until I am with my mum, I shove it under my coat and run through the rain back to my mum’s car. I run as fast as I can. I get to her car she is on the phone to my grandma; I tell them both I haven’t looked at the paper yet. I slowly unfold the paper and I read ‘Congratulations! You’ve PASSED the car theory driving test’ I started crying happy tears. I had done it. As soon as we got home, we were straight on the computer to try and book a test only problem was there was no tests available in my area until 7 months because of the backlog from covid, we were only able to get tests that were hours away from where I lived and in areas, I would’ve never driven in. My mum sad she will book it anyway to get my name into the system and so we can look for any cancelations. One of my friends had just booked their test in my area for 2 months’ time using a cancelation app. Me and my mum decided to buy it and use it straight away we were getting cancelations closer to my area. A couple days passed, and I had got a test in my area in 3 months’ time. By then I would’ve been learning for 5 months I felt like I would be ready. I spoke to my instructor, and he had confirmed that I could do that date. Around the time of my theory test I had gotten my own car, a red and black Chrysler Ypsilon. I had been going out frequently with my mum in my car however when I first drove it, I couldn’t set off- I just kept on stalling. I couldn’t wrap my head around how I could easily drive my instructors but not my own it was very disheartening. We soon worked out the problem my instructors was a diesel and mine was a petrol and so the biting points were very different. Soon enough my mum taught me how to drive my car and every day I would drive in it, this gave me more confidence and allowed me to see different hazards in the roads and the roads on different days at different times. My test was fast approaching 2 months had passed and so did my friend. He was the first to pass his test which worried me I didn’t want to be the first one to fail. Soon enough it was days to my test, the pressure was getting to me, I had organised a few extra lessons before my test to calm my nerves. It was test day. My instructor picked me up an hour before we went over the manoeuvres and a possible route I could go. We arrive at the test centre- in one of the best spots on the car park as it is a small car park, 3 other cars are there too. One boy arrived at the test centre by himself which is illegal to do as a learner. We are sitting there for abut 10 minutes my heart is racing I am starting to worry. Finally, the examiners come out of the test centre, they started to call out people’s names. No one had called my name and only 3 examiners had walked out of the centre. I started to worry as there was no sign of another examiner coming out. Then one of the examiners came up to me and said that an examiner is off sick and to cheque if I have had received a cancellation email. My mum had booked my test so I had to ring my mum so she could cheque her email she had checked every inbox, her spam, junk, nothing was there. We were then told to wait, we waited for another 10 minutes and then a guy from the test centre came out and told me that my test will not be happening. I had waited three months for this test to get told it's cancelled while I'm at the test centre. I never got a cancellation email sent before the test one came through four hours after the test. my heart sank. I burst into tears. I was so upset that they could do this. it was so unfair. when I got home my mum rang up the test centre and was told it was out of their hands. when I finally got sent the cancellation email it said the date of my next test it was in a month. I had to pay for more lessons and wait four more weeks. the pressure was on. if a month was the fastest cancellation, I could get from the DVSA I dreaded to think how long it would be if I failed and had to get a cancellation. A month goes by, my nerve starts a kicking again as my test day approaches, it almost felt as if I wasn't doing a test because my first one was cancelled. the new date was on my mum’s birthday even more pressure if I failed, I would have to tell all my family and ruin my mum’s birthday. I was so nervous my legs and hands were shaking my heart was racing, I felt like I wasn't ready. my instructor picks me up once again before the test, we go over the manoeuvres, I can't parallel park, the nerves got to me. this made me so stressed I couldn't even do one of the many of us and my test was in half an hour. It then came time where we had to drive to the test centre. I was so worried. we arrive at the test centre, I reverse park into a good spot, Me, and my instructor I sat there for about 10 minutes. the examiner's start to come out, my name gets called. I nervously walk up to him, do the eyesight test and off I go. I was so nervous during the test, it was silent the whole time, I went around a familiar route which calmed me down slightly. I luckily didn’t have to parallel park for my manoeuvre. I started to feel eased when I knew I was on my way back to the test centre. when we got back, I was told I had passed. I was so relieved, finally I got to do my test and I passed first time I couldn't believe it. the wait was finally over. Maybe it was chance that it was cancelled, and I would have passed the first time or maybe it was just a short delay either way I'm so glad I've passed, and the panic is over.