Our generation has been through many tragedies, spanning from the attacks on 9/11 to school shootings across the country. We have been through so much tragedy in our early formative years that it begins to feel like a routine. A routine in which unfortunate circumstances occur, and then the media scares the public until the government takes action, and then we all move on. We move on. And here we are today, with COVID-19. 

It comes to no surprise that COVID-19 has caused so much chaos in our society. At the time of writing this article, 121,726 people have been afflicted with this virus and have passed away. However, even with all the sadness in the world during these times, we still see hope.

Our generation continues to witness health workers selflessly putting their lives at risk everyday in the hopes of bettering society. We have seen communities come together and practice social distancing in hopes of ending this virus, so that we can go back to our daily lives. We witness EMTs and law enforcement continuing to keep us safe, even though the risk of contracting COVID-19 is so great.

I discussed how it seems as if tragedy is a repeating pattern for this generation, however with tragedy there is also a pattern of hope and justice. After 9/11, emergency workers put their lives at risk and tried to save as many lives as possible, and many first-hand accounts show that New York City came out of 9/11 stronger than ever before. Hope.

After the Parkland shootings, rallies around the world, including at our very own Ward Melville, were held in order to pass stricter gun laws in order to keep students safe at school. Hope. And now, I speculate that while COVID-19 has had such a grip on our society, once we flatten the curve, our society will come out stronger than it ever has.

Many fear that once social distancing is over, our generation will continue to feel the dramatic effects of the consequences of the virus. They fear that investments and retirement plans will be compromised, that xenophobia will be on the rise and that society as a whole will collapse. But I don’t agree.

As a generation, we have been through so much. Our generation has seen the most unfortunate of circumstances, and with the pattern of tragedy comes the pattern of returning back to normalcy.

There are going to be some things, such as the economy, that are going to take longer to recover. However just as we have seen in the past, we will recover. With all these tragedies, we have become resilient. We know that we will recover, and we will become stronger than ever before. When the next tragedy inevitably occurs, we will continue to prevail in the toughest of circumstances through experience.

We are still strong.