Mid-Hudson News has launched a “Student Journalist” section to allow elementary, middle, and high-school students to write essays or “news as they see it” for submission. The following is an essay from one of our “Student Journalists”, Riley Flynn.
Things have been tough for me since school has been canceled, and both of my parents are still working and I can’t see my grandparents, who usually watch me.
The first thing that I will do after this pandemic is all over, is I will be so excited to see all my friends, classmates, and dance team from Queen City Dance. I miss all of them so much, and can’t wait to see them in person. Although we have dance class using Zoom, and I can Facetime my friends, it still isn’t the same.
I can’t wait to go out to eat at my favorite restaurant, Crew, on South Road in Poughkeepsie. I’ll go back to dance and be able to dance in the studio, with my friends, instead of in my living room on the computer. Two of my dance competitions were canceled, and I can’t wait to have those again. I love having sleepovers with my friends and my cousins, so I can’t wait to do that too. I don’t have any brothers or sisters, so I miss being around, and playing with other kids. Soon stores will open back up, and I will get to go shopping because we will all need it by then.
It will be so exciting to see all of my family members that I can’t see right now. I haven’t seen my Grandma in over a month, and I really miss her! Before this happened I would spend time with my family all of the time. Now I am not even allowed to see them. My Grandma’s birthday was the other day, and we were only allowed to drop flowers off to her, not spend the day with her. I miss being able to stop over at my family’s house, play with my cousins, see my grandparents, aunts, and uncles, and just hangout. Hopefully, we will be able to do this over the summer, and we can do these things outside in the warm weather. When all of this is over, I can’t wait to do all of the things that I did before this happened, things that felt normal then, and are not allowed now. When this is over I won’t have to worry that someone I love and care about will get sick from this virus, and that will make me so happy when this is all over, and it will all be normal again.
About the author:
Riley Flynn is a ten-year-old resident of the City of Poughkeepsie and a student at St. Martin De Porres. Miss Flynn has been home since the school closed and forced to practice dance lessons in the house, to the delight of her mother. Until recently closing, Riley was known to frequent the Beech Tree Grill as an unpaid culinary critic. When not on FaceTime, the young author has been working on shopping lists that will be fulfilled when the retailers open again.
If you have a student that is interested in writing a submission, please send an email to Todd Bender at bender@midhudsonnews.com and request the details.
