Lauren Walsh, 10

Lauren Walsh admitted she missed her boyfriend and friends throughout quarantine, but she found some loopholes for keeping all of her closest relationships strong. “I would say that being able to see and touch people is so valuable and I shouldn’t take advantage of that,” Walsh said. “For my boyfriend, we FaceTimed almost every night, and with my friends, we did group FaceTimes and we would play online games that we could play together as a group,” she said. “It was a fun and a good way to connect with each other without seeing each other.” During quarantine, Walsh also discovered hobbies she would’ve never pictured herself doing.

She explored painting, DIY-ing her own jeans, and working on her communication skills over the phone. “I think quarantine really helped open a creative side of me.” One of Walsh’s favorite parts of quarantine was bonding with her siblings. “There definitely was some bad blood between me and my siblings, but I also think I grew closer to my sister. I enjoy looking back on the memories because she’s off at college now and without quarantine, I probably wouldn’t have half of those memories that I shared with her.”