I started to hear about the coronavirus in the beginning of January 2020, when I was a junior in high school. I didn’t think much of it for a couple of months. But by Friday, March 13th, my science teacher, Ms. McLeod, said that she was going to start assigning work online. She didn’t know if school would be open the following week, because of how quickly the virus was spreading. I didn’t believe her until the lockdown happened.

I was excited when I woke up that Monday to hear on the news that schools were closed. I didn’t think the closure was going to last long. But with every subsequent week the news announced that schools would push their reopening back yet again. Finally, the end of the school year arrived. I didn’t feel as if my junior year was ruined or anything, but I also knew it had been an important year for college preparation. With all those changes, I didn’t know how the lockdown would affect my plan for my secondary education.

Before the pandemic, I saw my school friends often, five days a week. Now, with everyone locked down and afraid of COVID, our hangout sessions mainly took place through text, calls, FaceTime, and games. Every day after online classes, we would text or call each other, to start an online game of Among Us or Call of Duty on mobile.

Among Us is an online multiplayer game where 5-10 players are given private roles of crewmate or imposter. The crewmates must finish their task before the imposter kills everyone, working together to vote the imposter out. Meanwhile, the imposter must blend in with the crewmates and try to kill them all without getting caught. 

Whenever my school friends weren’t available to play, I would just play by myself with randoms, people on public servers who could live anywhere, around the world or nearby. I even ended up making online friends from playing these games online, so my social circle grew during lockdown. One day, while playing Among Us with some randoms, I noticed that the other players weren’t communicating through the game’s official chat forum. I had a feeling that they were talking on Discord instead. I asked them if they were; they said yes and added me to their Discord server.

I joined the call and was immediately met with many different voices and accents. As we started to converse, I found out that they were all around my age, 16-18, and mainly girls from around the world. Susie, Nina, Saoirse, and Joy were from Ireland; Kahmin from Atlanta; Bae from Australia. Finally, Aurora was from New York, like me, which made us closer. There’s something about finding someone else who lives and was raised in New York that makes them automatically feel like family. At the time Aurora and I only knew each other through our gamer tags, usernames you use on games. Hers was Sideshow Bob and mine was Banana Joe. Until this day we rarely use our real names, we always refer to each other as Bob and Joe. Little did I know that “Bob” would end up helping me with my college process and my plan after high school, as well as becoming a big part of my life.

During the college process in my senior year, I was very online and very stressed out. I felt as if my college advisor wasn’t much help at all: Unless I contacted her through through Zoom, I’d have to wait quite a while to get any response from her. I didn’t feel very informed about how to apply for college, let alone how to pay for it. My advisor seemed like she was only focused on us applying for college, not how to pay or get scholarships. My family isn’t wealthy and couldn’t help pay for college, so my only options were getting financial aid, getting a scholarship, or taking out a loan. I hated the idea of being stuck with a lot of student debt and I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to major in. With time running out, I applied to any colleges that didn’t require an admissions essay and put my major as computer science.

Bob and I were in the same grade, but we went to different schools. I knew she loved reading and literature in general, so I used to text her and ask if she could help me with my AP lit work. Talking about school became our gateway to talking more.

-Hey. Have you read Native Son? I have to write a paper on it.

-Yea I actually have some journal entries on it I’ll send them.

-Omg thank you !!

Then Bob would change the subject. 

-Do you know how to take care of succulent plants? My grandfather just gave me one but she’s not growing.

-Yea I’ll send you a list, what’s her name?

-Salem.

-Cool mine is Nenobia.

When I was struggling with my college admissions, I’d vent to Bob about it, and she’d help me because she was more knowledgeable about the process. Bob told me her college advisor was very helpful, but since Bob wasn’t going straight to college after high school, she had the time to help me with my own applications. With her help, I finished my college admissions but I still wasn’t feeling satisfied with my plan.

Before the pandemic, I saw my school friends often, five days a week. Now, with everyone locked down and afraid of COVID, our hangout sessions mainly took place through text, calls, FaceTime, and games.

One day after playing Among Us, Bob, and I stayed on voice chat with another friend of ours, Nina, just to talk. I mentioned that I had been accepted into the summer youth employment program, and that I’d be back in the city for the summer working after graduation. Then Bob mentioned she was taking her gap year for her mental health and to start her modeling career. Then right there an epiphany hit me. I told them maybe I’d take a gap year too and work. What was the rush to get into college? Wouldn’t it always be there? Bob and Nina supported my idea immediately. I should work and save up, they advised me, so I wouldn’t have to take out a loan. This would give me time to think about what I want to major in. I’d also get to take time to work and do something I am passionate about. It was the perfect plan.

I told my mom and dad, who were very supportive. I found out that my parents actually weren’t strict about the idea of me going to college if I was proactive in my life and had a plan. I was glad about this, because whenever adults asked me what I was doing after college, they seemed judgmental about my response. To them, my taking a gap year meant that I wouldn’t go back to school. If I chose not to go back to school, I don’t think it would’ve been a problem because I would’ve had another plan for my life. College is optional.

During the lockdown, my mom bought a house upstate because living in a 3-bedroom apartment with 8 people was a lot. We moved to upstate New York in February 2020, while my brother stayed behind and kept the 3-bedroom apartment. After graduation in June 2021, I started my job for New York City’s summer youth employment program, SYEP, which arranges for youth ages 14-26 to work anywhere in the city for 6 weeks. After being accepted into SYEP, I moved back to the city to live with my brother so I could commute to work easily. During this time the lockdown was lifted, and places started to open back up slowly, so Bob and I decided to meet up in person.

One day I was near her neighborhood in Far Rockaway and texted her to see if she was available and she was, so we went to the park by her house and hung out and smoked. Since it was last minute, we didn’t really have anything planned, but it was just nice to finally see each other in person. We already knew what each other looked like through video calls, pictures and videos we sent to each other, so our appearances weren’t a surprise. Still she liked to tease me about my height because she’s 5’8 and I’m 5’3.

The second time we met up we had a plan to go to the Natural History Museum and get something to eat. Another one of our friends from the discord server, Kahmin, was in New York at the time from Atlanta. So, Bob, Kahmin, his cousin, and I met up at Broadway Junction train station and took the L into the city. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant in the Upper West Side. While we were eating Kahmin and I started to fight with chopsticks over the last piece of chicken on my plate. It reminded me of that scene from Kung Fu Panda when Po and Master Shifu were competing over the last dumpling in the bowl. Kahmin ended up winning. We all laughed, paid, and left.

We decided to stop by Central Park for a while because the museum wasn’t open for free admissions until 5. It was such a beautiful day in the city that even the rats were outside hanging out. When we saw the rats, we had enough and went to the museum. Bob and I had gone to that museum before because all New York City schools go on a trip there at least once, but because Kahmin was from Atlanta, he’d never been. We stayed for a while and then left. We parted ways not knowing when we would see each other again.

_______________

With my summer job over, I went back home upstate. I started to investigate babysitting and nannying, with an app called care.com that located families who needed help. With a lot of people working from home and the influx of covid babies, infants conceived or born during lockdown, lots of parents needed the extra help. So, I found a family who needed my help with a 4-year-old boy, 1 year old girl, and 6-month-old boy 3 days out of the week. I loved that family and those kids. Even on the rough days, I still loved that job.

After a year of working there the kids moved back to Tennessee with their mom. I thought about doing online school because I didn’t want to stop working, but it was too expensive. After getting back onto Care.com, I decided to give the daycare scene a chance, since it combined taking care of kids and teaching them. As a teacher assistant, I started working with 3 month old to 5 year old children, until I became the 3 year olds’ permanent assistant teacher. It was very stressful, and a big drop in pay, but even on the worst days, it was my favorite class. Throughout this time Bob and I became even closer, even though our relationship remained online due to our busy schedules and distance.

In my second year of my gap year, I had another epiphany: my best and favorite subjects are math and science. Maybe all I needed was to major in a subject that would mainly involve the two. So, I looked into engineering, eventually applying to CUNY schools with Mechanical Engineering Technology majors. Amazingly, I was accepted into all the schools I applied for, even winning the Excelsior Scholarship! Now, Bob and I are attending school at the same time. Once again, we’re keeping each other on track, even seeing each other more often because we both go to school in the city.

In my opinion, the most important part of Among Us was always trying to gain people’s trust. Whether you’re a crewmate or imposter, you still have to convince everyone that you’re not the enemy. Four years after lockdown, Bob and Joe strated 2024 by planning a vision board together. Truly, you could say, they've become trusted crewmates.