Life with COVID and lockdown

Anya

Since lockdown I have felt very trapped in the house and stuck watching telly and not knowing what to do. I am bored and want it to be over. I am trying to keep busy with, lots of art and decoupage (decorating objects with paper cut outs), I go for walks with the dogs, and do cooking and baking for the family.

At the beginning of this year I was feeling unhappy, and quite stuck in my life, I had lost my confidence and didn’t know what was in my future. I had been working with Elizabeth, my youth mentor, on building my confidence and I was engaging with movie club and Edge club to see some friends. With Elizabeth, I started going to sewing class and told her that I’d like to do some writing to change people’s minds about learning disability. We did some learning together about writing styles and she helped me write my first article. When this was published, me and my family were proud and I started to get my confidence back. We contacted Amaze who said that I could join their youth group and write for their e-zine. Because I was getting my confidence back, I decided that in September I will start working with Team Domenica who are going to help me with looking for a job and give me the opportunity to work at Café Domenica to get some work experience.

Because of COVID and lockdown, all this has had to stop. This makes me feel that I have to start all over again and my confidence just drops, because everything is closed down.

I am trying hard to keep my confidence up and keep busy, Cherish got in touch with me to see if I would like to go out for COVID safe country walks and I keep in touch with Elizabeth.

I would say to everybody that lockdown is hard, to keep smiling, find something that you like to keep you happy and keep you busy. Everybody needs to keep safe and keep washing their hands, stay indoors except for a walk and then keep your distance. Remember that future plans will happen and life will start again when COVID is under control.

Anya