Yara Saadeh and the backwards birthday

On March 13, 2020, Los Al sophomore Yara Saadeh was in sixth grade, in third period World History when her teacher paused the video the class was watching and told the students to go outside and take out everything from their locker.

“I thought that it was normal since it was a Friday… then my teacher tells us that for the next two weeks, we are out of school because of COVID!” she said.

But the pandemic lasted far more than two weeks, as we all realized. Los Al students had to adapt both their academic lives and their social lives to quarantine. Even birthday celebrations were affected, as Saadeh explained. Her birthday in 2020 was only a week after the first lockdown, and cakes were suddenly in short supply.

“I remember running into five different grocery stores trying to find a cake, but every store was practically empty,” Saadeh recalled. “It was so weird how, in one week, everything changed so fast.”

At such a young age in sixth grade, Saadeh’s daily life and routine were constantly on repeat. Then, quarantine flipped everything upside down, but almost in a good way. Although the pandemic had many negative effects, Saadeh remembers having more opportunities to get out of her comfort zone, try new hobbies, and connect with family and friends.

In the future, perhaps we will remember our pandemic years for all of its unexpected moments and hilarious memories.

“One of my funniest memories was my aunt’s wedding in Tunisia. Since it was still [during the pandemic] at that time, me and my entire family weren’t sure we would be able to get tickets. We ended up getting tickets, and all 30 of us ran on the plane and barely made it in time for the wedding. It was a crazy plane ride but such an exciting experience!” Saadeh said.