What a strange two weeks this has been. To quote Sharpay and Ryan Evans from the movie “High School Musical” 

“This is not what I want

This is not what I planned

And I just got to say

I do not understand

Something is really

Something’s not right

Really wrong

And we gotta get things

Back where they belong”

To say that spending the last few weeks under a state-mandated quarantine for an unspecified amount of time due to a world-wide pandemic was not how I planned to end my senior year is an understatement. It sounds like something straight out of a hollywood movie.

So, how has my family been spending the quarantine? Well, our family of five is each handling it a little differently from one another. My Dad works from home in his office in the basement. My Mom is the one who does the grocery shopping and goes out for things we need. My oldest sister has been on Spring Break for two weeks and starts her college e-learning on Monday. My younger sister and I have been actually pretty busy with our own e-learning. My dog is getting way more walks than usual, but is glad to have everyone home with her. My cat is annoyed to have everyone home with him, and my kitten is just happy to cuddle while I do my e-learning.  We are all dealing with it in different ways. We have been binge-watching shows on Netflix and Disney +. We have also tried to order from local restaurants, do some crafts, and puzzles. We have cooked and baked new things. Some of being home together has been great. The hard part for all of us is finding a private place to just get away from each other now and again.

While I understand the need to avoid large gatherings of people, and to maintain a safe distance from people not in your immediate family, it is still a stressful thing to be told to stay at home unless you need to get groceries, gas, or get medicine. Oh, I forgot, you can also go outside as long as you stay at least six feet away from strangers.

As a senior, not only are we worried about getting into a college we would like to attend, finishing our classes with decent grades, and doing well on final AP tests in order to get college credit, now we also need to worry about all of the traditional senior opportunities that we in all likelihood may not get to experience; Senior awards breakfast, Air Band, Senior Celebration, Prom, Graduation. Graduating is already kind of a sad experience because we know we will be saying “goodbye” to friends and relationships that will really never be the same. Sure, some of us might attend the same college, but we will be making new friends, and growing in ways that might change our friendships when we come back together on breaks from college.

No matter how much this has changed people’s lives, it really is for the best for society as a whole to maintain social distancing and try to flatten the curve. Hopefully, if we follow the recommendations to stay at home, we will emerge sooner rather than later and our lives will go back to normal.

My family loves animals. We currently have a dog and two cats, but we have also had a guinea pig as a pet in the past. With our pets, some are adopted from shelters, one is from a breeder, and one we adopted from friends. There seems to be some controversy over whether it is better to adopt from a shelter or use a breeder. I will share my own personal experiences and why my family made the choices we did.

Our first pet owning experience came when we received a kitten from Santa when I was 6. OK, so maybe it didn’t really come from Santa, but we received a pet Christmas morning and it was love at first sight. We named him Snowy. Many years later, my parents told me about how Snowy had actually come from PetSmart when they had pets from several local shelters. My mom had tried to adopt directly from Naperville Humane Society, but they would not allow adoptions as a present and they wanted the entire family to meet the pet beforehand, which she thought would ruin the surprise. However, we still ended up adopting a shelter animal through PetSmart. Either way, he was our first pet, and he will always have a special place in our hearts. 

My second pet, Sunny, was adopted straight from a breeder. My sisters and I had always had a little bit of a fear of dogs growing up. We had gotten chased by large dogs a couple of times when we would go on walks to the park, so we were always hesitant around dogs. The only dog that we would go near was our neighbor’s yellow lab, Nellie. She was always very calm and friendly. We all really did want a dog, but we wanted a dog that would be like her. When we first got Sunny, she had so much energy and she loved being around people, just like Nellie. I’m really happy we made the choice we did. Sunny helped me get over my fear of dogs. Now, I wouldn’t be afraid of adopting a dog from a shelter anymore, and I would probably choose to adopt.  

Our guinea pig, Brownie, didn’t come from a pet store or shelter. A friend of ours had two guinea pigs that she thought were girls, but one happened to be a boy and they had three babies. They couldn’t keep the three babies so we took one of them. I guess technically this is considered adoption… Either way, we were so happy that Brownie was a part of our family for three years. If I was going to get a guinea pig again though, I would probably get one at the pet store. We all really miss Brownie, and it was interesting learning about a different type of pet rather than just cats and dogs.  

My last pet, Cookie, we adopted from a shelter. After Brownie passed away, we decided we wanted to get another pet. We knew Snowy was getting a little bit older, so we wanted to get a younger kitten so that they could maybe be friends. We went to the Naperville Humane Society, actually right after I took my SAT in December 2018. Anyway, this was the first time in a while that I had been in a shelter. I got to interact with a bunch of different cats to see which might be a good fit for our family. After meeting Cookie, we just knew that she was perfect. Even though we originally got her in the hopes that she and Snowy would get along, so far, they each pretend to be “only” cats rather than siblings. We are still hopeful though. Cookie has brought so much crazy energy into our house. She loves to climb and jump up as high as possible. She makes us laugh every day, and she completes our family.  

Families have a variety of different reasons for why they may choose to adopt their pets from a shelter or go to a breeder. I believe that it depends on the situation which one is best for the family. Either way, the families end up with a great pet and a lot of love to go around. Whatever you decide, just make sure that your family is ready for the responsibility of pet ownership. Pets bring a lot of joy, and they make a great addition to a family.