The Prince

Jiaming Huang

English 100

Cause & Effect: Final Draft

March 19, 2023

A Disaster

    Epidemics have happened throughout history. In December 2019, the first case of the COVID-19 pandemic occurred in Wuhan, China. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization announced that the COVID-19 pandemic was a global epidemic. The Chinese government was about to implement the strictest lockdown in the world. They limited a great deal of activities. I had been living in China with my parents at that time. The impact existed in many places in my family‘s life

    One of the obvious effects on my family was that my academic performance declined. To prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, my school was closed. I was unable to take classes on campus and had to start studying online. However, it was hard for me to pay attention to learning in the online classes because there were many challenges. The electronic devices, network signals, and the environment were all factors that influenced me at home. For example, I could not control myself from playing games on my phone. Additionally, if the internet signal was down, I would miss my class and could not complete my homework. In fact, I failed some classes that I took at that time. Given these points, I did not adapt to this new kind of learning mode which led to have poor academic records. 

    Another serious effect on my family was that my parents were under tremendous financial pressure. The COVID-19 pandemic affected the Chinese economy. Due to this, the price of goods rose and my family’s expenses increased. My parents’ financial stress was getting bigger. Furthermore, my parents were originally in the restaurant business. After the epidemic broke out, few people went out to eat. As a result, my parents' restaurant business became difficult, and the restaurant closed.  In addition, job opportunities were reduced because of the pandemic. Multiple companies and factories laid off workers or closed because of the downturn in the economy. My parents wanted to find jobs, but they couldn't find anything. These factors caused my parents to have huge financial difficulties during the epidemic.

    The last major effect on my family was that my parents and I lost our freedom of movement. The prevention and control policies were very strict in China, and people had to obey all the rules. People had to be quarantined for medical observation when they went to another city. Furthermore, people needed to show security QR codes to enter public places. In the meanwhile, in order not to be infected by the COVID-19 pandemic, my parents and I took protective measures by ourselves in our daily life. We reduced contact with people and reduced going out. Moreover, we wore masks every time we went out and disinfected every time we got home. In a word, we could not be as free as we were before the epidemic happened.

    It is an understatement to say that the pandemic caused heavy suffering. My family had a lot of changes during this epidemic What's worse, a big number of people lost their lives in this epidemic. A lot of people fell into depression and even lost hope in life. Nevertheless, I was positive about my life. My parents and I as the survivors of this disaster would adapt to the changes in life and treasure the present life.