What It Feels Like
Title
What It Feels Like
Description
Journal Entry
Creator
Gayatri Kumar
Date
04/03/2020
Format
Text
Language
English
Text
Life’s priorities have completely changed. My dad, who once had a very careless and take-for-granted attitude towards his health and life, now spends his full day taking measures to strengthen it. My father had undergone an incident several years ago that had struck his respiratory system—so he knows what it’s like to fight for breath.
I take in a deep breath, distend my stomach, and hold it in. The first five seconds—no big deal. The next five? Still ok. Around 15 seconds I’m thinking “how much longer?” By 25 seconds, I have to stop. It feels like claustrophobia. Like you’re stuck inside the trunk of a car on a hot day in the middle of nowhere. There’s no one to hear you. How will you ever get out? Being derived of life’s only essence is the worst way to die.
I take in a deep breath, distend my stomach, and hold it in. The first five seconds—no big deal. The next five? Still ok. Around 15 seconds I’m thinking “how much longer?” By 25 seconds, I have to stop. It feels like claustrophobia. Like you’re stuck inside the trunk of a car on a hot day in the middle of nowhere. There’s no one to hear you. How will you ever get out? Being derived of life’s only essence is the worst way to die.
Citation
Gayatri Kumar, “What It Feels Like,” Documenting the Student Experience of COVID-19 at Sarah Lawrence College, accessed April 26, 2024, https://slccovid.omeka.net/items/show/19.