Jen
Overall, the pandemic made it so that I missed several years in high school, resulting in me missing out on Years 8, 9 and a large amount of year 10. I didn’t feel like I was doing as well as I could because I was missing a big portion of information needed for the vast majority of the tests I had to sit.
When it came to work and training opportunities, I didn’t have as many options as I would have liked for work experience placements.
One benefit I found that came from the pandemic was my ability to recognise the different career roles there are and the different job roles they carried out in running my local area.
However, overall I appreciated the beneficial and well-deserved rest break that came with the pandemic, despite all the challenges that it came with.
Young person, anonymous
I feel the pandemic really changed my perspective of life. I need extra support with school as I don't understand it as well as other kids my age, and I feel like I've had a very bad downfall with my learning abilities. I never really had a clear idea of what I wanted to do as I was older. It also lost me a lot of opportunities as I really enjoy sports, such as football, and it was very hard to get in a team for it which made me kind of sad as I knew I had a lot of potential.
The pandemic affected my mental health more than my physical health as I had this era of feeling really down about myself and the only people who were able to help me with my feelings were my friends and grandpa, and my grandpa ended up not surviving the Covid virus. And it was very hard to see my friends as I didn't want to end up in bad conditions, like how I saw all over the internet. I was basically glued to my phone which ruined my childhood a bit, as I wanted to be outside but I couldn't. It was very hard for me, especially because I have a lot of energy that I wanted to waste outside playing games but just couldn't. That also kind of had an impact on my physical health as I didn't really get to do anything at home. I would just sleep, eat and repeat.
I had bad engagement with talking to people after not seeing anyone for a while. I'm just shy in general at the start of meeting people. It’s got to a point where I have panic attacks when speaking to people I'm not familiar with.
I found out about HideOut when it was Covid and I wanted to go as I would finally be able to speak to people. At the time of Covid, we had to pick one area we wanted to do and we weren't allowed in other spaces. This helped a bit but I wanted to explore with more kids. The pandemic affected many of my hopes, especially seeing my grandpa as he lives in another country and most of my relatives live abroad and I didn't get to see them.
My aspirations for the future is to get back on track with everything. I missed out on having the football team, speaking more to my family, thinking about jobs I want to do and to grieve my grandpa with my family.
Max
Being locked inside during the 2020 Covid times was hard for me and my family. My sister has obsessive compulsive disorder and my brother has anxiety, therefore my brother wanted to go outside in moments of stress during lockdown and my sister was so conscious about the germs and the virus going around, meaning she wanted everybody inside, which definitely created issues and tension.
My grandad also had a sister that was unwell and unfortunately passed away during Covid times and he couldn’t see her in the hospital due to the restrictions, which was really hard on the family as we are all really close and support each other when needed. So it was a massive change to not be able to see each other, especially when we were ill.
HideOut has also definitely helped me with my music from when I started, which was just after the Covid era, helping me, always supporting me, and helping me make my name ‘EssTheRapper’ and release and perform at various HideOut events.
As for my friends, during this time I was supposed to be in Year 9, therefore I missed my work experience and missed a lot of time in school with my friends which growing up, is time I believe that is very valuable.
James
(pictured below)
The pandemic for me was a wave of rollercoasters. There were some absolutely amazing times, and I also think it was a great opportunity to actually find out who I was. I think being behind the same 4 walls for a year definitely helped with that.
But then again, I also had a great loss at the start of 2021 (Not Covid) which shattered me, but I soon built myself up again. I think jobwise it was amazing, coming out of lockdown brought my first ever job as an actor, which is my dream. I think it has put the industry in a bit of a sticky situation. As usually auditions would’ve been face to face, now they’re all on videos which in my opinion isn’t the best, but we carry on and smash it anyways!
Erin
The pandemic played a huge role in my life. I suffered with a lack of control when it came to my emotions and the shortage of social settings made that extremely difficult. As well as having emotional troubles, I was also diagnosed with a life-changing health condition which made the pandemic a hard time for me.
Before lockdown happened, I was involved in a dance club where we would train at our dance facility and travel the UK to compete against other dance teams. Having to socially distance was obviously a challenge for us.
I also attended HideOut Youth Zone, where we would have our own friendship bubbles with certain staff and during the week, we got given a time slot and day to come and take part in what the Youth Zone had to offer.
I believe that everybody should have had access to a youth service such as HideOut as they truly did support me through these difficult times.
Leighton
I am now in Year 11 and I'm going to be doing GCSEs in a couple of weeks.
In my perspective, Covid has impacted me throughout education, as we had to go onto online learning. This was a struggle for me as I could not learn from online as I am more of a practical person, and I have to see things in front of me.
The pandemic has affected my mental health and physical health as we had to stay inside for a long period of time and I was more of an outside exploring person, so for me, it was a traumatic time to stay inside.
HideOut Youth Zone was able to put a positive to this, as young people can do activities and not be stuck at home.
I hope for the future to be in the football industry, such as being a coach, or the music side, that is music producing and doing other productive things in the industry.
Xante
I was 10 when the pandemic hit. Some people see the pandemic as the worst period of their lives, but for me, it was the opposite. It allowed me to grow as a person and unlock my passion for baking, something I now do regularly at HideOut Youth Zone. The extra time also helped me mentally mature as I had the chance to educate myself on things other than schoolwork.
Spending more time with my family brought us closer. Though some days were repetitive, my mum always found a way to keep things interesting or teach us something new.
- HideOut Youth Zone is run by charity Empower
