Affecting Me by Ling (history essay)

Jieling Yang (Ling)

ESL 100

November 1, 2011

Affecting Me

Almost ten years ago, there was a disease named SARS. By the end of the outbreak in July 2003, there were over 8,000 people infected and over 900 deaths worldwide. SARS was found in China by doctors in 2002, and it was a serious problem that doctors could not solve quickly. It soon affected people all over the world because people who caught it passed it on to others who were in contact with them. Therefore, a lot of people lost their lives before they could be cured, and their families were broken because of SARS during those years. SARS has caused a lot of physical and mental distress to everyone in the world because people were worried that their lives would be affected. I was thankful that SARS has not directly hit my friends or family, but it still affected me because I was surrounded by the disease. Even though I never contracted it, SARS has affected me mentally, socially, and emotionally.

                                                                        Perhaps the most subtle effect was how it affected many people’s mental health. I was eleven years old when the SARS outbreak begun. Of course, SARS also affected me a lot. During that period, everyone was interested in the upcoming news of how SARS caused sicknesses and death around China and Asia. Mentally, this affected me because I was really sad to see so many sick, and I worried about their lives. People read the newspaper and watched TV everyday to get first hand news of how serious this matter was, and I was one of those people. For example, I watched TV with my family at home so that we could know how serious this issue of SARS was. SARS was all the news talked about every day. My family and I could not stop thinking or hearing about it. However, when people knew that others got infected with SARS, it meant they were going to die. My family and I were so nervous and scared at that time. We did not want to be the ones who would get infected by this deadly disease. 

As this disease spread, it affected people’s social and community activities. Almost everyone stayed at home the entire day. They could not visit their relatives or friends even if they wanted. There were also many SARS cases in my hometown of Guangzhou. My family and I could not do anything that we wanted. For instance, when I went to school, I could not see my classmates’ faces because everyone wore masks to prevent them from being infected. We could not touch each other even though we played together. It also meant that we were not able to go out and eat together. By not being able to spend time together, my classmates and I lacked communication. Even though we had seen each other in classes, we were not able to get close enough to hold a conversation. By the end of the day, everybody had to rush home because their parents did not allow them to stay out. It had greatly affected our social activities because our only social activity was to go to school and then go straight home.

SARS had also affected me emotionally because the serious results of this deadly disease had cost a lot of lives. Even though I did not know anyone who was infected by this disease, it still caused me heartbreak to watch those people suffer and die. Not only those patients, but also their friends and family were greatly affected by this outbreak. For example, one time when I was watching the news, the reporter talked about a woman that had lost her husband to SARS. When the reporters were reporting the news, I saw that the woman was begging the doctors to save her husband’s life. The doctors in return said to her that there was no medication yet to save those who were affected by SARS. By looking at the woman crying, it had made me cry too. During the SARS outbreak, I did not want to do anything. Nothing seemed to be fun and the world felt like a scary place. I was thankful that none of my friends or family was affected by this disease.

SARS was a deadly disease, and it broke many people’s hearts and lives. It made people around the globe panic. This disease spread very quickly without anyone knowing how to cure or stop it from infecting more people. SARS spread from Hong Kong, China to over thirty-seven countries within weeks. I believe it was not only I who felt the fear, but also the people around the globe had felt it. However, the outbreak of SARS helped me realize how important family and friends are, and how precious my life is. SARS was an unfortunate event to all of us, but one that made us grow.