MARK AND HIS MASK 

MARK AND HIS MASK

Hi, I'm Mark Plonti. I am 8 years old. I am an introverted kid, I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and I go to 3rd grade. I think I actually cared a lot about what people think about me. I didn’t have many friends, I like to play football, and listen to music. I live with my parents and my hamster Clota. In 2021 because of covid 19, my parents decided to change me to another school. It was a challenge to make new friends and socialize with others. 

Socialising with others was always a difficult situation for me. I didn't have the courage to talk to children my age, but when I did, they didn’t hear me, I talked very low and couldn make conversations.  With COVID things complicated for me much more. Watching facial expressions is very important for me, because I can see and recognize how and what people feel, if they are sad, happy, stressed, etc. I couldn't see the facial expressions of other people, because everyone used masks that covered all their faces.

I had moved to a new city. Everything started the first day in my new school. When we came back to school after a year of virtual classes and cuarenteen I couldn't get to know anybody. I didn't know anybody. Imagine, a shy boy, who doesn't like to speak very much, and doesn't recognize anybody, it was a hard situation for me, well it’s still. During the first month of school,I felt like the most lonely person in the world. I didn’t make any friends and all the afternoons after school the only thing I did was stay in my room with my cat, listen to music, or spend time with my family.