HUDSON DRUTCHAS, 12, UNITED STATES
Hudson Drutchas waited and worried as his mom and sister recovered from coronavirus, quarantined in their rooms. Just a few weeks earlier, he was a busy sixth-grader at Lasalle II, a public elementary school in Chicago. Then the governor issued a stay-at-home order.
Now, the soft-spoken 12-year-old receives school assignments by computer and looks to dog Ty and cat Teddy for comfort.
“Since I don’t get to see my friends a lot, they’re kind of my closest friends,” he says. He giggles when Teddy, now 9, snarls. “He sometimes gets really grumpy because he’s an old man. But we still love him a lot.”
When not doing schoolwork, Hudson jumps and flips on his trampoline and lifts himself around a doorframe outfitted so he can practice climbing, something he usually does competitively.
He knows he’s fortunate, with a good home and family to keep him safe, but it’s difficult to be patient. “It makes me feel sad that I am missing out on a part of my childhood,” he says.
When he draws his version of the future, Hudson makes a detailed pencil sketch showing life before the corona- virus and after.
The world before looks stark and full of pollution in the drawing. In the future, the city is lush with clear skies and more wildlife and trees.
“I think the environment might kind of, like, replenish itself or maybe grow back,” Hudson says.
Still, he feels uncertain: “I’m worried about just how life will be after this. Like, will life change that much?”