MIDLAND, Texas — Despite an ongoing pandemic, for the most part, it's business as usual at the A&J auto body shop off Florida Ave.
Though if you were to take a closer look inside the shop, you may notice that one of the shop's offices has been converted into a make-shift classroom.
The business is owned by Arturo Juarez, and in that spare office space he owns, his daughter and her four children have a chance to work together.
It's an opportunity that the father of the grandchildren, Adrian Lopez, is thankful for.
"It's a family owned business so they can come and work here together," said Lopez.
One of those learning virtually in the auto body shop class room is Jazzabelle Juarez, a student at Abell Jr. high.
"Virtual learning has been chaotic," said Juarez.
Jazzabelle is the oldest of her siblings, and while she's grateful for the increase in family time she's had, her heart feels a little empty spending so much time away from friends her age.
"I miss laughing with my friends, I miss eating lunch with my friends, I miss going to recess with them, it can be lonely," said Juarez.
She expressed these feelings in a beautifully composed essay for one of her classes she simply called "Living Quarantined"
Her passages touch on her friends, family, and elderly loved ones, who she worries she may never see again.
Before turning the assignment in, her parents read the essay and were blown away by the raw emotion of the literary assignment.
"She's going through a lot right now, these kids are missing out on so much," said her father.
The grim reality is no one knows when things will go back to normal, or what the new normal will look like, but keeping our children's perspectives in mind may show us something we were missing.