Day 1:
Life during COVID has been very hard. Being quarantined had me seriously lacking and craving any sort of human contact when we were holed up in our houses from March until July. We even had all of our groceries delivered to our house. My job was closed from March until September. My family definitely took it more seriously than all of my friends. While my whole family was quarantining for all those months I saw my friends going out and hanging out with people, which I did not find smart but I was a little jealous. Obviously, we all stayed inside for the greater cause and doing our part for society. Unfortunately a lot of people did not seem to care and I would see people without masks on after we finally dared to venture outside.
Day 2:
A lot of people think that Cuomo is a terrible person because he is taking this global pandemic seriously and making people wear masks. I do not understand what the big deal is: the masks aren’t really an inconvenience to me whatsoever. Why do people keep saying that it is violating their human rights? I really wish that the election did not make the pandemic a political issue because quite frankly that does not make any sense, it should be a personal health issue and people should just follow the protocols so everyone can stop complaining and life can go back to semi-normal at a much quicker pace.
Day 3:
In August I left my home in order to move into my house in Oneonta for the semester, it is going to be a very different semester and I don’t really know what to expect. I have never taken online classes before so those should prove to be a challenge to me and I know there will not be any parties at my house since I don’t want to be that house that causes an outbreak. However, someone else decided to take that initiative and all of the campus students were sent home but I think that they should not have been allowed on campus anyway since we are in the midst of a global pandemic. The school did not handle the move-in procedure well at all, no precautions were required for the students to move onto campus which was not the most intelligent move by them.
Day 4:
My housemates and I decided to make an agreement with one other house that we were only allowed to see each other so that we could still have that social interaction that was outside of our immediate household. This plan worked out really well since none of us ever contracted the virus and we were still able to see people; I wish other people thought of this rather than having an explosion of cases in the town. The cops really cracked down this semester, one night the four of us were sitting on our front porch just playing cards and an officer pulled up to our house ad told us that they received a “noise complaint” but we were pretty sure he just saw that we had colored lights on and assumed that there was a party going on. No harm done though; he was just doing his job which was fine.
Day 5:
The four of us got tested at UrgentCare and we all tested negative of course since we were being so careful, which I was very thankful for. The school also started offering free testing for students which I took full advantage of. I started getting tested once a week to make sure that I was always healthy since I knew that I would not be able to go home unless I was completely sure that I was negative for COVID. I am really glad the school offered these tests to us, I just wish that they would have been more careful at the beginning rather than after learning what happens when you put a few thousand kids in dorms together that haven’t been outside in months the hard way. Classes have been challenging for me this semester, it makes things especially harder when professors do not respond to my emails after I follow up with them three times since there are not many other ways to contact them during this time. While I understand that they are getting swamped with emails from students and the board, if I ask you in class if you saw my email and you saw “yes” after a week of no response it hurts a little to know that you just did not want to answer my questions and help me to succeed in your class.
Day 6:
I finally came home after spending August-November in Oneonta for Thanksgiving. I got tested every week for the six weeks leading up to break to make sure that I was always healthy. I was negative every time which I’m grateful for, but not really surprised. However, a few days after coming home my sister tested positive for COVID. She either got it from her boss or from her boyfriend; we still are not entirely sure. Just my luck to be so careful for months in the coronavirus central in New York state for months just to come home and get it before the holiday. Thankfully, my father never got it since we had not been to his house since my sister’s exposure so he was able to drop off any supplies that we needed. We were very lucky because my brother and my sister never actually showed any symptoms, but my mom and I did. I actually had it the worst out of everyone in my family oddly enough, I felt absolutely terrible for about five days but then it just went away, it was a very weird virus to contract it did not last a terribly long time but it hit hard.
Day 7:
Everyone in my family successfully recovered from COVID, I am very thankful for that. I am glad that we did not add to the number of deaths in the country, we were very lucky. This semester has been one that I will never forget, it was easily the most challenging one that I have ever experienced in my 7 semesters as a college student. I learned a lot about the people close to me and where they stood on certain aspects of life, like public safety and awareness, as some just did not care and thought their rights were being restricted for some reason. The main thing I learned is that people only care about other people in the beginning of a global crisis. Once a month or two passes a lot of people just stop caring and do whatever they feel like for their own selfishness. It was quite eye opening and I hope that the vaccine is a success for the world so we can start returning to our lives at least in some respects.