The COVID-19 pandemic will infamously be remembered at large for facemasks, Zoom meetings, toilet paper shortages, and six foot distance markers. But beyond that, the pandemic has certainly affected everyone’s lives differently. My own trials and tribulations have beaten me down, yet the events of the pandemic have allowed me to adapt, grow, and learn. I’ll try my best to summarize the pandemic through my own life events to offer a bit of personal history that I can look back on sometime and say, “Did all that really happen?”.
It’s fair to say that I think many of us were naive to think COVID-19 would never find its way to the United States. Recent studies have shown that the virus may have been here months before its outbreak, as early as December 2019, with all of us living our lives as usual. I’ll never forget I went to a Team Trivia night on the Oneonta campus with a few friends, either toward the end of the Fall 2019 semester or the beginning of Spring 2020. One of the current events questions was to name the scientific name for the virus. We all knew it was the coronavirus, but we had no clue it was officially called COVID-19. Another omen came when I was home for winter break with my girlfriend, and we spent one night watching Netflix. One series we enjoyed watching every now and then is Vox: Explained, which has truly interesting episodes on current issues. Released in November 2019 was an episode titled, “The Next Pandemic”. Scientists, academics, and even Bill Gates all chimed in on why the next major world crisis would be one of public health due to several reasons such as poor preparations, overpopulation of both humans and animals, and plain inevitability.
I actually got fairly ill around the time of the Super Bowl and Iowa Caucus for reference. I woke up in the middle of the night with chills, sweats, and nausea, a sickness I had never felt before. I got up at seven in the morning and went to the UrgentCare clinic to be first in the door for an appointment as fresh snow was covering my car outside Matteson Hall. I was tested for the flu, which came back negative, and the professional that examined me claimed that I had a sinus infection and gave me some general over the counter drugs to help. I felt this way for several days, with my symptoms disappearing suddenly one day as I returned to class and other activities. Was it COVID in its infancy and I just didn’t know? The answer is I’ll never know for certain since COVID wasn’t even a thought in anyone’s mind, and all I can do is ponder the thought. I know a few family members and even friends on campus that got sick around the same time and chalked it up to being some sort of cold. But despite all of this, and as the virus did find its way onto US soil in far away states like Washington, I still felt very safe on campus because that’s the place where students had been for the last two months. I circulated the thought of students just staying on campus instead of going home for spring break in early March to try and maintain a bubble. That would not be the case as thousands of students on Oneonta’s campus, and millions of other college students around the country traveled home for their own spring breaks, and that was the beginning of the end in my mind…
I left campus for spring break on March 6, I dropped off an assignment to Dr. Harder in her office before I departed in the morning, and even worked a few campus tours for my admissions job. With the virus slowly but also rapidly spreading throughout the state and the country, I was optimistically looking forward to my spring break. In my mind, spring break is the halfway point in the semester where I can reset, take some time off, and get ready to tackle the hardest weeks of the year. My girlfriend was celebrating her birthday on the seventh, my own birthday on the ninth, and I was able to help my old high school with its baseball tryouts for the week as I’m pursuing my career in secondary social studies education and hopefully coaching baseball as well.
But the home that I was returning to was already a broken one to begin with. In short, my parents have always had their issues with one another, making for a difficult home environment growing up and still through my college years. On top of which, one of my parents has been a hypochondriac for at least the entirety of my life, so the eminent outbreak of the virus had put them in a tailspin while I was home. Those anxieties mixed with the dysfunction with their spouse culminated into a turbulent environment to say the least. I found myself getting stuck in between arguments of my parents, over whether or not I should be working at the high school that week, or if we should even go out to dinner on my birthday. All of which rattled my head, waiting to be able to go back to my dorm and have some peace and quiet.
But for the time being, that peace and quiet, or more so a tranquility came about when I was in fact working at the school that week. Despite hearing about the spread, and the eventual shut down of the SUNY system and my extended spring break, it was great to catch up with old teachers, talk about how to go about my future to become an educator, and run tryouts for the JV baseball team that I once played for a few years prior. Baseball has always been a passion of mine, playing since I was 4 years old. It came naturally to me, and the game has offered me so many experiences and stories that I’ll always be grateful for. A season ending shoulder injury my senior year of high school ended any future playing days I had going into college, so I see it that I’m starting my coaching career ahead of schedule. If anything, coaching has helped me realize that educating, both in the classroom and on a ballfield, is how I want to make an impact in this world. But after a few hours of being in my element, the talks of COVID would of course come up between my other coaches and the students. It always came up at the end of the day making sure to wash our hands and not to share anything that we normally would. High fives soon turned to fist bumps, and ironically on Friday, the 13th was when everything started to go down hill…
It seems to be a cliche that things are always going so well before they go down hill, and this was the case. I was actually left on my own to run the practice that day as the other coaches had to attend a mandatory meeting with our athletic director to of course discuss the pandemic. In the meantime, I was left on a warm and gorgeous Friday afternoon to throw batting practice, get pitchers throwing bullpens, and keep everyone active and involved. I told the kids that today was their last day to stand out in some way, and to leave it all out on the field, and they seemed surprisingly motivated and eager to do so. But about an hour or so into practice, the other coaches came back from their meeting and we continued as usual until our athletic director came out on his famous golf cart and stopped our practice dead in its tracks, told us we had to pack up and be off school property by 4:00 sharp. The district was shutting down for two weeks as everyone was going to stay home and see what happens with the virus. That’s when it started to hit me that things are starting to get a little off the rails. But at that point, I had to act the part of my athletic director and other coaches to be reassuring that everything was going to be fine in no time and that we just had to take a break for a bit. How wrong we would all be.
With the ever increasing threat of the virus being in our community, things at my home had gotten so bad that I ended up staying at my girlfriend’s house for the time being while most of her family was actually in Las Vegas on vacation. In the time being, her and I were basically keeping the house in shape and making dinner for us and her two younger brothers. During this time I remember going out a few times to the stores to get groceries, and at this point in time there were no mask mandates, and neither was there any toilet paper or cleaning supplies on any shelf in any store you walked into. Regular food aisles weren’t wiped clean, but were definitely being bought beyond normal buying habits. People were certainly preparing for the worst, and it was an eerie feeling being in stores with no masks, everyone kind of eyeballing one another as we’d walk past as we were all in this state of limbo between life as we knew it and what was to be. In the meantime, one of my girlfriend’s uncles who works in the airline industry gave word to her mother that they had to get out of Vegas as soon as possible before they shut down the airlines and they were going to be stuck there. Sure enough, they came home on one of the last flights before everything shut down. With them coming back, there wasn’t any room for me to stay any longer so I tried to put up with things at home, but I just couldn’t.
Just like dominoes falling, I then got word that students were not to be allowed back on campus and that I had to set up a time to move out of my room. At the time, my only hope and vision was that I could get back on campus and be away from home again and things will be back to normal. But then thoughts about how things such as dining halls and other campus resources would be maintained amidst the pandemic made me understand why campus had to be shut down, and I came to terms with that. And just like every other college student, I had the tail end of my semester to finish and knew that I simply couldn’t do so at the expectations I set for myself, living in the house that I was in. Fortunately, an aunt of mine reached out to me well aware of what was going on at home, and offered that I come ride this thing out with her in Groton, Massachusetts, a whole four hours away from home. I knew in the beginning that any contact with anyone during quarantine would be limited to none, but going away to Massachusetts meant not seeing anyone at all aside from my aunt and her boyfriend that she lives with (who is practically an uncle to me now). It was really a tough decision to make, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to spend any sort of time with my girlfriend or any other friends, but I knew what the right answer was. In my mind, I just needed somewhere to spend some time to clear my head from my mess at home, and finish my semester strong.
March 20th was when I packed my few things that I had brought home for spring break and went back up to the Oneonta campus to move myself out of my room on my own. As I pulled away from my house and to then say goodbye to my girlfriend, the song Life in a Northern Town by The Dream Academy was the first song to play in my car. It was just one of those moments that you know you’re never going to forget, especially with all of the thoughts and emotions that were running through my head at that point. I made good time driving up to Oneonta from Long Island, since many people had already started to stay home. It was mostly a cloudy drive up, and I couldn’t help but notice how cheap gas had gotten in such a short amount of time as I drove through the small towns of the Catskill region. When I arrived on campus, I of course realized that it was an absolute ghost town. There was a phone number I had to call to inform residence life that I had arrived and was ready to move out. I don’t think there was one other person in Matteson Hall, at least in the few hours that I was there packing my things up, and then lugging them downstairs and shoving them into any open space I could find in my car. Already exhausted, the drive up and move out was only half of my journey that day as I then had to drive another four hours east to Groton. In between, I grabbed a bite to eat at Wendy’s and filled up my gas tank at Mirabito, and headed off. I don’t remember what time I got there exactly, but it was late at night, I was beat, and my aunt was about to go to bed after I had gotten in the door. What I find funny looking back is that I was about 10 minutes away from the house when I was stopped by a late-night freight train coming through some dark, random intersection that my GPS had led me to. I probably waited at least 15 minutes for the train to pass, and in the meantime I gave my aunt and girlfriend a call that I had just about made it. By the time I got there, I was so tired that I just left everything in my car, went inside, said a quick hi and goodnight to my aunt and fell right asleep.
The next morning I unpacked my car and got my spaces set up around the house. I was very fortunate that I was offered a bedroom of course, as well as a dining room that was never used to become my “office” for the time being, and a den in the basement for me to hang out in to play video games with friends, watch TV, or work out. I had finally gotten the peace and quiet that I had needed after being home, but I never thought that I would spend the next two months tucked away from society in rural Massachusetts. One of my first days there, my aunt and I went on a walk through the neighborhood that led us to a nearby dog park. Roundtrip, it was probably about an hour and change, as we discussed all sorts of pandemic related thoughts and concerns. Her and I also made trips to the supermarket to get out the house, with still no masks required out in public. After coming home, my aunt would wash all the food before putting it away, something that I’m sure none of us do as of December 2020 with case counts completely blowing out those of late-March and early-April. Some other memories that I have while in Mass would be either overhearing the news in the background as we ate dinner, or watching it directly after. Much of the time was President Trump holding his daily press briefings that left many people, myself and my aunt included, baffled and confused as the nation faced the increasing outbreak. Looking back, it is odd to realize that that period of time was really only the beginning, but having lived through it, it had felt like months at the time for some reason. Time for me was truly either altered or out of the window. By the time I had left Massachusetts, it had been two very long months in my mind. Part of that could be because I found myself in a very abnormal sleep schedule, especially for a college student, waking up no earlier than noon just about all the time, and not being able to fall asleep until after two in the morning. That can of course be chalked up to emotions, anxieties, and stress that we have all felt at some point during this pandemic.
That being said, I generally didn’t have a great amount of motivation to do anything productive initially. Thankfully, the final six weeks or so of my semester weren’t necessarily demanding. I had three research papers to write by semester’s end for my history classes, with a few assignments scattered in for my political science and Italian classes. Seeing the rest of the semester as “just six weeks” before I could truly kick back and relax, I was able to dedicate enough hard work and efforts to earn myself a perfect 4.0 GPA for the semester, putting me on the Provost List. I spent much of my leisure time on Facetime with my girlfriend, playing video games with friends back home, chatting with my aunt and her boyfriend, or simply spending alone time with myself. As winter slowly shifted to spring, I tried getting myself into running as a way to get out of the house and get some fresh air, but that phase was over very quickly. However, there is one beautiful spring day in particular that I remember quite well. It was probably early May, and it was a seasonably warm day, probably around 70 degrees but at this point in the year it felt like a warm summer day. There weren’t any clouds in the sky, and my aunt had just bought a badminton set for the backyard. I just remember having a good time outside and in the sun, and after an afternoon of fun with the sun setting at an appropriate time, it was like that feeling that people get as kids after they get home from a day at the beach, waiting for dinner. And I did have myself a delicious dinner prepared by my aunt: stuffed pasta shells with sausage and a nice house salad. For that day, everything felt okay in my world. Afterwards, I wasn’t too sure what I had to look forward to as summer neared. I know that I wanted to see my girlfriend and friends, but how could I do so while going back to the home that I had just gotten away from, wounds still very fresh between me and my parents.
Just as those thoughts began to kick in, I had heard from another aunt of mine who lived back home on Long Island in Port Jefferson. Her and my uncle had a tenant in an apartment above their house who was leaving June 1, with neither of them willing to rent it out again because of the pandemic. I finally had something new to look forward to; summer time, being back home, and having my own “place”. Towards the end of May, I began getting myself ready to return home. A roughly 45 minute drive from my hometown to see my girlfriend and friends sounded a whole lot better than four hours. I shaved my face for the first time in two months. I got my haircut just as Massachusetts had reopened barber shops and salons, and I recall having a very nice conversation through my mask with the woman that cut my hair.
I spent my first night back on Long Island with my parents so I could unload things I didn’t need as well as gather other things like my summer clothes. Being tucked away for two months meant I couldn’t possibly have any trace of COVID in me, so it was okay with them for me to stay the night so I could see my girlfriend the next day. The next morning, I drove to her house with a smile from ear to ear on my face, giving her a big hug and kiss as soon as I got out of my car. Despite being physically apart for so long, her calls and texts definitely helped me get through the issues that I had faced in those few months.
My summer turned out to be one of the more productive ones that I’ve ever had. Despite everything going on that I had mentioned, I had taken a summer class on Tsarist Russia so that I could lessen my course load for the upcoming school year. I have been a DoorDash driver for almost two years, doing it every now and then in my spare time, and did so a few times during the pandemic where I averaged making about $20/hr! I also was able to work a virtual internship with the Greater Oneonta Historical Society (GOHS), in which I helped the executive director create a webpage about the historic Damaschke Baseball Field in Oneonta. Then in about mid-June, I was contacted by the travel baseball team that I coach with asking if I wanted to coach with them in the condensed season they had for the summer. I never thought they would be able to get any sort of season put together. Either way, I took them up on it, as it really only came down to a few weeks worth of games, practices, and tournaments that I had to work. It proved to be an enjoyable season between the kids that I was able to coach, as well as my head coach who offered me plenty of insights and tips that I’ll use moving forward. I even got myself a job lined up for when I moved back up to Oneonta in August to an off-campus house with my girlfriend and a few other friends. I even began to delve into personal finances as I opened a couple credit cards for myself and started investing. Just like with my aunt in Massachusetts, spending a few months with this aunt and uncle of mine helped me build even better relationships that I have with each of them. It was a busy and enjoyable summer, despite the wider circumstances going on in the world.
I was beyond excited for the Fall 2020 semester to get started. My friends and I found a really nice house in Oneonta to call home for the year, and with all-virtual classes for me to begin with, I had my part-time job to give me some sort of commute and time out of the house each week. I felt like I had the smallest bit of normalcy back in my life. Despite the outbreak on campus, I had a pretty smooth start to the school year between classes and work. My roommate and I would spend the last month or so of the summer having a catch down at Neahwa Park, hitting the driving range, or playing some tennis on campus. Nights were hot in our house, no AC, windows open, fans blasting.
But as summer became fall, things became a bit hectic for me. School work began piling up at the same time that I had spent over $1500 on tickets to go to the World Series in Arlington, Texas in hopes that I would see my Yankees in a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience. On top of which, I had been contacted by the NYS Contact Tracing Program for a part-time job that I applied to way back in the spring. I ended up taking them up on that offer as my other job in town didn’t pay nearly as much as contact tracing, and it was all at home work with no risk of being in public with rising cases, etc. I’ve been working that job since October and it has been a really great experience. As soon as I had made that decision, I realized I then couldn’t risk traveling all the way to Texas for a two day excursion, especially after the Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs. I ended up selling those tickets, making a nice profit, and was able to settle into my new job, while also being able to handle my schoolwork that was piling up on me.
I’m heading into the end of the Fall 2020 semester with high hopes. I was able to survive another semester of online learning, hopefully with another 4.0 in the mix. I also landed a substitute teaching position at my old high school for when I’m home for break and after graduation, barring that K-12 schools aren’t shut down anytime soon. I currently have grad school applications to submit, and the GRE to take in January so I can move along with my studies and career ambitions of becoming a 7-12 social studies teacher. As far as my current studies, I have one semester left before I graduate. I’m enrolled in my senior research seminar for history which includes writing a 20-25 page research paper (yikes!). However, I only have three other classes to take, with no classes on Fridays so I am very much looking forward to my three day weekends. Although the pandemic is at its worst point so far, I am surprisingly optimistic about the future as graduation is only months away, and grad school just around the corner with hopefully plenty of experiences waiting to be had as the pandemic can hopefully be tamed by then.
At this point, I’d like to thank those who were able to offer this opportunity to write about our own experiences during the pandemic. For me, this offered me a bit of therapy and reflection from the last few months, in what will go down as one of the craziest years in history and my own personal life. I hope that you can find some sort of enjoyment, enlightenment, and/or use from reading this as COVID-19 hopefully becomes a piece of the past.