When news of the new coronavirus, or COVID-19, broke out my friends and I paid very little attention to the virus. We knew the virus broke out in China, and it seemed like it would have little to no effect on our lives so we ignored it. No one thought that the virus would have such an effect on us. Living on campus at school, we essentially lived in our own little world. We had no responsibilities or worries other than our schoolwork.
One night my mom called me to check in and started rambling on about how there was no hand sanitizer or soap at stores and the food stores were starting to look more and more empty. I had no idea what she was talking about and she had to explain how the virus had spread and people were beginning to stock up on supplies for self-quarantine. She warned me not to go anywhere and to look for some extra supplies to bring home during my spring break. I thought what my mom was describing to me was more than exaggerated since there were no confirmed cases that I had heard about and I was able to stock up on hand sanitizer and soap at the stores near school.
Soon the news was flooded with new information on COVID-19 and that was all people were talking about. Even UNE began to implement some preventative measures, but they assured us that school would continue as normal. Living on campus with two roommates meant social distancing was not followed at all, but we did not find this to be an issue since there were no cases in Maine anyway. My mom kept telling me about how supplies at home in Rhode Island were diminishing and she started seeing some symptoms in some patients in the hospital where she works. Again, I thought things couldn’t possibly be as bad as my mom was saying. After all, she was working on the front line of the virus and probably was seeing the worst of it.
When it was time to go home for spring break, schools across the country were deciding to close for the remainder of the semester, but we were reassured once again that we would be returning to school soon. I packed a good portion of my belongings anyway, in case our return to school was going to be delayed. Sure enough, when I was halfway home I received an email from the school that we would not be returning for the remainder of the semester. I figured that maybe after a few weeks of self-isolation, we would be able to return so I left the rest of my stuff at school.
After about a week of staying home, it was clear that the coronavirus pandemic was worsening and I was going to be staying home for a much longer time than I thought. My parents continued to work, as they both worked in the healthcare system, and I lost my job as a waitress when all of the restaurants were closed. My mom works in the lab of the hospital, drawing patients’ blood. On multiple occasions, they had to ask patients to leave who came in with symptoms of the virus, and my mom was left wondering whether she was exposed and was going to be spreading it to her family when she came home.
My dad had similar experiences with the virus. One of his jobs, carpentry, was not continuing during the outbreak because no one wanted to remodel their house during a pandemic, and many people were laid off so they could not afford a home renovation. Luckily, my father also works on the fire department and the rescue. He would leave his radio on when he was home and many of the calls they were dispatched to were calls for patients feeling “unwell.” Sometimes at the end of a shift, the department would receive word that they had been exposed to the virus from a patient and they would have to stay home and self-quarantine. Luckily, my dad still has not received an email like that and he can continue to work. Part of his job on the department is also enforcing the new regulations in place to limit the amount of shoppers that could be in an establishment at one time, which puts him at more of a risk for exposure.
Meanwhile, I was home with my sister all day, who had her departure for Navy boot camp delayed. Online classes were a really big adjustment, especially with all the classes I had taken on this semester. It was very hard to organize myself and keep up with assignments and due dates that were given electronically. It was so hard not to lose track of an assignment in the electronic void. Eventually, I got used to working entirely online, and it was much easier to keep up.
After a few days of being stuck inside doing homework, we could not concentrate anymore. As an extremely active family, we had to find ways to stay healthy while gyms were closed. We would meet up with my aunt, uncle and cousins in the park where we could run and work out together-of course while staying six feet apart. Once a week, we would go to an empty parking garage and run up and down one-hundred flights of stairs to get our energy out. The next day we would be so sore that we would not even mind staying inside.
Overall, so far my family is luckier than most. Although I had to give up the rest of my freshman year, all of my friends and family are healthy, and both my parents could keep their jobs. It is boring staying inside, but it could be worse. I saw how well people from the community worked together to prevent the virus from spreading and how well my town is handling the crisis, and so quickly.
I also learned how much I depended on the school environment, not only for my friend to keep me occupied, but to work together to keep motivated and finish assignments. I found it is so much harder to understand schoolwork on my own and to stay motivated. At school, we seemed to be in our own world, where outside issues really had no effect on us. We never really noticed the effects of the virus because we never had to shop for our own food, but rather had it already bought and prepared for us. Coming home made us face the harsh reality of the pandemic.
