Quarantine started off for everyone as a time to change their lifestyles. Hobbies formed, bread was baked, and workouts were successfully finished at home. After this initial 4 week period, things started to slow down. Case numbers of COVID-19 began to rise, along with the lives it took. Getting Corona was the worst thing in the world at that moment. As an average 19-year-old college freshman, quarantine was the last place I wanted to be.
Abruptly being sent home from the start of my second semester at SMU wasn’t even the first negative things that happened to me during this pandemic. My first group spring break trip to the Bahamas got canceled and I never got to say goodbye to the friends I had known for two months. I sat in my room alone, not wanting to be around my parents because all it did was remind me how I wasn’t supposed to be at home right now. I was not allowed to see my high school friends and my college friends had already headed back to their respective cities. I felt very alone and all I did was watch YouTube and eat snacks. Nothing made me feel the rush of going out, dancing on an elevated surface at a fraternity party, and being surrounded by my friends. I felt very isolated from all my college friends and I felt like I couldn’t really call or Facetime them because we weren’t close enough yet.
As the months stretched on, I gradually began hanging out with my high school friends and a few college friends who lived in my city. My weekdays felt like they were months long, while my weekends felt like they only lasted a few minutes. I would only go to dinner with people or hang out at other people’s houses. There was no more waiting for Ubers or getting Velvet Taco at 2 in the morning. My family’s presence was valued, but it made me feel like I was a kid again. I always had to alert there when I left the house, hid what I was doing, and kept to myself.
The months soon dragged into summer and I had no job, no internship, and no actual work to do. I procrastinated even the smallest tasks, like folding my laundry or wiping down my bathroom mirror. I spent so much money on online shopping, buying clothes for occasions that didn’t even exist. It was too hot to go on long walks outside with my friends and I began spending every second of the day in my room, only coming out to eat or workout. I was marking the days on a calendar until I could move back into my dorm again. The prospect of returning to school was my light at the end of the tunnel.
When I returned to school, everything felt normal again. I refuse to go back into the lonely and dark time that ws quarantine. I am doing everything in my power to avoid getting COVID-19 and maintain a good physical and mental health.
