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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Mass Amherst chapter.

If I’m honest, I didn’t really care to research the COVID-19 vaccines before getting them. Anything to help inch our world back to its usual self, I’d do. I actually was able to get my vaccine earlier than most people my age because I work in food service. My boss emailed everyone and told us when we were eligible, and provided us with a few places to schedule appointments. 

Stack of cotton face masks on wooden table.
Photo by Vera Davidova from Unsplash
Getting a COVID-19 vaccine appointment was so hard. And so irritating. I tried my best to follow the Twitter account @vaccinetime for openings, but had no luck with scheduling even though they tweet Massachusetts vaccine locations with slots just about every 10 minutes. 

My next attempt was through CVS, but they only posted appointment times at 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. every morning. So, yes, for three days in a row, I woke up at both 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. to try schedule an appointment through them, only for the appointments to be fully booked within seconds! It was a very sleepy few days for me, and with no appointment still, I decided I would try to book through UMass, even though my boss’s email said that the appointments through the university only open once a week, Fridays at 4 p.m., and go extremely fast. I was tired of waking up at 3 a.m. with no luck, so I logged onto the UMass scheduling site at 3:30 p.m. on a Friday and kept refreshing the page. For. The. Entire. 30. Minutes. The available slots opened up at 3:57 p.m., not 4, but thankfully I had been refreshing for 27 minutes and booked my appointment! Oh, the feeling of relief and excitement securing a COVID-19 vaccine. If you haven’t experienced this yet, I hope you do soon. Best. Feeling. Ever. 

A doctor fills a syringe with COVID-19 vaccine
Photo by cottonbro from Pexels
Anyways, I booked my appointment to receive my first dose on April 22 at UMass, which was really nice because most of my vaccinated friends had all driven at least 40 minutes to their vaccine locations. I just had to walk over to the Campus Center. The rest of my vaccine journey was nothing wildly entertaining. I have now received my first and second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. I wasn’t given a choice, but I was happy with it. My first dose went swimmingly, with no pain or reactions. I was scared to get my second because I knew that most people had flu-like symptoms after, but I chugged water and green tea for days before — and while that doesn’t exactly lead to my body not reacting — I didn’t get sick at all! My arm was definitely sore for the day after, but that’s not much to complain about. 

Autumn Delorey

U Mass Amherst '23

Autumn is a content editor for UMass Amherst's chapter of Her Campus. She is a junior Journalism major with a concentration in Public Relations.
Contributors from the University of Massachusetts Amherst