Coronavirus from a Student's Perspective

As a teen, I always wondered what my 20s would be like. I never imagined them like this. The people of the world are stuck in their homes, quarantined indefinitely. We can’t see each other, we can barely talk to each other, and each day would be more depressing than the last if the weather weren’t so nice.

April 2020

This isn’t a quarantine because it’s the end of the world, but it sure feels like it.

A few months ago, in January, things were looking really bad in China as a new disease spread. Then the neighboring countries were infected. Eventually the vectors of the plague from China went elsewhere around the world, without even knowing they were infected in some cases. These people traveled in planes and ships, and the disease crossed continents. It spread and it spread, but we never expected it to get this bad. We never knew what the 2020s would be known for at the beginning of the decade, but now we know: Covid-19.

Photo courtesy: Newsis/Associated Press

It sounds like a fictional story, but it’s not. Even in the details it sounds like a horror novel. The doctors in Wuhan, China, who blew the whistle were silenced. Some died. And while it can only be assumed as a coincidence, it’s hard to stray the thoughts that these doctors were doomed the second they raised any alarm. There were conspiracies that Chinese news media were fudging the numbers of just how many citizens were infected; the controlling government must have made them do it – but still, just a theory…

Now it’s April 6th, and college has gone all-online for at least the rest of the semester. I’m a media student. I was going to make a documentary, a news report on tuition prices, and perform my second concert of the semester – and now I can’t. Now I’ll just be sending in scripts and plans of what I had planned, and my concert won’t even happen. I can’t even imagine what music majors are going to do when my single music class now is just nonexistent.

It's difficult to get inspired. The only reason I'm finding an ounce of passion in me to write this post is because I managed to convince myself to go outside for the first time in three days. College work seems harder now, even though I'm not even allowed to attend classes anymore. I make six discussion posts a week, I do my American Sign Language all with a webcam, and I make all my Excel graphs with the help of a recorded instructor video.

I live in an apartment right next to campus and the journalism building I used to go to for classes every day. The sidewalks usually see people in the mornings until at least 6 p.m., but now there's only the occasional jogger or pair of people accompanying each other on a walk. It was only last week when I realized there wouldn't be the semi-annual final's week pancakes event provided by the Student Union this semester.

Downtown Stillwater

It’s almost eerie, yet euphoric, driving around town these days. The shops downtown are barren, empty, dark, like you’d expect during the apocalypse. But the food shops are still open as they’re considered “essential business,” and their “OPEN” signs just beg for people to place an order over the phone. Did I mention we don’t go in the food shops anymore? Everything’s takeout. You hand your card or cash to the cashier with their gloved hands; a reminder you shouldn’t touch each other’s skin. A mental note is etched in your mind to refrain from touching your face until you can get home to run hot water and scrub soap onto your potentially-compromised flesh.

Statue in Downtown Stillwater Dressed for Covid

Social isolation does something to the brain. I can’t help but stare when I see a stranger from my balcony now. It’s bad and distasteful to touch anyone you don’t know, even accidentally graze your shoulder against theirs. Don’t breathe the same air – what if one of you has the virus? You’ve just affected their entire social circle of the people they allow themselves to see, and vice versa. They could be seeing their mom, dad, brother, sister, partner, or roommate within the next two weeks. Honestly, their family might be fine. So long as they’re not immunocompromised or above 65 years old. But what if they were planning to visit their 78-year-old grandma within this week? You don’t show symptoms early on, and according to testing in Greenland, nearly one out of three people who get Corona are asymptomatic in the first place. Now, look at the chain you’ve just caused.

… So that’s why I consistently find myself studying the strangers around me recently. It’s difficult to bring myself out of this train of thought once I’ve chosen to become a passenger. That’s almost all everyone has right now: thought. We can’t seem to get enough of it. The other day I thought about asking my roommate if she ever found herself forgetting we were in quarantine, but then I realized it was a silly question to ask. How could anyone forget something like this?