Personal Pandemic Perspective

The Very Beginning

Looking back to when we first started hearing about the novel coronavirus, it’s crazy to see how much it has progressed to today. I remember when I first heard about the coronavirus, it was a meme on facebook. Days later, I went home, and that was when my father gave the first of his many talks about what he has heard and learned about the virus. He had many strong feelings about it, being Chinese himself, and with us having family in China that are near the Hubei province that Wuhan is located within. Although mainly, his issue was that he was so frustrated with our family (and the general chinese public) for not believing him when he warned them about the emerging coronavirus cases, despite the articles he sent to them; because the chinese government had not mentioned anything yet, they refused to believe any outside information (the government was still hiding it at that point). He warned them out of care and concern, but they retaliated defensively saying that America is out to ruin China with their lies (a common response from the brainwashed public). Due to this, my dad did talk about the virus itself with me, such as the symptoms and immunology aspects, but he also talked about the role of the government in why the situation was so tragic. I remember then, that I felt similarly worried and upset about the situation in China, but everytime I would return to Chapel Hill, that feeling would then slowly diminish. I would try to talk about it with some of my friends, but when they didn’t reciprocate the same level of care, I couldn’t help but be affected by that, and I noticed myself worrying less as well. I’ve also realized, in general, that people will typically not actively think about tragedy, because we want to avoid the negative feelings that are associated with it. In other words, we either consciously or subconsciously choose to be ignorant, since “ignorance is bliss”. With the issue being overseas, most people also had a detached mentality due to it feeling like it was “not their problem”. This kind of attitude was what I was surrounded with, and this is where my personal journey began.  

Escalation

As time went on, we started to hear it finally establishing and spreading in other countries. It gets officially named as COVID-19, and it is declared a pandemic. With spring break coming up, some people start getting wary, but because there weren’t many cases yet, the small numbers did not make as big of an impact on the public, and actual concern did not start building up. Me and a few of my friends planned a trip to Virginia Beach, and right before we left, we heard news of COVID-19 reaching Wake county, which is where I am from. My parents get increasingly worried, and call me often to make sure I know the latest news on what areas are affected. They try to convince me from going on the trip, but I assure them that there aren’t any cases in Virginia yet, and in general we would stay away from other people and only stay with people in our group. We go on the trip, and we worry about our friends that are going down to Miami, but we try to think about that later. When we get back, we start hearing rumors that schools are planning to shut down, and like most students, we’re excited. When the extended spring break and remote classes got announced, we celebrated, but at the same time we were also just a bit in disbelief; every university choosing to make this kind of decision also meant that things had escalated to the point of taking these measures. 

Now

Since things have moved onto online remote learning, I’ve been staying at a friends’ place in Chapel Hill and avoiding home. However, eventually I did feel bad for not seeing my parents, and so I went to go back to visit for a week. During the week, I tried my best to adjust to remote learning, complete an increased workload, and revisited some old hobbies of mine, such as singing. Being home, close to my piano, and an entire space to myself is nice, but the changes in the curriculum schedule for all my classes have been really rough. Things have been split and spread out, and although it has its perks, it also means that it feels like there is always a constant workload, compared to before where it would feel like waves of intense work and then it calmed down for a bit. In some of my other classes, the online aspect has given me more time to work on some assignments, but they now require me to pace myself for the rest of the semester, which is also something I’ve never been the best at; I’m trying my best to keep up with everything, but I’ve already had to pull two all-nighters because I can’t seem to figure out the best way to time manage. Hopefully, I will just get more and more into a new routine, and things will sort itself out eventually. Now, towards the end of the week with my parents, that’s when the stay-at-home orders were being put out. I didn’t think things would keep escalating, but if it really was getting to that point, I was getting increasingly worried about my mother who has an autoimmune disorder (rheumatoid arthritis); thus, I was stuck between the decision of actually staying inside and not even going out to get food, or leaving home indefinitely back to my friends’ house where I could still go out occasionally to get food and just practice general social distancing if I need to go outside. On one hand, I might go insane if I have to stay completely inside for months, but I would be able to ensure that I don’t risk any chance of bringing the coronavirus back home. On the other hand, I would be able to have a little more freedom if I stayed with those same friends that I originally self-quarantined with, and I would be staying away from my susceptible mother, but I wouldn’t be able to see my parents for a really long time. After thinking about my options, I made the hard decision to come back to Chapel Hill. Ideally, if I am able to buy a lot of groceries and me and these friends can self-quarantine for another successful period, I can go back to visit for another week. So at this point in my personal pandemic experience, I am back in Chapel Hill, I am adjusting to the new remote learning, and I am praying that my family can stay safe and healthy.