covid chronicles pt. 2

I think I could write a whole entire book called “The COVID Chronicles.” I know this was the title to one of my recent posts, but this year has been filled with stories that could fit this title, and I think it’s important that stories be told.

I was a 5th year college student during the 2019-2020 school year. I finished my student teaching in December 2019, and came back for one last semester – one last hurrah – while working on finishing up a few last credits and getting experience as a substitute teacher.

Of course, we all know how that journey ended.

For us, up in our small town college community, we were celebrating the week before spring break, and all of my former-teammates-still-friends were also celebrating being done with a grueling basketball season.

It was Wednesday, March 11. COVID-19 was closing in around us, but we were ignoring it, like any other group of college kids. Actually, like most of the world. We went over to a good friend of ours, on a *warm* 40 degree early spring day, to play beer darts. Later, we went to the school together to play in our intramural volleyball game, and then went back to that same friend’s house. Everything seemed normal, but you could tell there was a stirring in the air. You could tell there was stress of the unknown and everyone was incessantly checking the news on their phones. For us college students, that meant Twitter, where news, fake or not, travels fastest. As it turns out, during and after our volleyball game, our entire world shut down. (see picture below)

My friends and I had a flight on Saturday to head to Tampa, Florida, while my boyfriend had one for Hawaii. I remember going to the store with all my friends and looking for wipes and all of the toilet paper was gone, along with most wipes. None of us could comprehend what was really happening, and we shielded our fear of the unknown with humor.

We texted our families, texted each other, all wondering what we should do – should we go or stay? If we went, would we be able to even come back to Crookston? Where would we be living? There were no jobs to be had. (I ended up having to take back my one from the summer before, which I had no intention of doing, and had actually declined in an email about a week or two prior). Should we wear masks on the plane? The CDC was still saying no at this point, but also saying it was spread through the air and not surfaces, which made no sense.

About half of my friends backed out, but I decided to go. Once I got down there though, things continued to change for the worse and my anxiety spiked. COVID-19 was declared a National Emergency. Restaurants changed their capacity rules. Beaches were on the verge of shutting down. Flights were getting changed and canceled altogether. We rented a van in case of an emergency where we’d have to drive back. Everyone was tense. Everything felt eerie.

I got home on March 20, 2020 and drove to my boyfriend’s house, which is near the cities. Soon after, my family and I – parents and brother and sister – had a conference call deciding what our best moves were. I had just been out of state, and my mom and dad are both blended families, making our “mixture” of people higher than average families. We all decided to stay put where we were for the time being.

The nothingness that surrounded us in the weeks to follow was almost unbearable. Everyone was at home with no where to go and nothing to do. We couldn’t spend time with others, yet we also couldn’t spend time alone. We watched endless Netflix, read books, did puzzles, went on walks. Eventually, when I realized I wouldn’t be returning to school, I began applying for teaching jobs for the upcoming fall.

More to come on this story later…

love always, Caitlin