It starts one random night with a scratchy throat. You don’t think much of it, you probably just inhaled too much dust or something. But then you wake up the next morning and it’s still there. You go to school because you still feel fine otherwise, and you live through the day successfully. Then that night, it hits you. The fever, the chills, the nausea, the body aches. You start to feel a sense of dread, that maybe this could be COVID. Sure enough, you take a test, and it comes back positive. So what now?
Before you catch COVID, your life is busy and days are flying by, but now it feels like you’re stuck in time, trapped in your room, counting the days until you can go downstairs without a mask again. You did everything right trying to avoid it, but you still caught it.
When you get COVID, a lot of things change really quickly. First, the obvious, you don’t get to go to school. Even if you try to keep up online, there’s just so much that you miss that you only can get during in-person school. Doing schoolwork at home is different in a way that you need to teach yourself the content. You’re not an expert on it like teachers are, so if you get stuck, you can’t help yourself, and the email process takes much longer than asking questions in person. You miss being around your friends too. And honestly, who wants to be doing schoolwork when they’re bedridden? The only upside is the peace and quiet that comes with being alone to work in.
Missing out on social events can be an immense emotional weight as well. With access to the internet, you’re aware of your exclusion from normal life. You’re forced to sit there and watch as your friends do everything that you can’t, provoking hopeless jealousy.
You also have to make sure you cancel any events you had planned for at least the next five days. That means any sports practices or games, any concerts, any outings with your friends, there is literally nothing you can go to. If you had anything fun planned, you have to live with the disappointment of missing out on those things.
But then, you start to feel better. You’re ready to get back to normal life. You start asking around “when can I go back?” and nobody seems to be able to give you a conclusive response. “Five days and then you can go back,” “Well, you should actually wait a week before going back”, “You can go back five days after symptoms first started but you still need to wear a mask for the next five days.” It’s confusing. Really, really, confusing.
Going back to school proves to be its own challenge. There’s lots of fear surrounding how people might treat you. What if people avoid me? What if people are mean to me? Am I even actually allowed to be here right now? Soon you realize, as long as you’re wearing a mask, you and everyone else is safe and there’s nothing to worry about. It is nice to finally be back.
If you’re a student who caught COVID at any point in time, whether this year or last year, just know that you are not alone in the difficulty you experienced. Having COVID is not fun, and it comes with a unique set of struggles that aren’t seen with any other illness. Some people experience them less than others, but at the end of the day, we’re all in this together. Let’s keep being cautious so that this pandemic doesn’t last longer than it needs to.