The beginning of a new year always leaves people questioning the future and wondering what’s to come. So when the ball dropped in 2020, it was not a weird thing for my family to wonder. As the year started to progress, everyone went on with their lives, business as usual, until a new opportunity arose.
My mother works as a nurse navigator for a north Georgia hospital. Every day, she is calling patients and revealing to them their coronavirus test results, comforting those who are positive and celebrating with those who are negative.
With all of this happening, forcing me to stay in my Mississippi hometown, it makes me relish all that I have taken for granted these past years leading up to this – like all of the friendships I have made in just a few short months, or all of the sporting events that kept me on the edge of my seat.
The one thing that can be said, however, is that the administration at the University of Mississippi took the precautions needed at the most opportune time to make sure we as students did not see the worst of Covid-19.
When I left Ole Miss two days before spring break to go to Disney World, I had no idea I would not be returning to school. But who really knows what lies ahead?
Now, every night, my family sits down in our dining room and we watch two or three of the cassettes. It is something we all look forward to, and it helps remind us how fortunate we are even during these difficult times.
As a broadcast journalism major at the University of Mississippi, my freshman year experience has been full of ups and downs, but overall, it has been so much fun. The coronavirus has affected my school experience, social life, and my spiritual life.
I am a second-semester sophomore studying integrated marketing communications and specializing in public relations at the University of Mississippi. Due to the severity of the coronavirus, I will be finishing the remainder of my spring semester in the comfort of my own home in Winter Haven, Florida.
The highlight of my family’s quarantine is an easy one. We welcomed a new dog to the family. My sister, Madison, and her husband, Alex, purchased a chocolate lab puppy a few days ago. They traveled to Oxford from Washington, D.C. to get the last puppy at the shelter.
When it reached Italy, there was a little more panic and seriousness about it in the media. In May, I was scheduled to be studying abroad in Italy, so our trip advisor sent us weekly updates about what was happening as the virus spread.
I realized COVID-19 was significant when one of my colleagues had a family friend in Wuhan, China, and they said the virus is to be taken completely serious, and it is not accurately presented in the Chinese media.
We began to discuss the virus in many of my classes, but I still just assumed we were discussing it as news and not something that would be personally affecting us. I did not realize the magnitude of what was happening until March when we were out for spring break and other students were speaking about how colleges were not letting students come back to school.
I am a sophomore integrated marketing communications major at the University of Mississippi, who is now back in my childhood home in Greenwood living off matcha and fishsticks. I am here with my parents, younger sister and tiny dog – happy to be home, but I just want this to be over.
While hundreds of millions of people in the U.S, are quarantined at home, there are still millions of Americans who have been deemed “essential employees” and are therefore still traveling to and from work every day.
It’s crazy to think how one thing, as small as a virus, took our precious world and turned it upside down overnight. The mention of COVID-19 brings up many emotions. Worry, stress, hope, and appreciation are all things I’ve experienced within the past month.
In these stressful times, my mother has challenged me to stay connected to the people I have left in the wake of COVID-19.
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