BLOG: Becoming acquainted with quarantine

EDITORS NOTE: 5/2/20 – Post has been updated to include a reflection blog by the author.

April 6, 2020

My mom and I started our spring break off a little early by joining my little sister’s drill team on their journey to New York City. The Coronavirus, or COVID-19, outbreak in the United States started around the time we were set to leave, March 5, with a departure to come back home on March 9.

I, for one, thought our trip was going to get canceled for sure. But we ended up going, which was a little scary. We had a group of 80 people, but we still all had our own sanitation wipes to wipe down everything around us in the airplane, as well as our hotel rooms once we arrived. We also all had at least two hand sanitizers with us at all times if we were not near a bathroom to wash them.

While in New York, we barely saw anyone wearing masks or gloves like they were portraying on the media. Also, all the stores, restaurants and schools were still open in New York City while we were there. Although, little did we know that just four short days after we saw “Wicked,” Broadway would “go dark.”

Besides the fact that we had COVID-19 looming over us the entire time, the trip was so fun and I cannot wait to plan my next trip up there, once this is all over of course.

Once we got home, we still weren’t seeing the “epic pandemic” media hype in Harris County match what the rest of the country was starting to look like, until maybe the third day of being back. I kind of started to go into panic mode once the pandemic hit Texas and trickled down to Houston with the confirmed cases increasing.

Once our classes were changed to being online and our spring break got extended, I developed major anxiety. I hit my true breaking point when our commencement ceremony was canceled, or postponed I guess, and my little sister’s high school prom was canceled.

I am a big-time “planner” person, so while I’m not being insensitive to the fact that there are people dying from this disease, it puts a giant knot in my stomach each time an event I have been planning for gets canceled or pushed back even further.

As far as my newly developing online classes go, I am not too worried. I am only enrolled in three courses this spring, for my final semester: one class is just to create our portfolio, one was already an online class, and another is being a writer for The Signal, the school’s online newspaper.

I know it will be a little challenging keeping up with the deadlines for our newspaper class, especially with all the distractions around me while working at home. I think that we will be able to manage in that class, though, because we have great leadership to guide us through these times of online learning.

So, although I started these quarantine times very anxious and panicked, I have become more at ease about the situation around us. Plus I’m pretty sure I’ve gained an extra 20 pounds from snacking all day, every day. Here’s to hoping this all ends very soon, with as little fatalities as possible for our dear country and world.

May 2, 2020

With this being my final semester as a college student, I was at first a bit sad to hear that all UHCL courses would be finishing out the semester completely online. 

Before spring break, I stepped foot on campus, saw my professors, and my school friends for the last time, without even realizing it.

Once I came to terms with the aspect of finishing the semester online, I began to worry about what it would be like. I only have three courses left in order to graduate: Media Production, Psychological Thinking, and Portfolio.

The Portfolio class is as simple as it sounds; basically you are just putting together a portfolio, which was originally due after spring break anyway. This class is a requirement to graduate as a communication major and helps students build their portfolio to give to future employers.

My Psychological Thinking class was also a smooth transition because it was already an online class. My only worry for the psychology class was that I would get behind because of all my other work. 

My professor for the class has been very understanding and has removed all due dates for the course, to let us finish assignments at our own pace. That only leaves my Media Production class, which is the one that I was mainly concerned about, because it was a little challenging for me, even when we had in-person classes. 

However, transitioning to strictly online for the Media Production class was not as difficult as I thought it would be. Our deadlines were moved around to give a little extra time, and it has helped tremendously.

The workload has not been as hard as I thought it would originally be, at least in my case. The only issue that I face is being home with my entire family while trying to do school work, and manage the stress of it all. 

Other than that, transitioning to remote classes has been rather easy for me. I am glad that I am a senior though, because I am worried colleges may have to continue this way into the fall 2020 semester. While it is a simple change to make right now, when we only had a couple of weeks left of school anyway, I could not imagine doing my entire semester this way with multiple classes.