BY NOLAN KROHA / VN STAFF WRITER
When the pandemic hit the United States in March 2020, life as we knew it became a surreal experience. The uncertainty of the virus caused us to huddle in our homes and stay glued to the television, waiting for news telling us that it was okay.
That was the experience my family had gone through in the very beginning.
But as restrictions eased and life gradually returned to some sort of normalcy, the threat of the virus seemed somehow lessened by our following the earlier strict lockdown.
Still, we weren’t naïve enough to stupidly abandon the masks.
My sister, a student at Madonna University, went back to school. She lived in an apartment close to campus.
Everything was going smoothly as she helped manage her school’s track team – until one of the members was exposed to Covid-19 without realizing it.
Unintentionally, the athlete exposed the whole team, including my sister, to the virus.
At first, my sister tested negative. But when her roommate, who was also on the track team, contracted the virus, she got tested again and was positive.
I know that some friends at Detroit Mercy have suffered greatly from the virus with themselves being infected or family members becoming sick from it.
I had been aware that it could happen to anyone, including my family, but I just tried to bury my head in the sand and ignore that fact. I can’t do that anymore.
The bizarre nature of this hit once again when my sister came home.
She has been locked away in her room for her quarantine and I haven’t seen her since she returned.
With her being at home, I now have been exposed, too.
At one point, the outside world was dangerous with infection and our homes were sanctuaries where we didn’t have to worry about the virus.
What happens when your home is no longer a sanctuary?
I have to wear a mask inside my own house.
We have to rely on my grandparents to bring us groceries since we don’t want to risk other people’s health by going to the store ourselves.
Thanksgiving was cancelled, though this was something we might’ve done anyway. My family of five would’ve celebrated just by ourselves, but now we can’t even come together as an immediate family.
The pandemic has affected all of us who attend Detroit Mercy.
Some of us may have experienced this early in the pandemic while others, like me, are experiencing this right around the holidays.
With the pandemic continuing with no end in sight and now overlapping with the holiday season, I think that the best thing we can do is to simply take precautions and try to stay safe.
