Starting off the new year is all about becoming a better version of yourself, getting into better habits or making new friends. My year started by testing positive for COVID-19. 

Since the start of the pandemic, I knew it was going to happen eventually, but I never knew when it was going to kick me in the butt. When I was a part of the softball team here at Simpson, I always had to get tested as part of protocol, and every time I tested negative. 

I felt like a superhero for not testing positive for almost three years straight. Then Jan. 16 came around, and I started to have symptoms. My ego instantly deflated. 

I got tested, as one should when having symptoms, and the test came back positive. My college life turned into “quarantine life,” which resulted in quarantining on campus, living in a room all by myself and doing my classes all online. 

I walked into my quarantine room and saw blank walls, empty rooms and none of my friends. It honestly felt like a jail cell being in there.  

I got meals twice a day from the college, and half the time I did not eat any of it. My symptoms were so bad that I barely wanted to eat or drink anything. The times I was hungry, the food was not exactly what I wanted. I do appreciate everything the college did to get me meals every day, but I am also a very picky eater, which just resulted in me not eating. 

Every time I went to fall asleep or lay down, all I could hear was the people above me. Since my quarantine room was in the basement, I could hear almost every conversation and step, and I even knew when people were using the bathroom or showering.  

Being by myself in a room was the worst of the whole experience. I am the type of person that is always around someone since I get lonely very quickly. There were a lot of FaceTime calls with friends, but when they wouldn’t pick up, I would talk to myself just for entertainment. That’s how awful it was being by myself. 

The only good part about being in quarantine was binge-watching Encanto on Disney+ and Jumanji: The Next Level on Simpson CAB Movies. I am not sure entirely why, but it made my time in quarantine a lot more bearable.

Overall, I just saw quarantine as a place of loneliness and boredom, especially with being on campus. If you are ever in this situation, I would try to stay at home to quarantine since you will have family around and get to do things in a space you already know, rather than in the basement of an apartment building.

Quarantine as a whole, no matter where you do it, is going to suck. But if you are like me and don’t like being alone, I would highly recommend finding a better outlet than staying on campus.