A short explanation of my COVID-19 experience. It ended up not being as scary as I thought it’d be.

By JARA REEDER, Photo Editor

I was never worried about the coronavirus until the day I heard those three little words on the other side of the phone.

It all started Oct. 30 when I got a call from a coworker saying she tested positive for the virus. That night before we all hung out after work, she seemed to be looking normal showed no sign of symptoms.

I found out that Friday afternoon after I went to all my classes.
After I found out of my exposure I called the hospital to figure out my next step. I had to quarantine for five days than go in and get the test. Called into work and told them the situation and that was that.

The five days were nothing, catch up of schoolwork, cleaned my apartment. I had no symptoms, I really thought I was going to be fine.

Then early in the morning Nov 3 I went to the hospital to get tested. And I was terrified of the test more than anything.

Everyone I talked to told me about this one nurse who has blonde hair and was short. According to them, she is not who you want she will shove it up your nose and it hurts.

That was fear of pain was circling over and over in my head till my name was called and immediately I saw a short woman with long brown hair and thought that was the greatest moment in my day. She was gentle, the test was over in five seconds, just made my nose tickle.

I got my results within 45 minutes, my heart raced and just skipped a beat when I heard him on the other end say, “you tested positive for Covid-19.” I think I was in shock or something and said, “I am?” I didn’t want to believe it I felt like normal.

But after that he read off my quarantine guidelines and said after my 14 days were up, I was considered cured unless I was still having any symptoms.

Quarantine was long for sure there were a few days I felt very weak and I had some congestion but no running nose just clogged feeling,
I did lose my taste and smell for about four days and I got it back but weaken.

During quarantine my friends made sure I didn’t go insane. They got me groceries, food sometimes and would sit outside my window and have conversions.

And the last few days of my quarantine they found a way to get me involved in a game while social distancing: Car Tag, a game where one person in a car goes and hides while the rest of us in our own cars goes and tries to find them around town the only communication between the person hiding and the rest looking is emojis.

Overall, the coronavirus was not like they say it is on social media and quarantine didn’t drive me to insanity thanks to great people.