I got COVID.

There have been over 930 thousand COVID cases, and 15,083 deaths in Indiana alone. World wide there have been 219 million cases with 4.55 million deaths. This number is sicking. It's sicking to think that we have lost so many people due to this virus. A virus that causes a fever, chills, shortness of breath, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headaches, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion, runny nose, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea causes people to lose their life every day. Basic common cold symptoms kills. COVID 19. Something that I was really hoping not to get. Something that was on the back of my radar. Well.... my fears came true and I became one of those numbers of the active cases, I got COVID.

So, September 8th I was going to class as normal when I heard that one of the boys downstairs got tested and tested positive for COVID(He tested positive on Tuesday). Then I hadn't seen one of my roommates all day in the girls house because she hadn't been feeling well. She went and got tested that day and also tested positive for COVID. Preston, our campus minister decided to shut down the campus house so that the cases wouldn't spread to more of the students. I then got a phone call from a contract tracer for my school and said that I was supposed to quarantine until Friday, September 17th for being in close contact with my roommate. It turns out all of the residents in the campus house all got contact traced and were supposed to quarantine until the 17th. Sunday the 12th came around and I started to notice that I was developing symptoms. I had a cough, sore throat, and a stuffy nose. Monday morning came and I was eating some nachos when I noticed that I couldn't taste them or my sprite. I also lost my smell. I knew that I had most likely had COVID. So I went and got tested...

Sept. 13. The day I got a positive diagnosis. The day I cried in the parking lot of CCF. The day I felt as if my world was ending. After dealing with rude ladies at the clinic, I went back to CCF(where I am living) and I cried to Preston(my campus minister), he kept telling me that it was going to be okay and it was hard to really think that it was going to be okay because I just felt as if it wasn't one thing it was another. Then I called my mom and she kept saying that she wanted to know if my symptoms got worse, and I didn't want to hear that either being that I didn't want to die alone in the hospital like so many people have, and I also didn't want to think about being so ill that i'm bed ridden and not able to do anything. I only wanted to think about the positives. The positives being that I wasn't going to be that sick, my taste and smell would return right away, and I was going to be back to normal after the full 10 days had passed. After I called my mom my dad called, then my grandma called, then my great grandma called and just some other people checking in on me to make sure that I was okay. I used the same answer. I'm feeling okay, just mainly having cold symptoms. Mentally, I definitely wasn't doing okay but I don't let other people know that because I feel like I constantly have to be the strong one.

Days went by and my symptoms were just headache, congestion, stuffy nose, loss of taste and smell, sore throat, and tiredness. I laid in bed wishing that I could be in class, hanging out with my friends, and just doing my day to day activity, because I don't know how to act feeling like I can't do anything, and just being in a room by myself. I felt isolated. I felt like I had the plague because every time one of my roommates(the only one who didn't have COVID in the girls house) would have to walk by, I would have to step back and I would have to just be far away from her as possible. Then one of the guys told me to go back into my room and that he was going to put a cross in the frame of my door to keep the plague out, and then another one of the guys walked far away from the door when I had came to answer it because he was looking for someone. The other residents all got out the 17th and I was the only one left in quarantine. I see them outside with each other, I had to miss CCF events, I had to miss class, I had to sit 6 feet away from my roommates when we eat dinner together, I see my roommates going places without me, I am in my room with the door shut most of the time because that's the only place that I can go. I have never felt more alone, isolated, and upset more in my life than I did having to quarantine longer than everyone else. Someone told me that I could look at it that I was getting the opportunity to "rest" and "do things that I normally wouldn't have time to do because I am so busy". I tried to look at it that way but I couldn't bring myself to accept the fact that everyone else is out there with each other and i'm locked up in my room like Rapunzel was locked in the tower feeling forgotten about, and feeling isolated.

Around day 9, I started to feel a lot better. My symptoms went away and my taste and smell were starting to slowly come back. I got out of quarantine September 23rd and went to class the next morning. I had a test that morning and I failed it. On Monday the 27th I started work. I went to other classes and felt lost, and I failed another test. It sucked to feel so lost... and now that it is October 2nd I still feel extremely lost. This truly pushed me back super far.

To be completely 100% I hope that this never happens again. I hated everything about it but I am super glad that I lived. I'm glad that I didn't get super sick. I'm glad that I am back to being on campus and back to being outside. I wanted to thank my support here at Vincennes for getting me the things that I needed when I was sick, and just for always praying for me and thinking of me. I also wanted to thank my other family back at home for thinking of me and calling to check in on me.

Love, Kayleah Allen