What Is Quarantine Like?

By: Liam W. Cooney | Staff Writer

When I began outlining this article, it was with the idea that all the information and interview sources that I would look to pull from would be solely from my roommate, fellow freshman Cameron Stein. Cam had been in quarantine on two separate occasions, within a one month time frame at the beginning of the semester. His first time in quarantine, very early in the semester, he was placed in the Homewood Suites hotel to isolate. On the second occasion, at least he was at home in Massachusetts, a familiar environment and setting. He told me spending the time at home was much better than the hotel, because he could eat and drink what he wanted, he could easily get some fresh air, and he could workout in his home gym, which helped him “release some of the stress that he felt from being in quarantine in the first place.” You can only imagine the test of courage and strength this all was, being in quarantine for more than twenty days, within a month and a half time frame.

“It was a huge mental challenge,” he told me. “Your friends, sports, spending time making memories, it really is the little things you miss the most when your freedom is taken away from you.” With him dealing with such poor luck, I was kind of inspired to write something about this mysterious thing that we call “quarantine,” a word or term that has become so familiar as of late, but something only some of us had actually experienced. Better yet, I knew I would have a reliable source to pull my information from, and get a good idea of what quarantine is truly like. 

Well, if you’re looking for a good piece of irony to perhaps spice up your day, I have now been in quarantine for the past week. I am scheduled to be released from this isolation Thursday, March 18th, and by the time you read this article I will already have been set free. Aside from the fact that every ounce of work I did for this article prior to this had gone to waste, since I based my outline solely around Cam and his experiences, essentially a blown up one on one interview, I have now dealt with what my roommate and many others have had to deal with this school year. The mysterious, confusing, mystifying, dreaded, infamous, and terrifying idea that is “quarantine.”

I guess this can just go to show how this school year, and this era of COVID-19 can throw the most outrageous curveballs at you. Like when you’re writing an article about quarantine, and then you get placed into it…

So, as for what quarantine is like… Quarantine is everything you probably picture it to be, and much more…

Food

When I opened up my door whenever I got that delivery knock mid-afternoon each day, I felt like I was some sort of mutated creature, creaking open its cage to swipe into the hallway and grab my food.

Ah yes quarantine food! Every morning one of the first things I would do in quarantine was respond to the email I received about what I wanted to eat for the day. Breakfast was by far the most plentiful meal of the day in terms of options: Cocoa Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Frosted Flakes, a cup of fruit, and some milk… oh boy, that’s just loaded with protein. Some of the other options for lunch and dinner were meals like pasta and meatballs, meat/veggie lasagna, chicken and rice, mac and cheese, turkey and Italian subs, and a few types of basic salads. Nothing too exciting, but I experimented with what I liked best. I found myself ordering multiple chicken meals, since you only received one medium sized piece of chicken breast in each order, which left me quite hungry the first night I ordered food. When I opened up my door whenever I got that delivery knock mid-afternoon each day, I felt like I was some sort of mutated creature, creaking open its cage to swipe into the hallway and grab my food. Like something you would see in a sci-fi movie, as I make a strange cat like noise and snatch the large paper bag.

Classes

I often found myself pulling up another tab and working on other homework, feeling in that sense I was being ultra-productive, while essentially missing a class in the same breath.

Classes weren’t all that different: everyone has been splitting time between the remote/in-person model this academic year. The only difference, of course, was being solely remote for this time period, even if the class was happening just across the street. I’ve always been a fan of in-person learning, as I feel many other students are. Too often I find it a real challenge to keep my focus and really be engaged when I’m staring at a computer screen for an hour plus… especially when, for one class, you’ve told your professor you really can’t hear what she is saying, but the sound issue doesn’t get fixed, even when you are assured it will be. I often found myself pulling up another tab and working on other homework, feeling in that sense I was being ultra-productive, while essentially missing a class in the same breath.

Exercise

Most mornings, I head to the gym at 6AM or 7AM. (you might think I am crazy – maybe I am – but it’s part of my routine and I thoroughly enjoy it.) Needless to say, this wasn’t exactly possible when quarantined.

For people like myself, who have so much natural energy and just need to find a way to expend it, this was certainly one of the most effective aspects of quarantine. Whether its running, lifting, or actually playing my sport, lacrosse, I need to feel tired from my exercise by the end of the day. Most mornings, I head to the gym at 6AM or 7AM. (you might think I am crazy – maybe I am – but it’s part of my routine and I thoroughly enjoy it.) Needless to say, this wasn’t exactly possible when quarantined. Nor was I able to practice with the lacrosse team for over an entire week. So, I found myself running a lot in the early mornings or late nights. In part because I figured that would be the smarter thing to do, instead of running with others walking through campus and around Newport, and partly because it made me feel like I was in a movie or something, taking a dramatic early morning run as the sun came up with motivational music playing. I’m not sure if I broke the rules here or not: I was, after all, told in my official quarantine email that I was allowed “the rare occasion” of fresh air, so I think I stayed within bounds here. This leads me into sleep, which was also one of the more frustrating parts of this whole experience.

Sleep

All the usual things that you do to burn energy doing throughout the day – even the little ones – I wasn’t doing, so I found myself having too much energy to fall asleep when I wanted to at night.

Like I mentioned above, typically the first thing I do every morning is wake up early, and get a lift in. Well, I found myself often still waking up at the early hour of 6AM, and then simply laying in bed, in the dead silence of campus, wishing I had the ability to lift a dumbbell or something. My body clock was really teasing me here: even if I tried to sleep until 8AM (sleeping in for me, at least), I would just wake up much earlier, unable to fall back asleep, one of the more irritating experiences. I also found myself not quite as tired at the end of the day, simply because I wasn’t doing as much throughout the day: I wasn’t going place to place, lifting, or even taking the exhilarating walk to get food at Miley. All the usual things that you do to burn energy doing throughout the day – even the little ones – I wasn’t doing, so I found myself having too much energy to fall asleep when I wanted to at night. Again, very tedious and frustrating, I had plenty of time to catch up on some sleep, but found it difficult to do so.

Social Life

From my perspective, I can only imagine how much more difficult it would have been if I had nobody to speak to, nobody to look at, nobody to laugh with, and nobody to microwave and eat my delicious quarantine meals with.

This may come as somewhat of a surprise, but my social life during quarantine really didn’t change. I’m sure you just read that and said, “Wow, this guy is a loser,” but just hear me out. I’ve written articles in the past about how this year has been so challenging for so many of us in a number of ways, one of those ways being the freshman class’ inability to really get to know people with all the COVID protocols that have been in place. Well, this entire year, I have spent a lot of my free time with a group of four other friends, all on the men’s lacrosse team. My roommate Cam, like I mentioned, has already been in quarantine, and has already recently recovered from COVID, so I was “no threat to him,” the bearer of bad news from Health Services told me on the phone when this all began. Three of our other friends, who live just downstairs, were also in quarantine, so we kind of spent our quarantines together. I know for a fact this made the whole experience so much easier, having someone, anyone, to spend this time with. From my perspective, I can only imagine how much more difficult it would have been if I had nobody to speak to, nobody to look at, nobody to laugh with, and nobody to microwave and eat my delicious quarantine meals with.

Mental Health

Having extra time is of course a plus, until you have so much free time that it reaches the point of boredom, a decreased level of productivity, loss of motivation, and feeling of disengagement with the outside world.

As you may imagine, this aspect of quarantine is perhaps the most fluctuating and crucial. Mental health this year for so many has been such a roller coaster and I am no exception there. The year in general has simply presented so many challenges and quite frankly, let downs. So, being locked in a box is not exactly going to boost your mental health or outlook on the big picture. A big part of my quarantine experience was all the extra time I had, being suddenly forced to attend classes fully remotely and stop all forms of extracurricular activities. Having extra time is of course a plus, until you have so much free time that it reaches the point of boredom, a decreased level of productivity, loss of motivation, and feeling of disengagement with the outside world. I found myself having so little to do, that I became frustrated, mad at myself, and disengaged from what was going on in the world around me. I had so much of nothing to do that I began to think negatively, and I think this is true for a lot of people. When you are constantly busy and having something to do, you feel a sense of a purpose for yourself. When that is so suddenly all taken away from you, and you’re told to sit in a room for over a week, you lose that sense of purpose, and begin to think “how did I get here again?” and “what am I doing with myself?”

So as you may imagine, being in quarantine is no fun. It takes away your sense of purpose, your motivation, your ability to eat what you want, and exercise as you want. It felt prison-like, with the “rare occasion” of fresh air and meals delivered to me every afternoon. For those who have been in quarantine/isolation I’m sure you can relate to this article, and for those who have not been, I’m sure this article scares you. I’ve been scared of quarantine this entire semester, seeing it as some overshadowing mystery like far away land that I just wanted to duck and dodge my way past, hoping I never got that fearsome email or call.

For those who are currently in quarantine, I hope you are doing the best you can in such a difficult setting. I pray you’re doing well mentally and emotionally and ask you to laugh at yourself once in a while, while you can. I always found it funny how every day I was delivered a bag of chips, or something random that I didn’t ask for in my daily meal delivery, that was my comedy for the week – and yeah, I guess that helped keep my spirits up. (Yes, that’s how lame it is.) If you have yet to be in quarantine, I hope you won’t have to be. Use common sense and wear your mask, and do what you can to protect yourself. Quarantine was a mystery to me and still is to so many. Just hope you’re not one of the next lucky few who gets a chance to experience everything quarantine has to offer!

Cover Image:

“alone in the dark” by miss vichan is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0