A few weeks ago, I woke up on a Sunday morning just feeling kind of icky. I figured I just had allergies, so I went on about my day. In hind sight, I probably should have just stayed home, but I went and had lunch with my family and then I drove back to school and hung out with my room mates for a few hours before I went to bed.

The next day I woke up feeling worse, more like I had a sinus infection. I emailed my professors and told them I wouldn't be attending in-personal classes that day and I got up to make some breakfast. This is when I noticed something wasn't right. When I tell you I couldn't taste ANYTHING, I mean it. My smell didn't go away until the next day, but my taste was completely gone.

I got in contact with our health and wellness center and the COVID hotline set up for my school, and they weren't messing around. Even though I hadn't been tested yet, they decided to put me in quarantine. They asked me if I wanted to go home or stay near campus, and because I am naive and thought I just had a sinus infection, I decided to stay near campus. By Monday night, I was in a motel room about a mile from my school.

I went and got tested on Tuesday morning and then went back to the motel, where I stayed for the next week and a half because my test did come back positive.

The school and the motel were both very helpful in the two weeks I was in quarantine. I got a call almost every day asking if there was anything I needed or if I had any questions. Everyone was very nice and really just wanted to help make everyone as comfortable as they could since we were all in quarantine and away from our families.

Speaking of being away from family, that was probably the hardest part of the whole thing. I already get really homesick, and knowing I couldn't see my family at all for two weeks was really hard, but I got to call them all the time, so it was manageable.

They brought me SO much food while I was in the motel. The motel and the school would both bring me breakfast in the morning, and they the school would bring me lunch and dinner, but they tended to give me two options for each meal, so I had a massive amount of food, more than I would have every been able to eat. They were definitely watching out for me.

My teachers were also extremely helpful during this time. Almost all of them had a way for me to Zoom into classes, and all of my assignments were given to me online so that I could work on them while I was in the motel. I'm ashamed to say that my motivation to work was only there about half the time, though. Some days I'd wake up and get tons of work done, and some days I literally laid in bed and binged Gossip Girl for twelve hours straight. I can't even blame the lack of motivation on not feeling good, I mean, I didn't feel great, but I definitely could still be doing work. A lot of my motivation, or lack thereof, had to do with how I was feeling that day. Being locked in a room by yourself for fourteen days can really mess with your mood.

Thankfully I'm out of quarantine now and completely healthy, and the best part is that none of my family or my room mates ever got the virus, thank God. Overall, it wasn't the worst thing that could have happened, but I'm definitely glad it's over.

I just want to give some advice for if you have to quarantine. The first thing is drink lots of water and use Vicks. I may not have been able to smell it, but I honestly think it cleared a lot of my congestion up and maybe helped my smell and taste to come back a little quicker. A second piece of advice I have is to wake up in the morning and open your blinds. Most of the days that I just laid in bed and was just kind of sad, I never opened up my blinds or turned on any lights. I think the sunlight makes you feel a lot better. The last thing is just to take care of yourself. I got to just take some time for myself and take a long bath or read a good book while I was in quarantine, and while I didn't really enjoy being by myself, the break was really nice, and it gave me a little bit of time just to focus on me.

Try your best to stay healthy, and to keep others healthy, but know that it will be okay if you have to quarantine too. If I got through it, you can too!