Dublin Core
Title
My First Days: An Account by Christopher Perez
Subject
An account of my first day in quarantine during the pandemic.
Description
An account by graduate student Christopher Perez about the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Creator
Christopher Perez
Date
November 14, 2020
Contributor
Christopher Perez
Language
English
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
First Days: My Account
On March 11, 2020, the state of New Jersey declared a state of emergency and began initiating quarantine, effectively closing all schools, buildings and non-essential businesses. At this time, I was not doing much in my life. I had finished my undergraduate degree in December 2019 and was getting ready to apply to graduate school in the fall. During the beginning stages of the virus, I was working in a restaurant, saving money for school and for my monthly expenses. For weeks, analysts had been reporting that the virus was coming, but I hadn’t paid much attention to it. However, once quarantine started, everyone’s’ lives were impacted. When it came to my job, I was very fortunate to be one of the few workers still being called in. Most businesses were shut down in order to minimalize human contact. Some places, however, were deemed essential businesses, and allowed to stay open. The restaurant where I worked at was one such place because it also specialized in carry out. When quarantine hit, only around 25 percent of the staff stayed on; the rest were not called back to work. Now, most of them were younger workers, so it makes sense to have them stay home, but I was pretty surprised that I was still called it. Procedures were put in place to help prevent the spread of COVID, such as shutting down the dining room and having a limited amount of people in the building. Even still, I was pretty nervous going to work because I always felt in the back of my mind that I was at risk.
The other notable event I can remember in the first days of COVID is my birthday. I was born on March 23rd, less than two weeks after COVID was declared a pandemic. I was planning to do what I always do on my birthday: go out to dinner with my family to my favorite restaurant. Unfortunately, COVID completely put an end to these plans. Not only were most restaurants closed down, but my mother was also especially worried about our state of health. She made sure nobody left the house unless absolutely necessary and had a bottle of bleach for disinfecting whenever somebody came back. As such, my birthday was primarily spent indoors. We did celebrate it, however; my mother cooked dinner and we all spent our time in our big backyard, relaxing and speculating of things to come. I figured that by the time my sisters’ birthdays came around in the fall, we’d be back normal. Six months later, our situation unfortunately hasn’t changed.
On March 11, 2020, the state of New Jersey declared a state of emergency and began initiating quarantine, effectively closing all schools, buildings and non-essential businesses. At this time, I was not doing much in my life. I had finished my undergraduate degree in December 2019 and was getting ready to apply to graduate school in the fall. During the beginning stages of the virus, I was working in a restaurant, saving money for school and for my monthly expenses. For weeks, analysts had been reporting that the virus was coming, but I hadn’t paid much attention to it. However, once quarantine started, everyone’s’ lives were impacted. When it came to my job, I was very fortunate to be one of the few workers still being called in. Most businesses were shut down in order to minimalize human contact. Some places, however, were deemed essential businesses, and allowed to stay open. The restaurant where I worked at was one such place because it also specialized in carry out. When quarantine hit, only around 25 percent of the staff stayed on; the rest were not called back to work. Now, most of them were younger workers, so it makes sense to have them stay home, but I was pretty surprised that I was still called it. Procedures were put in place to help prevent the spread of COVID, such as shutting down the dining room and having a limited amount of people in the building. Even still, I was pretty nervous going to work because I always felt in the back of my mind that I was at risk.
The other notable event I can remember in the first days of COVID is my birthday. I was born on March 23rd, less than two weeks after COVID was declared a pandemic. I was planning to do what I always do on my birthday: go out to dinner with my family to my favorite restaurant. Unfortunately, COVID completely put an end to these plans. Not only were most restaurants closed down, but my mother was also especially worried about our state of health. She made sure nobody left the house unless absolutely necessary and had a bottle of bleach for disinfecting whenever somebody came back. As such, my birthday was primarily spent indoors. We did celebrate it, however; my mother cooked dinner and we all spent our time in our big backyard, relaxing and speculating of things to come. I figured that by the time my sisters’ birthdays came around in the fall, we’d be back normal. Six months later, our situation unfortunately hasn’t changed.