This Year For My Birthday, I Got COVID-19
Written by: 2nd Year Medical Science
Photo by: francescosgura on Adobe Stock
Opening the Ontario public health website and entering in my health card number to see “Positive (COVID-19 RNA Test)” in red bold letters was something I never foreshadowed. This year for my birthday, I got COVID-19 without even leaving my house. Sitting at home opening Instagram stories of people not practicing social distancing from my house did me no good because, in the end, I was the one who got stuck with the virus, despite following all protocols.
My mom was showing symptoms such as feeling drowsy and having a dry cough. When she told me she thought she has COVID-19, I told her she was just overthinking and there was no way she could have gotten it. Turns out, the overthinking morphed into a reality when her test came out positive and a few days later, so did mine. I was shocked because the only time she left the house was to go to the grocery store. My mom got all the symptoms of COVID-19 so severely that we had to take her to the emergency room twice while I barely felt anything. This just goes to show the COVID-19 has no barriers when it decides who to attack. It shows no mercy, even to those who take all precautions.
For this reason, I was ecstatic when I got fully vaccinated and saw others around me getting vaccinated so that eventually, no others will have to go to a hospital emergency room with their COVID-19 symptoms. I understand how important it is to follow social distancing protocols. For this reason, I wear my three-layer non-medical mask at all times on campus (unless I am at an eating area). I also do not host or attend large gatherings (as if I even know enough people here yet for that).
I am in my second undergraduate year so in my first year, I went to Western University without physically going to Western University. In the past week, I finally got to experience confusion during my lectures at full speed without the option of pausing and rewinding to clear my doubts (I forgot you can’t pause and replay people’s dialogue in real life for a second). I am glad to be on campus and see all the online friends I made in my first year, in real life. I thought I would never run into my handful of online friends in this plethora of students rushing around, but I ironically ran into them all (all being 3 people), without even planning it and I am currently sitting next to one of them while writing this (she says hi!). I’ll never forget the feeling of intensely staring at someone’s eyes and questioning whether they are who I think they are and both of us just standing there with the “Are you who I think you are or do I have the wrong person?” thought running through our minds.
Hopefully, in the near future, I’ll never have that experience again because I’ll be able to meet all my friends in real life. I’m sure if everyone gets vaccinated and wears facial coverings in public until this happens, we can return to real-life friendships very soon!
Check out similar blogs:
Why I'm Getting Vaccinated...
Read to learn about the reasons why Western students are getting vaccinated.
Reflections on The COVID-19 Pandemic
Western students reflect on the importance of following health protocols during COVID-19.
Doing My Part
After a year of online learning, Johann is doing his part to preserve this semi-normal school year.
Published on
