The flight back to Iola, Kansas after Christmas break took more than five hours. It was probably this timeframe in which I contracted most recent variant of Covid, the Omicron variant. Nearly five days after I got back to my dormitory, on the evening of Saturday, January 22, 2022, my body started fighting the war against symptoms like migraines, high fevers, cold sweats, nasal congestion, dry cough, and difficulty breathing.

For nearly a week, I was quarantined in my dorm room without being allowed to go out for the health and safety of the other students that study and live on this beautiful campus. However, the hardest part about being quarantined is not the fact that you are stuck in your dorm room. It’s the fact that I wasn’t allowed to go outside and enjoy the fresh, cold air of wintery Kansas!

Although I share a restroom with two teammates from my soccer team, we took preventive measures to prevent them from getting infected by this contagious disease. We used cleaning agents such as Lysol and disinfecting wipes to make sure that for every time I used the restroom, it would be ready for use again without them having to worry about getting ill.

Like every other human being in this world, food is still a necessity to stay strong and healthy. However, appetite was really changed during this time due to possible dehydration with the fevers. Staying hydrated during this time was key for me to recover into a better state. I want to give thanks to Allen’s amazing cafeteria staff for providing meals for me during this harsh time that I passed through.

Over the counter medicine was probably my best friend during this time. Items like Ibuprofen and Tylenol alleviated many of my symptoms quite well. Pharmaceuticals were great in my experience because, during the first few days, the headaches and the shivering from being so cold would keep me up at night and keep me from getting much needed rest. The medicine really made things better, as they let me suppress these symptoms and rest for more hours.

Most affected was my social life, such as not being able to attend in-person classes like everyone else or to hang out with friends. Luckily, my school work was still there, and it needed to be completed to stay on schedule for all my classes. Adversely, missing soccer practice really was inconvenient because, even with only missing one day, an athlete really gets out of shape.

After I finally tested negative again, there was a sensational relief because I could go back to my normal activities, and although my covid experience might be similar to those of many people, I really now understand how this virus really impacts a person’s life. We need to take care of ourselves and each other in order to keep our Iola community healthy!