A Senior Semester of Inconvenience
As a senior set to graduate in May, my final semester was cut short after the Coronavirus outbreak of 2020.
The chaos started in the beginning of March, during Southern Methodist University’s spring break.
Eight friends and I packed into two mid-size cars for an anticipated 16-hour car ride up to Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
When we arrived almost a day later, everything changed.
Gas prices began to drop, restaurants started to close, and protective masks became a life necessity.
At the time, Coronavirus was known by most as a virus similar to influenza. I remember hearing the phrase “it’s just like the flu, but not as deadly.”
On the weekend of our escape to spring break, cities began to implement shelter-in-place restrictions, including Dallas. I was relieved to be out of Dallas and away from an 18-hour school schedule for at least a week, but then the realities of the world started to sink in.
Fifteen minutes after our arrival, every mountain-resort in Colorado shut down.
It felt like the world was ending.
Dramatic, yes. But no matter how drastic, change can throw off anyone, even college students with minimal responsibility or external worry.
As a 21-year-old with beloved parents backing my financial and living arrangements, a nationwide shutdown didn’t have any tragic impact on my life. Just a few minor inconveniences.
My spring break was cut short.
Classes were moved to Zoom.
All professional sports were canceled.
And I was forced to move back home to Austin with my family.
While the pandemic caused minor inconveniences for me, life could’ve been much worse.
Perspective
Before I understood the gravity of the global crisis, I spent a lot of time complaining.
I complained about getting moved to online classes, about being separated from my friends, and even about spending my free time finishing puzzles with my parents.
I looked to a family member for some perspective.
My oldest sister, Carly Chafizadeh, has worked as a registered nurse for over a year at Oschner Medical Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.
She spent the past year working in the surgical ICU, assisting with surgeries for critically ill patients.
When the pandemic began, Carly’s role as a nurse changed quickly.
Oschner became a hub for COVID-19 patients in Louisiana and Carly was caught in the middle of it.
The CDC reported 29,140 confirmed cases and 1,950 deaths in Louisiana since the viral outbreak in early March.
Although the U.S. has made progress in preventing the spread, there is still so much we don’t know about the Coronavirus.
Carly kindly hopped on a phone call with me to talk about her experiences in this new reality.
As states start to reopen small business and “normal” public life, this nurse urges everyone to continue wearing masks and practice safe social distancing.
Listen below for Carly’s account of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Action
After listening to my wise sister’s stories about her days at the hospital, I felt I owed some of my time to the world. Her inspirtation, and ultimately my desire for social interaction pushed me to find something productive to do.
Two weeks after spring break my Dad burst into my room, asking me to follow up on an email forwarded from the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia group at St. David’s Medical Center in Austin.
As a doctor with strong connections in the Austin medical world, my Dad was able to find me a volunteer position for Coronavirus research in less than a couple days.
I was ecstatic to have something to do. But as a journalism and sports management student, I was hesitant to try something new, especially in a field directly involved in COVID-19 testing.
Before making the journey to the hospital, I read everything I could on antibody testing and Coronavirus symptoms. My Dad also gave me a crash course on how the body produces antibodies when fighting an infection like the Flu or Coronavirus.
He drew up this cheat sheet for me so I wasn’t totally lost in the research process.
The main information that I took away from his long-winded lecture was that when a patient is infected with COVID-19, their body produces Immunoglobulin-M within the first 14 days of being infected. Once it has passed that 14 day mark, researchers can more easily test for Immunoglobulin-G.
While the testing process is much more complicated than a one sentence explanation, I felt a little more at ease to be able to talk about the virus with researchers and other volunteers.
As an untrained volunteer, I was not allowed to physically test any subjects for this research study, so most of the time I watched others administer nasal and blood tests from afar.
As I spent more time with the group, I started to take on different tasks. I would get into the hospital around 6 a.m., make my way to the electrophysiology lab, and prepare surveys and consent forms for a six-hour day of testing.
Most days we tested only hospital patients on their way into procedures, but the study also offered tests to front-line health care workers.
I’ve only spent around five days assisting this group of researchers, but I feel like I gained a broader perspective on our world as we know it.
So many health care workers and first responders risk their lives every day to help prevent the spread of the virus.
It hurt to have my senior year taken away, but the inconveniences I faced don’t allign with how others were affected by the global pandemic.
At first, the inconveniences prompted a narcissistic, “why me?”
But after gaining COVID-19 testing experience and hearing about my sister’s daily life, I better understand how lucky I am to have minor inconveniences.
