My COVID-19 Experience

When Hofstra University cancelled a week of classes due to the potential exposure to COVID-19 of a student, I had two weeks off. This is because our spring break was scheduled to be the following week, beginning with Monday, March 16. So after one of my more relaxing weeks of college, I went home for about five days. 

During this time, I tried to figure out what my plan moving forward would be. New information about COVID-19 was coming out daily, hourly even, and I needed to figure out where I was going to stay. I live in the northern part of New Jersey, so I got to choose whether I wanted to hunker down in the Garden State or in the house I rent on Long Island. Ultimately, I decided to pack some things and head back to Long Island. My thinking was that it would be easier to focus on schoolwork without having to worry about familial situations. I knew I would not be alone because four of my six housemates have also been staying at what is their fraternity house. My decision was also tinged with economic anxiety, as I did not like the idea of paying rent for most of March, April, May and June without living in the house. 

The house where I live while attending classes at Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY. Photo by Tommy Aquilina 

Another reason I chose to stay at a fraternity house over my own is because being cooped up with my family can be somewhat stressful. My family moved into a new house in September and adopted a dog in December, and the adjustments have taken some time to get used to. I didn’t want to deal with the added stress of family life. I’ve been in touch with my little sister, mother and other members of my family during the quarantine. 

While I have my four friends here, I have also used this time to reach out to old friends that I hadn’t seen or spoken to in awhile. This has proven to be one of the most rewarding parts of this hectic time for me. Memories are what so many people are clinging to in order to get through quarantine, and it has been fun to go back down memory lane with some of my friends from my first year of college (I’m a junior now) and middle school. Life has taken me in directions that are different from many of my friends, but I understand that it is no one’s fault that this happened. I still hope to see my older friends doing well in life in the future. 

Bettering myself has not been such a big theme for me during quarantine, as I don’t usually like to add to stressful situations by playing mind games with myself. However, I have had to formulate a routine now that Hofstra’s gym is closed. Out of the five of us staying at our Hempstead house, four of us have turned to home workouts to stay in shape. I ran while I was in New Jersey, but I’ve preferred using the equipment we had lying around on Long Island. 

One thing we have all struggled with is motivation. As the weeks have gone by, morale has slipped at our house. Our families are worried, we have had our concerns because of the number of cases in New York and there are few sports to watch and take our minds off things. Adding schoolwork to all of that has introduced another level of stress, especially because we had no work for the first two weeks that we were out of class. However, assignments in certain classes did serve as a bit of an escape from the world around us, even if many of those assignments were impacted by the quarantine. My house as a whole has been pretty good about giving everyone the space they need to get their schoolwork done, even in a fairly small house.  

Robby Zacharias working on a homework assignment at our fraternity house during quarantine. Photo by Tommy Aquilina 

To further occupy my mind, I have picked up some of my older hobbies. These mostly include old baseball magazines I have, which serve to both get my mind off things and act as research for when I talk about sports professionally. This trick could come in handy now more than ever, as I will have to find new ways to communicate and get my voice out during quarantine. With the world seemingly so out of whack right now, all I can do is adjust and make situations work for me as well as I possibly can.