Keeping a College Town Safe During a Global Pandemic.
Packaged by: Dillon Cader
For a small college town facing a pandemic, safety is the first priority. When school is in session, City officials must mandate strict rules and regulations in order to keep the community safe for everyone.
I remember when the news first broke that the country was going into lockdown. Many people were very scared of what was going to happen. Nobody knew much about the disease and many were in fear of their safety as well as their family members’.
The pandemic was life changing for me. On March 12, 2020, it was announced that school would be closed for an indefinite amount of time and the country would be going into a lockdown.
I was on vacation with some of my friends in Destin, Florida. When we heard the news, we decided to pack up and head home. On the ride home I received a phone call that changed my life forever.
About an hour after I left Destin, my mom called me and told me the worst news I have ever heard. My dad went to the doctor that morning and was diagnosed with cancer. The news crushed me. In a single day my life had been turned completely upside down.
The six-hour car ride home felt like a 20 hour one. That was the worst day of my life. The entire time I worried that my father would catch the virus and die because the virus is known to affect cancer patients more than most other conditions.
After what seemed like days of travel, I finally arrived home. The scene and mood at home when I got there was the most heart-breaking thing I have ever witnessed. My family was shaken up bad. We knew we were in for the battle of our lives.
In order for my dad to beat the disease, he would have to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatment. This meant that coming into contact with the virus would most likely kill him.
This caused my family to go into full on quarantine, and I don’t mean the kind of halfway version quarantine that most of the country practiced at the time. My family stayed locked up for weeks. It was the only way to protect my dad.
My mom and my sister left the house only once every two weeks for groceries. That was it, I could not leave my house no matter what. There was a time during quarantine when I stayed inside my house for 23 days straight.
The worst part about the situation was that while we were locked up and trying our best to keep every germ away, my dad was going through intense sessions of chemo and radiation. He was beyond sick and it really hurt me to see him go through that.
I was there for every moment of it. Every time he was too weak to get up to go to the bathroom on his own, I was there. Every time he wanted to take a drive but couldn’t because going outside could potentially kill him, I was there.
Thankfully, after 6 of the toughest months my family has ever been through, my dad’s scans showed up clear. Despite having a life-threatening disease during the midst of a pandemic, he beat cancer. It was the best news I could have ever asked for.
The pandemic changed my life forever. Six months of what felt like never ending quarantining and worrying about my father’s life made me grow up a lot. What my family and I went through has left a lasting impact on my life. I will never forget what it was like to almost lose my father during one of the most difficult time in the history of our country.
