My experience during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has been interesting.

I have been staying with my family in San Marcos, Calif. The weather is lovely here, but the time difference has been a bit of a hassle for classes and assignments. I have been trying to adjust to now having to wake up at 6:00 am for my 9:25 am classes. I have not been enjoying that at all. I also am bummed out that we no longer have spring football practice. I was looking forward to being able to play football with my teammates and prepare for the 2020 football season. I am not sure what will happen. I hope that we still have a football season this year, but only time will tell.

Other than social distancing I really have not been doing much. I am grateful that I have a gym and pool in my apartment complex to help keep me entertained. I wake up, do schoolwork, workout, eat throughout the day, and sleep. My days now are very simple, and I feel like everything is getting repetitive. The Zoom calls are not much fun. I kind of miss going to class and being able to interact with people. I miss all of my friends at school, and I hope that I’ll be able to see them again after this. I miss my teammates and being able to joke around with them at football practice.

During this time, I have been able to do a lot of thinking and self-reflecting. I have started to read more, and I have also switched my diet up so that I am eating healthier. During this time, it is very important to eat well, and I make sure that I fuel my body with healthy foods so that I have a strong immune system. Eating healthy, working out, and drinking water should help me stay healthy. At this point who knows though. You hear a different rumor or story about COVID-19 every day. I just try to stay out of the mix and focus on becoming a better person. I am searching for ways to come out of this pandemic on top. A lot of people will slack off during this period. I only have intentions of coming out on top and being a better me.

I have been learning new things to cook during the quarantine. I was not big on cooking, but since it is just me and my cousin in our home, we have no choice. I enjoy cooking now actually and learning new ways to cook different things. I don’t really like paying attention to the news and there is so much misinformation out there. I just have been distancing myself from others and making sure that I am staying sanitized and healthy. Everyone should stay home so that we can finish this as quickly as possible. It, of course, is not realistic for everyone to stay home, but at least try to keep leaving the house to a minimum. You can order groceries from home. Other than food everything is closed … so what are you really leaving the house for?

There really is missing an ending. Conclude the piece, which is your life during the quarantine, in a few sentences, would make this complete.

Mekhi Henderson, ’23, is a marketing major at the University of New Haven from San Macos, California. He is also a member of the football team. He is from San Marcos, California. This piece is part of the “Caught in the Pandemic” project in collaboration with the Principles of Communication course taught by Health Administration and Policy Professor, Alvin Tran, ScD, MPH.