By Katerina Barton
I am watching the terrifying spike of confirmed cases in New York just like everyone else across the nation. But I’m also a former Hays Free Press reporter, a stockholder in the company, and Kyle resident who is currently living in the zip code where it’s all going down.
It’s anxiety-inducing and bizarre to be in the epicenter of a pandemic. It’s like being in the eye of a storm – hard to see exactly what’s happening. Everyday life has slowly, but definitely, changed, and I’m just taking it day by day.
I’m in my fourth week of working from home and my third week of self-isolation in my apartment in Brooklyn. I normally commute to Manhattan several times a week, but I haven’t ridden the subway in more than three weeks. I’ve only left my house to go to my bodega around the block, my laundromat next to that, my grocery store 10 blocks away, and the park in my neighborhood for CDC-approved nightly walks. The only other people I’ve seen are my reluctant lock-ins: my two roommates. I wash my hands often, and then I wash them again.
In mid-March, we watched as the streets outside of our apartment emptied out, apart from the occasional dog walker, jogger, or stroller-parent. Shops rolled down their security gates and we were instructed to stand six feet apart in line at the grocery store. Toilet paper flew off the shelves, and Zoom became synonymous with virtual meetings and happy hours. This is our new reality.
The four weeks tend to blend together. What separates a weekday from a weekend? What do you do when your home is no longer an escape from work? My roommates and I decided that the kitchen table is for weekday work, the couch is for weekend work. Small things keep us content. My roommates and I take turns cooking for each other. We get takeout on the weekends. I de-stress with nightly walks through different parts of the park (while keeping my distance from others). I listen to my favorite podcasts. I work on puzzles and watch Netflix while my roommate finishes a book she’s been meaning to read forever. We deep-cleaned our apartment. We laugh at dumb memes and videos. A good diversion for everyone has been talking to friends and family. It’s nice to finally have time to catch up with friends I haven’t spoken to in months (and in some cases even years!).
Because of the self-isolation, it’s easy to be enveloped in the news and become overwhelmed and anxious. As a journalist, I have to stay up to date with the news, especially because everything seems like it’s changing by the hour. But it can also lead to burnout. I’ve started reading the news every morning and trying to stay away in the evenings. I take much-needed breaks on the weekends.
I started reporting on the new coronavirus in January and interviewed a BBC reporter who had been to the Hubei province where the virus first came about. There was no way I would have known that two months later I’d be experiencing some of the same chaos that I had been reporting on in China. Surreal is the only word I can think of.
There was a point when we hoped this would be temporary, only a two-week inconvenience. But we now know it could be much longer.
Last week, Governor Andrew Cuomo said that New York’s peak in cases is expected to come in 14 to 21 days. That means this could get a whole lot worse, and may last a whole lot longer.
It’s cathartic to complain about the disruption of my daily life. I was heart-broken to find out that my graduation for my master’s degree that I’ve been working toward for two years was canceled. But at the same time, I do realize that I’m one of the lucky and privileged in the city. I can’t even begin to imagine the loss that some people have already had to experience because the world just wasn’t prepared for this type of global emergency.
This virus means I have to stay inside, but other than that, my life hasn’t been all that affected. I have a comfortable apartment to quarantine in, I have plenty of food, and I take my classes at NYU through Zoom meetings. There are plenty of people in New York who still have to go out and face the invisible virus daily – at the takeout restaurants that are still open, at the hospitals and medical centers that are stretched to capacity, or at the many other jobs deemed essential by Cuomo.
I also still have both my part-time jobs, which is not the case for the 3.3 million Americans who filed for unemployment benefits last week – one of whom includes my roommate who was a pastry chef at a chocolate shop in Manhattan. And, due to my lack of medical skills, I’m just doing my part by staying home. I’m a healthy 20-something-year- old, which health officials have said means I can be a carrier of the virus without even knowing it.
As someone from the future (that is, a week ahead of Hays County in self-isolation) my only advice is to hunker down and stay home, and hope that this effort will help flatten the curve.
