On December 4, 2020, I tested positive for Covid-19. I was the first documented case in the high school, causing our school to start remote learning. You may think the worst effects of Covid-19 are the symptoms, but the emotional effects are just as bad.

December 3: I woke up for school with a pounding headache. I asked my mother if I could stay home from school. Staying home was a good decision, because later that morning we found out that my family were close contacts. Since I wasn’t feeling well, my mom and I decided to get tested for the coronavirus. 

December 4: When I woke up this morning, I could tell my symptoms had worsened. I woke up pretty late because I was exhausted. My mother came to my room to inform me that she was negative, but I was positive. I did not feel very good at all. The symptoms this day were a headache, nausea, and congestion. My body ached and I did not really get out of bed at all. 

December 5+6: These days were definitely the worst of my symptoms. I had absolutely no energy, and I practically stayed in bed all day. I would get out of breath really easily. My chest felt very strange, kind of tight and heavy.

December 7: Finally my symptoms started to get better. I only felt slight congestion. Although, I still had almost no energy. I did lose my appetite, but one of the only things that was giving me energy was food. So, I basically forced myself to eat plenty of food, even when I was not hungry. 

December 8: On this day, I could tell my symptoms were pretty much gone. I guess taking tons of medicine paid off. I was just left with mild congestion and getting out of breath easily. On the other hand, I felt like I needed to accomplish something. Staying in your room for four days sounds nice, but really it gets quite boring. I had enough energy to clean my room, which felt nice. 

December 9: My symptoms were basically the same as the previous day. The only difference was my loss of taste and smell. I discovered this when I went to go take a drink of Gatorade, and it tasted like water. I then went to smell a strong candle, and I could not smell it. This was quite annoying because none of my meals have had flavor since this event. 

I had the same symptoms from the 9th for around two more days. After that, I felt completely normal again. No congestion, headache, or nausea. My sense of taste and smell, however, are still gone. It is currently December 15, and I don’t expect to get my sense of taste or smell back anytime soon. 

When I first found out that I was positive, I didn’t know what to feel.

I felt bad that because of me, classmates and friends had to be labeled as close contacts and be asked to quarantine. I know what it did to my family, and I hated thinking how it added fear and new and unknown circumstances for so many. People can be cruel. Many will say how I contracted this virus, but the truth is I may never know. There are many negative platforms on social media that I needed to start avoiding. It was awful to see people, who were not knowledgeable of the situation, comment their brutal opinions and criticisms of it. I was lucky to have great friends and family to help my family out. It was very nice to have received tons of baked goods, necessities, and genuine people reaching out to offer help.

Looking back on my experience, I learned that things can happen really quickly, and you can’t control them. I have also learned to be thankful and not take things for granted.