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PROJECT 2 DRAFT Chahat Sharma

PROJECT 2

Chahat Sharma

During the first week of march, my family and friends back home had informed me about a deadly virus which was spreading rapidly and told me that I need to take safety precautions on personal hygiene as it was only a matter of time before US had its first case because everyone was coming back from foreign countries after having a fun spring break. I kept going on with my normal life attending classes and going out with friends to the clubs and eating out at restaurants until March 11, 2020. I was getting ready for my morning classes as I had a quiz to revise for and suddenly, I received a text from Michigan State University stating Because of the first few cases of Coronavirus in Michigan being confirmed, MSU would be shifting to online learning and students are encouraged to return back to their place of permanent residency.

I was shocked when I found out about this news as in the previous days, I did not understand the seriousness of this virus and the dangers it has caused. I could never imagine having all my courses online during a regular semester and travel 11000 miles back home overnight but given the seriousness of the novel virus, I had to make spontaneous decisions. I started texting my friends as I was still in a moment of shock as this meant that I would have to pack all my belongings, move it to a storage unit, move out of my dorm and say goodbye to a lot of friends that I was still hoping to make more memories with and spend quality time with. Looking at the situation and the increased risks it had, I worked overnight communicating with my professors, academic advisors and OISS officials to ensure my departure from USA would not have an impact on my academics. It was definitely not the ending to Freshmen year that I was looking forward to.

Moving back to India was not easy because my friend drove for 6 hours early in the morning from Lansing to Chicago in order to catch my flight from the OHare airport and then spend another 20 hours on a flight wearing gloves, a T-95 protective face mask and constantly disinfecting my hands and surrounding for the entirety of the flight. Soon after landing at Delhi airport, my temperature and travel history were checked and then asked to self-quarantine for 14 days as a protective measure. Since I travelled back home, my life has changed completely. It took me a lot of time to adjust to the new lifestyle of working remotely to complete assignments and attend online lectures instead of in person. Attending classes on Zoom was definitely a huge change as it was much harder to focus on the lecture while having many distractions surrounding me; not forgetting the numerous technical difficulties. On the other hand, this was a new experience and I am really trying to educate and improvise myself and learning to embrace this new form of learning. Furthermore, this has also had an impact on the way I study, note-taking, completing homework and writing exams. This is because, all my professors uploaded the PowerPoint presentations of the live lectures and notes which sometimes demotivated me to attend the live lectures but still managed to keep myself composed till the end of the semester. Originally with the move to online classes, my main concern was the impact it would have on my grades but due to the new grading system which was implemented; where we can just count the credits for the class helped ease my tension.

The Indian government imposed a 24-hour lockdown on all non- essential workers for 2 months. For the whole of 2 months , I was locked in my house with very minimal physical activity which caused me to become sloppy and lazy throughout the day as this was a major change from the active lifestyle I had back in MSU.

With that being said, then I decided to engage myself in more physical activity per day by running on the outdoor track outside my house and complete outdoor cross fit circuits in my garden. This is because, during a regular day outside of this pandemic I would do a variety of things including playing tennis with my friends, going to the gym to workout and swimming to keep myself active and healthy. At this current stage, It has come down to a point where I am running and doing workouts alone with no friends by my side to support and motivate me. The unnecessary alone time has me overthinking about various things, but I try to keep myself on the positive side with the hopes that I would just be able to get back to a regular routine and be able to meet my friends and live a normal life again. Another change that the Coronavirus has brought to my daily life is having a lot of home cooked food. Before this pandemic the way I used to eat is completely different from the way I eat right now. Before the corona virus scare I would order a lot of food and go to many restaurants with my friends. Generally, I would go out to grab some of the best fast foods at the local restaurants but now it has changed. On the other hand, now I do not order food from outside at all even though the vendors say its contactless, I want to reduce the risk of contamination completely. Back in East Lansing, Fast Food and junk food would comprise a majority of the amount of food that I would eat in a week as it is something that I really enjoy having. I am happy and blessed that my mom is a really good chef, so I do not need to resort to ordering food from outside for the time being. Definitely, once the situation has mellowed down and people have started taking proper safety measures, I will be ordering my favorite meals. Since I have moved back this has caused my sleep schedule to completely change where I sleep during the day and study, do homework and work during the nights so I can match the US time zone as all my online lectures and quizzes are according to US time zone. Now I spend about 80% of my day in my room either just on my phone watching TikToks or sleeping. This has definitely been one of the biggest changes to my lifestyle because of the pandemic as normally I am a super social person where I surround myself with friends all the time but this situation has caused me to self-isolate myself.

This has definitely been very frustrating because I have never faced such a situation in my life before and staying away from all my friends and family defiantly plays a huge part in my small outburst of anger and frustration.No one expected this pandemic to reach the level that it has reached today where there are over 3.1 million confirmed cases and with around one fourth of the world being under strict lockdown or stay at home order. This virus has not only affected a lot of peoples daily routines but has also affected livelihood of many because almost all universities have been forced to shut down, business forced to close down and suffer a huge loss and the economy has taken one of the biggest hits that could have ever imagined. This has caused millions of daily wagers to lose their jobs and made it very difficult for them to survive without having a source of income. I can keep complaining about my frustrations and about the negative impact the coronavirus has had on me but at least I have a roof over my head and my father has a source of income where he can provide for his family and I dont need to worry about how Im going to pay my bills. I am blessed to have many amenities thats millions dont have. Furthermore, I salute the heros that risk their own lives so that they could help others and keep us safe. From police to Civil defense to Doctors. I am very grateful and thankful for their timeless efforts to control and safeguard this deadly virus.

DMU Timestamp: May 11, 2020 21:16





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