Much ado with nothing to do

With the advent of the coronavirus pandemic reaching the United States, everyday life has more or less been completely flipped upside down. My daily step counter remains solidly below 500, and move a grand total of maybe 500 ft in a day. Nearly all obligations have been dropped – research, clubs, hangouts – and a life of monotony characterized by a struggle to maintain a productive schedule is the replacement. One might say, “well, now you have time to do everything you’ve been meaning to do,” right? Yet, as an extrovert, I can only do the same isolated activities for so long before yearning for the forbidden presence of others on a platform besides zoom and Facebook Messenger. The days fly by in obscurity as I languidly watch the final days of my college career disintegrate, bittersweet due to the absence of stress and lack of excitement.

Perhaps more interesting than my life is the chaos that has swept through the nation, and especially the Chinese-American community. Be it via questionably accurate WeChat articles on home remedies for Covid-19 or through word of text (since we don’t see anyone in person anymore), the panic, concern, and topic of the pandemic and how to respond to it pervades Chinese households. Memes of stocking up for the apocalypse are no longer just jokes; even the New York Times reported on the concerning rate of toilet paper disappearance from store shelves. Though I personally don’t know anyone affected by the virus, the collectivist culture of the Chinese community has inherently exposed many areas of my life (school, friends, family, church) to this heightened state of awareness. To this end, my mom sent me a Ziploc bag of surgical masks, nitrile gloves, and a bottle of hand sanitizer.

On the other hand though, there is something comforting about the uniformity of everyone’s situation. Zoom calls with friends reassure me that I am not the only person waking up at noon and pretending to do homework I wish I didn’t have. Memes online are more relatable than ever, and the content never seems to dwindle. Amidst all the panic lies the fact that we’re all just trying to get through these tough times together. No one knows what happening or whats going to happen – not the government, not the university, not the faculty, and most definitely not the students like myself. All we can do at this point is sit and wait.