my-early-life-crisis

[my-early-life-crisis]

Wednesday March 11, 2020 | the day life changed

It was about 7 pm when I pried my heavy eyes open. My room was dark and light spilled into my room from the kitchen, where my roommates stood cooking dinner. I hadn’t worked out today, and I was exhausted from all the school work I had to do. It was the week before spring break and this meant it was midterms week.

Anxiety was high for everyone in norman and around the world.

The sound of my phone buzzing woke me up. As I reached for my phone I felt a knot forming in my throat and I felt a pit in my stomach. Dozens of notifications littered my lock Screen, as I had been asleep for at least 3 hours.

10 Texts from my friends. 5 ESPN notifications. 6 Twitter notifications. 8 Apple news notifications.

Upon hearing that I was awake, Maddie peaks her head in my room to tell me that the NBA had cancelled all upcoming games. The NB freaking A. This is when I realized just how valid my fears were.

As a hypochondriac and a hyper-anxious person, I was used to being told that my anxiety was just me overreacting. Back in January when I told my friends about a little virus that was discovered in China, they brushed it off and told me not to stress over it. We were half way around the world, it probably wouldn’t reach us. Right?

My daily routine at this time of my life went like so:

-wake up and walk to the gym from my apartment.

- while at the gym run on the treadmill for about an hour.

-while running, watch the morning news that was on every tv in the gym.

-go back to my apartment and make breakfast.

-carry on with my day and go to classes.

By going to the gym everyday I was able to see what was going on around the world all while getting in some physical activity. This was perfect until it wasn’t.

Recently, all that had been on the news was coverage of a cruise ship which was stranded in the ocean with a confirmed case of this new “wuhan virus”. No countries wanted to let them dock and potentially expose their citizens. This news coverage terrified me and peaked my anxiety.

My anxiety, depression, and body dismorphia was slowly becoming worse and worse. I felt more alone than I ever had in my life. Little did I know that things would soon come crashing down and this was just the start of something terrible.

Little did Americans know at the time, but March 11, 2020 would soon be a day that all of us would remember for the rest of our lives.

On the evening of March 11, headlines read:

-Jazz-Thunder postponed, NBA suspends season

-Dow closes in bear market amid volatile session

-Something Weird Is Happening on Wall Street, and Not Just the Stock Sell-Off

-Coronavirus: WHO calls COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic as Italy orders most stores to close

-Trump announces travel from Europe to be restricted amid coronavirus threat

This is a day that will stick with me for the rest of my life. I remember how scared i was. I remember how scared everyone around the world was.

I didn’t know that this would be the last week of in person school. I didn’t know that I would never step foot in a classroom as a sophomore ever again. I didn’t know my spring break trip would be canceled. I didn’t know that I would be in lock down the very next week. I didn’t know that for months to follow, my mental health would dip even lower than it currently was. I didn’t know that from this week forward, I would be expected to wear a mask anytime I stepped foot in public. I didn’t know that I would be diagnosed with covid in 5 months time. I didn’t know that so many lives were about to be lost due to this mysterious “phenomenon like” virus.

Lastly, I didn’t know that the world would be completely changed over night.

[my-early-life-crisis]