Experienced Quarantine
“I miss the classes that I went in loudly with my friends, the air that our lunch table had, and the soccer field where my friends and I played after eating lunch.”
I have been through several viruses in my life. First, there was SARS. Then, there was the Swine flu (H1N1). Finally, there was MERS. All of them happened when I lived in Korea. The Swine flu affected me, as my sister and I were both infected in 2009. Thanks to the doctors, we recovered in two weeks. Fun fact: I’ve never gotten the flu or a severe cold after I suffered from the Swine Flu. I assume that I got an awesome immune system by surviving the Swine Flu.
Six years after my recovery, a new virus—MERS—arrived in Korea. MERS began by infecting people in the Middle East, but a Korean businessman who traveled to Saudi Arabia carried the virus back home and spread it in Korea. The virus had a high death rate, about 30%, and there was more damage because the Korean government didn’t control the virus well at that time.
All students in Korea were quarantined for one month, which was the entirety of our summer break. We barely had a week left for our summer break. But I liked the period of quarantine because it was a turning point of my life.
Quarantine had changed me from a normal lazy student to a normal hard-working student. In Korea, there are a lot of prep schools (hagwon), and almost all of my friends, except for me, went to hagwon. Assuming that all of the students attend hagwon, my middle school teachers made the exams really hard. This was totally unfair because students like me didn’t even know some of the hard questions that others had already reviewed.
However, hagwons were closed due to the quarantine, so my friends and I had to study at home. Since I was always studying by myself, I thought this was my chance to ace the exam, so I studied harder than ever. Since I had to be harsh on myself, I got rid of my laziness. While everyone was playing games and watching movies, I studied.
About one month later, the quarantine was over and we took the final in school. Since students were not able to go to hagwon, teachers made questions out of the textbook. The questions on the pages looked so familiar. I took every exam easily. It was the most successful exam I had ever taken, and I got the highest score in my grade.
I was very pleased. I felt I was getting rewarded for all of my harsh work. I wished I could be this happy with my grade every day. I became happier when my parents complimented me about grades. So I kept studying for that emotion, and I am still trying to capture that emotion even now.
This quarantine in 2020 is my first experience being in quarantine away from home. My family worries about me a lot because they think the U.S. is the most dangerous place in the world. This might be true right now because the U.S. has the most casualties due to COVID-19 in the world.
But I am kind of liking this quarantine. I am a homebody. I have been a homebody since I was a baby. I don’t really go out unless it is necessary. Some of the adults used to tell me to go out and take a walk before the quarantine. But now I am so happy that those adults are telling me to stay at home. While people are suffering from staying at home, I am enjoying my time. Also, I became more productive compared to my lifestyle before the quarantine. I am spending some time doing things that I wanted to do before the quarantine. While doing things that I want to do, I am trying to stay productive. One thing that I miss is my school. I miss the classes that I went in loudly with my friends, the air that our lunch table had, and the soccer field where my friends and I played after eating lunch. I wish I could go there even for 30 minutes, so I could talk with my classmates. However, after 30 minutes, I can expect myself to miss the quarantine. But no matter what, I want this quarantine to end because there are so many people suffering.