Quarantined: Unexpected finale, Part 2
Editor’s note: When we reached out to our students to see how they were doing, some were already embracing their #QuarantineAndChill. Others let us know that they had run out of chill, and rightfully so. This was especially true for those set to graduate this year.
Just when dental school life was supposed to be ramping up and winding down—spring break, WREBs, celebrations, graduation—the coronavirus crisis changed everything. “Stay home, stay safe” became the quarantine mantra.
In this series of firsthand accounts, Texas A&M College of Dentistry students share how their vacation plans went south, how they’re staying sane and how they strive to find silver linings. Through humor and even frustration, they offer sympathies for our graduating class, as well as best wishes to those who will return next year.
D1 Rony Yassin
Before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in the U.S., causing communities to start social distancing, what were you supposed to be doing during spring break instead of #StayAtHome?
I initially planned on going back to my hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas, but I changed plans, because the virus was here in Dallas but not there. I didn’t want to be the one to potentially spread it to my hometown or to my family.
What are you doing to pass the time?
Making memes and living the dream inside my apartment complex. Watching mini-documentaries on YouTube helps.
Any advice/coping skills that helped?
With every hardship comes ease, just like a double rainbow that happened recently after a thunderstorm.
What are your silver linings?
We D1s don’t have lab anymore, so that gives us extra time to study. Seeing people come together and help each other out during this difficult time is really heartwarming.
Also seeing how my life has been impacted by this makes me think about how people around the world go through the same struggles, and even worse, on a daily basis without a pandemic.
Leaving the grocery store without being able to buy certain essential items makes me realize how much I took those items for granted when they were available to buy all the time. There are people out there who never get the chance to buy those things and, even then, they would wish to be in my situation because at least I still have a roof over my head and enough to get by for the day. I think we all are gaining a sort of empathy for others going through hardship, because we are forced now into our own mini-hardships.
While the disease may pass, and I hope it does, I hope that we keep that empathy alive and well with us into the future and utilize it so we all can do good in our communities.
—D1 Rony Yassin
Quarantined: Unexpected finale, Part 1