Student Blog: A Person Can Develop... COVID?

With finals week around the corner and a week of auditions ahead of me, earlier this month just when I was starting to reach the most important crunch time of my semester… I tested positive for COVID-19. How could this have happened? I had tickets to a showcase at my school that night, next semester MainStage auditions in a few days, and two in class final presentations to give that week. But still… my body felt awful, and I had to leave school and go home. I was DEVASTATED. Missing that one week could throw the entire end of my semester, what was I supposed to do?

Despite all of these fears and worries about missing auditions and falling behind in academics, I knew I had no power to change the fact that I was home sick, but I had the power to use my week wisely instead of seeing it as a setback. I’d been putting a lot of effort into working on my health and starting healthy lifestyle habits, as well as staying on top of school, and I was determined to utilize this week to its fullest potential, even if it was going to be spent home sick.

As soon as I got home, I sprung into action– I emailed my teachers who I had to present to in class and asked if I could send in video presentations instead, as well as emailing the directors at my school asking to submit self tapes; I’d worked too hard in my classes and on my audition prep to miss either. Thankfully, all teachers and directors emailed me back with a yes, which meant I had to get to work.

While letting myself sleep in, I made sure that I was getting up to eat and move everyday, fitting some kind of healthy productivity into my day depending on how I felt, some days just stretching, and some having the energy to do a full workout in my room– making sure to stay doubly hydrated than usual. Work wise, I spent a few days focusing on rest, staying in bed while I read my monologue over a million times and put together slides presentations on my laptop. Despite knowing I had a full week of nothing to do but focus on myself and getting tasks done, I still felt like I had much more time than I anticipated, and actually was able to get ahead on lots of assignments. After a few days (and many cups of tea, bottles of water, and emergen-c gummies), my symptoms were starting to die down and I felt I was ready to start filming some self tapes and presentations.

For final presentations, I filmed and edited videos of myself presenting my topics and showing the slides I had put together. For my dance class, I wasn’t able to film my final combination video in my room due to space, but I practiced it when I had energy to make sure I could get a good tape back at school. As far as self tapes go, a lot of improvising and working with my circumstances came into play– especially having left all my makeup and nice clothes at school. However– we made do! I sent my friend who plays wonderful piano my sheet music for my song, and he sent me back a recording to use as my backing track! So, I curled my hair, put on a dress over my sweatpants, and went to my professional recording studio with my backdrop (aka, my bathroom and white shower curtain). For feeling and looking a little sick, I still felt proud of myself and the takes I was able to get, and think that the backdrop and lighting editing I was able to do actually had them come out looking very professional! I sent them in and sure enough, despite the tricky circumstances, I got a callback from the videos :)

Grinding out lots of work and filming was definitely an accomplishment, but what I surprised myself with most from the week was my ability to keep my spirits up. Being alone in your room for a week with nothing but work and my own company to entertain me was a bit daunting, being the social creature I am, but keeping up with self care and finding ways to enjoy myself was a win! I took long baths while listening to podcasts, played my favorite games I hadn’t had time to sit down and play while at school, and recorded little videos for myself everyday, vlogging my activities and work progress to help keep up my good energy.

Eventually, on my final day of quarantine, I tested negative! And it was time to head back to school for finals week and my callback. While originally, I had felt very upset and set back by having to go home for COVID, by the end of the week, I was proud of myself for the many bright sides and productivities I’d found out of the week. Upon returning to school, all my friends asked me how my week was and if I was feeling better, and there was nothing more satisfying than saying that actually, my week was good, and I felt great :)

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