A week in quarantine: TikToks, ‘Gossip Girl’ and a suffocating sense of dread

According to the “Screen Time” feature on my phone, I’ve spent 32 hours and 10 minutes scrolling through TikToks or engrossed in twitter drama.

I’ve eaten several Uncrustables and watched one season of “Gossip Girl.”

And I’m waiting for the results of my COVID-19 test.

The worst thing about being quarantined in my apartment in Columbia isn’t the boredom or the loneliness — though both are pretty overwhelming. It’s being trapped at home and watching the world fall apart that is suffocating.

My life turned upside down on Tuesday, two days after I returned from a weekend at the National Institute for Computer Assisted Reporting Conference in New Orleans. About two-dozen students from the Missouri School of Journalism attended.

I was sitting in Lakota Coffee getting ready for a political science exam when the email popped up. It was the conference sponsors, telling me that one of the attendees had tested positive.

I didn’t know how to react. Most major world events make me panic, but for some reason, I was fairly calm.

But I bolted to Schnucks that evening and obsessively hand sanitized the cart before panic-buying groceries for the next two weeks. I stocked up on the “end of the world” essentials: canned food, pasta, toilet paper and Diet Coke.

Moments later, I got an email from one of the coordinators for the trip and I knew that I had to self-quarantine. The subject read “NICAR20 attendee tests presumptively positive for coronavirus” and the email went on to detail how attendees should be wary of any symptoms that develop and contact their health care providers.

Thursday, I was able to get tested. I drove to an empty residence hall, where nurses were set up. As soon as I got there, I was told to put on a mask and wash my hands. Then, the test: it feels like a pointed Q-tip up your nose. Results are supposed to be available Monday.

So now I wait.

Everything feels so different now. Everyone has been told to work from home, MU has shifted to online classes for the rest of the semester, and on a mass level, the whole world is locking down.

I don’t know what to expect from these next two weeks. But I do know that I’ll remain here, self-quarantined in my two-bedroom apartment trying desperately to disseminate the news without stepping a foot outside.

Caitlyn Rosen is an intern in The Star’s Jefferson City bureau.