I travelled to Denver this month with my boyfriend to visit my friends and his family and help his sister move home to Indiana. We hiked our way through Red Rock Amphitheater, gawked at the snow-covered mountains, and picnicked in Cheesman Park. In the city center we sipped coffee in Larimer Square, danced with the statues in Sculpture Park, took communion during mass at the Cathedral Basilica, and waited in line for dessert at Little Man’s ice cream.

If you’re wondering where the seven day quarantine comes in allow me to let you in on a little secret. I boarded our South West flight to Denver thinking I was fully vaccinated. What I didn’t realize is that the CDC considers an individual fully vaccinated only two weeks after their second dose! The day we were both exposed to COVID (my boyfriend and I) was exactly one week after my second dose. So after a day of helping his sister and her husband pack up their home in a U-Haul, and strapping his 1960’s Chevy Corvair to a trailer, we set out on a 16 hour drive home to Indiana where I would have to quarantine for at least seven days.

I must admit I did shed a few tears in quiet realization that I would be banished to quarantine prison when I got home, not to mention our day of return was my 27th birthday. It was evening when my boyfriend dropped me off at my house. I masked up and entered my seven days of solitude. To my surprise my roommates had strung a Happy Birthday banner across my bedroom wall, placed a bouquet of flowers in a vase near my window, and left a chocolate cupcake just for me. I sit here writing this on my eighth day of quarantine now quite comfortable with my bedroom where I was sequestered, and I’m happy to give my 7 tips for surviving such a week as this.

1. Clean and organize. While I don’t necessarily have a type A personality, I do like to keep my room tidy. Over my quarantine I organized my book shelves, threw away old mail and papers, and dusted every nook and cranny like there was no tomorrow. I cleaned out my closet and did lots of laundry. It actually felt good to be able to clean and organize my bedroom the first day of quarantine. I also rearranged furniture and put up some pictures of my travels abroad to keep me company.
2. Stay Connected. If social media was created to make distance feel smaller, then quarantine is the best time to take full advantage of this method of communication. I used an app called Marco Polo to leave video messages for my closest friends and in return I got to hear updates on their lives. I think this app is great for parents who don’t have a lot of free time to sit around FaceTiming friends. With Marco Polo you can record and send videos while you’re driving (which most of my married/parent friends do) and stay connected with your social network. I also FaceTimed friends in different cities and countries. Those in Europe were usually down for a late night talk being six hours ahead while I was looking for someone to chat with right after work. I also video messaged friends on instagram who I never see anymore. So if you find yourself in quarantine don’t use Social Media to doom scroll. Instead, I highly recommend using video or voice messages to fill the silence.
3. Go for walks. The weather was nice during my seven days of solitude so I masked-up and walked a few blocks each day to get some steps in. I also did Yoga and had a number of bedroom dance parties to my favorite Afro and Latin beats playlists.
4. Learn a Language. One evening, I believe it was day three, I decided to label everything in my room in French by writing the French word on a sticky note and placing it on things around my room. Soon the wall became “le mur”, the white board was my “tableau blanc” and the mirror reflected the sticky that said “le miroir”. I also listened to French music and tried to learn a few of my favorite songs in French. I know there are hours of Netflix or Amazon Prime to watch at the click of a button during quarantine, but why not use your time alone for educational purposes?
5. Establish a Routine. Time sort of dissolves when you’re in quarantine, especially when you share a house with two roommates and your life is reduced to your bedroom and occasionally the bathroom and kitchen. So my routine began with an early morning Bible study playlist on Spotify while I made my bed and set up my work laptop and portable desk. A few friends delivered me coffee from Starbucks during quarantine by leaving it at the front door. So I would have my coffee and Bible time before diving into the work day. I think Bible time is really important in all seasons of life because it reminds you that God has a purpose in everything, even an unintended COVID-19 exposure resulting in a seven day quarantine. After work I would call my friend Bre in Belgium, and then Marco Polo a few friends before dinner. During dinner I watched some Youtube baking tutorials before doing some evening stretches, organizing yet another corner of my room, and settling in for the night. After a shower, a call to my boyfriend, and a few chapters of whatever book I was reading at the time, I would drift off to sleep pondering how I’d spent my entire day in one room.
6. Reflect. My last blog post highlighted the concept of reflection. I found time to reflect during my quarantine by reading through old journals. It made me laugh to read about the drama of college dating, and the travel adventures I had abroad while in school. Reading through old journal entries served as an escape in some ways back to five or six years ago to a very different me during a very different time.
7. Quarantine with someone. After day 5 when my COVID test and my boyfriend’s COVID test came back negative, I went and stayed with him and his parents for days 5 and 6 of my quarantine. “Welcome to our co-working space,” his mom said with a smile as I set up my work station in their basement. I must admit quarantining alone is rather dehumanizing and makes you value every moment of life when you come out.

So if you live alone or with roommates and have been exposed to COVID-19 hopefully you won’t be dreading your quarantine prison sentence as much as I did. I’ve always been more of a realist than an optimist, however, there were some surprising upsides to being confined to my bedroom during the week of my 27th birthday. But I will be real with you now, I never want to do that again.