For a couple of months, I’ve wanted to tell a story about quarantining at Colorado College, but I never really knew how I should tell it. I initially wanted to write this piece about myself, RA and author Ben Greenly, and how my time in quarantine for two weeks led to some intense self-reflection. But after interviewing a number of students from Loomis, South, and Mathias recently, I realized that my experience alone couldn’t possibly encompass everything students went through over the two-week periods that they were quarantined. Even now, the interviews I conducted for this piece only showcase a small fraction of the myriad experiences that occurred behind the dorm room walls.
At 12:00 p.m. on Aug. 29, 2020, a mass email announced to all residents that South and Mathias Hall would be quarantined for two weeks, due to 11 positive tests for COVID-19. This quarantine started the day before Loomis Hall would be released from their two-week quarantine, so there was one day in which everyone was in their rooms—no one from South, Mathias, or Loomis outside on an August afternoon. I spent that entire day looking out my window, as I’m sure many other residents did. Here, I present a compilation of all of the interviews I conducted with these residents from the Big Three halls, looking back on their various quarantine experiences at Colorado College.
Some ground rules before we begin: these people will and shall forever remain completely anonymous. Some of these excerpts might be split up into multiple interviews, some of them might be a combination of several interviews. Some of these interviews might be quasi-fictionalized based on rumors that I’ve overheard or notes I quickly jotted down after conversations with my residents. In short, you are not going to be able to identify the people based on the interview they gave, and that’s the point. There are excerpts from students who responded to the announcement in ways that may have put others at risk, and some who were able to use their privilege and resources to avoid, shorten, or modify their quarantine experience. As an RA, I feel like I have a sort of behind-the-scenes insight into the dorm quarantine experience, and I personally don’t blame these students for anything. I definitely understand how stressful a major change in the academic year can be. I know, personally, how shocking it was to be informed so suddenly of the school’s closing one year ago, and it must have been especially hard for all of those first-years who were just entering college this fall.
Finally, I would like to give thanks to the Sodexo employees, who graciously helped keep our residence halls so clean, and the employees of Bon Appetit, who made and prepared meals for us so that we were able to stay quarantined in our halls. I am also eternally grateful to the employees of the mailroom, who delivered packages to us, allowing us to feel some connection with the outside world. You were all placed in a risky work environment and whatever you were being paid, it probably should have been more. We are truly grateful for everything you did to keep us safe and sane. Your knocks on my door became some of the only human interactions that I experienced during those two weeks.
Now, let’s begin with the show.
INTERVIEW #1 (SEVEN DAYS IN QUARANTINE):
I only stayed for one of the two weeks, and I liked it, to be honest. I liked it because it was, what, three weeks into college? And being new, there are so many social pressures, so it was just like a week to focus on my class and get adjusted to the block system. I remember that we were supposed to go into our dorm rooms for an announcement, and this kid from my class told me that we were going into quarantine. I didn’t believe him at first. And then, another guy told me and again, I didn’t really believe him. And then, I got the email, and I was like, “what the fuck?” But then, it was actually nice, like a little break from being a freshman. My days were pretty simple: I would just do all my homework and go to class, I watched like, five Harry Potter movies. I’m not a picky eater, so the food was fine for me. My roommate did leave in the first couple of days, but it was okay—I was fine alone. I was in a triple, so I was just living luxuriously.
I don’t know, it was nice to go home though, my parents gave me the option to go home. I had my car and could get to Denver on a tank of gas, so I wouldn’t have to meet anybody. I was incredibly lucky that I had the option to do that. But I delayed it for seven days and stayed here. Cause it was kind of nice to be alone. I would do all my homework, FaceTime all of my friends from back home, and then I would like, watch a Harry Potter movie. It was easy because I didn’t have any close friends at CC back then. It’s super easy to be alone when you’re new to college.
INTERVIEW #2 (FOURTEEN DAYS IN QUARANTINE):
I stayed for the whole two weeks, which went pretty good. I didn’t really have a way to go back home to quarantine because I’m from out of state. But yeah, I don’t have any big complaints. They would give us some snacks before we went outside, which was nice. I got some Funyuns, Goldfish, bags of chips—we would stockpile those and eat them when we didn’t feel like eating the three-in-one meals they gave us. My only issue was probably the outside time which was, um, pretty disorganized. We were told that there was a sign-up sheet and that the slots were in one-hour increments. It was kind of unclear, though, if we could sign up for more than one hour, but people just kind of went out when they wanted to. They had an RA there watching everyone, but there was no sheet for them to check who had signed up to come out. Anyway, I don’t think anyone was really keeping track. We just had to sit in marked-off spots with our roommate, pretty far away from other people. Seeing all of the people from places like Loomis or West Campus walk around outside of our quarantined area was pretty depressing but luckily, they only came around like once or twice. One of the days, it was raining during our only outside time, so we were just sitting in the rain. It was alright for the most part, but sometimes it was hard to keep your mask on when you went outside. We did, of course––but there were times when I felt so tempted to pull down my mask so I could feel the fresh air on my face. I also needed some exercise outside of my room so I just started, like, secretly working out in the stairwell. Which I wasn’t really allowed to do, but I made sure to always be alone, and I would wear a mask the whole time, I promise. The workout was that I would just run up and down the stairs for like 40 minutes. The exercise was really hard, it tired me out, so I don’t recommend it.
INTERVIEW #3 (FOURTEEN DAYS IN QUARANTINE):
The food was probably the most exhausting aspect of the quarantine. I seem really critical, but for the most part, it could have been a lot worse, we got fed at least. Every day at around lunchtime, we would get three-in-one meals delivered, which were breakfast, lunch, and dinner all at once. We couldn’t really choose our meals, so our eating habits were at the discretion of whoever was making the meals. But it makes sense. There were so many of us that it would have been hard to give us a choice. But sometimes I might not prefer something, like personally, I don’t like seafood and it would be the only option. I just wish we had more liberty to choose at least some of the meals.
One thing that I was really grateful for was that the college worked out a way for us to get some time outside because initially, we weren’t going to get any outside time due to the county guidelines until CC convinced them to. I understand how being locked in your room for 24 hours a day for two weeks might really be tough on a student’s mental health, so I’m glad they worked out a situation where we could get outside. However, I wish that we could have done a little more with our outside time. As an athlete, I would have liked to do more exercise than just playing basketball against my roommate in our dorm room with a mini-hoop. I’m very lucky that I was with someone for the whole time. My roommate and I really became the best of friends during quarantine, we have a lot of the same interests, the same coping mechanisms. You know, if we really want to get into it, I’ve been told before that we’re so compatible because he’s an Aquarius and I’m a Libra––you don’t have to put that in the interview.
INTERVIEW #4 (FOURTEEN DAYS IN QUARANTINE):
It was freaky seeing the people outside of your door who were delivering the food. They were wearing, like, hazmat suits. So every day, there would be a crew that would come and clean all of the bathrooms, a crew that would deliver packages, and a crew that would deliver food. By the way, I found this out when I was discarding some leftover bits from my breakfast: all the athletes had their own special meals. It was like some sort of nicer, larger meal. They were getting full strips of bacon in their breakfasts as opposed to my plain hash browns. I’m not mad at the athletes at all for that one, though. I mean, I’m sure they didn’t really have a choice on what they were given to eat.
INTERVIEW #5 (FOUR DAYS IN QUARANTINE):
I wish we would have been able to exercise. I feel like, you know, we’re 18, 19, 20 years old. I understand that we can’t be totally trusted, but you know it’s hard, you're putting kids into quarantine and their only break from sitting in their rooms is to go and sit outside. I do understand what the school was thinking when they put us into strict quarantine—people could have been asymptomatic, so I can see why you wouldn’t want them running around the blocks breathing heavily, possibly spreading it to other people. But I feel like we could have exercised in place, outside, separated from each other. We’re like, ten feet apart. I don't think I’m going to give anyone COVID-19 by, like, doing sit-ups. I know that wasn’t their rule, that it was because of the county health guidelines, and I’m grateful that they at least let us go outside. So like, yeah.
I’m sure people were congregating or sneaking into rooms—we didn’t, by the way. Everyone knew better, so I hope it didn’t happen, but I’m sure it did.
INTERVIEW #6 (ONE DAY IN QUARANTINE):
We were told that we would be quarantining for two weeks. They had this sub-clause that you were allowed to quarantine in your home if you lived in the state of Colorado and could theoretically drive straight from campus to your home and quarantine there. I didn’t have a car on campus but luckily, my sister, who also lives in Colorado Springs, was able to get our family car and drop it off for me. I am so grateful to her, I thank her all the time, I actually feel grateful that I even had the opportunity to leave campus. Before leaving, I had to talk to the RLC and Maggie Santos, who's the head of COVID-19 numbers on campus. So I emailed them and was like, “Hey I live in Colorado, can I leave?” At this point, we weren’t told that we would not be coming back to campus so I didn't completely pack up my stuff. I just packed up enough clothes and sort of extra things that I needed to go back to my house, and they were like, “yep, just make sure you abide by the quarantine rules and all,” and they gave me permission to leave whenever I was ready to go. So I was there for two weeks alone. My parents were working out of state at the time. It wasn’t all bad. We had a decent amount of groceries. I did once have groceries delivered to me so I didn’t have to go to the store, which was a huge help. I feel for those who weren’t able to get their groceries delivered, or were in quarantine and had only the three-in-ones to eat. I did class in my house, same time zone, and then I would just find ways to spend time, either through reading or trying to figure out what I could do in my house alone. It was a big surprise when they told us that we weren’t going back to campus. They let me get all of my stuff later after the quarantine was over, but still, it was very nerve-wracking when they first announced that update. I remember calling my parents about it, and they were super nervous, and they were asking the same questions that I was. Eventually, everything was sorted out by emailing Maggie about the situation.
INTERVIEW #7 (FOURTEEN DAYS IN QUARANTINE):
There was one day where we didn’t get any food, I talked to my RA about it and there was a survey that we were supposed to fill out, which I didn’t even get. I sent an email, and I got food the next day. I had a bunch of leftover snacks in my room, so I at least had something to eat.
INTERVIEW #8 (FOURTEEN DAYS IN QUARANTINE):
I think a lot of people left halfway through because I’m pretty sure a lot of people thought that they didn’t have COVID so that wherever they went, they weren’t necessarily worried about people getting sick, which is kind of fucked up if you think about it. I mean, they could have just not had symptoms and could have easily given COVID to their family members, which sucks and is so wildly irresponsible. I like to think that if people really were concerned and showed any symptoms that they would have been here for two full weeks and been super careful. Because it just felt like, I mean there were a few cases that week, but at least our activity had been pretty limited to a very small group of people that had been with us. So I think a lot of people felt like, I don’t know, they weren’t going to be superspreaders? I hope so.
INTERVIEW #9 (ONE DAY IN QUARANTINE):
I was sitting outside of my house––my house-house in the Springs, not my dorm––when I got the alert that they were closing down. And I was like, “Aw poop.” Because, first off, I didn’t know if I was going to be allowed back on campus. That was my first worry because there wasn’t any mention of that in the email. They allowed me to come back for the day after the quarantine was over, so a couple days after quarantine ended, I came over and officially moved out for the semester. That was very easy, which I am incredibly thankful for.
So I then spent the whole fall at home, and I spent a lot of it by myself. It was an interesting experience, you know there are definitely negatives of it. But you know, you get into a really good schedule, because you can go to bed early, because you have nothing to stay up late for. You’re productive because you have nothing else to do while you’re waiting. I also learned to do a lot more cooking. Doing all this stuff by yourself, you get a taste for living on your own without people. Which is a good experience to have, it makes you appreciate college way more. Possibly. The worst I had was that I had a really hard second block, and because of that, I went three and a half weeks without having any face-to-face conversation with anybody. My family was gone, my sister was at her college, and my parents were working out of state. So really I didn’t have anyone to talk to. So it’s great to be back now.
INTERVIEW #10 (FOUR DAYS IN QUARANTINE)
The rest of my year went really well. I was very lucky that it worked out so well. I think the increased testing right now is really good, and I think the new ten-day quarantines are also really good. Pretty basic stuff, you would think. I got super lucky, had a great semester, and was fortunate that my family could allow me to do something else. But for people who didn’t, people who were sent home, people who invested in coming out here, or who were quarantined in Loomis by themselves, I feel really bad for them. And it just feels like it could’ve all been avoidable, for the school at least. So it’s not anger about what happened that I’m feeling necessarily, it’s like, whatever, so much worse happens. But I know it really affected and really messed with a lot of people. Like the people that delivered food to us were probably really nervous about their safety. I also feel for the people who were really screwed over, like the students who maybe didn’t have the same opportunities that I had. It’s like, how could someone have made this plan in August thinking it would work? I mean, it’s kind of embarrassing, for the school at least. I don’t know any other small school where the sophomores, juniors, and seniors weren’t allowed back at all. That’s so sad for you guys; all those other schools seemed to figure it out. That’s, yeah. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to be here—I have some friends, who were not allowed to be on campus like at all this year. I just think ... I know a lot of people that really had a tough time being in singles during their quarantine, or that had a hard time quarantining with their roommate. I just think a lot of people really got screwed over in ways that were probably avoidable. Quarantine was okay for me, all in all.
INTERVIEW #11 (FOURTEEN DAYS IN QUARANTINE):
Right as it was starting, on that Saturday I believe, my roommate called me and was like, “I just got an email, South just got into quarantine. I’m leaving, do you want to come with me?” I was like, “Yeah let’s go” so we packed our bags, left the building, and started walking down the street. We talked to our RA and the administration about leaving, but we didn’t know where we were going. We were just like, “We’re not doing this.” We didn’t think our mental health would be okay, didn’t think that anything would be okay. And we were just sitting on the curb, because we were afraid that they would just lock us in, and then we realized that we were making a rash decision and that we were being dramatic and we would probably be okay if we went back to our rooms, chilled, thought about it, thought about what our next move was. And so we ended up staying. Really a memory that sticks out to me is just sitting on that curb with all of our bags packed. Just calling our parents trying to find a hotel, trying to figure out what we were going to do. Um yeah, it was pretty hectic, but we came to our senses and came back.
INTERVIEW #12 (SIXTY DAYS IN QUARANTINE):
I’m alright right now, I’m not in quarantine, at least. So, I’ve been in quarantine a lot of times. At the beginning of the year, we didn’t think it was going to happen. We thought we were in the clear because another dorm had been in quarantine, and then we heard the news. A lot of people had different reactions. Some people ran out of the building, and like, tried to figure out where they were going to go. Some people fell immediately into a deep depression, and some people started making plans.
It’s hard to talk about almost, because that quarantine was a lot easier than the ones in Bijou West, by yourself, cause when you’re by yourself it’s a lot worse than when you have a roommate. Bijou West, by the way, is a hotel where you go when you have to quarantine—I had to quarantine there six times because either someone around me would test positive for COVID or I would show symptoms. I never had COVID, luckily, I would just have strep throat or pneumonia and they would quarantine me just in case. It was kind of funny actually, because every time I got out, something would happen a couple days later and I would have to go right back in. But, really I don’t even know if I have that much to say about that first one, because when I look back, I’m like, gosh, that one was amazing, because we could leave the room, we could fill up our water bottles, we could go up the stairwell. I mean we weren’t really supposed to, but we did. And we had each other, which was really nice. But when you’re in the Bijou hotel, you’re by yourself. They didn't have it entirely organized. I went in there once because I was symptomatic. It turned out that I had strep throat and that was my first semester where I was completely delirious, and I didn’t know that I had a microwave or a fridge, and they didn’t tell me because it was hidden somewhere in the room. So like for the first four days, I was pretty hungry because I was like, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with this cold food that they were giving me.” It was hard. I don’t know, you don’t see anybody, you don’t talk to anybody, and then suddenly you're supposed to go to class? It was just ... When you have something to do, other than class, it’s easier. But when that’s all you have to do and you feel like crap, you know, it’s really hard. You’re just struggling to make it through the day, trying to be okay without breaking down.
I think it’s really hard, I think quarantine just does a number on you, even if you have an online class. I never understood how much we need other humans until then.
When I came out of this last quarantine, it was just weird to see people, I was kind of on edge. I guess I’m still on edge when I see people and am close to people. We let someone in our room a while ago and he stepped in our room, and I just felt so violated. It wasn't offensive or anything, it just felt so wrong. It’s just that this is such a personal space now and I’ve been in it by myself for so long.
INTERVIEW #13 (FOURTEEN DAYS IN QUARANTINE):
So, I’m going to be your last interview, right? Okay, good. I don’t really know how to feel about my quarantine experience, to tell you the truth. I don’t really remember a lot of it. It was a lot of days and they went by really quickly. I would actually text someone and put my phone down for a second, then after I picked the phone back up, three days had passed! Isn’t that crazy? That might not have happened but that’s what it felt like for sure. It’s strange though, having to see the college just completely change into something different for those few weeks in the beginning of the year. It’s like, weird to think of how there are so many people who just don’t realize how different the experience was from everything else that I’ve been through at CC. It was like a shift into something completely different. I don’t know. I don’t know how I feel, I mainly feel a little guilty. There was a lot of talk going on back then, and I guess now as well, about responsibility, and a lot of people were questioning the performance of some of these institutions when faced with this kind of crisis. And here I am, thinking about my performance throughout the entire thing. You know, I am an RA, and the first time that I fully heard and understood the experiences of these residents was through interviewing them for a magazine? I would like, check on them mostly every day, but I wouldn’t ask them what was happening to them. I think I was just too wrapped up in my life. I guess I was sort of the one who was performing, I guess. A performance for my residents, trying to make sure that everything felt as normal as possible when I had no clue what was going on. I keep wondering if these residents were also performing for me, making it seem like everything was alright in their quarantine. Are these interviews even genuine, do you think these people even told me what actually happened? I had my birthday during this quarantine, and I didn’t even mention it: what else do you think people chose not to tell me? This quarantine, I don’t think we’ll ever get the full story on what it was like, no matter how many interviews we conduct. Who knows, the food was pretty good, it gave me something to eat, and I liked when the people knocked on my door, it was the only thing keeping me going sometimes. I was glad to get out though, to take off my mask and smell the air, wow, what a rush.