How have students at Arapahoe Community College felt since the strong changes brought on by COVID-19? #COVIDDiariesOfACC is a mini-series composed of non-fiction diary entries from students at ACC. Thank you to the student contributing writers for these pieces to publish on the Arapahoe Pinnacle.

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Even though COVID did not disrupt this course, it definitely disrupted my life. I had just moved to a new apartment on my own, though I had left a pretty abusive relationship for good, and gotten a new dog that I flew all the way to Washington to train it to be a mobility dog for myself. Things were looking really great. The person I had left back in December was making some great progress in therapy, and we had managed to stay friends without it being too much for either of us. When COVID happened, I got sick almost right away. I spent a good 3 weeks feeling like complete crap and having issues breathing. I am immunocompromised, and a friend had come over and didn’t disclose they had been around someone sick. Due to this, I also infected the person I left.

Their mother is also compromised and had paid me rent to let my ex stay with me for their quarantine period. I lost my job due to COVID, and needed the money so I agreed. The first few weeks were okay until they weren’t, and I was right back into the same toxic cycle but on a strict stay at home order and felt trapped. It affected me greatly between that and infusions. I thankfully am now out of that situation and trying to find ways to heal. The only bright side to this has been unlimited time to work with my dogs, which I took advantage of as I was able. COVID made my life significantly harder with no way out for a bit, and I am resentful towards that. It made for some raw poetry pieces but gave me a poor image on myself and on being alone.

I wish I could have taken this time to do better in school. I have resentment towards myself for allowing a toxic person to control my life once again, and have fought like hell to make it easier since the stay at home mostly lifted on April 27^th. I will say though, I hadn’t written poetry in years and it was an amazing outlet during this time. It sparked me to continue to write more about my feelings, and not stick to the same topic I always write about.