On July 18, my family decided to go to Meadow Vista with some of our close friends. We had been in contact with these families throughout the summer, so we didn’t really think much about social distancing and wearing masks. A few days later, we found out that two people from the event tested positive for COVID-19. Slowly afterwards individuals from the gathering started showing symptoms. 

Eventually, my whole family ended up testing positive. 

A week later, I woke up and immediately knew something was off. My throat was scratchy and I felt really congested. I talked to my dad and he wasn’t feeling well, either. 

One thing I’ve learned about the coronavirus is that it attacks your body’s biggest weakness. I have asthma, so the whole time having COVID I struggled with my breathing. The symptoms I had while having COVID were a fever, fatigue, sore throat, loss of taste and smell, shortness of breath, and a headache. My head was constantly pounding daily, so I slept a lot. I used my inhalers a lot, too. Each day around the same time, my throat would get really tight and it would become really hard to breathe. It was almost if COVID had some sort of routine. 

My parents both had a really hard time recovering from this disease, as they are older than me. It took them longer to fully recover.

My dad experienced symptoms such as fatigue, fever, and chills but he also lost his sense of smell and taste. 

“When I was first diagnosed I noticed I was extremely hot and achy… After about a week all I wanted to do was sleep. I was tired, my body ached, I couldn’t taste or smell, and I just felt lethargic,” Dave Weiss said.

My siblings also tested positive for coronavirus. My brother Carson had the worst symptoms of us all. He was so sick we almost had to take him to the E.R. 

“It was a really bad sickness. I hurt constantly. In some ways it was one of the worst sicknesses I’ve ever had, just because there was so much happening,” Carson Weiss said. 

My sister Kailey didn’t even think she was going to test positive. She showed few to no symptoms so when she came back positive it was a shock to my family.

In Placer County 2,777 people have tested positive for COVID. In Rocklin, there have been 687 confirmed cases. “As of DATE” (cdc.gov) This sickness in a way was like the flu, but was also completely different because when you get the flu you don’t lose your taste. This sickness is very severe and it was very hard to watch my family go through it. I got invited to go to Sunsplash with my friends but I couldn’t because I was on lockdown in my house. Our house turned into chaos; it was a mess everywhere. Laundry piled up everywhere. The litter box wasn’t changed, and we ran out of toilet paper. Another problem that happened while we were sick was we were running dangerously low on food. We couldn’t go to the store because we didn’t want to get anyone sick, so my aunt went to the store for us and handled the cooking.

I didn’t realize how fast this disease spread until I actually got it. It’s important to take the virus seriously. I know I definitely take social distancing a lot more seriously now.

by KARIS WEISS