For the first time since arriving home, I’ve felt the true impact of social distancing. 

A few days ago, I stopped by my best friend’s house to say hello after going on a grocery run. Under normal circumstances, I would have just entered the house through the open garage and loudly announced my presence, but instead I had to call her to tell her to come outside. 

As she walked out the door, we moved to hug each other before remembering that we couldn’t and backed away from each other. This is my best friend of seven years, someone I’m lucky to see a few times a year and I couldn’t hug her. 

We tried to catch up as best we could, with her standing at the top of the driveway and I at the bottom. She’s the first person outside of my family that I’ve seen in weeks and the most I could do was send her finger hearts from where I stood by my car. 

Until this past month, I had been completely unfamiliar with the idea of social distancing. A concept many people, especially college students, once thought unthinkable has now become our reality. Most of us went from crowded classrooms and bustling cafes to quiet and even empty houses and apartments. Some of us may have been thrust into roles we did not want to be in, and all of us have had our worlds turned upside down.

This situation is difficult to say the least. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, social distancing means keeping space between yourself and people outside of your home, specifically six feet apart. Suddenly, the 2019 romantic drama flick “Five Feet Apart” became a little too applicable to daily life for those unaffected by cystic fibrosis. 

Thanks to this film, I learned that a pool cue is five feet long and that even hospitals can have romance. But hospitals can’t have romance right now. Hospitals have now become war zones, doctors and nurses have become soldiers on the frontlines of the battlefield, desperately trying to fight an enemy they cannot see. 

At home, we fight a different battle. We battle ourselves. In this time, when most of us are stuck inside, in close proximity to others who are probably just as stressed as we are, it can be hard to keep up morale. 

But just as soldiers who lay low in the trenches continue to rise and fight, so must we. Despite the blare of ambulances that mirror the wail of air raid sirens, we must continue on. We may not be on the front lines, but only we can keep our society going. 

People our age are going to be the ones telling the story of this pandemic to our grandchildren. Let’s make sure what we tell them will make them proud. Online classes and Zoom lectures might completely deplete all motivation to study and being away from campus and normal life might feel completely unfair, but we can make it through this. 

So smile and wave to your neighbor if you see them, enjoy your family time and offer to go grocery shopping for the elderly in your community or offer up your aide in other ways. FaceTime or Zoom your friends to check up on them, and be sure to do something for yourself every once in a while. 

Being at home like this is not something we get to do often, and while we may be getting a bit stir crazy, it isn’t the end of the world. Most of us are not at war or fighting life-threatening disorders, so being at home a little longer than expected should be the least of our concerns. 

Sabrina is a junior in Media. 

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