Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Obsession or Motivation

Posted by Melissa Aaberg

Throughout my monumental lifetime, I had never thought about facing death until the COVID-19 pandemic spread out in my country, Vietnam. The people in my country were like many people around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most historic events that no one living in this decade can forget. For me, the days of quarantine in the isolation center were the biggest obsession of my life.

When I was at home on the first day of national quarantine, I received an email from my CEO, which informed me of shocking news about my colleague, who had tested positive for the Delta variant of COVID-19, the most dangerous virus at that time. I couldn’t believe that because when I was with her on the last day in our office, there weren’t any symptoms, and we had an effective meeting. At that time, I knew that someone from the local health center would ask me to go to the isolation center because isolating the individuals who closely contacted the patient was a new law of the government in the COVID-19 situation. Finally, it came. On the following day, I received a call from a healthcare worker who guided me to prepare essential items for the next 21 days, and then I waited at home until a car came to drive me to the isolation center.

After a while, a white SUV with a siren came in front of my apartment. The driver asked me to wear a blue protective suit and a mask. When I got in that car, there were two people in costumes like me. They looked so worried, and one of them was praying. That made me a little bit nervous. I wondered if they had been detected with the virus and if they were a danger to me. The car moved to a luxury apartment and picked up a man in a black suit. There was a silent atmosphere in our car. We didn’t talk about anything with each other; we had been tense, worried, and prayerful until we got to the isolation center near our area.

I got out of the car in surprise. The government utilized an elementary school to become an isolation center. I went to a classroom and chose a tiny bed for myself. There were five single beds in each classroom, and each one was two meters apart from the others. After that, I set up my area with a few essential items that I had brought, such as a pillow, water bottles, a cup, a bowl, a spoon, a lot of instant noodles, vitamin C, hand sanitizer, and a water bucket for bathing. At that moment, I wondered how I could live a life of poverty like this for 21 days, and if I would become a victim of COVID-19 in the following days.

On the first day of isolation, the other people in my room and I had to take PCR tests. In the evening, we were provided dinner boxes with rice, meat stew, and soup. They were really bad, but I tried to finish them to be healthier. At night, I couldn’t sleep; I was really worried about the PCR test result. I prayed for a negative result because I didn’t want to infect the people who had closely contacted me on the previous days. Early the next morning, a person in my room was informed that she had to move to a centralized hospital because of her positive result in the PCR test. At that moment, I was completely frustrated because that person and I had been in the same car and stayed in the same room since yesterday. Although I had always stayed apart from her and had never talked to her, I still thought the next person who had to move to the hospital was me, and I could die. I made a video call to my parents, and they advised me to calm down and drink as much Vitamin C as possible. They also taught me that I should be patient and believe in God no matter what the result was. And I did. I prayed a lot, and I studied the ways to self-protect with COVID-19 by searching on the internet. After a while, I was informed that I wasn’t detected by COVID-19. The result made me think more positively. I started planning how to spend the next few days there safe and healthy.

On the following days, I woke up earlier than the others because I wanted to take a bath and brush my teeth before other people touched the bathroom. I spent my free time reading Many Lives, Many Times, which is the book I had brought.  When I received any food from the isolation center, I always disinfected it before eating. During that time, I tried to wear face masks 24 hours per day and used hand sanitizer after I had touched anything outside of my area. I had to test every day with rapid tests provided by the isolation center, and every week I had a PCR test. At the end of each day, I called to chat with my friends and family to get an update on their health and gossip. Eventually, I completed 21 days of quarantine, and all my test results were negative. I went back home and stayed there until the last day of quarantine. Since then, I have always lived with a positive mind, and I realized that no matter who you are, you never know when you have to leave this life. This experience always reminds me that you cannot foresee what will happen, so don’t be worried, just live fully each day and pray for tomorrow.