On November 23rd, 2020 Governor Wolf came out with another stay at home advisory suggesting for work to be remote, restaurants to close for dining, and very small gatherings indoors and outdoors. At this point, school was now fully remote until January 19th.

After these cancellations and shutdowns happened, my family decided it was a great opportunity to join my extended family on a trip to Hawaii for Christmas. The process to get our family from Pittsburgh to Hawaii through all the COVID protocols wasn’t any easy task.

In order for us to make it to Hawaii, my family of seven had to test 72 hours before our first flight. We all got tested that Wednesday before our Saturday flight without any concern of coming back positive. 

As soon as we finished our saliva tests, we were quick to ship our tests out. Thursday and Friday went by with no word of results. We had to start to think of what we would do if our tests didn’t come back before our flight the next morning. 

If we all came back negative, we would easily show our negative results and get into Hawaii. On the other hand, if we tested positive we would have to quarantine for two weeks in Hawaii without leaving our room. 

We went to bed all packed and ready to leave for the airport early in the morning. Still, no tests results had been emailed back. 

My dad was up all night constantly checking for our results. Nothing was coming back, so he went to check mine and my sibling’s emails to see if any of our results had come back.

He checked my email first. The subject of the email said, “You have tested positive for the COVID-19.” I was shortly woken up to hear this awful news. I had kept my family home from an unforgettable trip.

I couldn’t believe that I was positive. Nothing in my body felt sick or unsteady. My dad took me immediately that morning to get a rapid test in hopes of being able to hop on a later flight. 

Trying to get one rapid test ended up in us driving around the whole city. We went to two different Med Express locations, and ended up in Monroeville at a place we had never even heard of. 

After a couple hundred dollars and fifteen minutes, my second test came back positive. It was confirmed. I had COVID. 

I came home to my siblings in distraught. It was hardest to see my little sister so heartbroken about not being able to spend the next week with 15 of our cousins and all of my aunts and uncles. 

I spent the next days before Christmas quarantining in my home.