Confessions of a (Quarantined) First Time Voter

photo courtesy of unsplash / element5

To be a college student in 2020 is to be quarantined alone in a hotel during the most pivotal presidential election. 

I imagined this day to be uncomfortable no matter where I was. I imagined myself in my dorm with my roommates—all of whom have a mix of hopes and feelings for this election—anxiously waiting to hear who the next leader of our country will be. 

Although COVID-19 has beaten down Americans for months now, I can’t say that I imagined myself personally affected and quarantined during the election. While Syracuse University did provide me with quite the suite at the Sheraton for 14 days, I really was not looking forward to spending this particular day alone.

The best and worst part of 2020 is the fact that we have every news source and an abundance of information available to us at all times, every second of the day. So, even though I was technically alone, I was also joined by every political analyst to ever exist from every possible station in my room. However, I can assure anyone that the influx of media paired with complete isolation can be extremely overwhelming. Not to mention, the chaos did not end on election day.

So, what have I learned from this extremely stressful experience? It is definitely okay to tune out the chaos of this election. No other country has a campaign and election season as long as America’s. This election happened to be even longer than normal. At a certain point, I had to accept that I had done all that I could to make my impact, and logging off did not make me uninterested or uninformed. 

While this experience was not exactly fun, it was informative. And honestly, watching this election alone from my hotel room in quarantine could not sum up this year more appropriately. 2020… what a time.