Jack Smith - How Covid-19 changed the Spring of 2020

During my time in Brussels, I had the opportunity to intern with Kreab worldwide in their financial services department. About two weeks into my internship, Nicolas, a consultant in the financial services department, asked me to monitor the European Commission’s midday press briefing as they were discussing the coronavirus. At the time, I had no idea that not only my time at Kreab would be consumed by the virus, but everyone’s lives across the globe would be affected.

As the semester moved forward and the virus’ effects evolved, my work life seemed to be consumed by the virus. I found myself taking notes on news articles in the mornings, taking notes on the midday press briefing at noon, and taking notes on any conference, meeting, or announcement concerning the coronavirus. The virus had begun to spread throughout the European Union, but authorities believed they had the situation under control and attempted to convince the public as such. The EC's reactions were justifiable as there were only a few cases in France, Germany, and Belgium for several weeks. I began to believe that the EU could contain the virus and shinned where China and other Asian countries struggling with the outbreak had failed. However, the outbreak in Italy proved that I could not have been more incorrect.

Once the outbreak started in Italy, I called my friend Lark Megate, who was studying abroad in a remote area of Italy about one hour away from Venice at the time, to check on him (For privacy reasons, his real name has been changed). Lark informed me that Furman administration and the administration at the university in Italy will try to keep the students there as long as possible. The day after Lark was informed that the administration has no intentions of sending students home, the US gave Italy a US travel advisory level 3 warning; the administration was forced to send the students home.

After this crushing news, we partied like rock stars in Barcelona to lift Lark's spirits. However, the reality of not saying goodbye to those Lark had become so close to over the past few months, not being able to spend the full time in Italy, and not being able to travel on the many planned trips in the coming weeks had began to set in; and the reality that I will suffer a similar fate as Lark began to set in as well.

I returned from Barcelona sad for Lark and knowing that I will likely receive news out of the blue that I will need to return to the US as well. However, I tried not to think about going home early and focus on my job, school, and travel. By this time, my job was completely consumed by the coronavirus. Every moment at Kreab was consumed by media monitoring, conference monitoring, announcement monitoring, and economic analysis all concerning the coronavirus.

On Wednesday, March 11th, I arrived at work around 9am. I followed the news and took notes on anything coronavirus related until 12:30. From there, I attended class from 1:30 until 4:30 where much of the discussion pertained to, you guessed it, the coronavirus. After class, I cooked dinner, hung out with friends, and went to bed around midnight. I woke up at 2:00am to a phone call from my dad. I figured he forgot I was five hours ahead, so I forwarded the call to voicemail and went back to sleep. About 3 minutes later, I woke up to a phone call from my mother, and she means business. I answered the phone to two screaming parents and I could not understand a thing they were saying.