Blog: Surviving the Pandemic on Social Media with the Dream Team

By Molly Goar
IMC Student
mkgoar@go.olemiss.edu

A month ago, a black Tahoe cruised down the backroads of Sardis, Mississippi with the windows down and country music blaring out of the speakers. The driver was laid back with one hand on the wheel and one resting on the window frame drumming his fingers to the rhythm of the song.

The passenger in the front seat had her feet kicked up on the dashboard singing her heart out to “Cruise” by Florida Georgia Line and had her flannel tied around her waist. The two passengers in the backseat were hanging out the windows admiring the first beautiful day of spring in Mississippi sneaking glances at each other and smiling. That was before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Not a day goes by in New Fairfield, Connecticut; The Woodlands, Texas; Miami, Florida; and Olive Branch, Mississippi that we don’t wish to have just one more day together. One more day to start at Waffle House. One more day to go to Hayes Crossing at Sardis Lake and watch the sunset. One more day to go enjoy tacos and drinks at our favorite Mexican restaurant. One more day to kidnap everyone from the dorms or the fraternity house to go on an adventure. One more day with the Dream Team.

I remember joking around with my family and the Dream Team about this so-called “Coronavirus.” We joked and would tease those wearing masks and plastic gloves in the stores calling it the “Glorified Flu.”

“If anyone were to get it, we all know it would be Molly because of her terrible immune system,” teased my best friend Caroline Kozlow.

I don’t think any of us expected it to become a pandemic, and I certainly didn’t expect to be affected.

One positive test later, we learned my father had Coronavirus and my whole family had been exposed to it. That’s when we took “sheltering in place” more seriously.

“We need to be an example to friends and family of how serious this is,” my mother, Katie said one morning after posting our story on Facebook.

I have found that when my family isn’t social distancing in our own rooms inside the house we are soaking up the sun in our backyard trying to rid our bodies of this terrible illness. On a good day, my family enjoys playing Kahoot or watching the HGTV network. Over time, we seem to be on the rise of good health and I believe that is due to taking “sheltering in place” seriously.

As for the Dream Team, we spend most nights together over Facetime. We’ve recently gotten into an online app called “Frankly” where you ask questions to each other and decide if they pass or fail. If it weren’t for social media and video chats, I don’t think we’d survive this pandemic.

Each passing day we all wish to be at our home away from home in Oxford. However, until everyone else learns how to take sheltering in place seriously, we remain far apart in distance but close together through our friendship.