Editor’s Note: Wesley Allen is a student enrolled in Dr. Leo Jeffres’s Specialized Writing class.

Four months ago, my girlfriend and I planned a spring break trip to California and Florida. The plane tickets were so cheap because we ordered them so far in advance. Around the same time we ordered those tickets, the coronavirus was just starting to rise in China.

Seeing this virus on television months ago honestly didn’t even make us think twice about the trip, like many people.

But, in March, a week before our vacation, the coronavirus made its way to the United States. But there weren’t many cases, so we decided to follow through with our travel plans and have ourselves a fun vacation.

Wash your hands, use hand sanitizer, and cover your cough, you should be fine. That’s what Americans were told, so that’s what we did. How hard could that be?

On our last day in California, we heard the number of cases was growing, and the government told Americans to avoid flying to or from Europe.

Upgrade seats: check; Clorox wipes: check; hand sanitizer: check. We were not scared to fly, so we had nothing to worry about and made our way to Florida.

The sun doesn’t feel better in any place than it does in Florida, especially on spring break.

Great news, the coronavirus “dies” or doesn’t survive long in heat over 78 degrees, say some reports. It will be impossible to get this virus because it was going to be between 82-86 degrees the whole week we are there. But we aren’t too gullible to believe “everything” the news tells us.

Wash your hands, use hand sanitizer, keep your distance. Are we OCD by now? Maybe, I don’t care.

We hear reports that toilet paper shelves are empty at CVS and grocery stores. What is going on? You know something isn’t right when people are going crazy over toilet paper.

The day comes when it’s time my girlfriend and I fly back to Ohio. Yesterday they were saying how bad Northeast Ohio has gotten. All of my schoolwork is online, my job is remote, and my girlfriend’s job is also remote because of the coronavirus.

Why leave? I ask my girlfriend. We are in Florida, one of the warmest, prettiest places. Do we really want to go back to Ohio where there is no toilet paper and coronavirus is running rampant? We really thought long and hard on if we wanted to go back. We didn’t want to get infected on the plane and then infect our families.

Wash your hands, use hand sanitizer, keep your distance from others, and cover your cough. OCD has officially kicked in.

On arrival, Cleveland Hopkins Airport was a ghost town. I think it was just our flight that came in.

Seeing people wearing masks over their faces used to be funny, but now you wish you had one. Things are getting so serious now that my mom and my girlfriend’s family didn’t even want to pick us up at the airport, and I don’t blame them.

Leave your suitcases in the garage, take your clothes off, spray your shoes and hats, and immediately go take a shower. These were my mom’s directions to my girlfriend and I upon arriving home.

Officials say 14 days of quarantine so 14 days of not hugging my mom, 14 days of distance, and 14 days of not even eating meals together. My girlfriend is still with me because she wanted to give it 14 days until she sees her parents as well.

Operation COVID. It has a nice ring to it. This is the name of the times we are in today. Everyone should be in Operation COVID, meaning wash your hands, use hand sanitizer, social distance, and cover your cough.

Wake up in the morning, make coffee, work from home, play video games, facetime friends, watch movies, play cards, and pray.

This is my COVID-19.