To Travel or Not to Travel: That is the Question
So, today’s blog is late because I’m working remotely from home for the University Writing Center (UWC) for MTSU for the summer. Today is actually my off day and I’d plan to travel from Chattanooga to Murfreesboro to visit my apartment and to start the process of bringing some of my stuff home from my apartment.
In case you’re new to the blog, I would routinely commute to an apartment at school on a weekly basis, working and going to school and then traveling home on the weekends (again, all generally speaking–sometimes I stayed in Chattanooga or Murfreesboro, depending on the situation). Well, due to Covid-19, I’ve not been back to my apartment since March 3–the day before my trip to Boston, Massachusetts for my conference. Luckily, I knew I would be on Spring Break after that so it would be two weeks before I came back up, so I brought back all my food, took out my trash, and turned down the heat to avoid wasting electricity.
What I didn’t foresee was the way in which Covid-19 forced everyone into “lockdown” which meant that travel was, if not prohibited, actively and extremely prohibited.
Spike in Tennessee Cases
Now, as of July 7th, when I write this, I’m fairly sure that at least part, if not all, of the semester will be done remotely by many of the GTAs such as myself (heck, at this point, even our yearly “orientation” for returning and new GTAs are planning to be remote), so I decided to end my lease for my apartment (one less drain on the limited pool of money), preferring to just drive up there on the days I’ll need to actually be there (whenever we go back to in-person classes). This is aided by the fact I’m no longer taking classes myself, but have move into the Prospectus/Dissertation writing phase of my study.
Having made this decision, however, now all I really want to do is go up there and get my stuff and start bringing it back home. That’s what today was supposed to be.
Until I looked at the (still) rising rates of Covid-19 infection in Tennessee. Until I heard about the new potential for the “airborne” nature of the virus in certain situations. Until I heard that the risk increases based on moving into spaces where you don’t know the people you’re interacting with. Until I heard that Murfreesboro has no mandated mask order at the moment. Until I remembered that my apartment is in a “cluster” of 4 other apartments and my neighboring apartment, while empty at the time, was already being shown to various potential tenants as late as that last week of February before my trip and has probably been rented out in the interim with “new” neighbors who I don’t know and don’t know if they’ve been sick or not.
So I decided against going up there today. Next Tuesday will also be a “wash” as I have something planned for that day. So, I’ll check back in two weeks to see where we are now, and then I’ll make a decision.
Staying Safe
Ideally, I would stay here and not travel at all until the Governor’s “State of Emergency” order expires on Aug. 29th. However, since my lease is up Aug. 31st, that would only give me two days to clear out my things from the apartment–not ideal.
However, as August has 5 Saturdays (& Sundays) in the month–a rare occurrence indeed–so, thinking about it, I may just go up there on each Saturday in August (assuming infection rates are not still rising) and bring my things back then. My goal is to follow what I’ve learned during this pandemic: take small bites out a large goal and spread it out over time. I’ve learned the more that I do this, the better and more successful I am at whatever I’m doing, so this is what I’m going to do try to balance the need to clear out my apartment and to stay safe while doing it.
Have a great day!
Sidney
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