Every single person affected by the COVID-19 pandemic has had a unique experience. I experienced first hand how three different governments responded to the pandemic, I learned how to adapt to my sport as a student-athlete and encountered what it was like moving to a different country amidst the chaos.
I’m a dual citizen and I was still living in Florida when the seemingly abstract threat of the virus was slowly growing. I decided to leave the country when my hometown declared that they would soon be closing the airport to outsiders until further notice. I made the decision swiftly, which gave me two days to pack up necessities, such as clothes and textbooks (which I later wouldn’t be able to return), and leave the rest of my apartment behind.
I went home to St.Maarten on a plane meant for about 100 people that held a total of six of us. After landing, I was mandated to self-quarantine for at least 14 days and call a COVID-19 hotline in case I showed any symptoms.
While home, my family sectioned off a portion of the house for me to implement my self-quarantine. I was kept busy with catching up on school work and maintaining training. To adjust to the new situation, my club coaches had organized for the swim team to stay fit, exercising together twice a day through Zoom. This was an interesting, temporary alternative that I didn’t realize at the time would last six months.
The island’s community atmosphere was fairly tense during the beginning phases. My country is the smallest piece of land in the world to be split into two different countries: half Dutch and half French. Although the landmass is just 37 square miles, once you cross the border, it’s a whole different culture and way of governing.
On the Dutch side where I live, the military had been called in to enforce a strict curfew during the week of our first case.
Going out was allowed for a window of about six hours for three days in the week. During this time, the population would go shopping and go about getting whatever necessities they needed to remain in their homes for the majority of the week.
Many stop points were set up along the routes of our small island and didn’t allow anyone to drive or walk without having written permission from the government for fear of large fines. The severity of the measures taken seemed justified to me. With a close-knit population of 70,000, a single case in the wrong place would prove disastrous.
