I was eating dinner with my hall mates on the floor of our narrow dorm hallway in late January, recounting our Wednesday afternoon co-curricular scrimmages, making weekend plans and predicting the date of Head of School Day. It was perfectly normal and pleasantly calm — a scene that defined the epitome of being caught in the lull of Deerfield Academy’s picturesque prep school bubble.
But it wasn’t long before a needle popped that well-crafted bubble, when news about a suspected positive COVID-19 case began to surface. We lost our appetites for conversation, anxiously waiting for an administrator to order us into the solidarity of our rooms, which we have grown all too familiar with since the opening weeks of school. Another dormitory hall also had a positive test result, resulting in close to 25 students immediately confirmed as close contacts.
That Thursday, the entire Deerfield Academy community returned to Zoom lessons to accommodate contact tracing efforts. By evening, approximately 65 students were considered close contacts, who were either quarantined in the Deerfield Inn Annex (which the academy has rented out for quarantining purposes), on their halls, or at home for the weekend, if they lived close by. Everyone else, besides close contacts, was cleared to return to in-person classes and co-curriculars Friday morning.
The confirmed positive case students, along with a few other close contacts were quarantined in the Dewey — a dorm which was meant to be renovated in the summer of 2020, but was later converted into an additional testing and quarantine center.
By that Thursday afternoon, my hall and other close contacts took rapid antigen tests (all negative) along with a PCR test. Our quarantine was to last seven days, to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, hopefully ending by Feb. 3. We were not allowed to exit our rooms without permission (unless it was for the bathroom with masks on). Hot meals were served to our hall thanks to the dining hall staff (with the exception of continental cold breakfasts) and we had occasional dinner takeout from local restaurants. Teaching assistants, new additions to the Deerfield Academy faculty this year, also courteously coordinated care packages based on student preferences.
Amidst everything were Zoom classes, which felt rather unusual with half the students in class and another half on Zoom. Hence, there wasn’t much “fear of missing out” with many quarantined counterparts on Zoom who collectively required teachers’ equal attention.
Once the long class periods finished, I would sit by my windowsill and longingly watch students return to their dorms and leave for co-curriculars. It gave me something to look forward to, despite the envious twinges. I spent most of my quarantine engulfed in homework, but I had taken the time to read a new book, connect with friends I haven’t spoken to in a while, and more actively follow the news.
Besides food, walks were the only thing that kept alive the feeble and dwindling spirits of quarantined students. It was small gestures like this, that allowed us to remember we were still part of a larger community despite our exponentially increasing screen times.
As days blurred together, Deerfield Academy’s testing protocols were continually thorough and efficient, having students rapid and PCR tested after every three-day period, during which no new positive test results emerged.
However, as release from quarantine was just around the corner and students could not be more anxious, excited and eager to break free from their rooms, I received rather disappointing news. While almost all quarantined students’ COVID-19 test results came back negative, there were still about three tests that were pending. Of course, I was one of the three students.
The final night during a rule-reminder Zoom update with health administrators, a rather reminiscent time of virtual bonding over blissful thoughts of freedom — I was packing an overnight bag to stay in the D.S. Chen Health Center for a day until my test results returned to the school.
Around 6:30 the next morning, I checked into the Chen, where I would attend class remotely. When it was time to Zoom into my first period class, I was the only virtual camper, and seeing all of my once Zoom-mate confidants now in-person only piled onto my sadness. About 40 minutes into class, the long-awaited news had arrived.
My pending test result had thankfully come back negative. I never packed my bag as fast during my entire time at Deerfield Academy, jubilant to run out of the Chen. I, for once in a long while of being caught in the school routine, was excited to go to class.
For the next five days, all quarantined students were to stay in “Emerging 1.0,” with relatively more restrictions and less inter-dorm contacts alongside nighttime post-study hall temperature checks. A last negative PCR test deemed us all safe to fully integrate back into the tranquil bubble of the Deerfield Academy lull. And my hall had indeed predicted Head of School Day accurately — the Monday following Superbowl weekend.
Neha B. Jampala is a sophomore at Deerfield Academy. She writes for the school newspaper, The Scroll; is the head writer for Company Roots, an online entrepreneurial blog; and also explored publishing a novel outside of school. As an intern for the Greenfield Recorder, she hopes to grow her skills in journalism and delve deeper into her passion for writing by sharing stories while also contributing to the community.