A House Divided: Morality of Living During COVID-19

From the very beginning of this pandemic, our country has been divided on how to manage and handle this challenging crisis. Different areas became extreme hotspots: California, New York and Washington.

As the days and months went by, states finally began to re-open, some earlier than others. Some people believed we’re living in a crisis while others didn’t want to accept the facts. A country divided was the approach the U.S. took when it came to handling the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, a new challenge arose for college students this fall. 

Whether we all imagined this pandemic would be over by the end of spring, start of summer or even by fall, it clearly has not gone away. The first challenge colleges would experience was mandating a quarantine for students coming from different parts of the country. 

For Marist, New York had been looking great, most of the Northeast had been doing well as fall approached, but the challenges would stem from college students from all over the world. The procedural side of the pandemic was handled. No parties, no large gatherings, keep to your residential areas, and avoid vacationing on the weekends. That was all part of the reopening plan. Sounds great on paper, however like all great plans, something’s gotta give.  We are talking about people, some that are friends and some that are strangers, being asked to coexist, all with different ideas on how to act during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

            There is no “how-to” book on handling the coronavirus. In reality, not everybody is going to share the same comfort zone when it comes to venturing out into day-to-day life. For my household at the time, some were more comfortable with testing the limits and others, like me, were not. 

Here comes the question: At what point and to what extent, should you accommodate your housemates while maintaining a life of your own? The basics are easily covered, keep spaces clean and share costs of bigger household items. The tipping point came down to everybody’s approach to this pandemic. Each of us have our own views on how to feel most comfortable in a time like this. Neither approach is wrong in handling it. However, the question still remained: how far should any of us go to accommodate one another? 

Personally, I feel as though it is important to be sure that everybody in your household is going to feel safe and happy, regardless of a pandemic. Overall, being respectful, considerate and knowing how to compromise may be the most important approach, especially when some of your housemates are strangers. At the end of the day, it’s unreasonable to tell your housemates how they should live, hence a house divided.

Champagnat Hall is just one of the residence halls where students struggle to establish boundaries with COVID-19 regulations. Source: Zachary Arce