One of the ground rules established for students during the spring 2021 semester at Bluffton was leaving campus overnight wasn’t allowed without requesting permission. It was strongly advised for students to remain on campus and to follow distancing and mask protocols when going to places like the store to help #ProtecTheDam and lower the spread of the Coronavirus. Students were joyful to learn they had permission to leave and celebrate Easter weekend with their family.
There were a variety of experiences students shared as this small break approached. Some students were exposed to a positive case of the Coronavirus before the break started and had to be put into quarantine. One of those students was sophomore Cierra Long.
Long ended up going home to Sidney, Ohio for her quarantine. In being home, Long was able to catch up on sleep, do homework and other things to keep her busy the past couple of days.
Sophomore Cierra Long. Photo by Olivia Westcott.
“I watched an entire season of Grey’s Anatomy,” said Long.
Long went home last Wednesday night and was able to sleep in for the first time this semester on Thursday morning. With being home, she attended her Thursday classes over Zoom in less favorable internet conditions.
At home, Long was able to get tested on Easter and found out she is negative for the virus. After receiving her result, she went to her dad’s house where she socially distanced from everyone and wore her mask. She was able to experience some form of family gathering, even though it wasn’t in the way she initially planned.
“I planned on visiting my family,” said Long. “I wasn’t able to eat Easter dinner with my family. Since I’ve been home, I’ve stayed in my room a majority of the time and just wore my mask if I left my room. I planned on actually not being secluded to a small bedroom.”
Freshmen Antonio Miller. Photo provided by Antonio Miller.
Antonio Miller is a freshmen student who wasn’t able to go home for the break due to his family being exposed to the virus and having to quarantine. Because of this, Miller stayed on campus and took advantage of the extra time to relax.
Spending most of his day in his dorm room, Miller was able to get some house-cleaning items done like washing dishes, responding to emails and doing laundry. Along with spring cleaning, Miller was able to appraise and look into the worth of some playing cards he has which he is considering selling after realizing some were valuable which he doesn’t use.
Emma Payne, another sophomore student at Bluffton, was actually able to go home to see family, not having to quarantine or isolate due to exposure.
Emma Payne, photo provided
Payne had a ‘pod’/’bubble’ with some of her family members, and was able to safely meet with them and celebrate Easter. In celebration, she said there was an Easter egg hunt for the grandkids as well as an Easter meal.
This was the first gathering Payne has been able to attend to see her close-knit family in over a year since the pandemic began. She was appreciative for the couple of days this weekend since there wasn’t a spring break for the Beavers this year.
Payne is a thrower for the track and field team, so she often has a busy schedule with practice which takes up her leftover free time.
“For a while, I was worried that I wouldn’t even be able to go home due to athletics,” said Payne. “So I was really just grateful to be able to go home at all.”
After students returned from Easter weekend, random testing was increased from 5% to 50% of non-athlete students; this testing occurred Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Testing like this helps limit the spread of the virus before too many students get infected and expose others.
