After testing positive for COVID-19, along with 5,762 other South Carolinians on Jan. 17, my symptoms weren’t what I expected.

On Jan. 14, I woke up with a fever that was completely random. Immediately, I wondered if it was COVID-19. In 2020, everyone was told that you had to be cautious with every symptom, even if it was similar to that of a common cold.

The next day, I had a very sore throat, so I went and got tested due to the fact that I live with other people and didn’t want to infect anyone else. I was sure I didn’t have COVID-19, because I hadn’t been around anyone. I stayed at home and only took my girlfriend to and from work.

Being certain I didn’t have it, I decided to go to urgent care after I got tested, not thinking that I should quarantine. The doctor took my vitals, and looked at my throat.

“I believe you have the beginning stage of strep throat,” she said.

She ordered some antibiotics and I picked them up later in the day.

After taking the antibiotics for a few days, I felt fine. But I wouldn’t know my COVID results until Jan. 17. I got a call early in the morning from McLeod hospital. They told me I had tested positive and needed to quarantine for 10 days. So I did.

Along with myself, thousands of other people in South Carolina tested positive. A week prior to this, I had a friend who had lost her aunt to COVID-19. Just yesterday, my step-father lost his uncle to coronavirus as well.

CNN’s Alta Spells and Maggie Fox said that all across the nation, “on Saturday [Jan. 17], Johns Hopkins reported 198,218 new cases and 3,286 new deaths.”

In the U.S. alone there have been 25.6 million cases, since the start of the pandemic, with 156,000 new cases just today. The total number of deaths has reached 429,000, excepting 4,101 from Jan. 28.

My first inclination was to be afraid and my anxiety raised through the roof. I was worried that I would be hospitalized. All over the news we hear doctors and nurses, along with other medical professionals telling us that the virus is deadly, and people can experience breathing issues.

I thought the worst. Little did I know, it wouldn’t be any worse than the flu.

From Jan. 14-18, I had a fever, sore throat, loss of taste and smell, congestion, clogged ears and weakness throughout my body. These symptoms happened separate from each other, and none lasted more than a day.

The strangest thing was the symptoms went away so fast. I expected to be in bad shape weeks after being cleared for the virus.

All in all, COVID-19 was just a big anxiety attack for me. I am in good shape health-wise, and I am now back in school. This doesn’t mean I won’t think of the virus as any less life-threatening than I did before. COVID-19 is nothing to play around with.