I have four younger siblings and divorced parents. My four younger siblings travel back and forth between our parents’ houses in Lawrence, Kansas, approximately every two days. Oddly, but conveniently, my parents live down the street from one another. I followed the same schedule until turning 18 and have exclusively stayed at my mother’s house since.
On Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020, my mother, Laurie Ostronic, tested positive for COVID-19. The next day, I tested negative and my brother, Dominic Ostronic, tested positive. Despite living at my mother’s house, I am quite distant from my family. I recognized that the rest of my family had been highly exposed to one another—due to the movement between homes—but my exposure was minimal.
I took the risk of moving in with generous family friends, the DeWitts, from Aug. 14 to Aug. 31, to avoid the virus. In the end, the only other person in my immediate family that did not test positive or experience symptoms was my brother, Dallas Ostronic, 16. COVID-19 has created a lot of displacement and stress in my life, but it has helped me identify the steady, reliable things in my life: friends, exercise, and myself.