The past couple of weeks have been interesting, to say the least. At first, the threat of the coronavirus seemed far away, surrounding Asian and European countries; however, now that schools all over the United States have been closed or moved online, it's affecting areas a lot closer to home.

I was supposed to leave for Italy a week ago and stay for Spring Break but at this point, I'm thankful that the trip got canceled for me. As much as I wish I could have gone, Italy is crazy right now and I would not have wanted to risk being stuck on lockdown or have to be quarantined on my return trip to the US. I am concerned because the person I was supposed to go with still took the trip and now she might not be able to get back for a while. Hopefully, everything will work out but I definitely don't think it was worth the risk to go.

With Spring Break here, I know a lot of people had to cancel plans out of the control and I believe that's for the best. We don't know a lot about what is happening with the coronavirus but it's best to focus on prevention. Hopefully, by closing down schools, everyone will take precautions and stay safe. However, if schools remained open, at least students would be accounted for and those who felt sick would know to stay home and go to a doctor.

There's a lot of fear and panic surrounding the coronavirus and it's understandable but it's also creating more problems than I think are necessary. The world seems to be in a standstill, trying to prevent a spread when it's already too late. It might be time to focus on response and recovery. At this time, so many events have been canceled due to the virus and I don't know how many more will follow. It's rather unfortunate that there are so many unknowns. Especially those surrounding graduations and events during the summer. I recently canceled a trip to Europe that was supposed to take place over the summer. I was so excited about it but I know that there will be other chances to travel and this year is just going to be too unpredictable to set travel plans.

Here's to the hope that everything will go back to normal sooner rather than later.