My name is Thomas LaPorte, I am a senior Writing Arts major at Rowan University. Pre-pandemic, I was on a path toward graduating in summer of 2020, but things are taking some wild turns.
I left Rowan University for spring break on Saturday March 14, 2020. I had a party the night before, so I cleaned and mopped my apartment and said goodbye to my roommate and his sister and I headed home.
South Brunswick, New Jersey is where my roots remain. There were coronavirus causes in my town; the disease had found its way into the high school because one of the students contracted it at a party in Princeton—it was spreading.
I unloaded all my clothes and effects, I knew the campus would probably kick everyone off campus, so I brought my valuables home.
When I got home, my mom was there. She lives alone—we have three guinea pigs— but she was mostly alone. Since my dad passed back in March of 2015, it was just my mom, sister and I. There was a falling out and we then it was just my mother and me. Bottom line, the house was empty—is empty—most of the time. So, my return home was a surprise. Learning we were in a state of emergency was a surprise. Learning I probably wasn’t going back to Rowan for the rest of the semester was a surprise. It was all fast, but after March 18th, the five year anniversary of my dad’s death, and the day Rutgers said they were no longer having classes for the rest of the semester, the day I moved out of my Rowan apartment, it was the start of something.
Governor Phil Murphy signed a stay-at-home order on March 21st, 2020, so I’ve been following that, but keeping myself occupied.
I will use this blog to document what happens moving forward. Today is April 12, 2020.
Writing, Research, and Technology 