As the deadline to meet the full vaccination status outlined by SUNY Oswego fast approaches, one student is sharing what the battle against COVID-19 was like for him.

Lane Russell was looking forward to the return to in-person classes, but all that changed within days after he contracted the virus the weekend after the first week of classes.

“I was very excited to get back into classes and unfortunately that first weekend was when I first started to feel sick,” Russell said.

When he first started feeling sick, Russell said he stopped going to work and attending his classes in person out of caution.

“It was pretty disappointing, I guess you could say,” he said. “I was so excited to finally get back into the rhythm of things, things started to get normal and then things took [a] turn for the worst when I ended up testing positive.”

For Russell, having to quarantine meant he had to take care of everything on his own, as he lives off-campus and away from family.

“For me, it was just accepting that ‘you’re going to be alone and not leave your apartment for seven to 10 days,’” Russell said. “I just had to accept that, and that was a little depressing because it’s unfortunate to not be around other people for that long and feel that separation from society.”

That sudden transition, he said, was “a hard adjustment to make.”

“Having that separation was one of the hardest parts for me,” Russell said.

Russell, who had received both shots, said his symptoms were mild.

“I feel like I had a very mild case, which was great, because I was still able to focus on things,” Russell said. “The emotions I felt [were] really just that sadness in being separated, and I would say if it wasn’t for talking to relatives or my girlfriend on the phone, it would have been much worse.”

Russell said a lot of those emotions were similar to those he experienced last year when he transferred to Oswego and everything was remote.

“Being away from my home, from my family and my friends, I felt a lot of those same emotions that I had, but even a step further because I was trapped in my home,” Russell said, adding that “I couldn’t go outside and experience the world like I could last year. I just felt that isolation even worse.”

Now, Russell says he hopes that others won’t have to go through the two-week battle he endured with COVID-19.

“Even though I had the full vaccine series, I had both shots, and I still got sick,” Russell said. “Even after all that, I would recommend it to everybody, not just in the sense of ‘there’s punishments at the school level for it,’ but I know that without that my condition would have been worse.”

The school has set the Sept. 27 deadline for students to receive the full vaccine series in order to be able to remain on campus.

 Annika Wickham |The Oswegonian