Ever since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak last March, many people are continuing to worry about whether or not they will catch the virus. We really don’t know what to expect and what would happen when our test comes back positive. Some people could test positive but be asymptomatic, which means that they have no symptoms such as loss of taste and running out of breath. In this case, the question would be, “How could I be positive if I’m feeling perfectly fine?” It’s a little strange to think about because we aren’t sick and don’t show any signs of symptoms.

However, there are some people that show severe symptoms, which definitely shows signs of catching the virus. It may seem a little crazy, but until you have lived through quarantine and know the struggle of going through testing sites, some would never understand how it’s like living with someone who tests positive for COVID.

January 13 was the day my mom got tested for the virus. After staying home from work due to sickness, we thought that her test would come back positive. However, the test came back negative. How could my mom be sick for days at a time, but her test came back negative? Fast forward to January 29, my mom once again, got tested due to work orders. This test result though, came back positive. If my mom was energetic and back to her normal self, then why would this test show a positive result, when just two weeks ago when she was sick, the test came back negative?

After my dad and I found out about the positive result, we started scheduling testing appointments to make sure we aren’t positive, which they weren’t. Another week passes, and while isolating myself in the bedroom and my dad working from home in the office, he started developing symptoms of a really bad cough. Here we go again, scheduling testing and making sure we are still negative. Luckily, I still continued to test negative, but unfortunately my dad tested positive, making both of my parents positive of the coronavirus. Once I found out that I had tested negative twice for COVID, I immediately packed a suitcase and went to stay with my grandma until it was safe for me to finally come home. I don’t think anyone realizes how difficult it is to live with a relative who’s been tested positive for COVID-19.

However, through all the ups and downs that this quarantine and pandemic in general has brought me, I started my own little hobby of collecting Starbucks tumblers. I started collecting tumblers and reusable sets back in April of 2020 and I have yet to stop. Throughout the year, I have collected 12 Venti (large) tumblers, 3 sets of reusable cups, and 2 grande (medium) glitter snow-globe tumblers. It doesn’t seem like a lot of work to collecting tumblers, but there is so much more we need to know. For instance, the name of each tumbler, the average cost of a resale tumbler, the cost of the tumbler at retail, and most importantly when release day is.

So far I’ve attended only 1 release day, which is getting up around 2:30 in the morning and waiting until my local Starbucks opens to grab the cups that are most popular during release season. Fortunately, there is a release coming up this Tuesday, March 2 and I am preparing myself for the long night/early morning wait for the “HoneyComb studded Tumbler.” My newest collection that I am starting on is my “State collection,” which simply means grabbing each state’s Starbucks cups. It may seem like a long way to go, but I currently have 5 state cups, and 45 more to complete the collection.

Since the start of quarantine, especially the struggles in my life right now, I think that everyone needs to find their happiness regardless of what you are going through whether we are in a pandemic or not. Although I’ve spent quite a few dollars on my tumbler collection, I can happily say that I found the hobby that best suits me with the one thing I can’t live without, cups and coffee in general.