Story and Photos by Qigao Zhong

After the extension of the spring break, my mother suddenly called me at 2 in the morning and told me that my cousin’s flight from Washington D.C. to Hong Kong had been canceled. My cousin is a high school international student in Charlottesville, Virginia, where I had also attended high school. The shutdown meant that, as a minor under the age of 18,  she had to leave school and thus had nowhere to stay. 

So, I took this mission from my mother and immediately drove to Virginia from Rochester to pick up my cousin and take care of her until she could travel back home. I found an Airbnb for us to settle in temporarily and then started looking for flights for her. It was hard but important for me to take this role seriously as her temporary caregiver, but it made me anxious.

What’s funny about all of this is that at the end of March, mainland China started to shut down its international flights. One ticket I tried to book from JFK to Shanghai was canceled which required us to stay in Virginia longer. I quickly realized that flights to mainland China were in such demand that the prices were inflated to ridiculous amounts of over $10,000 dollars per ticket. I decided to get a flight to Hong Kong and then find someone I know there to pick up my cousin from the Hong Kong airport. After I booked the flight and found a friend ready to wait at the airport, I received a call from the airline inquiring if my cousin had a Hong Kong ID because they just had a new police order that banned non-Hong Kong citizens, including those from mainland China, from entering Hong Kong. So because of that, I had to cancel the ticket from my side and pay a cancellation fee. 

Finally, I was able to book a ticket from Washington to Beijing. I don’t know why I was finally able to find a ticket, but perhaps the end of spring break for most schools in US opened up more opportunities for available and affordable seats. After driving my cousin to the airport in D.C., I was at last able to drive home. This was a difficult experience for me with nonstop pressure from my mother while I endlessly sought flights home for my cousin. But I understood that this is my responsibility to take care of any members of my family, especially those who are so young. 

I feel that school shutdowns particularly hurt the international students, especially those under 18. International college students like me can rent an apartment even if the school was closed, but people like my cousin had nowhere to live besides their school campus. They can’t book a hotel room because they are under 18. Their only choice is to go back to China, which costs them extra money under the high demand with no plans ahead at all. 

As this stressful saga finally came to a close, I felt relief that, despite spending so much money to help get her back home, my cousin arrived safely in China and was able to quarantine herself. After all, there is nothing more important than family.