ABSTRACT
This chapter will follow my year during the pandemic in three parts beginning in Seattle in the Winter of 2020, driving to and quarantining in New Jersey with my parents in spring and summer, and then returning to Seattle to teach my autumn courses. This case study begins with a canceled in-person lecture about loneliness that Dr. Kory Floyd was scheduled to give to my interpersonal communication class (i.e., Affection Exchange Theory). Little did we know then that the book my students had recently read of his, The Loneliness Cure, would yield so many practical tips for coping with the isolation of quarantine. I will next discuss quarantining with my parents drawing upon interpersonal concepts such as Communication Privacy Management Theory, Communication Theory of Resilience, and Uncertainty Management Theory. Third, I will discuss the interpersonal concerns of my 450 undergraduate students and graduate mentees during the beginning of the new academic year which included topics such as dating, having difficult conversations about current events, and relational distancing. Finally, I will close the chapter with a reflection on how interpersonal communication might evolve in the 2020s.
