Ariel Epstein is a 25-year-old Syracuse graduate who works for a digital sports network in New York City. Last month, a pleasant dinner with family friends quickly turned into a scary situation for Epstein and the rest of the group. 

“We all went to this dinner. It was my mom and I, my aunt, a combined nine women. Dinner goes great, that was March 11 on a Wednesday. Starting Sunday, I started to feel chills," Epstein said. 

On Sunday, the New Rochelle resident and her mom, thinking they both had a cold, started getting some concerning texts from the other women at dinner.

"Turns out six out of nine of us started feeling sick that day. Monday was my absolute worst day, I couldn’t get out of bed," Epstein said.

For a week and a half, the journalist suffered from chills, congestion, and exhaustion. By March 27, Epstein and her mom decided to get tested. 

“There was a private testing facility about a three-minute drive from my house. You paid $125 out of pocket to get a test, the test result came back in two days. I was positive for it 13 days after my symptoms started,” Epstein said. 

The same day those test results came back, Epstein’s symptoms began to subside. Earlier this week, she put in an application to donate her plasma to help others going through what she went through.  

“Hopefully my mom and I will be chosen to donate our plasma, and I hate needles but in this situation, if I can turn this into a positive in any way that’s all I’m hoping to do,” Epstein said.

Sticking with the positives, Epstein is back to work on a digital show called “Sports Grid” and now she’s focused on using her platform to spread awareness to others. 

“I really commend you guys for doing a positive story on someone coming out on the other side of COVID-19 alive and feeling good because when you’re sick with it and all you hear are negative stories of people dying or being hospitalized, it’s really scary," Epstein said. "My goal now has been to spread optimism I can for people so they see just because you contract COVID-19 doesn’t mean you’re going to die.”