Collected Item: “Wilmington, NC: Camping with a close friend”
Give your story a title.
Wilmington, NC: Camping with a close friend
What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?
Photograph
Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.
Camping was one of the few ways my hometown best friend and I could travel, enjoy nature, and spend time together during covid. We both graduated high school in 2020 and went to different universities. Summer was one of the few times we could catch up in person, and during Covid our options were more limited. Campfires are objects around which I've had some of my most fun and meaningful conversations with my friends throughout my life. This particular one was especially bright and meaningful because my friend and I were both going through a transitional phase of our lives that was made more complex by the twist of the pandemic. A phase of our lives that was supposed to be super social was made less so by the coronavirus, a disappointment we kind of mourned over yet bonded over. To me the brightness of the fire in the dark woods represented hope and life in a time of uncertainty. Even though we felt uncertain about what our lives would look like after college, we remained hopeful and encouraged each other to press on to our goals regardless of the uncontrollable factors. In 2024 we both graduated college and gained commissions into the Armed Services.
Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?
#Arizona State University, HST 643, Spring A Session 2025, and History of Tourism
#Fire
#Friendship
#Hope
#Fire
#Friendship
#Hope
Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)
self
Give this story a date.
2022-05-11