Collected Item: “Hiking Boots”
Give your story a title.
Hiking Boots
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.
If COVID had not happened, I would not own these hiking boots. As lockdown stretched into the late spring and summer of 2020, my friends and I missed being able to see each other. We lived in Vermont at the time, which was both politically and socially strict on social distancing and masking protocol to limit the spread of COVID in the state. In order to spend time together, three of my friends and I started hiking at least once a week, as this allowed us to be together while also being socially distanced. Prior to the pandemic, none of us had been particularly interested in outdoor physical activities like hiking, and we were not in particularly good shape. By the end of the summer, we had all hiked at least 200 cumulative miles.
As winter crept in, we did not want to stop hiking. The microspikes next to the hiking boots allowed us to continue hiking together and remain social through the lonely winter months. The second picture was taken on February 21, 2021. It is of two of my friends taking a break on one of our winter hikes. They both have masks around their ears which they would put on when another person passed us on the trail. It was a cold day, but we prolonged the hike as long as we could so that we wouldn't have to leave each other. A month after this photo was taken, we got all got our first dose of the COVID vaccine which, a month later, allowed us to finally be together indoors again.
When I think of COVID, I think of the joy of hiking with my friends, a hobby which we continue to this day, but I also think of the pain of not knowing what the future would hold for us. I think of the feeling that time was standing still and the mix of peace and fear that brought me. As the vaccines began to be rolled out and the world started to open back up, the four of us decided to move together to Arizona to escape the cold and the memories of lockdown. I left most of my possessions behind, but I kept these hiking boots and microspikes, just in case.
As winter crept in, we did not want to stop hiking. The microspikes next to the hiking boots allowed us to continue hiking together and remain social through the lonely winter months. The second picture was taken on February 21, 2021. It is of two of my friends taking a break on one of our winter hikes. They both have masks around their ears which they would put on when another person passed us on the trail. It was a cold day, but we prolonged the hike as long as we could so that we wouldn't have to leave each other. A month after this photo was taken, we got all got our first dose of the COVID vaccine which, a month later, allowed us to finally be together indoors again.
When I think of COVID, I think of the joy of hiking with my friends, a hobby which we continue to this day, but I also think of the pain of not knowing what the future would hold for us. I think of the feeling that time was standing still and the mix of peace and fear that brought me. As the vaccines began to be rolled out and the world started to open back up, the four of us decided to move together to Arizona to escape the cold and the memories of lockdown. I left most of my possessions behind, but I kept these hiking boots and microspikes, just in case.
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?
#lockdown #socialdistancing #hiking #friends
Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)
self
Give this story a date.
2025-02-01