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Collected Item: “The end of quiet time in the home.”

Give your story a title.

The end of quiet time in the home.

What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?

Voicemail sound file from my child's school district announcing school closures.

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.

I am very lucky. I have a job that allows me to work 12-hour shifts, which means I have three or four days off a week. I used to have the time while my daughter was at school and my wife (a teacher) was at work to relax or work on my master's classes. These classes take concentration and time to read and write, and noise is very distracting to me. I should also mention that we purposely bought a small house, less than 1300 sq. feet. Suddenly in March, 2020, my world (at the risk of sounding selfish) was changed. My wife was teaching from home, juggling rooms back and forth with me for computer usage etc., while my daughter was asking for help with school. The voice mail attached is a memory I have of my comfortable little environment changing. This particular voicemail surely caused stress and anxiety to the parents of 16,000 students in one district. Even today listening to it feels ominous. Ironically, today I dropped my daughter off for the first time at in-person school, and I was sad to see her go.

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?

ArizonaStateUniversity, HST643, SensoryHistory, school, voicemail, ASU, introvert

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

Kyrene School District Administration (March 30th, 2020)

Give this story a date.

2020-10-13
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