Collected Item: “A year of my life...”
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A year of my life...
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Text story
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.
A year of my life…
I tour ASU and decide it will be my college. Coronavirus arrives. My high school senior year abruptly ends. My twelfth and final season of high school baseball is cancelled. Our state goes on lockdown and we all stay home. Easter. No family get together. Church is closed. People around the world start to die by the thousands. Fear and anger spreads around social media. My grandfather falls and breaks his jaw and is in the hospital for a month. My older brothers and sisters keep their jobs but work from home. My nephew’s schools and daycares close.
George Floyd dies at the hands of the police in Minnesota. All hell breaks loose in Portland…protests, riots, looting everywhere. Everyone takes sides. Blacks vs the police, the establishment, the government. Politician vs politician. Family member vs family member. Violence, tear gas, extremists. Whites stand with blacks. Moms join in protest. Black Lives Matter. All Lives Matter. No don’t say that. That is racist.
Churches protest. They want to stay open. Freedom to worship, they say. Over 230 people get Covid at a Pentecostal church in Oregon. Pastors downplay the risks of the coronavirus, then die of coronavirus. They lose their battle in the courts.
A wedding in Maine…55 guests…177 get sick with Covid…7 die – none of whom were at the wedding. A superspreader event.
Superspreader. Our new vocabulary.
Wear your mask. Our new normal.
Another suicide in my school district. I turn 18. I am registered for classes at ASU but attending is up in the air. I work as a GrubHub deliverer because everyone is ordering food from home. We get together with family outdoors. I have a graduation party…in July. Graduated seniors get to play a couple of baseball games at the local minor league field. I am undefeated for my senior season. I pitch, hit, and field well. What might have been…
August comes. August 15…I move into Hassayampa…115 degrees…new roommate…I start college…I get Covid…so does my roommate…so does our suitemate…and many others…September 8…I move out of Hassayampa…my roommate and I move into an apartment. Life gets better. Fires sweep through Oregon. And California. And Arizona. ASU cancels finals week. Election. All hell breaks loose. Again. I move home before Thanksgiving. My brother-in-law gets sick with Covid 19. My brother and sister-in-law get sick with Covid 19. My first term of college ends. Christmas.
Politics. I won. No, I won. Sounds like kindergarten. These people run our government?
I delete most of my social media. I am sick of it. I am sick of everybody. Sick of this year.
January. ASU cancels spring break. Back to school. Things are different. The newness has worn off. Covid is a drag. School is a drag. I lose my best friend.
I go home. I go back.
Ice storm in Portland…power out…broken trees.
I go home. I go back.
Trying to keep going. Trying to survive. Class is a blur. I stare at the screen. The information goes through me. I am not there. I do my homework. I bomb my exams. My grades are ok…but am I learning anything? Who knows? Who cares? School will be over soon.
Virtual work. Virtual school. Virtual life.
I will finish the year with over 40 credits. I will never have stepped foot in a college classroom. I will never have talked to a college professor. I will have met very few people.
Fall will come.
I will be starting over.
We all will be.
I hope.
#REL101
I tour ASU and decide it will be my college. Coronavirus arrives. My high school senior year abruptly ends. My twelfth and final season of high school baseball is cancelled. Our state goes on lockdown and we all stay home. Easter. No family get together. Church is closed. People around the world start to die by the thousands. Fear and anger spreads around social media. My grandfather falls and breaks his jaw and is in the hospital for a month. My older brothers and sisters keep their jobs but work from home. My nephew’s schools and daycares close.
George Floyd dies at the hands of the police in Minnesota. All hell breaks loose in Portland…protests, riots, looting everywhere. Everyone takes sides. Blacks vs the police, the establishment, the government. Politician vs politician. Family member vs family member. Violence, tear gas, extremists. Whites stand with blacks. Moms join in protest. Black Lives Matter. All Lives Matter. No don’t say that. That is racist.
Churches protest. They want to stay open. Freedom to worship, they say. Over 230 people get Covid at a Pentecostal church in Oregon. Pastors downplay the risks of the coronavirus, then die of coronavirus. They lose their battle in the courts.
A wedding in Maine…55 guests…177 get sick with Covid…7 die – none of whom were at the wedding. A superspreader event.
Superspreader. Our new vocabulary.
Wear your mask. Our new normal.
Another suicide in my school district. I turn 18. I am registered for classes at ASU but attending is up in the air. I work as a GrubHub deliverer because everyone is ordering food from home. We get together with family outdoors. I have a graduation party…in July. Graduated seniors get to play a couple of baseball games at the local minor league field. I am undefeated for my senior season. I pitch, hit, and field well. What might have been…
August comes. August 15…I move into Hassayampa…115 degrees…new roommate…I start college…I get Covid…so does my roommate…so does our suitemate…and many others…September 8…I move out of Hassayampa…my roommate and I move into an apartment. Life gets better. Fires sweep through Oregon. And California. And Arizona. ASU cancels finals week. Election. All hell breaks loose. Again. I move home before Thanksgiving. My brother-in-law gets sick with Covid 19. My brother and sister-in-law get sick with Covid 19. My first term of college ends. Christmas.
Politics. I won. No, I won. Sounds like kindergarten. These people run our government?
I delete most of my social media. I am sick of it. I am sick of everybody. Sick of this year.
January. ASU cancels spring break. Back to school. Things are different. The newness has worn off. Covid is a drag. School is a drag. I lose my best friend.
I go home. I go back.
Ice storm in Portland…power out…broken trees.
I go home. I go back.
Trying to keep going. Trying to survive. Class is a blur. I stare at the screen. The information goes through me. I am not there. I do my homework. I bomb my exams. My grades are ok…but am I learning anything? Who knows? Who cares? School will be over soon.
Virtual work. Virtual school. Virtual life.
I will finish the year with over 40 credits. I will never have stepped foot in a college classroom. I will never have talked to a college professor. I will have met very few people.
Fall will come.
I will be starting over.
We all will be.
I hope.
#REL101
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?
#REL101, #superspreader, #wearamask, #VirtualLife,
Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)
Ryan
Give this story a date.
2021-04-11