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Collected Item: “Boston Lockdown”

Give your story a title.

Boston Lockdown

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

picture collage

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.

The JFK Library and Museum closed during the shutdown and I lost the best job I ever had. I graduated Boston University without a ceremony. I spent my first year in grad school on zoom. I ended up living with my 2 adult siblings and my parents who were either working virtually or not at all.

I decided that I would take the time at home to learn things that I had always intended to, mostly because I didn't want to lose my mind. I baked bread, lots of bread: challah, bagels, cinnamon rolls, babka and more. I knit a complicated sweater. I sewed masks for my friends and I played games with my family. I research and organized 7 generations of my family's pictures, documents, videos and newspaper clippings. I started growing vegetables and flowers and I watched hundreds of English Premier Soccer games.

The most fun I had was hanging out with my dog. For Halloween I made he and I costumes from the movie Rear Window. I feel like I did my best to survive the Plague, I am proud of all I was able to accomplish and I have more good memories than I thought was possible. I appreciate the normal things I took for granted pre-pandemic and I look forward to the end.

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?

#knitting, #baking, #family, #dogs, #boston, #survival, #accomplishments

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

Kylie Nelson

Give this story a date.

2021-05-09
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