Item
My Experiences of COVID-19
Title (Dublin Core)
My Experiences of COVID-19
Description (Dublin Core)
Personal experience with COVID-19
Date (Dublin Core)
Creator (Dublin Core)
Contributor (Dublin Core)
Type (Dublin Core)
Text
Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)
English
Emotion
English
Education--Universities
Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)
Collection (Dublin Core)
Date Submitted (Dublin Core)
05/01/2020
Date Modified (Dublin Core)
11/23/2020
11/17/2021
Date Created (Dublin Core)
04/26/2020
Text (Omeka Classic)
I am a student at Bates College, and my winter semester began as normally as my previous semester had, and I was especially interested in a new course that I had registered for named “China in the World”. For the course, my professor Brian Cwiek decided to have my peers and I do a media journal in which we have to find a news source that connects to the concept that we were focusing on for the week. Interestingly enough, during the first week of media journals, news of the spread of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, had just begun to appear, and as a result, many students decided to do their first media journal on the virus. At the time, I was worried that since China had one of the world’s largest economies and Wuhan, a major outbreak center, is a large, cosmopolitan city, the virus may spread more quickly, but on campus, many people weren’t too focused on the coronavirus. The news of COVID-19 continued to spread, and one day, when I went to debate practice, I was able to speak to others on the team whom I hadn’t seen since before winter break. Some of the varsity members on the debate team had just gotten back from the world debate tournament, which had been located in Thailand. A few of those debaters had apparently been to Wuhan for a few days during the tournament, and they were worried that they potentially had the virus since it had begun to spread while they were there. Despite this, fear over the virus had not hit at Bates College yet. The first week of the media journals also happened to be the week of the Chinese New Year, and many students, albeit being excited about the celebrations for the holiday, discussed the huge amounts of travel that would be occurring during that time. Of course, celebrations continued that week and into the weekend, and for a few more weeks, fear of the virus remained relatively low, and I mainly discussed it in my “China in the World” class.
Then, on the week of the 9th of March, many students began talking about the virus, and Commons began replacing its silverware and other materials with plastic in order to attempt to stop the spread of the virus on campus. The focus of many students, including myself, was affected that week since many began turning their attention to a potential departure from campus, and many of my friends who were from China began to worry about what their plans would be in the case of a departure, with the college even requiring international students to attend a session about the virus that included information for those students’ situations. The night before Bates College President Clayton Spencer’s momentous announcement, many students, including myself, were anxious to hear the college’s response to the virus, which had now spread to almost every state, including Maine, where someone had been diagnosed with the virus at a hospital a few minutes from campus. On Friday, March 13, President Clayton Spencer finally sent out a message to all students stating that we should leave campus by Tuesday, March 17th. This was a very heartbreaking moment since I had to leave all of my college friends and end my first year of college so suddenly. In addition, the college had canceled Short Term, a shorter semester that is a memorable time for many students, and I was saddened to lose something I was looking forward to doing. I was fortunate enough to have my parents drive up from Maryland to come and get me on Saturday, March 14th, and we arrived home in Maryland on the same day. Classes resumed remotely on March 23rd, and since my network isn’t the greatest and I found it difficult to have motivation after the first week of my remote courses, it was difficult to complete the remote learning for the remaining time of the winter semester. In addition, the stay-at-home order in Maryland has resulted in my family and I remaining at home for the majority of the pandemic, and I have been able to spend more time with my family. Recently, every student from Bates College received an email discussing bias-related incidents against Asian and Asian-American members of the college community, and I was shocked that this was occurring not only in the United States but also specifically in my college community. Hopefully, the pandemic will begin to decline so that many more lives aren’t lost and so that the U.S. can eventually begin opening back up.
Then, on the week of the 9th of March, many students began talking about the virus, and Commons began replacing its silverware and other materials with plastic in order to attempt to stop the spread of the virus on campus. The focus of many students, including myself, was affected that week since many began turning their attention to a potential departure from campus, and many of my friends who were from China began to worry about what their plans would be in the case of a departure, with the college even requiring international students to attend a session about the virus that included information for those students’ situations. The night before Bates College President Clayton Spencer’s momentous announcement, many students, including myself, were anxious to hear the college’s response to the virus, which had now spread to almost every state, including Maine, where someone had been diagnosed with the virus at a hospital a few minutes from campus. On Friday, March 13, President Clayton Spencer finally sent out a message to all students stating that we should leave campus by Tuesday, March 17th. This was a very heartbreaking moment since I had to leave all of my college friends and end my first year of college so suddenly. In addition, the college had canceled Short Term, a shorter semester that is a memorable time for many students, and I was saddened to lose something I was looking forward to doing. I was fortunate enough to have my parents drive up from Maryland to come and get me on Saturday, March 14th, and we arrived home in Maryland on the same day. Classes resumed remotely on March 23rd, and since my network isn’t the greatest and I found it difficult to have motivation after the first week of my remote courses, it was difficult to complete the remote learning for the remaining time of the winter semester. In addition, the stay-at-home order in Maryland has resulted in my family and I remaining at home for the majority of the pandemic, and I have been able to spend more time with my family. Recently, every student from Bates College received an email discussing bias-related incidents against Asian and Asian-American members of the college community, and I was shocked that this was occurring not only in the United States but also specifically in my college community. Hopefully, the pandemic will begin to decline so that many more lives aren’t lost and so that the U.S. can eventually begin opening back up.
Accrual Method (Dublin Core)
3033