Item
Lydia X Oral History, 2020/09/18
Media
Title (Dublin Core)
Lydia X Oral History, 2020/09/18
Description (Dublin Core)
The goal of this story was to capture a relatively normal COVID experience. This is not to say that this experience was not impactful. COVID has impacted all of us in small and big ways, and it's comforting to know we are far from alone in our experiences.
Recording Date (Dublin Core)
Creator (Dublin Core)
Contributor (Dublin Core)
Type (Dublin Core)
Interview conducted by me
Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)
English
Education--Universities
English
Government Federal
English
Home & Family Life
English
Travel
English
Social Distance
Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)
Date Submitted (Dublin Core)
09/20/2020
Date Modified (Dublin Core)
11/18/2020
11/20/2020
04/28/2022
08/29/2023
Date Created (Dublin Core)
9/18/2020
Interviewer (Bibliographic Ontology)
Gordie Croce
Interviewee (Bibliographic Ontology)
Lydia X
Format (Dublin Core)
audio
.m4a
Language (Dublin Core)
English
Duration (Omeka Classic)
00:06:18
Transcription (Omeka Classic)
Gordie Croce 0:01
Hello, this is Gordie Croce with the COVID Archive project. I'm here with Lydia today.
Lydia X 0:06
Hi, I'm Lydia. I'm from Wakefield, Mass. Yeah. Hi.
Gordie Croce 0:12
Alrighty, so just before we start, do you give me consent to record this and put it up on the COVID Archive project?
Lydia X 0:17
Yes.
Gordie Croce 0:18
Alrighty. And can you just say the date and time for me.
Lydia X 0:21
It is September 18, 2020 at 2:47 PM.
Gordie Croce 0:25
Awesome. Alrighty. Let's get into it. So do you remember, like, where you were when like, school shut down?
Lydia X 0:32
Yeah, so I had just gotten on break. So my family went down to Florida for a week. And my brother was a college senior at the time that I was a high school senior. So we were both very, very nervous that we would not, you know, go home and see our friends at any time. So we came back from Florida, and all of a sudden, everybody was wearing masks. And it had become a huge deal in like the span of two or three days. Yeah.
Gordie Croce 1:00
So yeah, sort of building off of that. Is there like, a moment when you realized how, like, how severe this was, like how important almost the pandemic was?
Lydia X 1:09
Yeah, I think there were two times for me that really hit. The first is that there were a lot of international kids at my school. And so we had had a lot of talks about, you know, not just stereotyping people, or trying to say any racist things, whether it be microaggressions or not. Um, and so it was just scary to like, talk to my friends and hear them say that people had targeted them, because they were Chinese, especially since a few of them had parents who were doctors in China, who were trying to help it. I realized how bad it was when I heard, you know, kids saying, just how they really bullied and everything because of this. And then as well, again, when I just came back to Mass, seeing everybody with masks on and hearing the death toll just keep on rising was very, very scary. And that's when I really realized how bad it got in America.
Gordie Croce 2:07
Yeah, I think, I think we also did watch like the hotspots play out, and it just like, get more and more attention. So again, like how did your, your daily life change? And like, what was the most visible parts of the pandemic that like you interacted with on a daily basis?
Lydia X 2:24
Yeah, I mean, you know, I went to boarding school. And so obviously, when everybody was quarantined, I was not at what I started to consider as my own home. I mean, I am only usually home for three months at most at a time. So all of a sudden, being stuck in my house, with my family, for six or seven months was really, really tough, and not having the interactions between friends that I had come to value so much, really hit me hard. So I mean, my daily life before have been playing sports and talking to teachers and hanging out with friends. And it had turned into me sitting on my bed, not really able to do any schoolwork, not really having anything to do at all. So…
Gordie Croce 3:13
How was like, like, kind of coming back into your house and like doing homework and stuff like, is that like an easy transition or is that like, difficult?
Lydia X 3:19
No, it was so hard. I mean, like, at my school, it was very, like, everybody needed to interact with the teacher, the biggest class I ever had was 16 people. So all of a sudden, having to be able to communicate through just a computer and just through emails was really, really hard for me to do, especially since I've gotten used to like physical interactions and everything between teachers and students. So yeah, it was not easy. It was not fun. But we got through, and we graduated. So that's about it.
Gordie Croce 3:55
That’s what counts in the end. So then moving sort of more broadly, like away from your, like, personal experience, how do you feel about how the government has handled the whole pandemic?
Lydia X 4:05
Poorly, like really, really poorly. Um, I feel like the fact that the President praised so many, like Southern governors and everything, for keeping in check with the virus, and then a month later, was accusing them of like, not working hard enough or anything because they have become the hot spots just later, when COVID entered America. I thought that was ridiculous, and hypocritical and just not what a president should do. Um, that being said, okay, so yeah, the government did not do a great job at all, especially the national government. Individuals, I think did a really good job responding and just trying to be positive for the rest, though. So you know, hopefully, in the next two months, we'll be able to use our votes and figure out what other kind of government we can have, that will actually help with this pandemic. Yeah.
Gordie Croce 5:11
So you like you mentioned, there's, you know, there's people who really stepped up during this pandemic, what other kind of positives have you, have you run into coming out of what's otherwise a pretty tragic situation?
Lydia X 5:23
Well, I'm really big into the environment. And at first, I thought that was going to be a positive. But it turns out that we actually started using more single use plastic and more chemicals. So not that, um, but I think like, again, the issue of voting has become super important in America. And so hopefully, I mean, we're a democratic state, we really need every single vote that we can get. So hopefully, there's gonna be a rise in voting on November 3rd that we haven't seen in the past few presidential elections. And then as well, I do think, again, there have been a ton of really good individual responses. And people have tried to be positive, and I mean, just looking at health care workers and everything, I think that there have definitely been literal lifesavers in the world today, so yeah. That’s about it.
Gordie Croce 6:16
Thank you so much.
Lydia X 6:17
Yeah.
Hello, this is Gordie Croce with the COVID Archive project. I'm here with Lydia today.
Lydia X 0:06
Hi, I'm Lydia. I'm from Wakefield, Mass. Yeah. Hi.
Gordie Croce 0:12
Alrighty, so just before we start, do you give me consent to record this and put it up on the COVID Archive project?
Lydia X 0:17
Yes.
Gordie Croce 0:18
Alrighty. And can you just say the date and time for me.
Lydia X 0:21
It is September 18, 2020 at 2:47 PM.
Gordie Croce 0:25
Awesome. Alrighty. Let's get into it. So do you remember, like, where you were when like, school shut down?
Lydia X 0:32
Yeah, so I had just gotten on break. So my family went down to Florida for a week. And my brother was a college senior at the time that I was a high school senior. So we were both very, very nervous that we would not, you know, go home and see our friends at any time. So we came back from Florida, and all of a sudden, everybody was wearing masks. And it had become a huge deal in like the span of two or three days. Yeah.
Gordie Croce 1:00
So yeah, sort of building off of that. Is there like, a moment when you realized how, like, how severe this was, like how important almost the pandemic was?
Lydia X 1:09
Yeah, I think there were two times for me that really hit. The first is that there were a lot of international kids at my school. And so we had had a lot of talks about, you know, not just stereotyping people, or trying to say any racist things, whether it be microaggressions or not. Um, and so it was just scary to like, talk to my friends and hear them say that people had targeted them, because they were Chinese, especially since a few of them had parents who were doctors in China, who were trying to help it. I realized how bad it was when I heard, you know, kids saying, just how they really bullied and everything because of this. And then as well, again, when I just came back to Mass, seeing everybody with masks on and hearing the death toll just keep on rising was very, very scary. And that's when I really realized how bad it got in America.
Gordie Croce 2:07
Yeah, I think, I think we also did watch like the hotspots play out, and it just like, get more and more attention. So again, like how did your, your daily life change? And like, what was the most visible parts of the pandemic that like you interacted with on a daily basis?
Lydia X 2:24
Yeah, I mean, you know, I went to boarding school. And so obviously, when everybody was quarantined, I was not at what I started to consider as my own home. I mean, I am only usually home for three months at most at a time. So all of a sudden, being stuck in my house, with my family, for six or seven months was really, really tough, and not having the interactions between friends that I had come to value so much, really hit me hard. So I mean, my daily life before have been playing sports and talking to teachers and hanging out with friends. And it had turned into me sitting on my bed, not really able to do any schoolwork, not really having anything to do at all. So…
Gordie Croce 3:13
How was like, like, kind of coming back into your house and like doing homework and stuff like, is that like an easy transition or is that like, difficult?
Lydia X 3:19
No, it was so hard. I mean, like, at my school, it was very, like, everybody needed to interact with the teacher, the biggest class I ever had was 16 people. So all of a sudden, having to be able to communicate through just a computer and just through emails was really, really hard for me to do, especially since I've gotten used to like physical interactions and everything between teachers and students. So yeah, it was not easy. It was not fun. But we got through, and we graduated. So that's about it.
Gordie Croce 3:55
That’s what counts in the end. So then moving sort of more broadly, like away from your, like, personal experience, how do you feel about how the government has handled the whole pandemic?
Lydia X 4:05
Poorly, like really, really poorly. Um, I feel like the fact that the President praised so many, like Southern governors and everything, for keeping in check with the virus, and then a month later, was accusing them of like, not working hard enough or anything because they have become the hot spots just later, when COVID entered America. I thought that was ridiculous, and hypocritical and just not what a president should do. Um, that being said, okay, so yeah, the government did not do a great job at all, especially the national government. Individuals, I think did a really good job responding and just trying to be positive for the rest, though. So you know, hopefully, in the next two months, we'll be able to use our votes and figure out what other kind of government we can have, that will actually help with this pandemic. Yeah.
Gordie Croce 5:11
So you like you mentioned, there's, you know, there's people who really stepped up during this pandemic, what other kind of positives have you, have you run into coming out of what's otherwise a pretty tragic situation?
Lydia X 5:23
Well, I'm really big into the environment. And at first, I thought that was going to be a positive. But it turns out that we actually started using more single use plastic and more chemicals. So not that, um, but I think like, again, the issue of voting has become super important in America. And so hopefully, I mean, we're a democratic state, we really need every single vote that we can get. So hopefully, there's gonna be a rise in voting on November 3rd that we haven't seen in the past few presidential elections. And then as well, I do think, again, there have been a ton of really good individual responses. And people have tried to be positive, and I mean, just looking at health care workers and everything, I think that there have definitely been literal lifesavers in the world today, so yeah. That’s about it.
Gordie Croce 6:16
Thank you so much.
Lydia X 6:17
Yeah.
This item was submitted on September 20, 2020 by Gordie Croce using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: https://covid-19archive.org/s/archive
Click here to view the collected data.