Items
topic_interest is exactly
USA
-
2022-07-13
Moving During the 2020 Pandemic
During the 2020 pandemic, my family had to move to a different state. I remember the virus specifically affecting too much, though that might be because I wasn't too involved in the logistics. I just had to stay out of the way of the movers and keep all my stuff together, both of which I would have done anyway. It would have been a different story if we had to take an airplane instead of driving, as I was fortunate enough to have been able to do. -
2022
Experience of COVID-19 in China and USA
As an international student, I have witnessed the spread of covid-19 in both China and the United States. While the virus harms humans in the same way, each country does it differently to humans facing the pandemic. I was in high school in Boston when the covid first broke out (in December?). At that time, there were only two cases in Boston, so everyone didn't care much about the virus far across the ocean. As a Chinese, I know that coronavirus has caused countless pain in Wuhan, China. Therefore, I wrote a petition to the school to advocate wearing masks at school to avoid infection. However, the absurdity of things is far beyond my imagination. My high school principal sent an email to all international students (most of us are Asians) telling us that masks do not help people stay away from the virus. He also required us not to wear masks in school because it would cause panic among other local students. This implicit discrimination against Asians is a hurt. In March, I decided to return to China from the US to visit my family. It was a tough decision, not only in the sense of risking my life but in the process. I overcame the flight's cutting off and was cancelled by seven flights to get on the plane home. But when I finally returned to China and was quarantined for 14 days, I discovered the maliciousness toward international students on the Internet. Everyone was repeating the sentence, "you can't serve the motherland, but you can be the first to poison your country flying from thousands of miles away". This exclusion of outsiders is another harm. These hurt far more than covid did to me. -
2021-09
Meme about covid-19 as a religion
I encountered this meme on twitter in 2021. Someone had shared it not understanding what it meant, to make fun of whom they assumed was an American Conservative who made it, and when I first saw it- it provided me with a lightbulb moment. I had not been able to understand through the pandemic why followers of God based religions were not able to take the pandemic seriously. Outside of conservative politics there was an aspect missing from the conversation about the pushback against pandemic safety measures. This meme showed me that many believers in God were unable to take the pandemic 'seriously' because to be afraid of covid-19 would be to view and interact with it like they do God. If you fear God, if your relationship to God is fear based, you cannot fear Covid-19 unless you wish to treat it in a manner similar to God. I think this simple meme is important in contextualizing the history of the pandemic, how those of God based faiths could not cope with the pandemic in a similar manner as others. The pandemic has changed me in a lot of ways, I had just turned 22 when the pandemic first started and now in December of 2022 I will turn 25 years old. Transitioning from early to mid 20's is always a challenge but the pandemic has created strange times as I transition more into adulthood. This meme has begun an interest and more mature perspective on the role religion plays not only in politics but the psychology behind people of God based faiths. This meme alone has assisted me in developing compassion for people I thought were just stupid when the pandemic started. There is no one rational response to immense fear, only personal widely varied responses; every person has a deeply individualized psychology built off of neural networks formed only by their unique experiences daily. -
2020-07-15
Wear a Damn Mask
#WEARADAMNMASK So excited to finally share the finished image for #GigiJournalPartII @vmagazine , which is officially on select newssstands! (Link in bio to order online) I couldn’t be more proud to be part of this very special publication, guest edited and creative directed by @gigihadid 💙 A month and a half ago while working on this, I never thought that at the time of the journal’s publication, cases in the US would be surging in 41 states and that hospitals would be swelling. For those who continue to resist precautionary measures and try to argue that the threat of this virus is false, I have family working in an ER full of COVID patients in Tennessee right now, and can promise you this is very real. So please, wear a fucking mask and wash your hands! It’s the absolute least we can do. Thank you to all the essential workers, who now 4 months in, are continuing to risk their lives by going to work every day. This work is in honour if you 💙 -
2021-03-24
Mask Mandate
My personal feelings expressed through a meme about how the U.S. Government must have felt about a national mask mandate. -
2020-04-15
That fleeting moment of Solidarity
In those first few weeks of lockdown I just remember a feeling of solidarity with my neighbors. We were all separate, all isolated, but all working toward the same goal. Throughout our neighborhood people had written with chalk on the sidewalk, we took walks every day and saw painted rocks, teddy bears sitting in windows, art and signs of hope and comfort. For a homeschool art lesson I had my sons do chalk splatter painting on our driveway and then taught them about Jackson Pollock. I wrote lyrics to Bob Marley songs and drew pictures of rainbows on the sidewalk. We baked bread, cinnamon rolls, all things warm and cozy. Our family was together in a special way, we appreciated the time together. We went on hikes and fished in the backyard pond and although there were zoom appointments and conference calls, life was moving at a slower more relaxing pace. We were hopeful and confident that by doing the right thing we were saving lives. -
2020-12-14
My 2020 Thanksgiving
This Thanksgiving of the year 2020, was different among all of my Thanksgivings in many ways. My family and I did not have our usually gathering this year. My grandparents were not able to due to COVID-19 the global pandemic, we did not want to put them at any risk. It also did not really feel like Thanksgiving at all, since we were not in school in person, I still cannot believe we have been doing school online since March! Wow how time has flied by. This year it was really hard for me to get into the fall spirit, yes I carved pumpkins, made pumpkin pie, and drank many iced pumpkin spiced lattes from Starbucks, nothing made it feel like Thanksgiving. Growing up I have always craved that feeling of leaving school, walking out those doors, knowing your not going to go back for a week. Oh how amazing that feels. But this year, that never happened. All I had to do to leave school was close my laptop, that's it. I was already at home, nothing had changed. Even though we did not to anything jurastically different it still did not feel like Thanksgiving, not even one bit. I never ever in a million years thought I would say this, but, I miss school, I want to go back so bad. I can not wait, I can not wait. To whoever is reading this probably years from now, please never take anything for granted, not even toilet paper. Yeah, toilet paper, it was impossible to find it anywhere, and even if you did, it was really bad, like worse than public restroom bad. Well, anyways Thanksgiving 2020 was a total bust and I can not wait for the day to come when everything goes back to normal, no more limits on how many people can enter a store at a time, no more temperature checks, getting to eat inside at restaurants! Never thought that would be something I would not be able to do, and the thing I know we all want most, is no more face masks. Yes, we have to wear face masks these little peices of paper that we wear on our face that cover our nose and mouth to help us maybe not get the virus. Half of my 8th grade year is gone already, and oh boy, I can't wait to go back to normal, I just really can't wait. -
2020-11-15
Christmas Photo 2020
A year never to forget and the most unusual Christmas holiday experience, or lack thereof. To memorialize our 2020 holiday season, we illustrated the mask mandate in force wearing holiday attire for our Christmas picture. -
2020-10-19
Will Trump Use Covid to Pull Off A Bolivia?
In 2019 the right-wing party in Bolivia used an excuse to pull off a coup of the government. Sighting irregular election processes. Riots ensued on the streets and within a few weeks, the right-wing power took control. The US government supported the coup before the election and supported them after the coup. 1 year later Bolivia redid their election and people lined up in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic to cast their votes and re-elect the former government. I wonder if Trump will copy Bolivia. I believe Trump would be able to garner enough people and support for intense riots. As well as make a contention to the validity of the election. Regardless, from examing Bolivia, anything is possible. -
2020-10-09
Japanese Pokémon Cards Keep Me Sane.
I chose to write about how Japanese Pokémon cards have helped to keep me sane. While it might seem silly at first, I am serious about this topic. I’ve been diagnosed with severe anxiety, and at one point went outside in a thunderstorm holding an umbrella because my mom wasn’t home when she said she would be. Being only 6 at the time, I didn’t really understand that her job doesn’t always end at the same time everyday since she is a professor at UWSP. Going back to the anxiety and Covid, I’ve gotten much better at handling my anxiety since then, but I cannot help but worry about my family. Due to my anxiety, I need to get confirmation that they are ok before I can fully relax. I am currently in my 3rd semester of Japanese. I’m also a huge nerd, so I really like Pokémon. I saw a video on youtube of a guy opening Japanese Pokemon cards, and it clicked in my head that I could distract myself by using Pokemon cards. Since I didn’t take any classes over the summer, I used that time to practice my Japanese by translating the cards to English and comparing them to the English versions of the cards from pictures I found online. Because I was able to do that , I was able to make it through my summer mostly anxiety free. It did cost a bit, roughly $50 US dollars for 20 packs of 7 cards, but it really did help keep me sane while the world went to hell and back. -
2020-10-04
Now I Know How My UK Fiancé Felt With Boris
I remember earlier in the pandemic Boris Johnson got sick. It was weird thinking the leader of England could get sick from such a deadly disease. How the country was panicking wondering what happens if the Prime Minister dies. I could only imagine how it must've been like. Now I actually get to experience it. Donald Trump is officially in the Hospital with covid, but it seems hes doing better then Boris did. -
2020-10-02
Justin Trudeau and other Canadian politicians send get-well messages to POTUS
Justin Trudeau and other prominent Canadian politicians, such as Conservative leader Erin O'Toole. have sent get-well messages to Donald and Melania Trump due to their recent positive COVID-19 test. -
2020-09-10T07:30
New Jersey School Bus Stop, September 2020
My 11 year old was not interested in doing a first day of school photo like we've done in the past. I get that it's embarrassing since "nobody else's parents walk around with big cameras." But I couldn't pass up the opportunity to preserve the moment for posterity, so I snuck a picture with my phone and cropped it afterward. I think the photo says a lot about the moment without words- the American flag, the masks, and the way the two girls are talking to each other while staying at least six feet apart. The flag represents, to me, the event that broke the idea of American exceptionalism for Americans in denial. Despite my prediction that Trump would screw up the response to the virus back in March, I was sure we'd be back to normal by the fall. I thought someone would get Trump to do the right thing. All I can say is I'm glad to live in one of the few states with strict rules that have brought our March and April infection rates low enough to have safe, hybrid, public education. -
2020-05-01
The Effect of the Coronavirus on Hospitals and Doctors
This picture resonates with me for a number of reasons. Firstly, both of my parents are cardiologists and my grandmother is a nurse practitioner, meaning that they have had to deal with the effects of the virus up close. This has put a new reason to worry as my parents and grandmother could be at risk for contracting the virus should something go wrong. This picture says a lot about the severity of the pandemic. Life-saving and even basic medical equipment, such as the ones utilized in the photo, are in short supply. Doctors and medical personnel are called upon to risk their health to help save that of others. Hospitals are plagued with the sea of new patients flooding in, so much so that, overcrowding has become an issue in some hospitals. This picture is important to me because it demonstrates what our medical workers and hospital staff are sacrificing in order to help combat an enemy that surrounds us. -
2020-06-26
First Wave never ended
Here we have discussion on the first a second wave topics. The second wave of covid was supposed to come after the first wave ended, and would perhaps be less intense. However, due to early reopening the first wave never actually ended in the US. I included this tweet because there seems to be a lot of confusion regarding the first and second waves of covid. Many are talking about the second wave hitting the US now as cases spike, but disregard the fact that cases were never began significantly going down. Therefore, we are still in the first wave. Even in my own personal life, people are confused and mixed up about the first and second waves. -
2020-06-25
European nations where virus first went mainstream nearly cleared as US cases soar
Viral tweet today highlights the differences in cases between EU nations which were greatly hit by virus early on and the US. The days case increases of 190 for Italy, 81 for France, and 330 for Spain draw a stark contrast to America's over 33,000 new cases for today. The virus first drew mainstream attention in the west once it left China and started affecting western nations. Italy in particular was an early poster country for the pandemic, but now seems quaint compared the the United States. I included this tweet because it essentially sums up the current status of the virus globally. European nations are almost clear of the virus due to strict pandemic guidelines. Meanwhile the United States has taken the opposite approach and any hope for the pandemic being over soon is officially gone. What struck me about this tweet was remembering the public reaction when Italy was the center point of the virus, and the denial of the US ever getting that bad. Now the story of the pandemic has shifted dramatically. -
2020-06-09
The USA vs. Itself
In this scene from the Marvel Universe, Captain America (right) is lapping Falcon (left) and calling out each time he passes him. In the present climate, it seemed as though the US was competing with Covid-19. But the US managed to surpass Covid's destructive potential thus far; we are currently grappling with a cultural war, a racial reckoning, as well as an economic collapse. Hopefully no more laps by the US for a bit.