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2022-04-29
Depression during a Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has been one the hardest things for me to deal with. I suffer from depression and often combat this by spending time with friends and family. Before the pandemic I would often spend my weekends with friends and visit my family after work on half of the weekdays. Throughout the pandemic, until recently it has been rather unacceptable to spend time in close contact with others. In the being of the pandemic during the first shutdowns and mandates I struggled deeply with having to stay home all the time. I became quite depressed and would often just sleep through my days off. I tried to do virtual hangouts with my friends and family, but it just wasn’t the same. I ended up planning socially distanced hangouts with my friends, often picnics/lunch in the park 6 feet apart. This really helped me because I was able to socialize with them in person. As the pandemic progressed, and I wasn’t able to see friends nearly as often as before I became more comfortable with being alone. I started to find the things I enjoyed doing on my own. I took time to really work on some of the issues I had been avoiding. I used the time I was forced to be alone in a productive way. Although the pandemic challenged my way of living, I still found a way to grow. Now that we are starting to get a better handle on the virus, life is slowly starting to return to what it was before. With the release of vaccines I have been able to start seeing my friends and family again. With the lower rate of cases a lot of the business I used to visit are reopening. As we start to return to “normal” I’ve found my new normal and I quite enjoy my alone time, just as much as the time I spend with others. -
2022-04-29
Life in The Pandemic
The story I have uploaded goes over my own personal feelings with the pandemic. It is important to me because although being in a pandemic is negative, I feel that I have really grown and been shaped into the person I am today because of it. -
2020-03
Growth Through a Pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought an array of challenges for not only me, but people across the globe. People have lost loved ones, lost touch with some of their closest friends, got covid themselves, and so much more. Although Covid-19 has taken a long-lasting toll on my life, it has also brought me great change in an extremely positive way. When the pandemic first started my family and I were forced into a “lockdown”, only leaving our house for the essentials like food. I was unable to see my friends as online schooling became more and more prominent. This took such a toll on me both mentally and physically. I was longing for a social connection that I could no longer get and was unable to do one of the things I love to do most, workout. Although at the time I thought it was the worst thing possible, the lockdown caused my family and I to get extremely close. We would have family dinners, play games, and watch movies. The pandemic helped me to realize how much I rely on my family, and that through thick and thin they will always be there for me. As the pandemic progressed, I got accepted into Duquesne University, and started college soon after. This was a huge adjustment for me as I am from Buffalo, three and a half hours away. I had to meet new people and get adjusted to home away from home amid a global pandemic. I had to overcome fear of the unknown and fear of the pandemic to grow as an individual, and I did just that. Through the last three semesters I have met so many amazing people and found the things that make me happy while at Duquesne. I learned to not let fear override you, and that to grow physically and mentally you must overcome fear. Across the entire pandemic I have also learned that sometimes you need to focus on yourself and put yourself first. Throughout the pandemic I got into the habit of going to the gym consistently and began to eat more cleanly. I found joy in the little things, like going to work and building relationships with my fellow employees. In the end, the pandemic taught me to always look on the brightside no matter what and to make the most of everything that is thrown at you, good or bad. Looking back at it, the Covid-19 pandemic helped me grow and become the person I am today. -
2021-10-06
Reflecting on life. Life has been hard.
It was August 25th, 2019. I had finally reached my parents’ house, all of our belongings* (all that could fit in one car*) in tow, back in my home state of New York. I didn’t want to be here – I grew up in NY, and until two years ago, never intended on coming back. I like to call it the “tectonic plates of life” moving, that moment when you feel something big on the horizon and suddenly, oh hey, here’s a big life decision you didn’t plan on having to make, have fun! Circumstances change, yeah. Life is a pretty unpredictable time warp, and global warming is such a serious issue; it was already sorta tough to not focus on the negatives before 2020. Relationship issues, financial issues, family issues – so many volumes of problems. I already felt like I had lost everything, pride included. Nothing could have prepared me for the pure stress that inevitably comes from a worldwide pandemic. Moving back into my parents’ house as a single parent in her 30’s was just about the biggest pill I could swallow that autumn. Since I had decided to work at Starbucks again, I finally made up my mind to go to college for the first time. In February, I enrolled in summer classes to start at ASU. I was hearing something about a coronavirus, but I wasn’t paying much attention to the news with taking placement tests for college in between working. In March, my daughter’s school closed, and so did Starbucks. It’s hard. It’s hard to not focus on the bad, and it’s so odd to think fondly of the not-so-bad before it. Life just feels a little bit harder. A lot bit, with the increasing violence, hatred and misinformation being spread on a daily basis. Everyone’s experiencing repercussions in one way or another; but something I cannot deny – the something I’m most grateful for: how much I’ve grown, emotionally and mentally. Maybe I can’t credit the stress from the pandemic completely, but it has certainly put all of my other stress in a different perspective. It turned my attention to world issues – I stopped being so wrapped up with myself and my own country, started learning about other cultures after starting college – falling so deeply for that education that I decided to major in Anthropology, with a Minor in Religious Studies. I watched a Ted Talk once that described the good effects of stress.. I feel as if I’m a better human, or at least, a more knowledgeable one. A lot has changed in the past two years. I started college, moved into my own place, moved back into parents’ (hi, tectonic plates!), went from being faithfully Christian to super agnostic/atheist (that was mentally difficult and I’m still processing it) and although I am quite bitter with life in general, I’m also much happier with it, and with myself. I'm a better mom for it. Life has felt like a constant challenge for years now, but I appreciate how easy it is to appreciate the simple things. I may find it annoying that everyone is more on edge, but honestly, who can blame them? Good on everyone for putting up with life! All we can do is learn and grow. And treat the planet well, guys. Let’s do that, too. -
2020-04-30
Adventure Behind Uncertainties
Different life circumstances bring different versions of us, sometimes it is how we approach it that determines the type of adventure that we are going to have. The pandemic has brought a lot of uncertainties of what our usual lives would be like. For me, it was the repeated days of not knowing what to do next which led me to start reflecting on what I can do now. My first goal in this journey was to reach out to family and friends. During my time of reflection, I realized that I was losing touch with those close to me. Rather than calling once in a while or during birthdays and holidays, I call and text more often than before. My second goal was working on my health. I began making healthier lifestyle choices such as exercising more often, eating healthier food and drinking more water. I also added a skincare routine which I enjoy doing and continue to improve as needed. Prior to the pandemic, I had a passion for painting though I have not really put my skills to use like I should. But recently I started drawing again to bring my paintings to life. Hoping before the end of the year, I can have some paintings to share with family and friends. One of my happiest moment during the pandemic was creating small humanitarian projects such as donating food. It taught me that I can still be involved in my community regardless of the distance. As the pandemic continues, I am still adapting , learning about new ways to improve my health and wellness and continue to find ways to contribute to my community. -
2021-04-25
Julia Jensen Portfolio
Going into this internship, I really didn’t know what to expect. Throughout undergrad, I worked full time jobs and did not have the time to take on any internships or research positions, so this was my first experience with it. I also was studying anthropology and was uncertain what path I wanted to take, making it hard to find internships that felt applicable to my future. Once I decided to study history with a goal of pursuing a public history career, this internship seemed like an incredible opportunity to learn more about the field and get a feel for what a possible future career could be. Thanks to the Public History Methodology course taught by Dr. Mark Tebeau, I did have a decent amount of knowledge of what public history consisted of, which made it clearer to me what I wanted to pursue and gave me an understanding on which I could build throughout this internship. Working with JOTPY provided hands-on experience in which I could apply this knowledge and learn the applicable skills necessary to practice public history. These skills included managing metadata, conducting and transcribing oral histories, marketing new collections, prioritizing the safety and privacy of contributors, learning to work with a team remotely, and acknowledging and confronting the silences present in the archive. As I continue to volunteer with JOTPY past the end of my internship, I hope to strengthen these skills, growing more comfortable with curating so that I may carry that with me once I move on from this archive. Given that this was my first experience like this, much of the work I did was initially out of my comfort zone. The scope of this archive was a bit intimidating, and I did not initially understand how important and impactful JOTPY is and will continue to be, even past the pandemic. As the weeks went on, I grew more comfortable curating, as well as interacting with the team over Slack and Zoom, which I hadn’t utilized very much before this internship. I was also unfamiliar with marketing something like a collection, so having the opportunity to do so pushed me past my comfort zone and taught me how to better write for a public audience in a way that is both succinct and engaging. I learned that I really enjoy this type of work, particularly when it came to creating a collection, as it gave me the opportunity to address a silence and advocate for an underappreciated group of people while pulling from personal experience and situations that I have observed. My goal in life is to help people, and this was a great opportunity to help in a more subtle, behind-the-scenes sort of way. Since I had already hoped to pursue a career in the field of public history, specifically working with museums, this internship did not necessarily change my approach; however, it did strengthen my desire to work in this field, and taught me the necessary skills to feel confident that this is the right path for me. -
2021-01-29
Apart for Eleven Months
This year, my daughter’s Girl Scout troop, like every other troop in the country, has moved their cookie sales online. Even cookie pick up is strange this year. Instead of having families come by and pick up cookies to sell, I leave the cookies on the porch with the receipt and wave through the window. When my best friend (and co-leader) came with her daughter to pick up cookies, we chatted through the window and took a picture to save the bizarre moment. I mentioned that when another family from the troop came to get cookies, I almost didn’t recognize the girl because she had gotten so tall. My best friend then had the genius idea to take a picture of her daughter by my front door. She said I should take a picture of my daughter so we could compare their heights, as they have been the same size their entire lives. And then she said a statement that shocked me: “I mean, it’ll be a year next month since they’ve actually stood next to each other.” I guess since my best friend and I text almost every day, and have seen each other over Zoom, I hadn’t processed how truly long it has been since we’ve all been physically together. I met my best friend when I was 11, we were college roommates, married guys we were all in the same friend group with in college, had our first kids exactly six months apart from each other, our second kids two months apart from each other, and live 15 minutes away from each other. We have been lock step since we were kids, so not seeing each other for almost a year is insane. As the picture shows, our daughters are still basically the same height, so even apart, we're still lock step. Still, hoping we’ll be able to be together again before the girls grow anymore! -
2020-03-20
Hope
My plague year story of the covid-19 pandemic is honestly quite a normal one. For me covid was not a barrier. It was an obstacle that I learned to get around. I did not let anything hold me back from trying to make the best of my situations. Nothing was ideal in any way possible. I never imagined my final months of highschool being spent at home or starting college online. But I always remembered to take a step back. To distance myself from the chaos and most importantly enjoy my time to the best that I could. Because as humans we have limited control on what happens in our life. It all really depends on how you react to what is happening. You can let the confusion surround you and hold you back. Or you can step out and keep strolling on your path to success, happiness, and love. So like I said my situation in life at the time of the beginning of the outbreak was not ideal. I was in my final few months of highschool and looking forward to graduation, prom, and moving on to college. Unfortunately those milestones did not occur according to plan. My highschool experience was cut short. Way too short. I was forced to adjust to online schooling in very little time. The teachers were still confused on how to teach online and kids were confused on how it worked. My school did not utilize google meets or zoom at the time. So my only connection to my teachers was email. The situation was pretty sad. I missed my friends from school and I missed my teachers that used to fill my day with fun. But I adapted quickly and got my work done. I did not let the communication gap stop me from finishing school on a high note. I utilized the extra free time I was presented with by working. All the time. I work at Target. So I am considered an essential worker for an essential business. So I was desperately needed at the store all the time to help out. I was working forty hour work weeks all while still making time for friends and finishing school work. I worked later shifts, came in on off days and came in earlier to help when they needed. I will never forget the benefits of the work experience I got during the first few months of the pandemic. It taught me a lot about managing my time and money well. I also made great connections with my coworkers and customers who came into the store. These experiences will help me greatly when I move forward in my life in many ways I do not even realize yet. I worked a ton, finished highschool, enjoyed my summer; which I still found a way to make memorable and started college. I may not have gotten the experience I had hoped for when I first came to my campus. But as I’ve said many times, I did not let the obstacles stop me from enjoying my life. I built the greatest support group of friends and I could not have asked for a better outcome. My group and I made the best of college campus life. We always find ways to have fun and still get our work done. So far college has been a fun time and I am glad I came. Again, my story may not have the same hardships as a lot of people may have gone through. My story has been pretty hopeful. So here is to passing the hope on. I hope I continue to grow and thrive and if you may not have had the best experiences yet, here is to hoping you can break free from the chaos and live life to the fullest capabilities right now. Life is not about how hard things are, it is about how you are able to overcome difficulties in your path. -
2020-12-15
Jackson Brockenbrough
Jackson Brockenbrough, Jdagiver Production, explained in a verbal interview that as a direct result of COVID his inspirational has been effected. Lack of city life has made it more difficult for him to tap into his creativity. The dullness within the current state of the world translates into his work as many artist are effected by the their life and surroundings as a source of inspiration. Jackson continued explaining that even though this time is more difficult to produce music, he has a responsibility as a producer during COVID. For example the world utilizes music as an outlet to express and feel emotions of such as emotions of fear and frustration that COVID induces.Jacksons has also been faced with the difficulty of individuals being unable to contribute to sessions like they did prior to job restrictions because of COVID. Jackson’s story explains how an entrepreneur faces not only individuals struggling, and competition but also effected by the economic state of his consumers too. -
2020-12-03
Stormy Hearts
During this pandemic, everyone is clearly going through a difficult time. However, I think that mental health fluctuations have been especially common during this time. Sometimes we’re feeling productive and like we can accomplish anything, other days just getting out of bed takes everything in us. Different people are going to be on different levels of vibration, including friends. One friend may be feeling themselves while the other may struggle to even look at themselves in the mirror. The representation of this drawing is that even though one person may feel happy and one person may feel deep sadness, they can still be there for each other and walk through the storm together to help each other grow. Even though it doesn’t show it, this also applies to the Black Lives Matter Protests and overall racial problems. It is an issue we can help each other out with by taking the time to emphasize with people who don’t experience the same things as us. -
2020-12-07
The Home Within My Head: My Experience of COVID-19 In Prose
I have always been acutely aware of how poetry connects people across places and time. Today, more so than ever before, humans are grasping for a connection as intimate as physicality without having to be in the same room. This poem speaks to that struggle. I hope it helps others out there, suffering from isolation, to feel a bond across the deep chasms COVID-19 has cultivated in our new world. -
2020-03-17
The Blessings of Covid-19
I submitted how the Corona Pandemic has helped change my life for the better. -
2020-08-10
Growth, Gratitude, and Green Babies
Teddy Roosevelt said, "The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future." As the pandemic and panic seemed to spread wildly across the globe, I found myself turning to my relatives for answers and advice. When specifically in their lifetime did they remember a time of uncertainty? What did they do to maintain a sense of direction, clarity to make decisions, a sense of well being and safety when each day's events are unfathomable? My mother responded with stories of her mother. My grandmother has always been the most resourceful person I know. Growing up in the Great Depression planted seeds of ingenuity and self sufficiency in her, which she continued to cultivate along with priceless experience and knowledge. She recalled people taking responsibility for their situations and security, and doing their best to make the most of what they had, which at the time wasn't much at all. I will never understand the scarcity she faced in that era, but I did experience the eerie alarm that washed over my fiancé and I entering a nearly empty produce section of our local grocery store, then another store, then another store. Almost every store in our small town of Lewes, Delaware had been almost completely panic-bought out of produce, meat, cleaning products, and hygiene products. It was at that time we decided to take a life lesson from Grandma, gain some grit, and get our hands dirty. Early June, we began a basic herb garden to get the hang of being "new parents to green babies" as we expressed it to our friends and family. We soon adopted a couple of tomato plants, bell peppers, red lunchbox sweet peppers, and as of recently, sunflowers. August brought our efforts to fruition when tiny peppers and tomatoes started to develop and today we plucked our first ready to eat hamburger tomato along with a few green bell peppers and scarlet red sweet peppers. Tending our garden has grown more than just invigorating herbs and veggies, but it has cultivated therapeutic peacefulness and tranquility while watering, cleaning, and caring for these little forms of life. We learned first hand the valuable lesson of just how giving and selfless nature is, ex. planting one seed and getting three pieces of fruit in return from that one plant, or planting one bulb which springs forth four blossoms. Giving life and helping maintain that life in something smaller than you grows a beautiful relationship between humanity and nature, a relationship which has become more and more distant. Growing a garden reconnected us to the knowledge, innovation, and self reliance, of our grandparents. It reconnected us to getting outdoors, getting our hands dirty, and getting into a flow state of mental clarity and caring for another living being apart from human kind. It reconnected us to nature, to the valuable lesson Mother Nature can teach us about selflessly giving and sharing, and a reminder of the respect she so deserves and is so lacking in the current state of the environment. I hope our story of our little backyard garden will encourage you to plant seeds of your own, to look to the priceless knowledge and experience of your relatives for advice in facing an uncertain future, and to share your lessons and stories of how COVID-19 impacted your life as well.