Items

• 2021-06-12

  Graduation: A celebration or just another day?

  A long and hot three hour and forty five minute drive to San Luis Obispo was halted short of the two hour mark for a very important celebration. Was it really a time of celebration though? Some could argue that the mood and the hot weather of a summer June 12 afternoon in 2021 was just another day. After the strike of the pandemic, online instruction skyrocketed around the state of California. Other California State schools, resorted to their spring commencement to be online, our school was no different. We stopped our car at a local 76 gas station just off the side of the freeway to celebrate my virtual graduation from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. My mom pulled up in the parking lot where next to the 76 gas station was a McDonald's with free Wifi which allowed for us to connect to the Zoom meeting. We waited as name after name from the History Department was called, in which you could hear the only the applause and cheers of close family for fellow graduates called before me. The quiet tension in the car while waiting for my name to be called was very obvious in the car. There was no excitement at all. Just another normal day in the hot June sun. Finally, my name was called upon. A description of my goals and my final senior project were mentioned in the ceremony in my honor. All while the bustling of cars, the smell of fast food and the barking and crying of young kids and dogs lingered in the background of the car. My family applauded clapping and crying out my name. Seconds later, the next name was read and I logged off zoom, placed my cap to the side and we continued our drive to San Luis Obispo. Apart of me wondered that day we drove away from the gas station what a true graduation may have felt like, may have sounded like without these troubling times.
• 
  2020-03-15

  "Handwash Everyone"

  I worked at a McDonald’s in March when the United States went into lockdown. Before the lockdown, the drive-thru line was long, the lobby was full of customers, and employee’s rushed around everywhere. The restaurant was always loud with fryers beeping, headsets beeping, customers ordering and complaining, and employee’s trying to have conversations with each other while taking orders all at the same time. People were constantly sneezing, coughing, or sounding like their voices were hoarse, and no one thought anything of it. Everyone went on about their business. After the pandemic, the restaurant was quieter. No more customers were in the lobby, fewer people came through the drive-thru, and fewer employees were at work, less food was being made, so the fryers beeped less often, as did the headsets that warned us when customers wanted to order. One new sound we could all rely on was the alarm that went off every hour, followed by a manager yelling out that everyone needed to wash their hands. The sound of a raspy voice from a customer, a sneeze, or a cough echoed from the speaker above side one in the kitchen, though the entire restaurant and employees would all look at each other in disgust, sure that this customer must have the Corona Virus. The employee in the first booth taking the payment would instantly remove their gloves and rush to scrub their hands before retrieving a new pair of gloves. The person in the second booth who handed the food out the window would be stretching their arm out the window as far as they could in an effort to stay as far away from the person as possible before repeating the same ritual as the last employee in disinfecting themselves. Sounds that usually just fell into the background noise and people assumed were allergies or just a simple cold suddenly elicited a significant amount of fear in my friends and co-workers. While things have mostly gone back to normal, the handwash alarm and manager yelling for a handwash is an hourly reminder that Covid-19 is still around.
• 2020-05-14

  Remote Learning

  Learning virtually was not normal but we had to make it the norm. We were used to having everyone at school bunched up with no mask on. Now we were online in the comfort of our own homes looking at a screen with every student. I started to like online school. Siting with no dress code, being able to play video games like Call of Duty and NBA 2k in between classes. Eating whatever whenever we want and we enjoyed it. Until we all changed our minds and went crazy over the fact that everyone wanted to go back. An hour and 30-minute classes sitting in the same place with over amount of work to just take a picture and submit online. We took advantage when we were at school playing basketball at break and going to practice after school. We had to stay at home with nowhere else to go except grocery stores and the McDonalds drive-through. Everything was starting to get boring and we knew we couldn't stand these rules anymore and it was driving us insane.
• 
  2020-06-04

  No touch delivery against spreading

  Many other deliveries like Doordash, Amazon, and different sellers are using this policy to protect people from the virus in this special period.
• 
  2020-04-03

  Stay Strong, Kansas

  Taken near the intersection of Central and Tyler Rd. in west Wichita, Kansas, this sign encourages Kansans to hold fast during the lockdown. At the time, only drive-thru service was available, reflecting the reduced-contact, socially-distanced measures implemented by restaurants to limit the virus's spread. Photo taken by Aaron Peterka on 04/03/2020, four days after Kansas's government-ordered "shelter-in-place" order went into effect.
• 
  2020-04-09

  Treatment of Essential Workers: Fast Food Strike

  This project aims to document the treatment and reactions to the treatment of the essential workers during this pandemic. This is the headline of an article describing how fast food workers are outraged at the lack of benefits and protection of the virus that they are getting. This comes during a time when many other companies are providing pay for workers who can no longer go to work, while the workers considered essential are not given the same benefits but are at a higher risk to be exposed to the virus.
• 
  2020-05-01

  Food for First Responders- McDonalds

  I had go to McDonalds to pick up breakfast when I noticed they had this sign in the drive thru. My Aunt is a nurse working in the Covid-19 unit at a local hospital. I took the picture of the sign to send to her. She was excited to see that they had such an offer. She was also suprised because she did not know that was something McDonalds was doing. She shared the information with her coworkers, whom most did also not know about that. I think it is important to share these kinds of offers for first responder. It's great that McDonalds is giving out free complete meals to the first responders, but it should be something that is more well known about. I am not sure if this is a local offer or a national one, but regardless The people who the offer is being made for should be made aware. I hope to see as time progresses more bigger chains that can afford programs like that to join and help us support all of the hard working first responders.