Items

• 
  2021-09-20

  Wake Up Call

  I was nineteen years old, now soon too be twenty-one, when news started circulating about a new virus that was spreading around in China. Personally, I thought the whole thing was just a bunch of fear mongering being played up by the media for clicks. In March of 2020 my theory would turn out to be drastically wrong. Slowly the spread of this new virus became worse and worse and before I knew it, everything was shut down and my family was in lockdown. My in-person classes at Duquesne University were all cancelled and moved to online conference calls over Zoom. For the first time in my life, a global event was having a real, tangible effect on my life. Being born in December of 2000, I have already lived through some world events that will go down in history. Wars in the Middle East, the Housing Market Crash, 9/11, the rapid advancement of computers and technology… all things I was alive for but either to young to remember or to ignorant to see the significance. For the first time in my life, I was seeing a major occurrence in the world directly impact my life and was able to comprehend the seriousness and significance. The object I have loaded is a picture of the Ferris Wheel my family owns and potentially one of the last times I will ever have seen it up and running. Hundreds of thousands of small and family run businesses have either been shut down temporarily or shut down for good because of the pandemic, my family business is no exception. My family runs Reinhart Amusements, a business that provides rides and games to Parishes around the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area for their summer festivals. I’ve been working for the businesses since I was fourteen and started helping long before then. Like many others, we too had to shut down because of the pandemic. My family does not rely on this business financially like my grandfather did. For my parents and many in my large family, it is more of a self-fulfilling hobby. I’m very lucky to get to say that my father and his father have put smiles on the faces of kids and adults alike all around the Pittsburgh area. It is now September 20, 2021 and we have not been able to partake in a festival for over 2 years now. It is sad to say, but after talking with my father and if we are unable to open back up in 2022 then we never will. I don’t know what the future holds with this virus and the world. What I do know is that though the pandemic may take away my family business, it will never take away my own and many others happy memories of it.
• 
  2020-03

  March 2020: A Life-changing Month

  The year 2020 was looking to be much like other years that I spent in college. I was going to be going to classes, meeting up with friends, and working out most days. As March approached, my excitement grew. Spring break was coming, and I had a scheduled trip to Cancun, Mexico. There was talk of a virus spreading through China, but it was very unknown to us. Prior to our trip, we joked about contracting the virus. Little did we know, that would be the week living in the world the way we knew it. My trip to Mexico was everything I wanted it to be and more, but I was ready to come home and finish the semester. We came back from Mexico, and I returned to Duquesne. Within one week of my return, everything changed. Universities around the country started to close for, what we thought at the time, two weeks. Duquesne followed suit. School did not return that semester and the entire country began to shut down. There was a lot of fear and unknown. One minute I was having the trip of a lifetime, and the next minute I was at home with my family only leaving to get groceries. We began using masks everywhere we went, using hand sanitizer many times a day, and staying as far away from others as possible. Although life felt like it completely stopping, the pandemic allowed my family and I to experience something that we might never get to experience again: over a month of quality time together. I was now doing school via zoom and my father, brother, and uncle were home from work. During this time, my family spent a lot of time together. My father and I would find interesting ways to work out every day since our gym had been shut down (see artifact image for a picture of my watch after completing a weighted vest walk. We began these weighted vest walks during the pandemic.). We would watch Netflix series as a family, do puzzles, and even play board games together. I will never forget these memories, even though they were accompanied by fear of the Coronavirus.
• 
  2020-05

  Playing with a Bad Hand

  Alexander Krusec May 2020 Pittsburgh, PA. I’ve always liked using gambling terms to describe my life. Things like “I got dealt a bad hand” or “quite while you’re ahead” always rolled off the tongue well, and more than that they were effective at describing the situation. Unfortunately, there wasn’t exactly a good poker term for a global pandemic. The pandemic was bad timing on my part. I won’t get into the details, but my life in high school wasn’t the best, especially during my junior and senior years. To say I was severely depressed during those years would be an understatement, and I spent a good chunk of my free time crawling out of a hole of self-hate. And just as I was starting to not only feel better, but be better, my school let the student body know that we were going home for two weeks. Then a month. Then the rest of the year. I’ve always considered myself to have extremely bad luck. Given my track record, I always guessed something bad was going to happen, and often it did. That was my life, and I had always just accepted things for how they were. For the pandemic, that was the plan. I was just going to accept the hand I was dealt and try my best to play it. Luckily for me, things changed. I don’t know what it was, but one day in May I jwoke up one day and I had stopped worrying about things, stopped obsessing about my own bad luck. I went to my grocery store job that day and for whatever reason I just did better. I did a good job that day despite the fact that the store’s shipment came in about two hours late. It was as I was driving home when I realized that my life did not have to be define by what happened to me, but rather what I did in response. I could name off a dozen different books and movies that have the exact same message of “persevering through adversity no matter what”, but the movies don’t hit as hard as a real-life epiphany. Of course, I wasn’t expecting my life to change in a used Honda Civic, but the fact of the matter was that the message finally hit me. Despite all that had happened to me, from my own depression to a pandemic, the thing that mattered was that I was still standing. There’s a great quote from the video game Destiny 2 that describes the type of resolve and will I now strive to have. It’s message is simple: don’t let the darkness in our lives break us, and as the pandemic still rages on a year later, it's a message everyone can use in these times. “I am a wall. And walls don’t move. Because walls don’t care.”
• 
  2020-03-14

  Going Home

  This story reads the story of the impact of COVID 19 on my life is important as it shows the transition from the normal world into the new covid world.
• 

  Anxiety during the Pandemic

  Since I can remember, I have always been a very nervous and anxious person. On my first day of second grade, I couldn’t even bring myself to leave my mom, and usually kids grow out of that stage when they go off to kindergarten. Throughout all of grade school, and my freshman and sophomore year of high school, I was always insecure, self-conscience, and very sad. It finally got better my junior year of high school and the only reason it got better is because I was on medicine. I went to a therapist and took my medicine on the regular, but I still was very anxious. I guess anxiety is just a part of who I am, and it is not something I can grow out of. After giving explaining my background with me being a very anxious person, you can probably see where this story is going. Obviously moving away for college was a very scary and anxiety increasing time. I could not sleep, eat, or smile the two weeks leading up to leaving for college. The sad thing is is that I was finally getting better, but then college came. Believe it or not though, I moved to Pittsburgh for college, and my anxiety got better. I was not as insecure and really learned to not let things get to me that used to get to me. It was March 14, 2020 where my life, and my anxiety started to go back to how it used to be in grade school and the beginning of high school. This pandemic has not been easy for anyone, and everyone can attest to that, but having anxiety and then having a world pandemic hit was horrible. I remember getting the email that told us we had to go home, and I had an anxiety attack. Because of my anxiety, I am a big planner and having to leave campus and not knowing when we will return put me in a state that I hope I never go back to. My mom picked me up on Sunday, March 15th, and that day I did not sleep, eat, or talk for about fourteen hours. I did not like how I did not have a scheduled day to go back to school, which made me so anxious because like I said before, I am a planner. We never got to go back to school and let me tell you online classes made me so anxious. I felt so behind, because going from all in person classes to all online classes is not an easy transition for anyone. Being a person with anxiety, I felt as though I was put into a world, I was not meant to be in. It felt so rushed, confusing, and honestly, I was at my lowest in the middle and end of March. I remember crying to my parents about how I didn’t want to do school because it was miserable and going out in public was so scary to me. This pandemic was publicized everywhere, and I thought in my brain, if I go into the grocery store, I will get COVID, and I know that is not true, but that is how my anxiety works. I did not go anywhere for about four months, and if I did, it would be for a drive in my car. I did not see anyone for about five months because I was worried about where they have been, and if they have the virus. This whole virus really made my anxiety worse and put me at my lowest point in my life. I felt like I did not have any friends, and I also felt very dumb because I thought I knew nothing that was going on in my classes. I started seeing a therapist again and it really helped. The fact of being scared to go into the grocery store or mall or even seeing friends seems silly. I wasn’t scared, it was just my anxiety because I wanted to make sure I did not get the virus. I hope this virus comes to an end, because I know how much it took over my mental health, and I believe I am not the only one.
• 
  2020-03-20

  Journal of the Plague Year

  The Corona Virus aka COVID-19 has drastically affected my life as well as the entire world. COVID-19 first affected my life during my second semester sophomore year of college. The beginning of sophomore year was when we first started hearing about COVID-19. At that time, it wasn’t really a big deal. It was more like a myth in a sense; it was happening everywhere else but here. And then, March came. More and more reports of COVID-19 in the United States were being presented. It was starting to become a serious threat. The day after Saint Patrick’s Day, I was with some friends and we were all hanging out and getting lunch. During our lunch, we received an email saying that we had to move off campus within the next week due to the threat and seriousness of COVID-19. We were all so shocked and upset that our sophomore year was cut short. In the blink of an eye, we had to pack up our entire college lives and leave to go home. All of the memories we were supposed to make were gone. For me, all of my friends were at school so going home was very hard for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family but, I also want to be able to see my friends. Once I got home, I had to do the rest of school online and had to be quarantined in my house. Online school was such a new and difficult experience. I had never done online school and neither had the professors, so it was a very difficult transition. Something else that was difficult was being trapped in a house from March until May. I am not the type of person to just stay cooped up in a house. I like to be out doing things and socializing with others but, I couldn’t do that. I was confined to my house with only my family. It was hard finding things to keep us all entertained every day while also trying not to kill each other. We tried puzzles, games, family walks and hikes, movie night, and everything in between. These things worked but only for a short period of time. Being quarantined really does affect your mental health. I also had to celebrate my twentieth birthday in quarantine which was not fun at all, but at least I was with my family which made it better. Then came July. July first was when I was moving into my first house in Pittsburgh for college. I thought that it was going to be such a fun and exciting time. But it was difficult with the whole pandemic going on. It was hard to see my friends, go out to eat, and go to the bars. I was still able to have fun, but it was still difficult to adjust to a new lifestyle. Online school full time was also hard, but I got through it and figured out how to do school efficiently. Come end of October, I got COVID-19. I didn’t realize of shitty COVID-19 was and that I could even get it because I was so young. I had all of the symptoms except loss of taste and smell. I was bed ridden for two weeks; it was awful. After that things were as good as they can be during this time. A week before New Year’s Eve, my entire family tested positive for COVID-19 except me since I had already gotten it. They got really sick and I had to take care of them and grocery shop and run errands for them. That was hard for me to watch them all be so sick. But they got better and became healthy. Yes, I haven’t had this extreme story due to COVID-19 but it did affect my life in ways that I didn’t think it could. I had to change my entire way of living because of this virus.
• 2021-02-01

  My College Experience; Covid Edition

  The Coronavirus pandemic has most certainly been a time I will not forget. When I was a second semester Freshman at Duquesne University, in Pittsburgh, PA, this wild spread begun. It was the spring semester of 2020. New year, new decade, new semester and all I wanted to do this particular semester, was rush a Fraternity and join Greek Life. I got initiated into my fraternity on February 28th, the night we were leaving school for spring break. After that week, we arrived back to campus, and all my new brothers and I were very excited to get to know one another and spend the rest of the semester together. When you get initiated, that first semester is meant to be something really special. Unfortunately, however, that semester was cut short. Around the second week of March, we all got the news that the Coronavirus was spreading across Asia and Europe, vastly approaching the United States. On March 16th, 2020, we all got the news that our University was going to be shutting down. Come March 22nd, 2020, I moved all my personal belongings out of my dorm and said goodbye to my school. The worst part for me was, I never got to personally say goodbye to my Freshman year, my friends, or my new fraternity brothers. The semester had to continue, however, academically. We were told that our school was going to be using this Facetime software, called “Zoom”. I of course did not hear of this particular software before. Once it was set up, and running, I quickly got used to everything. I actually made the Dean’s list once the semester was over and done with. Now for me, the summer was nothing bad. I worked at a golf course, spent a lot of time with my family, and got to know some of my neighbors better. Unfortunately, this was not the same for some of my friends. Before we left, I got to know some people who were in other Greek life organizations. One of my new friends at this time in particular, really struggled with mental health. At the end of the day, I still managed to help not only him, but other friends with things that were on their minds. A year later, it is the Spring semester of 2021. We are still going through the same pandemic, and things have improved a little bit, which is good. However, in college, we are still on zoom, and all our fraternity events for the recruitment processes have been virtual. This is not easy, because to get the ideal number of new members, things should be in person. The moral of the story in my opinion, however, is that I am very, very grateful that I joined my organization when I did. I am very blessed for the opportunities that I have come about, and for the people who have stuck by my side since March of 2020. This may not have been the college experience I have envisioned thus far, but It is certainly one I cannot and will not forget.
• 
  2020-10-30

  University of Pittsburgh Active for Social Justice

  This article demonstrates the active voice of Black students to access diversity and social justice at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt). The website's creation is a way for students to actively notify Pitt of any kind of social bias shown. Protests for social justice across the nation have acted as a catalyst for Universities to become more aware of social justice reforms within their institutions.
• 
  2020-09-12

  Local tavern owner sparks a rebellion against Covid-19 restrictions in PA.

  This is a story of a local restaurant owner who decided he wanted to fight back against "oppressive" rules and regulations that were put in place for restaurants and bars. Previously, they had started to reopen places to eat and get drinks, and then over the Fourth of July weekend in Pittsburgh, after seeing a sharp spike in case number the week prior, the city installed even harsher rules for restaurants and bars to follow. Many didn't like this, and they surely weren't going to follow the rules until they started to be closed down left and right by the health department, then suddenly everyone shaped up.
• 2020

  Car life of Corona

  When Covid-19 started to gain cases in the Pittsburgh and surrounding area the car scene began to postpone and cancel meets. With no official meets being held, pop-up meets became the new normal. Which consisted of a post being made or hearing from word of mouth about a place a meet would be held only a few days before it would happen. Most enthusiasts jumped at the opportunity to attend these events and would attend. Although it was considered a meet everyone knew what was happening with the virus and maintained social distancing and enjoyed walking around and looking at other cars that were attending. Due to social distance and trying to avoid contact with others the commonality of cruises arose as well which people would meet at a set location and then drive in a group to another location typically on roads that are enjoyable to drive on. With the car community changing around this virus it allowed everyone who is a part of it to remain safe while still doing something they love. From the safety of their own vehicles’ car enthusiasts have and still continue to over come the pandemic in a safe and enjoyable way. Although the Covid-19 pandemic changed many things in the world the way it effected the car scene is not considered completely terrible. It created a new way car enthusiasts can interact and will enjoy their passion
• 2020-06

  Senior Year: An Anticlimactic End

  This Coronavirus has reared its’ ugly head into so many aspects of my life that I only had one shot at. Senior year of high school is supposed to be one of the best times (as every high school movie says so) but instead, I think us 2020 seniors had the worst time. The end of my high school career consisted of online assignments, virtual celebrations, and people telling me my personal favorite, “you’ll never forget it!” Listen… I don’t think ANY OF US are going to forget that we had a GLOBAL PANDEMIC in 2020. Pandemics don't just casually happen, nor do we just simply forget about it to go on and sing kumbaya. Alternatively, we remember and teach it to future generations. Honestly, that statement was not helpful for 2020 seniors but good try. Anyways, for us seniors we anticipated the excitement of finishing high school while having a new beginning so close. It was Friday, March 13th when my senior class of 2020 experienced the official “2 Week Closing”; however, this was our last day of both high school and normalcy. After a week we were told going back was “to be determined”, but we knew that the likelihood of returning was small. I would look through social media and see posts about the excitement of no school, but by the flip of a switch, it turned into rants about missing school and the ability to leave the house. Education moved online while we watched our senior events get canceled. We pushed through online work in a pass/fail system from March 16th until the last day in June. Throughout that time, we saw all our events slip away. Prom… graduation… senior banquets… gone. When it came to graduation day, a pre-recorded ceremony was broadcasted for us senior families to view. My family sat in our backyard with pizza, me in my cap and gown, and the tv just waiting to see me appear. There was no walking across the stage, sitting with friends, or taking pictures afterwards. This was the ceremony and it was dependent on how we celebrated it. My best friend didn’t watch it because as she said: “I’ve already seen enough graduations with my three sisters. I’m fine skipping mine”. I had a friend who played it in the background while their family did their own thing. Never had graduation celebrations be all over the place. When it ended my family congratulated me and that was it. The anticipation of graduation was gone, for I was officially a college freshman. Overall, my senior year conclusion was a wild ride thanks to Coronavirus. I hope the 2021 seniors don’t go through the same disappointments we did and get to experience the events we missed out on. With it already being a crazy start to the school year I think the seniors deserve to have an enjoyable finish. Hey, if they don’t at least this is a time “they’ll never forget”.
• 
  2020-09-03

  Telling Them

  COVID-19 had been set back after set back since March when colleges and universities closed. I was slightly behind as I was extremely ill, with what my doctors now believe was the coronavirus, in January at the beginning of the semester. I had been dreading this day since August when my summer classes had ended. I had to tell my parents. I didn’t know how so I had waited until I had relocated into Pittsburgh again and my transfer was complete into the pre-pharmacy program instead of the professional program. This pandemic and my lack of motivation had ruined my chances of going to pharmacy school. I watched my dreams slip one year further away. I had to tell them. I was supposed to be matriculating into the professional phase this year but here I am in my third year of college being stuck taking another year of college at an expensive private school. I had to tell them. Between getting sick and losing 15 pounds in two weeks and being stuck home for months, the pandemic had taken a serious toll on me physically and mentally. I had to tell them. I called my mom after she got out of work on September 2nd, 2020 and she could immediately tell something was wrong. I had been preparing myself to do this for almost a month and it still wasn’t enough to hear the disappointment in my mothers voice. My parents had never been anything other than supportive even when I made mistakes but here I was terrified of what might come of this. My parents and I discussed what my options could be, maybe I could concentrate on a minor while I take the last few classes I needed to continue into pharmacy school, or maybe I could take a gap semester and gain some experience in a hospital pharmacy. I cried and cried to my mom hating the fact she was disappointed in me and thought her and my dad would hate me. The next morning, after my mom had calmed down, I received the text message saying everything would be okay and as a family we would work it out. My family and I decided I would stay at Duquesne for the full year and I would work towards a business minor. I had to tell them and once I did I started to see the silver lining within the pandemic… I had never been as close to my parents as I was currently.
• 2020-08-10T01:26:13-04:00

  Unprecedented Times

  The day we entered quarantine was one of the most bizarre days I can remember. I was working my normal shift at the restaurant, and the dining room was completely empty. This in itself was strange for a place usually running on a few hours wait and constantly full of people. There had been talk about the restaurant closing its doors, but the thought seemed so absurd that no one really believed it. The air felt heavy, and my manager was nervously pacing around taking call after call. As I waited for guests to arrive I robotically folded my linens wondering if I was going to have a job in the coming days. The TV above the bar flickered with images of people in masks, hospitals filled with sick patients, scientists and doctors on podiums at the White House, the President trying to calm the public, and the words CORONAVIRUS UPDATE. I looked away. I felt like I couldn’t escape the impending disaster. I was supposed to work a double shift that day, March 16, but after not getting a single table, my manager sent me home and told me not to come in for dinner. I could see the stress etched on his face as he told me he would be let me know what was going on as soon as he knew. I learned the restaurant group was probably going to close all its restaurants for “two to three weeks.” Little did we know that it would be much longer. I drove home on deserted roads. I played no music and instead sat in silence trying not to panic about whether or not I would be jobless soon. I remember my dad texting me to go get gas in case the gas stations closed and pick up any groceries I may need for my apartment. What kind of times are we living in? Unprecedented times. It was surreal. When I got back to my apartment my roommates were both home. They informed me that for the next nine weeks they were instructed to work from home. I immediately packed a bag and headed for my parents house (at least I’d have more room and it would be quiet). I ended up spending most of the quarantine with my family. The restaurant I worked at closed for over three months. I had to file for unemployment and only received a fraction of what I used to bring in while employed. Times were tough. My dad, a pilot for American Airlines, took a six month leave, and I was glad to know my family was safe at home. The news never strayed from constant Covid-19 updates: potential vaccines in the works, testing sites erected all over the country, lockdowns across the globe, borders closing, toilet paper shortages, unemployment numbers skyrocketing, business failing. The good news never came, only a bombardment of the bad. The days seemed bleak. One day flowed into the next, and the weeks became an unsettling blur of constant unease and unrest. It seemed that the condition of the sick went from bad to worse. Death tolls increased by the day. The only thing left to do was pray, occupy your mind so that you wouldn’t become sick with worry, “find a hobby” they said, “learn a language” they said. I prayed with my family. We streamed mass every Sunday, and for that forty five minute service there existed a glimmer of hope, structure, and strength. I tried to be strong. I tried not to let my family see how much stress I felt at the thought of the struggling families going without paychecks and the exhaustion of workers on the front line. I tried not to think about my grandparents alone in their dark house with no one to check on them- only a daily phone call for months on end. I could hear the sadness in their voices when I called. “It shouldn’t be much longer now” I’d say, but my words sounded hollow. My family has a strong faith. I leaned on my family more than I had in a long time during the quarantine, and I witnessed my parents’ united display of trust in God. They had faith that things would get better, that humanity would prevail, and that we’d come out of this stronger. I listened to them say the rosary every night as they prayed for the sick and struggling world. It was all they could do, and they said it with as much conviction as they could muster. Praying provided them comfort, and I found myself chiming in, sitting with them as they closed their eyes and raised their concerns to God. As I returned to work in late June things had drastically changed. The world as we knew it was gone and in its place was a fractured society slowing healing from the devastation of Coronavirus. The generosity of the guests as they returned to the restaurant was like nothing I’d ever seen before. People went the extra mile to help each other as we integrated back into some level of normalcy. I saw one of the darkest times in recent history overcome with the most eye opening displays of kindness, understanding, and commitment to helping each other out. Experiencing the quarantine was a profound moment in my life. Not only did I find strength in my family and my faith, but also in my fellow man as we navigated these unprecedented times together.
• 
  2020-04-17

  Be Smart Stay 6 Feet Apart

  This sign in Frick Park, which is a local park near my house, reminds people to stay 6 feet apart from each other. It can be easy to forget this rule, especially in a park where we have always tended to assume that we have lots of space, but these signs are located every dozen or so meters to remind people. There is a big surge in the need to go outside to exercise or just to be in nature, but in these times, we have to be smart about how we go about it. \
• 
  2020-03-26

  Sports Betting on Madden SImulations

  With live sports cancelled, sports betting companies have begun running live-streamed simulations using popular sports video games. People can tune in to watch and gamble on the game, just as they did with live sports