Items

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  2020-03-24

  Mental Breakdown

  My sister, Heidi, passed away in Washington, DC, on March 23, 2020. I wasn’t allowed to be with her when she died. My sister was my best friend. I was so lost. Her children, Significant other, my mother, her best friend, and I couldn’t have a funeral for her because of the rules put into place for Covid. So, we could not have a memorial for her till and year and four months later. At the same time, everything began to shut down. My husband works for the NYPD; I was terrified of him getting sick and losing him. Every day after he left for work, I would fall on the floor and break down in tears. I live next to a nursing home facility on Beach 119th St. in Rockaway Park. At this time, I would stare out my windows to look at the ocean to try to calm myself. For weeks, I would see out the right side of my windows and the ambulances and medical examiner vans showing up non-stop to the nursing home for ten days. Bodies were being taken out morning, noon, and night. The flashing red lights signaled that my mental health was in danger. I felt myself crashing many times. I was devasted. To this day, I carry so much internal trauma, I don’t know if I’ll ever recover. I hate this world and the cruel people in it. People have become so ugly because of Covid. I doubt I’ll ever be able to escape the mental anguish that lives in my soul...
• 
  2022-10-20

  HIST30068 China’s Zero Covid Policy Story 5

  Me and my sister have been wanting to go back to China for quite some times now – we haven’t seen our grandparents for years due to the pandemic, and they are not getting any younger. But the crazy flight ticket price and the concern that China’s strict covid policies will make it hard for us to come back for school made us postpone our plans. It is also difficult for them to come here, also due to China’s covid policies. This June, my cousin gave birth to a girl, whom her grandmother and great-grandparents deeply wanted to meet. The pandemic born baby is growing very fast: she used to be too small for the hat that I knitted for her birthday, but now she’s already too big for it.
• 
  2020-05-27

  Rosalind Leon Oral History, 2020/05/27

• 
  2021-10-06

  COVID-19 and the Family Divide

  My submission details the drastic shift in the lives of the family unit after the emergence of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. It is important for me to discuss the pandemic's effects within the household as they pertain to internal religio-political affairs.
• 
  2020-10-01

  Life During the Pandemic

  This photograph is about the time that my sister and I went to a pumpkin patch with a friend of ours. It was a different experience because we had to wear masks and keep our distance from the rest of the people, we had gone to a pumpkin patch the year before and it was completely different because we didn’t have to maintain our distance of wear masks and we were free to roam around wherever we liked. The reason why this was important to me is because I remember since it was our first time doing an activity like this during the COVID where there was a little bit more risk we were a little scared but at the same time we thought we can’t just stay inside forever and stop living.
• 
  2021-10-05

  Pandemic 2020

  The pandemic affected many of our day to day lives. To start off it isolated us from socializing with friends, family, coworkers and others. It restricted us from doing our normal daily activities and routines. It made us miss important events and milestones that we can’t take back. For me the pandemic was very difficult, although the pandemic has not ended, the start of the pandemic was the biggest hardship. To start off, I had just started a new job that required me to help others get through the pandemic. I was assisting about 12 dr offices in scheduling patients. This was overwhelming to say the least and caused stress and anxiety. Many of us were facing challenges that can be stressful, overwhelming, and cause strong emotions in adults and children. Public health actions, such as social distancing, were necessary to reduce the spread of COVID-19, but that could make us feel isolated and lonely and could increase stress and anxiety. I know for me it was very hard not to be around my family. I’m very close with my family and not being able to see them and hang out with them definitely took a toll on me. For starters I was not able to be in the delivery room with my sister who was pregnant at the time and I was not able to meet my niece in person for months. The first time I met her was through FaceTime, which was not the same as being able to hold my first niece. Adults struggled adapting to new social routines—from choosing to skip in person gatherings, to consistently wearing masks in public. Daily activities that one would normally do were taken. For me my daily activity was the gym and with the pandemic it caused a shut down and once it reopened it was difficult to adjust to the new “normal”.
• 
  2021-10-04

  How Covid-19 Has Changed My Life

  The reflection that I have uploaded is a short summary of the biggest impacts Covid-19 has had on my life. This was the first time I've had the opportunity to share how Covid-19 has affected my life and I hope my experience helps others understand what life was like during these times. This submission is important to me because I want people 50 years from now to be able to read this and know how this pandemic has changed the world and how adaptable humans can become.
• 
  2021-09-12

  Oreoluwapo Omotayo-Benson and Christopher Combs Oral History, 2021/09/12

  This interview contains two personal accounts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The questions discussed cover multiple aspects of the pandemic, and how it has shaped our lives as high school/college students.
• 2020-06

  Learning to Cook

  Before Covid-19, I only knew the basics of cooking, and for the most part, I stayed away from the kitchen. However, once the lockdowns began, I started to force myself to cook more. I tried to learn new recipes (which my sister usually taught me) and gradually I began to improve my abilities. One of my favorite foods to make now (which I learned in the summer of 2020) was Chicken Tikka Masala.
• 
  2021-07-15

  Dr. Marissa Rhodes, Oral History, July 15, 2021

  Curator for the JOPTY program, Angelica S Ramos interviews mother of three, Dr. Marissa Rhodes. In this interview she discusses her role as a professor and how COVID-19 halted all the plans she had for her classes. She also discusses her pregnancy with her third baby and the struggles that came with prenatal care and birth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Rhodes also relates her birthing experience and how different the pandemic made it from her first two pregnancies; she discusses the complications that she faced and the stresses she dealt with. Dr. Rhodes also discusses how her social life was impacted and the struggle to find a balance between work, children, virtual-learning and a new baby. Lastly, she reflects on her personal silver lining and the lessons that she hopes will be learned from this experience.
• 
  2020-04

  New Adventures due to Quarantine

  These two images were taken when my sister and I went to an abandoned train tunnel and explored it. Being stuck in quarantine has brought us back together and outside yearning to explore new places.
• 
  2021-05-21

  COVID-19 Journal from 2021

  It's just about how I experienced COVID and how I made it through
• 
  2020-05-10

  My sister during the pandemic

  Throughout living in this pandemic many people have had a multitude of different reactions regarding it. There is the people who really don't care too much about the pandemic and have not taken to many precautions in their life in regards to the pandemic. The next group of people are the ones who realize there is a pandemic follow the necessary precautions but don't obsess over it and make it consume their lives. And the final group of people are the ones who have let the pandemic take over their lives. My sister is in this last group. She has let it consume her and made her life revolve around this pandemic. She refuses to leave her apartment at all costs. In fact I think I have seen her in person maybe one or two times in the past year since the start of the pandemic. Along with that when I do see her even when it is known that I do not have COVID it has to be outside wearing a mask at least six feet apart and for not longer than fifteen minutes. Yes I understand the precautions of COVID but it is sad to me that this pandemic has caused family members to distance themselves from one another and has really put a lot of strain and stress on people. Hopefully the vaccine will be rolled out quickly and efficiently.
• 
  2021-02-04

  My Mother Will Be 80 Years Old This Week

  My mother will have her eightieth birthday this Sunday. She is not likely to share her story here. She has a computer and uses the Internet. However, she usually only looks at other people’s posts on Facebook and does not use Twitter at all. I will therefore tell some of her story myself. My mother has been stuck in her house for nearly a year now. She lives only a mile or two from each of us, so my sister and I get her groceries for her so she does not risk exposure to the virus. My mother was resistant to this for a while, from a combination of independence, a disinclination to impose on others, and a plain desire to get out of the house. My mother probably has not gotten a hug from anyone in nearly a year. We call her nearly every day, and we do visit with her on patio, but we always keep our distance. As much as she would like to see people more, she does not want to break social distancing. In her view, she has stuck with it this long and does not want to waste that effort. When I talk to my mother, she often expresses boredom. She reads, works on puzzles, watches television, and calls family (although she does not want to bother people). The other day I half-jokingly suggested that she spend some time writing her memoirs. It would be a gift for her children and grandchildren to record her life experiences. My mother has started writing several pages a day. She writes long-hand in a notepad, then types up what she wrote on her computer. I was amused when she told me this, because I have not written that way in more than thirty years, and younger generations likely could not imagine doing it this way. My mother made one of her rare trips outside the house last week. She was able to navigate the website and get herself an appointment for a COVID vaccination. I was rather proud of her for persistently navigating a website that I found confusing and difficult to use. Her persistence in seeking a vaccination speaks to her eagerness to get life back to normal.
• 2021-01-21

  Testing Positive

  My sister tested positive for COVID and everything in our house went down on lockdown. She was only sick for a day and no one else got sick. This is this scary virus that is killing people by the thousands. If your young its no problem but I will say be weary if your older.
• 2021-01-21

  covid 19 symptoms

  Some covid symptoms that i can think off are headaches and a fever. I also heard you get congested. I personally haven’t had covid but some of my friends and sister did. There symptoms and experience wasn’t too bad according to them but i know for elders and babies it can be fatal and very dangerous. That’s why it’s always important to make sure we stay safe about this virus and make sure to follow the right precautions just to make sure we are all safe.
• 
  2021-01-17

  My Covid-19 Experience

  The essay I've submitted demonstrates the societal issues that the pandemic has helped to unmask as well as serving as a personal documentation of my own journey.
• 2020-09-14

  How Covid-19 Shaped my lifestyle

  Covid-19 shaped my summer by making me feel more grateful. It made realize that a lot of people around the world are losing their life even when they were taking precaution for the virus. I am grateful that I live a healthy lifestyle and so does my family. The first part of quarantine we were not even supposed to leave our house, which at first sucked. But as time went on, I started to begin to feel really appreciative of the things that I didn’t notice could have such a huge impact. For example, before quarantine, my dad would take me to school, and bring me home from school. My mom was a teacher so she was at school the same time I was at school, so she was never available to pick me up. My dad went from working in an office 24/7, to working at home 24/7, so he was there for me at any time of the day when I possibly needed him. Even though he worked at home, he was constantly busy with phone calls and virtual conferences, just like he would be doing if he was in an office. So when quarantine started I had told him, “at least you don’t have to drive me to school anymore.” He had told me that even when I was school, how stressful it was to try and make it to school at 2:55pm, I am super excited for this weekend because I go get to hang out with my sister and her new roommates that she moving in with in October. My whole family has known them since before I was born, and my other sister and her fiance are coming so no parents, yay! I also get to hang out with my friends tomorrow which I have been doing, but it’s hard to hang out as a group because everyone has different schedules. We have construction going on in our house so it is super loud and kind of hard to do school while a nail gun and drills are going on upstairs. My dog gets super anxious while loud noises are near so we have to keep her on a leash and she won’t sit still and will bark which really makes me fussy .
• 2020-12-10

  Now vs. Before COVID

  My life before COVID was just going to school, sports (tennis and dance), then going home to eat dinner and going to bed so I can repeat the process the next day. Now during COVID I wake up and go straight to my computer to start school, after I finish school I practice online dance lessons and sometimes play tennis and then I eat dinner and go to bed. I think I knew things were going to change when my sisters school shut down and my friends and I started talking about this new disease that is spreading.
• 2020-12-10

  My Experience

  My Thanksgiving wasn’t the same as all the other ones because my typical Thanksgiving is with my grandparents, cousins, uncles, and aunts. Since there is a global pandemic, we had to keep it small. So we had a small Thanksgiving with just my two sisters and my parents. My grandparents did stop by, but only for twenty minutes and we had to stay six feet apart. I didn’t have to get all dressed up, or even change out of the clothes I woke up in. My family didn’t even have a turkey this year! In February, there was no such thing as Corona. You didn’t have to wear a mask or social distance. I went to my friend’s houses and hung out in big groups. I was going to school every day and visiting my grandparents once a week. Around this time there were rumors that Covid was going to come to America and that maybe our schools would close but I never believed it. When I would hear about Corona I never ever thought that some of my loved ones would end up getting it. When people starting saying that our schools might close I was excited to have a shot break off of school, but little did I know it would be a nine month break. In February, I was careless and didn’t have to worry about washing my hands or staying six feet apart.
• 2020-12-10

  The Story That I Knew Was Coming

  To the February 2020 me, it was a normal day in my life. I woke up at 7 o'clock to get ready for school that started at 8 o'clock. My mom was reading something on her phone when I got downstairs to eat breakfast. She told me of this new virus that was going around in China. My heart started to drop. I had my family over there and most of them are my grandparents whose health isn't exactly in the best condition. I was worried about them, not think for a second how it could spread to the US. I got into the car with my sister who sends me to school. She got her podcast ready, the BBC World News Podcast. It was normal for her to play it in the morning when she gets ready for work. I listened along, not really focusing on what they were saying. But this podcast was a bit different than before. It talked about how there was a new outbreak of an unknown virus in Wuhan, China. I started to feel worried again. Whenever my mom told me something, I would think about it and then later forget about it. But this story was now on the BBC World News podcast which means that something is going to happen. I knew that my family lived away from Wuhan so I thought that it would be safe. I listened to the end of that story, thinking about it until I reached school. I walked up the stairs and never really thought about it again until a few weeks later. My family in China said that they had to stay inside their house and could not leave unless they needed groceries. To me, this meant that it was getting serious. But this was not the worst news I heard that week. The worst is that there is someone in the US that has the virus. I knew then that things are starting to be extremely different than before and I was not far from being right.
• 
  2020-09-26

  Family Fights

  HIST30060 My family is pretty large: I have two brothers, a sister….and a whole menagerie of animals! Gracie dog is the best, but we also have another dog, several cats, a rabbit, and a variety of feathered friends. My siblings live interstate, so we’ve been barred from seeing them since February because of border restrictions. During lockdown, we’ve been keeping in touch by having consistent arguments on our family group chat about how to rank our pets from best to worst. My brother frames it like a ‘best and fairest medal’, as you’d receive in sport. The conversations remind me of when we all used to live together at home, and they’ve provided a nice reprieve from more ominous discussions about the pandemonium enveloping society. I think the notion of ‘reprieve’ is central to the power of animals in this plague year: they distract us from our pandemic woes and force us to take a sabbatical from our anxieties.
• 
  11/10/2020

  Rosie Oral History, 2020/11/10

  The contributor of this item did not include verbal or written consent. We attempted to contact contributor (or interviewee if possible) to get consent, but got no response or had incomplete contact information. We can not allow this interview to be listened to without consent but felt the metadata is important. The recording and transcript are retained by the archive and not public. Should you wish to listen to audio file reach out to the archive and we will attempt to get consent.
• 2020-10-27

  Home is Not a Place, But a Feeling

  In San Ramon, I feel lonely. I don’t feel like here is where my home is. Whenever I go to San Diego or am with my sister I feel happy again and at home. I feel safe with her. I feel free driving down a winding road with the windows down, music blasting, and wind harshly hitting my face and blowing my hair in every direction. I like getting to eat good, homemade meals at her house. It’s my escape from the “real world’ or the days in San Ramon that repeat themselves endlessly. I remember going to the beach and feeling the sand in my hands as I usually nervously play with it when there isn’t any conversation. I hear my sister’s friends making a hut and blasting their speakers. I remember walking further to be alone and sitting right before the shore. I listen to my own music in my earbuds and feel the tears start streaming down my face. My sister comes over to find me and laughs, not at me but because she doesn’t understand why I’m crying and knows I shouldn’t be sad at least not now. I begin to laugh too because I’m only crying since I wish I could live there too. This memory is important to me because it was such a fun trip and I feel most comfortable in San Diego or just when I’m with her. She understands completely how I always feel and validates why I act certain ways. In the dark days of Covid and having the same conversations over and over in San Ramon, San Diego is where I go to break that cycle and stay sane to be honest. It’s my motivation to keep trying and to stay calm since I know no matter what I get to go down and see her again and again.
• 
  2020-10-27

  Times of a Bitter Sweet Pandemic

  During this pandemic, I have been feeling a wave of emotions. Loneliness, solidarity, confusion, boredom. These past few months have not been easy for anyone, to say the absolute least. Being isolated has taught me a lot about myself; a lot of things that have been hard to cope with. However, there was one thing that brought me joy during these times: baking. Baking ties in with so many things I like. Art, food, TV, and designing. On July 1st, it was my little sister Melia’s 9th birthday. For this important day, I decided to do something extravagant and make Oreo cupcakes. I’ve never made Oreo cupcakes because my family isn’t much of a sweet tooth, (and are kind of obsessed with richer tastes like strawberry) but my little sister LOVES Oreos. Because of that, I spent an entire night baking her cupcakes- making sure they were up to perfection. Knowing that she wasn’t able to get a proper celebration or party made me sad, but also motivated me to make the best out of that day just for her. The fumes of the sweet vanilla filled my kitchen as I spent the next few hours baking batches and batches of cupcakes. I would take occasional tastes of the batter just to make sure it was mixed evenly, of course. The cupcakes were left to bake for an hour, and that was the time I spent to make sure the decorations would be perfect. The next day, I surprised her with the cupcakes and she was ecstatic. I was worried that it the cupcakes weren’t enough for a 9 year old because the pandemic limited me from getting her a physical present, like a toy. Nobody’s ever went out of their way to make such cool cupcakes, she said. I even went with to one of Melia’s friends houses with her so we could share our sweet surprise with them. Not only did I make my sister’s day, but I even made some other little kids’ day too! Although this story may seem like any regular birthday surprise, it showed me how much the littlest things could bring someone so much joy, and there will always be a light at the end of the tunnel, even if it may be a dim one.
• 
  2020-08-14

  Class Sticker

  Recently my sister graduated from Practitioner school but unfortunately wasn't able to have a traditional graduation. I still wanted to celebrate the best way I could because this was a huge accomplishment, so I searched the internet for funny little things to get her and I found this perfect sticker. She loves Friends and it worked perfectly for the situation we are in. It also led me down a rabbit hole of other satirical products related to the pandemic that I thought was super funny. I'm happy that people are able to make the best of this weird time.
• 
  2020-10-21

  Making Halloween Ornaments

  Since we can't go out and celebrate Halloween this year, we made Halloween ornaments to make October feel a little more festive. We worked on them throughout October so they would be done by Halloween, that way we could display them. Each one is cross-stitch done of perforated paper and doing one took about a week. My mom and I each did one and my older sister did two
• 
  2020-06-02

  COVOD19

  This is a video I recorded from my balcony across the street from UNLV’s campus. This media is pretty significant to me. My 7 year old sister was in town and we were in the peak of quarantine. Majority of the city was still closed and riots had just begun. My sister being oblivious to everything going on the only thing she understood is we can’t go outside. One night we were sitting in my living room and my sister goes out on the balcony. She calls me out there and all I hear is loud chants down Maryland parkway and the street I resided on. Nothing violent was happening just a ton of people chanting. All of a sudden a brigade of police officers comes racing down our street and streets surrounding to box in this crowd of people. Big trucks with armed and guarded men screeching for people to “back up!” My sister kept asking why the police were here and who was in trouble. I didn’t really know how to answer because “ I don’t know” and “no ones in trouble” wouldn’t really explain what was going on. That was the truth though. Nothing had happened. A group of people were peacefully exercising their American rights and getting in trouble for it. I didn’t know why the police had arrived. No trouble had been caused. It seemed like everyone was in trouble but I wasn’t sure why and I definitely didn’t know how to break that down to a kid. Once I pulled my phone out to record she seem to draw her own conclusion from the situation. She ran up to my boyfriend and said “the police are outside being mean to people.” I knew then if my incredibly sheltered 7 year old sister could watch a scenario unfold and draw that conclusion without any media persuasion or even family persuasion that the adults who say otherwise blatantly choose to ignore.. and say otherwise.
• 2020-10-18

  A life we never thought of

  Since everything with the corona virus has happened everything in the world has changed. We now have to wear masks everywhere we go and oftentimes not go out due to the virus, our classes are now online causing no socialization between the students. For once in my 13 years of school I hardly know any of my fellow classmates. I have twin little sisters who mean the absolute world to me and my family. My 12 year old sister has diabetes and as soon as everything went into lockdown my mom wouldn't allow my twin sisters to go out. Her immune system is very poor and she gets sick very easy and very fast. They didn't leave the house for months and my mom hardly let me leave as well, even when things slowly started to open back up. After months of doing nothing and being stuck inside I finally took them out just to the grocery store for our 15 minutes of things we needed to gather. Finally we went to Michaels to look at all of the upcoming holiday decorations and crafts that we could get, so I had to snap a picture of our big moment. * I took the picture
• 
  2020-05-17

  Graduation during Covid-19

  My sister has been working so hard for the past two years; late nights and difficult early morning labs. She earned the title nurse practitioner. The pandemic hit a few months before her graduation and she would work the front lines while taking the last push towards graduation. As expected her graduation was cancelled and she was mailed her practitioner license. My family and I thought that her hard work deserved a proper celebration so we planned a way for our family to get together but follow all the proper precautions. We saw those drive by celebrations and planned one of our own. My grandmother demanded to be apart of the crowd at home to be closer to her granddaughter and no could tell her any different. This is one of the pictures from the celebration.
• 
  2020-09-29T15:55:00

  What a time to be ALIVE ? COVID-19. 2020

  My My My what a time to be alive. COVID-19 has put things into perspective for me personally as far as pursuing a career in the medical field which Ive always had a passion for. Just like anything COVID-19 has its pros and cons, mostly cons but I try to see the light in everything. My personal experience with COVID-19 has been pretty close. Being an essential worker, a student, and having people you care about contract COVID-19 is heart wrenching. Things shifted quickly for me in March. I vividly remember working at a Dermatologist office in LI. and one of my co-workers that went to Molloy College said their school had closed school down, but CUNY was still in school which was alamaring to me but I paid it no mind. I noticed that my co-worker had been sneezing and coughing, but again I didn't think it was COVID-19, and it wasn't in America like it was in China. On March 22nd I received an email from my doctor that my co-worker tested positive for the virus. I am in close proximity to her at the office and in her car when she drops me off home. Now I am worried for my families well being including mines. My sister is a city essential worker, she is a supervisor for NYCHA groundmens, my mom works for a Utility company, and my niece is 5 years old. I never displayed any symptoms so I didn't get tested. My immediate family is safe and sound as well. I ended up leaving that job, because the doctor was money hungry, and didn't really care about the safety of his employees. I later found out that his son had tested positive for the Virus, and he was still coming to work, we also never closed down for 14 days, perhaps 7. Now I only have one job which is for another Doctor, an Optometrist, we closed down for about 6-8 weeks. The Rockaways which I reside and work in has one of the highest COVID-19 cases in Queens county. I live close to St.John's Hospital and walking past those trailers on a day to day basis is very sad, especially knowing what lies inside. To make things “better” On April 8th I found out my Best friend contracted the virus along with her sister that is a Nurse, and dad that is a Welder. My friend already has pre existing health conditions such as UC (Ulcerative colitis.) My spirit was low when I got the news. Luckily for me my best friend is still here. It took her about a month to fully recover at home with plenty of rest and antibiotics. On August 19th, I thought I would certainly lose my 97 year old grandmother that resides in a nursing home because she too tested positive for COVID-19. However, she was asymptomatic, the nursing home kept us abreast of her daily progression which put us at ease. The nursing home quarantined her for 2 weeks and she pulled through no ventilator and was pretty healthy. Some good things I will take from COVID-19 is the much needed family time and mental break from society. As New Yorkers we are always on the go and I feel we don't get time to appreciate what we have in front of us. This was the time to start the healthy journey, learn to love yourself, relax, do an at home mani and pedi, binge eat, play video games, watch tv, read a book, make a budget, maybe even start a business, and most importantly learn to love and appreciate life no matter what the situation is. Everyone is fighting or going through something you know nothing about and will always be going through something whether it was precovid, postcovid or during COVID-19. Just remember to always look at the lighter side of things and smile.It will get easier with time.
• 
  2020-07-10

  DNR - A Death Sentence

  My sisters are nurses on the COVID unit at St. Josephs Hospital and they are starting to see a lot more of these signs popping up. So many in fact that they are having to make their own because so many patients have received 'Do Not Resuscitate' orders. For those who don't know, this is an order caretakers follow when a patient is excluded from basic recovery care when their heart stops or they stop breathing. On the COVID unit, patients and families are facing their own mortality through this decision. This order has become more common during this pandemic because of how easily it is transmitted. Sometimes the order is requested by the patient but recently the decision has fallen on the doctors in charge. Visitors aren't allowed and ventilated patients can't provide input. The news is often broken to the families through a phone call or, if your lucky, a Zoom call. These orders are put in place when someone is nearing the end of their fight with COVID, to prevent the transmission of the virus to the nursing staff. This is a screenshot from my sisters Instagram showing an example of a hand made sign on her unit.
• 
  2020-07

  Fighting Boredom

  Going into that Ross store, I wasn’t thinking about leaving there with a jean jacket, I was just thinking about how my clothes were no longer starting to fit because I gained a little weight since quarantine started. I spent a couple of minutes in the Ross store and then my older sister came up to me and asked me if I’d want to do something she saw on tik tok. I asked her what it was and she said she wanted to paint the backs of some jean jackets and personalize it. I liked the idea so we then went to go ask my little sister if she wanted to participate and she said yes. Then all of us went up to my parents to ask if they could buy the jackets for us. They agreed. That night we started looking at pictures of the Powerpuff Girls to see what picture we’d want to paint on the jacket. My oldest sister got Bubbles, I got Blossom, and my little sister got Buttercup. Within the next day we had all the things needed to paint the jackets and finished them within a week of getting the jackets. The jackets are important to me because it makes me feel closer to my sisters when I look at it or have it on. It reminds me of a time during quarantine when we all bonded.
• 
  2020-08-27

  The Good Stuff

  The COVID-19 pandemic has rocked our world. We face new and unprecedented challenges daily. Amidst the chaos, I am doing my best to remind myself to lean into little moments of joy. I am a teacher with 2 elementary school aged children and a baby. Teaching my own classes, while facilitating remote learning for my children, and caring for a baby is difficult to say the least. Did I mentioned that I'm in graduate school? This past week, just when I felt that it was all more than I could handle, I captured the sweetest moment between sisters. While I can't wait to get back to life and school in actual classrooms, I know there are parts of this experience that I will miss. Moments like this are definitely one of them.
• 0020-08-27

  Rachel's Covid Experience

  My Covid experience consisted of a lot of sleeping in, late night Netflix and Disney+ binging, and driving around town when me and my sister got too bored. There wasn't much to do during the time since we couldn't hang out with friends and it was weird having my parents working from home every day but we got through it.
• 
  2020-08-27

  Family time

  When we started quartine it was the end of march. I didn't do a whole a lot till April 19th. April 19th was my 14th birthday. My sister was able to come over so I could have a birthday dinner. It was rough not being able to see anyone or do anything.
• 
  2020-07-04

  Pulling the Good from the Bad

  Quarantine has brought a lot of added stress in everyone's life since March. I lost my job and so did my siblings which was a hard time for all of us. But the one good thing that came out of that was this summer I have been able to be at home with my siblings and parents and spend a lot of time with them that I normally would not have. We all normally work full time which takes up most of our schedule so due to being at home we have all become a lot closer and got to spend all of our time together which has been really nice.
• 2020-05-25

  Being Happy at Home

  It is one thing to be stuck at home, but it is another to be able to strengthen bonds within the family while on quarantine
• 
  2020-05-18

  Go Back to Normal!!!

  I have learned in this quarantine that is you want to do something and not be lazy, then you must attack it head on and just go for it. The hardest part of accomplishing something is definitely starting. If you can start the thing you want, then you are more motivated to finish it because you have already spent time and effort trying to accomplish the thing you want. Even when I get out of this quarantine, I am going to try to apply this to my daily life. I really wonder when things are going to get back to normal, or if things will go back to normal. This might be the new normal which is a scary thought. I hope this is not the new normal because I had a plan for my future. Well kind of, but this is definitely not what I had planned. I am trying to remember that it is not about what I want for my future or what I think is supposed to happen in my life. It is about God’s plan and what he wants to happen in my life. *Original text in Creator: Nicole Dumitrascu #LSMS #NSD
• 
  2020-05-14

  Tired in Quarantine

  I was so tired from the minute I got out of bed. I only got out of bed at that time because everyone else in the house was already up and about. I took Elena to preschool and did my schoolwork. During my schoolwork I ate a piece of cake. I shouldn’t have done it. I should have eaten something healthy. I have, despite my best efforts, gained weight during this quarantine. Ross finally opened up again today with really low prices and my mom got me some clothes that I was very happy for. I am so happy to be blessed enough to be able to have nice new clothes. I tried them all on and my favorite were the camo pants. I was really tired and hungry during my workout, but I was hydrating better and ever before. I also got to do a fun game that my sister got for her birthday. It was actually cool.
• 
  2020-05-13

  Swimming on Zoom?

  I felt that there was nothing that made today stand out. I woke up really late. (Which seems to be the usual) I ate a cupcake and porridge. After that I did my schoolwork for the day. I am almost done with 7th grade! I then did my entire normal workout routine. I didn’t work out yesterday because it was my sister’s fifth birthday. I am so tired after taking only one day off. On the other hand, my mom and grandmother got me new running shoes since my other ones were giving me blisters. We ate Costco pizza for lunch. I had to eat fast since I had a scheduled Zoom meeting with my swimming coach to attend to. The meeting was about the Commencement Address by Admiral William H. McRaven. I also read his book a while ago. My coach, I, and other kids on my team my age talked about ten things you need to do if you want to change the world as discussed by Admiral McRaven. I also ate dinner, read a little, watched a little TV, and did more schoolwork. I am tired.
• 
  2020-05-12

  Quarantine Birthday

  Today my baby sister Elena turned five years old. She has just been a light and a breath of fresh air ever since she has entered this world. I have loved watching her grow up and learn new things. She may be trying at times, but things always seem to pan out perfectly. I love her so much. I pray that God protect her and watch over her all the days of her life. Please guide her and help her grow in her faith in you, Lord. We had so many fun surprises in Elena’s birthday celebrations. I made her breakfast, waffles with chocolate shaped in a cute animal with blueberries for its eyes and mouth and a blackberry for the nose. Then we dropped her off at preschool with cupcakes. Then, once she came home, we ate lunch. After that we took photos in our homemade photobooth. Then we played Pin-the-Moustache-on-the-Kitty. Elena won of course. Since she won, we gave Elena cake as a surprise for her win. After that we did the pinata. Lastly, we had presents. Today was a good day. #LSMS #NSD
• 
  2020-05-11

  Prepping for a Quarantine Birthday

  My sister has been jumping for joy this entire day because tomorrow is her birthday. She is turning five. She is so young and excited for this one day of the year. Her excitement has rubbed off on me and brought me some joy during this quarantine. I am sad though that her birthday cannot be as good as it could be because of the coronavirus. She has never experienced a party with her friends. I am motivated in spite of everything to do everything in my power to make her birthday special. I planned everything, made a pinata, went to buy decorations and a cake, and am going to cook her breakfast and doughnuts. I know it is a lot, but I really believe that God will give me the strength to bear it and make Elena’s 5th birthday amazing. I know it will take a lot of work and it won’t be easy, but I am ready and excited to take on the challenge. I also need to in this time do my school for the day. I won’t say I’m stressed because this is just a small party among our family to make Elena happy on her special day. I hope everything goes well. #LSMS #NSD
• 
  2020-04-24

  1yo looks on as 5yo participates in Zoom class

  1yo Julián Peralta-Kole looks on as big sister Maya (5yo) joins her weekly Friday Zoom class offered by Tempe Public Schools. Her Zoom classes take place every week on Fridays at 10 AM. It's always a moment that we look forward to, because she gets to connect with her classmates and teacher. Class activities range from singing songs, show and tell, writing, and practicing "sticky," words (common words that are hard to sight read, so her teacher encourages them to memorize i.e. "stick" them in their brain). Maya attends Scales Technology Academy near the intersection of 5th St. and Beck in Tempe, AZ.
• 2020-04-19

  One ASU Student's Transition

  A student's account of their transition to online school
• 
  04/19/2021

  A Year Without Easter

  While my family and I were able to celebrate Easter this year, I didn't quite feel the same. Usually, we would have a bunch of our family members over to eat and we would spend most of the day celebrating Easter. This was the first year we didn't do that. We had our dinner, but it kinda just felt like any regular old family dinner. I can't see my grandparents all that much since they are at high risk for the virus. Not only that, but my Aunt would usually bring her family down from Georgia to come celebrate with us, but my Uncle is also at a very high risk due to a kidney transplant. They and their kids would usually come over, and me and my sisters would do our annual Easter egg hunt with them. Of course, they usually get a head start since they're little kids. My sisters and I, however, are practically bloodthirsty about it. We've been doing Easter egg hunts ever since we were little, and we hadn't skipped a year until this one. While I'm optimistic that my family and I will be able to continue as normal next year, you never really know. Who knows how long we might not be able to practice our usual family traditions? We still keep in touch with our family members, but from a distance. This whole situation has really made me realize just how important family is in times of crisis. How we need to support each other, and help each other out. Frankly, if I didn't have my family to support me during times like this, I think I'd go insane.
• 
  2020-03-27

  Handmade masks

  A screenshot of a tweet from Florida news reporter Nestor Montoya. It shows a picture of handmade masks his sister made for him to wear during interviews with people during the pandemic.