Items

• 2020-03-18

  Moving & Religion

  These pieces of media were made during the very start of the pandemic on March 18, 2020. They capture the moment when my family moved to a new house in Chandler, Arizona from Tucson, Arizona. This was the beginning of a completely new life in a different place. From that moment onwards, I had no more connection to the outside world and was locked inside this house for the rest of 2020 and half of 2021. I did not have any form of in-person social interaction and only stayed inside this house. This made 2020 and 2021 a miserable experience. The photo is of my mom, who is the one that initiated our move here from Tucson, AZ. She did not like Tucson and wanted to move here as quickly to a more urban area like Phoenix and Chandler as soon as possible, but I really wanted to stay in Tucson. Tucson was a place that I developed a deep connection with. Tucson was the place where I attended high school and made many friends. To have those connections ripped from me for the rest of 2020 and basically the rest of my life was a very difficult experience. The video depicts a ceremony that Hindu families perform every time a family moves to a new residence. The question of whether I should partake in religion is something that I personally struggle with a lot in my life and especially in 2020. My parents forced me to partake in religious festivals and celebrations that I did not enjoy. This is another thing that made 2020 a very miserable experience. Over time, I have turned into an agnostic and a very secular person (something that my parents would probably be very unhappy to know).
• 2020-03-28

  Moving Out of My First Apartment

  During the 2019-2020, I was living at Vista Del Sol, the apartment style housing available to upper division Barrett students at Arizona State University. I was fortunate to share my apartment with three close friends, and over the course of the school year, we had often gotten together with some of our other friends to hang out and enjoy the college lifestyle in our apartment. After we all returned from spring break, we discussed how uncertain our futures would be with the pandemic, and with so little information or precedent available to us, we all faced uncertain circumstances. Three of us were from Tucson, but our fourth roommate was an out of state student, but we all wanted to remain in our room until the conclusion of the semester (when we were sure the whole situation would be over). However, with added stress from our parents, we found out over the course of a week, that all of our parents expected us to return home, where they presumed we'd be safer and better monitored, instead of leaving us to our own devices. Packing and spending those moments together were heartbreaking, and would only be amplified in the coming months as we were unable to see each other and spend time together, even for special occasions such as birthdays or other events. As a last hurrah, the weekend before our first roommate moved out, we threw ourselves a little goodbye party, with a roommates photoshoot that we reference even now, a year later.
• 2020-05-15

  Living with a First Responder

  My father is a police officer, and despite all the lockdown procedures in place in my hometown (Tucson, Arizona), that meant little regarding my dad's responsibilities at work. However, with the added stress of the pandemic, and the uncertain procedures that rapidly rose around it, I often watched as my dad would stop by the house during work to switch out clothes and take extra sanitization procedures because he had gone out on a call and been in contact with an individual who would only disclose that they had the coronavirus after he dealt with the report. These situations, especially early on in the pandemic, meant a lot of unknown variables for my family as we did our best to stay safe in a situation where we weren't always sure what to do.
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  2020-03-19

  DoD travel ban brings stress for separated families

  The Department of Defense placed a travel ban for military personnel and their families. At this time (03/19/20), the ban was set until May 11. However, in the middle of April, the ban extended the end date for the travel prohibition to June 30. This put stress on my parents because I'm not allowed to fly back home. They were worried about where I would stay once classes were done. In messages prior to the one shown, we discussed our limited options. With the help of Facebook, some relatives connected to my mother and we found out that my mother’s aunt and uncle in the Tucson area. This was incredibly fortunate for us and I’m extremely appreciative of the generosity of my great aunt and great uncle.
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  2020-05-04

  The Anecdotal Experience of Edward David Botterbusch

  The Anecdotal Experience of Edward David Botterbusch I’m a college student at the University of Arizona, and I’ve been in quarantine for close to seven and half weeks. During the start of the major restrictions, I was in Tucson after quickly returning from a spring break trip. I helped friends quickly pack-up their dorms and get ready to return back home. By March 18th, everyone I knew in Tucson had either quarantined themselves or traveled back to their respected homes. As for me, I was getting ready to isolate myself in my apartment. But being an out-of-stater living by myself, I was afraid of the cabin fever. As time progressed, I noticed that my hometown of Denver was getting hit hard, and the Governor was ready to start isolating the city as well as declaring stay-at-home orders for the rest of the state. Afraid of what that meant and the shortages getting worse, my friend, Brandon Gehrke, flew-out to stay with me; he arrived around the end of March. For the next month, we both stayed indoors while only going out for groceries or much needed walks. Yet, we both noticed the situation was better in Tucson. Back home, Denver experienced shortages and greater isolation all the way into late April. Yet, we were able to start buying everything we needed in early to mid April, and there were still many people going outside- joggers, people in the parks, etc. Eventually, Denver reached similar conditions and with the promise of re-opening the state in May, my friend returned back home. Though it’s early in the pandemic, more and more of normal life is returning, and things are looking better going into the summer.
• 2020-04-19

  One ASU Student's Transition

  A student's account of their transition to online school