Items

2021-02-07

Gas and New Covid

When I was pumping gas I realized how much has life has changed from about a year ago. This time last year I did not have to wear a mask, glove, and wipe down everything just to get gas. It is crazy to think that a simple task like getting gas requires people who are responsible to put on their mask, put on gloves, get their hand sanitizer/ hand sanitizer wipes and wipe down the card machine and the gas handle. Then finally, after that is all done you can insert your card push the buttons, choose your fuel grade, then pump, and finally, you can place the pump back on the machine. Then you have to strategically take off the gloves like I was trained when dealing with blood and then I have to use my hand sanitizer then I can get in my car and leave. This new task and very detail-oriented "dance" was foreign to most of us this time one year ago and now it has become a way of life. This is important to note this change because there was a time before that it was not like this and maybe one day we may get close back to that but if not we need to document the change.

2021-01-26

Statistics of Covid-19

Currently there are about 25,152,433 confirmed cases of Covid-19. And sadly 419,827 have died due to Covid-19. In California alone there are 3,136,158 cases with 7,937 cases per 100 thousand. There are also a couple new strains of Covid-19 that either spread faster or are more serious. Luckily, there are a few vaccines that are being distributed now. Covid-19 has caused a lot of trouble to many people, and lifestyles have and will change due to Covid-19.

2021-01-25

COVID-19

I haven’t personally been affected that much by COVID-19. My brother had it in January, before everyone knew what it was, but other than that no one in my family has had it. The way it has affected me the most is with school and sports being canceled. I wasn’t able to see my friends very often and I couldn’t get as much activity. Even with all the bad things that happened because of COVID, there was still some good things. Many people learned new things or got a new hobby. For me it was skateboarding. The COVID quarantine is definitely not fun but there is some good that has come out of it.

Red sports jersey with goggles and yellow water polo ball.

2021-01-22

Fish Out of Water

Since March 2020, my life has taken a complete turn. For my past high school years, I’ve constantly been in the pool playing water polo or swimming. In an odd way, I have built a connection with the water. It’s become a part of my day, a part of my life, and I took it for granted. I thought I would get to feel the adrenaline and the nervous wreak on game days when our season came, but it never did. As someone who was always in the water and active throughout the week, it was a change of scenery when we had to stay home because of the severity of the pandemic in California. Not being able to play my sports represents my high school experience as a junior because everything feels out of place. Most of my days used to revolve around practices and games, and not being able to attend these felt strange. This might be a minor inconvenience, but this little change threw me off guard. I had to find other ways to adapt to the situation and learn how to organize my days so that they could resemble one similar to before everything happened. I’m sure there are also many others who feel very unmotivated during this time of unrest. I, too, fell into a hole where I lost motivation because there was nothing to look forward to and I feared that things would never go back to normal, but I eventually adapted to this new reality because I realized that I could not predict the future. In a way, the lockdown was an opportunity for me to improve myself and take on new hobbies I have always been interested in. I started to cook more and even tried baking!

This is a picture taken of a forested hillside covered in snow during the daylight hours.

2021-01

Beautiful Things

This picture was around the time of winter break. To many people it will just be a picture of the mountains covered in snow. However, to me it is a picture that represents the change in my life since this pandemic. Before the pandemic all I was able to do was focus on my studies and sports with no time for myself, but now, even though times are stressful I am able to breathe a little more.. I guess. Before these mountains were covered in snow I went up there a few days before to check out the view with the Christmas lights, but nothing could have prepared me for what would happen next. Even though these mountains were already beautiful before, after the snowfall they’ve become a masterpiece. These mountains show change, in fact they encourage change within ourselves, for the better of all of us.

2021-01-21

Signs of Covid

When I first learned about the symptoms of COVID, I didn't really understand what the concern was about. People with COVID would experience fever, aches, chills, loss of taste, soar throat, and sometimes nausea. I just sounded like a flu to me. We don't wear lock everything down for the flu every year, so why should we do all this for COVID? Some time later, I learned that COVID has additional effects on the elderly and people with underlying health conditions. People in those categories would often develop a respiratory tract infection, which can be deadly. On the opposite side of things, most young and healthy people experience little to no symptoms at all. We've been living with COVID for almost a year now, and I've only known a few people who have gotten it. I can't be sure that I've gotten it, but what I do know is that the changes that came with COVID have impacted my life greatly. Hopefully it will all be over soon.

2021-01-19

Covid Restrictions

Throughout the Covid 19 Pandemic there have been many changes in my life. The main one and the hardest one for me was not bring able to see friends that much. I still get to see them but not as frequently as I used to. The second restriction was having to wear masks. I personally believe that masks help, but they are a pain to wear especially during sports and other physical activity.

2021-01-01

New year, new goals

For this new year I have many goals and aspirations. One of them being that COVID goes away (I know that is not how it works). I want to go back to regular life and be able to see everyone’s smiles. I do not want to be shamed for going out to get food instead of staying home 24/7. I do not want to have to take my temperature three times before going to work. Something else I want to change, is that I want to stop living through historical events. I am a history major and I prefer to read history books, not live through them. It seems that in 2020, if it wasn't something that was going wrong, it was another. I will be graduating in May and one of my biggest goals, although I do not have control over it, is to have a ceremony. I am a first generation graduate and I know my family and friends have been waiting for this day. I also want to get into graduate school and continue my education journey and continue to grow. This year I seem to have a lot more goals and resolutions than I have in the years past.

2021-01-14

Virtual learning

During the crazy year of 2020, we weren't allowed to have school in person. Instead, we had to learn remotely. There was both benifits and obstacles in this time. Some of the benifits were that we didn't have to wake up early, or go to different periods, because everything was one click away. Although there were some benifits, there were also difficulties. Some of them included no socializing, technology could sometimes fail, and we didn't have the same tools that we had in the classroom. Overall, this year has been a great change, and I think that we haver to start getting used to a different life.

2020-02-01

A Description of my Experiences While Learning Virtually

Things started out O.K., but band was a mess, and classes seemed very boring. I usually got up around my usual 6:00 a.m., but I didn't make my lunch as I used to, because I didn't need to. I then would practice piano, and then I would have an hour to do nothing, unless I had Jazz Lab, then it would be more like 30 minutes. School itself wasn't all that different, sine the only thing that changed was that it was a block schedule and that almost everything was online. The homework load decreased significantly, there were almost no group projects. They changed the Wednesday schedule a few times, but I got used to those pretty quickly. After a while, I kind of felt like there was no schedule at all. Once we got to go to campus to do remote learning, things felt more normal which was really nice.

2021-01-14T12:07

Remote learning

My first day of online school was March 18th 2020. It was the second semester of my 7th grade year. Using zoom was not as difficult as I expected and it helped that we used axis instead of google classroom. WIFI was not a very common issue for me but other student had constant problems. The first few months took a lot of learning but towards the end I got the hang of it. I started my 8th grade year on zoom. I was already used to online because of the pervious year so I was okay with it. First period began at 8 AM and most days I woke up at 7:45. It was nice getting done with class before the actual period ended because I could do my own thing off zoom. It gave me a longer break between periods. To be honest it was hard to stay on task and motivated because it a completely different environment that in person school. When my microphone or camera didn't work it was frustrating but not the biggest deal. It was slightly disappointing to have so many projects changed. I had seen the 8th graders years before do it so it was a bummer to have it altered.

2021-01-14

Remote learning

Learning virtually was definitely a change. It was hard to get used to at first. There are sone benefits of learning online. All your classes are right infront of you and with a click of a button your are in your class. Also, all of your supplies are on your desk, so you dont have to carry any books or anything to class. But, there were also some downsides. Not being able to see my teachers and friends was hard. Teaching a class online is also definitely harder and there are many distractions when it comes to online school. Changing to the block schedule was also difficult. We used to have all 7 periods in 1 day, but now we have 3-4 classes a day and they are twice as longer. It is hard sitting on a chair for an hour and a half for each period.

2021-01-07

Covid Christmas

This Christmas was kinda different than any other christmas for me. Covid did not really effect my family but what happened was that my cousins got covid on Christmas Eve Eve. So that effected a lot of our Christmas plans. We were supposed to go to my Nana and Papas but we could not because of our cousins and we did not want to risk giving covid to my papa. Then Christmas morning was normal because my Nana came over and we opened up gifts and i got a new gaming microphone. They my sister had her friend over at night and we played What Do you Meme and watched Christmas Vacation. That is what my Christmas looked like.

2021-01-07

A diffrent Christmas

For many people Christmas in 2020 was a little different than in the years past. The Carona Virus on Covid 19 struck America and changed everything. In previous years we were able to go Christmas shopping with our friends in crowded malls and with no mask. But this year it was different and we would not know how long this difference would be. Having to stay in the environment of your home with not many family members to celebrate the holiday with. Having to Facetime friends instead of meeting up in person. It was different and we had to get used to it.

2021-01-07

What was Christmas like this year? How was it different?

Christmas this year was definitely different. For the most part, it didn't even feel like winter, and I was surprised that it has almost already been a year since everything became different from Covid. This year for Christmas it almost felt like there was no excitement for it or no build up to get us excited. We didn't get to spend Christmas with my grandparents and cousins as we usually do, but I still got to be with my family. We were able to have a good meal and still enjoy Christmas ourselves, but it definitely didn't feel real.

2020-12-25

Christmas 2020

The Christmas of 2020 was not too different from past years for me. On Christmas Day, my family opens presents and eats meals together, we did that again this year with little change. Christmas Eve, however, changed a lot. Normally, my family and friends would gather at my Grandmother's house to eat and talk. But, we could not do that in 2020. Instead, we only saw my Grandmother. Overall, Christmas didn't change much, the only thing different was the lack of people.

2021-01-06

COVID-19 potato story crizmiz christmans story christmas

my crizst maz chenge because insted of meeting with FAM i was VIbiNG AT HOME and that was diff 😂 lmao. Another thang that changedddddddddddddddddd is i had to vibe at hawm insted of going to somewhere like hawai wheir it is hawt. ThIs was very unpoggers and was not epicnessPOG.

12/14/2020

Ted Epstein Oral History, 2020/12/14

I interviewed my boss, Ted, who is the owner of Loretta in Newburyport. I asked him a few questions of what he had to change since the pandemic began. Before I started asking him questions, I made sure he was okay with me recording and then posting this on the Covid-19 archive. Ted was given guidelines from the CDC and the government for what he had to change, and he was the one who had to implement them, which was challenging. This will benefit people looking back at 2020 because they will hear how we had to change from the perspective of a small business owner, which doesn’t happen very often. Small businesses are often silenced by larger chain companies since they are more well known. From this interview though, people will see how Ted really cares about the restaurant and keeping it open for the guests.

2020-12-10

The Last Normal Month

In February, life was as normal as ever. I had no idea how much my entire world would change in just a few weeks. I was hugging my friends and sharing food, taking the bus to school and spending my weekends at the mall, not a care or fear in my mind. Then, in early March, that all changed as my city went into lockdown. I was terrified that there were 26 cases of Coronavirus in my county, which is nothing compared to the almost 8,000 cases a day we are facing now. I don't know if this is the halfway point, or just the beginning, but I sure hope life can be like it was in February again soon.

2020-02

Life Before the Pandemic

Before the pandemic, I had a typical life. I had to wake up at around 6-6:30am to be able to get to school, which was 40 or so minutes away from our house. I drove in our new Tesla with my dad who worked at Joni and Friends. I also had begun carpooling with my friend Carly. We would sit in the back seats together as we talked about a fandom that we're both in and met through. Sometimes I would draw on ibisPaintX with my iPad mini with a stylus and a glove I crocheted that goes around my wrist and only extends over my pinkie finger so that when I rest my hand on the screen it doesn't interfere with the program. Sometimes I would crochet little dolls. After school, I would either have volleyball practice, go to Carly's house, or go to my father's work and do homework, play games, or read fanfictions while he finished his work day. If I had volleyball, I would sit at the pickup place while I waited for my dad and he would come pick me up and take me home. At home, I would eat, shower, read a bit possibly, and go to bed. The fist clue I got about my life changing was the news of the quarantined ship from China. At the time, it was just another 'oh look at them, that must suck, oh well' news report but it soon escalated into 'everyone is quarantined now'

2020-12-10T10:52:28

My Life Before Covid and How I Found Out

My life before Covid-19 was going very well. I was traveling for competitions and doing sports, actually going to school in person normally, and I was able to see the rest of my family. I was very happy, and then everything began to fall apart. Back in January, I found out about the virus, and how it was in China. Everybody thought that it was a joke and we would all laugh when someone talked about it, but we never thought that it would spread to the USA, or cause an emergency global pandemic. I was actually at a competition the weekend before everything shut down, completely unaware of what was about to happen. We got home from the competition and the next day at school, I began to hear that other schools were shutting down and canceling school temporarily. That is when it all hit me. Our school was shutting down, stores were shutting down, restaurants were shutting down, everything was closed, and I thought that the world was ending. Who knew that right after coming back from a normal competition and a regular life that everything was changing. I definitely didn’t. The worst and funniest part about everything shutting down in an emergency rush, was the outage of toilet paper. Everyone was stalking up on toilet paper, for a reason I am not aware of, causing almost all stores and online websites to be completely out of it. People began to panic for this reason, and that is when people began to hoard things like dry foods, toilet paper, water, and that is when getting essential items became a huge struggle. Everyone basically had to fight to get the things they needed. Covid-19 changed the whole world, and it was definitely not expected.

2020-11-19

The "New Normal"

The submission of this photo is to show the “new normal” while driving around. Thinking back to the year 2019, if I saw someone with a mask hanging on their rearview mirror I would have been slightly confused and intrigued as to why. However, in 2020, many have begun to hang masks on their rearview mirrors as it is a convenient spot. COVID-19 has had some of the biggest impacts on society, with masks being close to the top. Ever since the mask mandates went into effect, a mask being hung on a rearview mirror became a regular occurrence while traveling. Currently, there is a statewide mandate in Massachusetts enforcing the wearing of masks in all public spaces. Although it is still odd or awkward to some, mask wearing is the current way of life and there is no way around it. Even though there is opposition to wearing masks and they hinder the feel of real conversation, the safety provided by the mask outweighs it. My hopes are that the mask can help in the present so we can return to the “old norm” in the future.

2020-11-30

The year things changes

before covid my life was pretty normal i drove to school and work. i was usually a person who was somewhat athletic but not completely. but assoon as covid hit i started to realizes a change. this change was in my travel habits. i used to drive to places with other or be with crowedroom of people but due to covid i had to rethink my ways of tranportation. and that is where biking became a new hobby and mode of transportation. with biking i was able to keep my distance and not be near people in large groups. as i picked up biking i discover i was having more fun and was a lot happier. biking suddenly gave me the chance to see the would in a slower view and i could focus more on that. with al the horrible thing happening this year i was able to escape it almost by biking and at the same time be safe. biking gave me a new view of the would and a new mind set of taking thing slower not rushing. now i biking nearly every where I go and I enjoy it and it has giving me a new activity to due during covid.

2020-11-28

My experience with COVID-19 at the end of 2020

When COVID-19 began to affect everyone's daily lives including mine, I was not happy with the adjustments we had to make over the summer. Wearing masks and not being able to see certain people got really annoying. However, as time passed on, I learned to deal with the requirements needed in order to enjoy life again. Yes, we may have to wear masks and social distance, but at least businesses are open. We can still do all the things we use to do, only with a few guidelines implemented. Most people thought this pandemic was the beginning of the end of the world. But I believe this pandemic has made us stronger. We as humans are able to handle any negative impact that comes our way. Sometimes life can be challenging, but we will always find a way to get through it.

2020-10-01

Jewish Melbourne: Jewish Women of Words - Atida Lipshatz

Atida Lipshatz wrote a piece for Jewish Women of Words reflecting on food during the pandemic

2020-09-03

St. Mary's University's Mask Squad

St. Mary's has gathered a group of students ( the mask squad) with the purpose to promote Covid-19 safety procedures. Typically St. Marys' campus is full of smiling faces and it always busy with students running to classes or to meet with friends. Since Covid-19 St.Mary’s students have had to adjust to not seeing the campus so lively. The mask squad is currently on campus to not only remind students to wear their masks but to give the campus some life. Wearing our masks is a crucial part of keeping all those on campus safe. This email shows the efforts that the university is taking to try and promote safety and community.

2020-11-17

Zoom calls with strangers a face with no makeup, these are a few of my favorite things

A Tik Tok video covering so many changes that have happened with the pandemic, an original sound by Nina Nesbitt. The video makes fun of zoom calls, not wearing makeup, and ordering food and other items online. It definitely captures how challenging it is to stay home, the struggle of interacting with other people, and the tendency to give into vices as a coping strategy.

2020-11-06

Summer School and COVID19

One thing that scares me about becoming a teacher is the fact that I may not be able to go into a classroom to teach when all this schooling is said and done. After reading the archives that I have it seems that teachers are being affected by this just as much as the students are. The schools that are allowing students to enter are in limited fashion with a lot of rules that apply. for example, the archive I am referencing shows a picture of a classroom with only chairs in it and no desks. due to covid they are not allowed to use desks for sanitary reasons. It makes it seem as though the schools should not be open anyways if they arent able to take notes. It really makes it seem as this is a trial run for this school to see if they are going to be able to allow students into the school when the regular school term starts. The time that we are in is making it hard to do the things we loved to do before the pandemic and I think we can all agree we will be happy when things get back to normal.

2020-11-03

Elizabeth Sconyers Interview with Jason LeClair

Jason LeClair is a teacher at a theater arts teacher at a charter school in Rhode Island. In this interview, he discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected parts of his personal life and daily routine. He talks about specific effects the pandemic has had on performing arts, such as the use of Zoom and drive-ins for theatre and concert, the delays in reopening the performing arts to the public, and how the shutdown of performing arts has effected the economy. Finally, he touches on some concerns for the future of performing arts and how he believes the performing arts will be different after this pandemic.

2020-11-05

London to Boston

Last summer, in the beginning of the pandemic, I was planning on going to London my first semester of college. A group of students from Northeastern University and I would spend out first semester of college experiencing the city of London and getting to know each other. Because of the pandemic these plans drastically changed. I am now here in Boston for my first semester, not London. This image was taken by me at the Charles River and to me it represents resiliency. My peers and I as well as Northeastern demonstrated resilience by making the best out of a bad situation. Yes, we couldn't go to London. Instead we got to come here to Boston, a place I found to be amazing. The photo shows Bostons beauty from my perspective and represents how I am happy to be here, despite the circumstances. To me it illustrates the importance of resiliency in times like these.

2020-11-02

HIST30060: QR Codes

HIST30060: The introduction of QR codes into our daily lives has been just one adjustment into our new COVID normal lives. Previous fears of data security has been exchanged for the chance to socialize and eat out. As the pandemic continued, our priorities changed, and our normal changed, however our need to connect and socialize did not.

2020-10

Jewish Melbourne: 'Thoughts on Isolation' by Stan Marks

Stan Marks, who is 91 years old, reflects on living during the pandemic, and also shares a letter he wrote to share with the students in Year 12 at Brighton Grammar, his old school

2020-08-08

The Virtual Zaragoza Experience [DUPLICATE]

The screenshot is the 2020 St. Mary's university Zaragoza itinerary. Before coming to St. Mary's, I was told all about the Zaragoza experience, and how it is an extremely important part of the St. Mary's experience. It's a time where freshmen are finally introduced into the St. Mary's family right before school starts. Unfortunately, 2020 freshmen had a very different experience. Our entire Zaragoza was online, and I am very thankful for the Zaragoza leaders' efforts through the event; however, it really wasn't the same as a real Zaragoza. It felt like I wasn't really there, and that I wasn't really a true St. Mary's freshmen. At least, not while I was not on campus. Overall, I appreciate St. Mary's efforts since it wasn't their fault at all. This year's Zaragoza was just collateral damage as we move into this new reality of Covid and its impact on freshmen.

2020-10-31

Dorm list upgrade: Masks are the new essential item to bring to college

My dorm list for my first year of St. Mary’s consisted of the usual: bed sheets, towels, and-masks? The new normal of college is needing as many masks as you can get. The picture attached are 50 masks I had to buy, and I couldn’t even buy them at a store since they were sold out. Masks becoming the new college essential is a complete change and was unheard of a year ago. What's more interesting is masks becoming a new way to express yourself. While some students like myself choose disposable masks we have others who are showing off their school pride with their St. Mary's masks as well as masks that showcase their interests and hobbies.

10/22/2020

Gwyn Hartung Oral History, 2020/10/22

This is an interview with St.Mary's University Public History Graduate Student Gywn Hartung. Gwyn recently graduated from UTSA with an undergraduate degree in Anthropology and classical studies. She is currently in her first year of graduate school and began it entirely online. In the interview, Gwyn described her first semester of graduate school and how her mental health has been impacted by the combination of COVID-19 and transition to online school. Gwyn's experience is significant because many students in the fall 2020 semester face various obstacles with maintaining their social lives, productivity with school, and staying physically and mentally healthy.

2020-10-27

A New Perspective on Sports

When I heard that football was going to be returning, I can’t express how shocked and excited I became. In the past few months, my family and I had been locked up in our houses, unable to do all of the fun activities that we had loved to do before the Virus. Luckily, the spread was starting to slow, and now things, like sports, were starting to come back again. My family and I are huge football fans (GO STEELERS!), and when we heard this news we were ecstatic! While watching the first game on TV, we were shocked as to how much about it had changed. To start, no one was allowed in the stands. When watching the game, you could see all the yellow and black seats along the horizon. Usually, these seats would be packed with life. The next thing I noticed was the noise. Since there were no crowds, there were no cheering or noises coming from the background. Usually, music would also be playing to entertain the fans, but a lot of these sounds were removed. The NFL tried to add in pre recorded background noises to put into the game, but it just wasn’t the same. After watching this game, I realized how much COVID-19 has changed the things that I love. I am thankful for the slow of the spread and all of the precautions being put out to keep the public safe, but this event really made me realize how my take on the little things had changed.

0202-10-08

Time to Slow Down and Reflect

What I have learned the most through COVID 19 is how much hate there is in the world. I am a miniscule piece of this planet and if I can strive and share a positive attitude, I would want that for everyone else. Life isn’t perfect, but we can try to be more respectful, caring, and understanding of others. This time of quarantine has really shown me how much I needed to slow down. Slow down and really reflect and meditate what is truly important to me now, and what is important to me and for my future. The hate that we focus on in our society comes from years and years of hurt and hatred. But it’s time for a change; it’s time for us to learn about each other and get to a point where we can all respectfully understand each other. You can never understand what everyone is going through, but they go through it every single day. It’s important to make sure others aren’t alone, and that healing takes time. The constant grind that we live going to work, being social, going to school, and traveling gets tiresome and the quality time of it all gets drowned by the stress and drama. We can use this time of quarantine to stop and realize what truly is important for our health: mental, physical, and spiritual.

2020-09-17

A State of Constant Contradiction

Over the past six months we have all found ourselves isolated from our friends, family, communities, and the world we once knew. Society has had to adapt to changes we never expected to happen. Throughout my education, I have been taught about the great tragedies and historic moments that people have faced over past centuries but never imagined that I too, would be living through a moment in time that will be forever talked about in history books. Life since the beginning of the pandemic has not felt real. The world has stopped, yet time is still quickly moving along. In order to stay safe, we must completely isolate ourselves, yet find a way to still live day to day. Follow regulations and guidelines but still have the money to feed, house, and take care of ourselves. The people of the world have had to find a way to stay safe and stay alive. The pandemic has made me feel as though I am in a constant state of contradiction. I have reached a time in my life where everything is changing, and I am constantly evolving. I have never felt better about being out on my own and figuring out who I am, while also feeling stuck, hopeless, trying to manage my crippling mental health and the harsh effects of isolation. Constantly battling between being optimistic versus sinking into a pessimistic hole. I feel like I am thriving in some aspects of my life and deteriorating in so many others. Feeling stuck, yet still trying to be hopeful for the future. Feeling good about accomplishments and milestones in life while also feeling bad knowing that there are people who are being confronted by this deadly virus daily. Every day I feel as though I am faced with a constant dilemma between myself, my mind, and the ever-changing world around me. Nevertheless, I know I am not alone in feeling this way either. Everyone across the globe is also dealing with the ramifications of COVID-19. We are all dealing with the constant moral hypocrisy of knowing that life still has to move forward and that life can be good while also being in utter chaos. I view life right now as a fine line that we are slowly treading. However, one day we will look back and realize we have crossed it, confident in knowing that we are alright.

2020-09-08

Has America Lived up to it's core values?

It's an essay I wrote in American studies at California High School.

2020-09-08

Growth is optional

This essay was produced as a part of the American Studies program at California High School in San Ramon, California. The essay is in response to the prompt "Is America currently living up to its core values?" This essay argues how Americans in their current state aren't living up to the values of Equality and Time/control. It also includes a reference to the March of equality.

2020-08-23

Portfolio_Beattie

Throughout my time curating and finding impacts of the pandemic named COVID-19 I have learned that through the many hardships that Americans have encountered over the past several months we are adaptable and resilient to change. I have also learned that human beings ARE mostly generous and giving entities especially when faced with communal heartache. Many of us have felt empathy at its finest by living in a difficult situation that is similar to the difficult situations that those around us are going through. Through this collection, and through the collections of others, I have seen that people have deserted self-centered mentalities placing them with more understanding than ever before. I look forward to seeing where these unselfish and positive mentalities take the humanity of our world. I have thoroughly enjoyed my work curating, archiving, creating oral histories and working as a team towards a common goal in this difficult time. I look forward to refining these beginning skills I have acquired over the last 15 weeks by continuing to work in cyber archives, whether it be professionally or recreationally. This experience has been unforgettable for me personally and professionally and I am proud to have been a part of saving this historic time in global history.

2020-08-15

Good news in a difficult time.

I remember the beginning of pandemic in Boston like it was yesterday. Coming back from work I was worried about everyone’s’ and my own future. I had just started a new job at the restaurant that quickly become empty as people preferred to stay home and not take a risk of getting infected after having brunch. Speaking about myself, I was mentally and financially at the lowest point in last 10 years of my life. I saw myself as a foreigner with no future who has to work 17 hours a day, having two – three jobs just to survive. I was afraid to get Covid, to lose my job, to not be able to pay rent. And then lockdown happened. During the first three weeks I’ve lost my job and wasn’t able to collect unemployment. The level of stress was nearly unmanageable. Every day I was on the phone trying to reach out any representative who could help me. Every day was restless and sleepless, until few events that seemed to be magical happened. Firstly, unemployment benefits were made available to me. The amount was $600 more than I thought it would be and I was eligible for a stimulus check too. For many people in USA it wasn’t much money but for me, it was twice what I had been making by working. It also was proof of my belief in paying taxes. I have paid taxes ever since I’ve been employed and always thought that even though I might not have gotten anything from doing so right away, there would come a time when doing so would help me. So, it did and did so because of unexpected circumstances and at a time when I was struggling more than I ever had. The news got even better for me despite what was go on around me. I received a letter I had been waiting for my entire life that told me I had been accepted to Suffolk University. I have always wanted to go to university so receiving this great news at such a hard time meant a great deal to me. I also received a scholarship to Suffolk meaning I could actually attend. I went through a number of life changing events in a very short period of time and all during a complete lockdown when I couldn’t really leave home for weeks at a time. I didn’t feel comfortable to show off my happiness whilst the numbers of cases and deaths were rapidly increasing. Ethically it was wrong from my point of view. But now, when everything seems to be getting better and there’s a hope to win the battle with Covid-19 I’m happy to be where I am and glad to share my happy-ending story with you.

2020-07-27

Journal Entry - July 27, 2020

This is a journal entry on how I'm feeling about having to return to the office full time.

2020-08-09

Lockdown 2020

I found the meme relevant because from march to now, the US still is not the same. We are having to adjust to a new "normal." This initial lock down was only suppose to be for 2 weeks, but it kept getting pushed due to people not following the stay at home order. It is now August, and some individuals still refuse to wear a mask to help protect not only themselves, but others. This year is definitely a year I would not come back to if I ever had the opportunity.

2020-07-26

Pandemic Pods? The Return of Schooling in America

This pandemic has opened the eyes of millions of Americans, including mine, when it came to questioning the necessity of a traditional schooling system. The bridge between political parties reflects various differing opinions on what parents feel the best way to re-enroll back their kids into school. The article I found interested me as it mentioned that families are looking into the idea of creating small groups with local children called “pods” which would help [pay for private tutors or teachers. However this method may require paying thousands of dollars in order to fund tutors to teach these localized groups of students. It is still unsafe in many institutions which thousands of children pass by one another on a daily basis which could lead to mass spread of the virus if even a couple of students have contracted the virus. This article reflects the outcome of an already declining school system affected with a worldwide pandemic. This article gives us a way of looking at how people are affected by and making alternatives to a failing and problematic system of education due to current health safety requirements. This post makes me question whether to innovate or destroy the system? Everything seems to be fluid and unpredictable due to the varying status of the nation day to day. Makes me question, who is responsible for the safety of students and children to be upheld? How does one monitor the level of safety and how will well being be ensured?

2020-06-17

Aunt Jemima is getting a new name.

Aunt Jemima the popular syrup and pancake mix is getting a new name. The brand which is based on a racial stereotype is getting a much-needed overhaul.

2020-07-07

ICE Guidance on COVID-19

This PDF documents highlights all of the statements and guidelines ICE has released since March when the COVID pandemic began to largely affect the United States. They have slowly added more guidelines but have also rolled back some that have been highly criticized.

2020-07-16

Explore the Archives