Items

• 
  2020

  Life of a Trini during the Covid 19 Pandemic

  My story talks about difficulty I experienced during the pandemic
• 
  2023-03-25

  Lockdown Story from A Different Perpective

  “During the lockdown, it seems that everyone took on a small hobby to keep themselves busy. For me, I took on a couple to keep me busy. One of them included going for daily walks and taking photos of the scenery around me. I’ve taken walks even before COVID, but this was the only time where I really took my time and payed attention to my surroundings. I normally don’t bring my phone as that time is my 20 to 30 minutes away from technically, however I started to bring it along with me to take photographs of the trees blooming in spring and everything starting to grow and looking amazing. For the remainder of 2020, I kept to my hobby of taking photos and made sure to capture scenery I thought looked interesting. I especially made sure to snap photos in the same spots to capture what they look like in each one of the seasons. Luckily with it snowing weeks before Christmas that year, I was able to get a photo of one street during each one of the seasons. To me, they looked really cool!” Photo by Kyle Collesano, April 19th, 2020 #lockdownstatenisland
• 
  2020-05-29

  The Spiritual Enlightenment of the Quarantine

  Whilst in the midst of the Covid-19 Pandemic we as people had lots of time to spend, let alone kids and teens. Because Covid swept the globe so quickly the Educational system was not prepared whatsoever which resulted in the student not even having zoom classes. With this gained a lot of time that I did not know to manage, and so I started my Spiritual Enlightenment. This Enlightenment was basically me starting to read books, paint and improve my ties with my family. Painting stayed with me for a large time of that year but sadly I had to let it go when we started school once more. I entered High School as a different but better version of myself
• 2022-05-24

  New Hobbies and a New Normal

  Like many other people who suddenly found themselves at home for an extended period due to the COVID-19 quarantines I picked up many new hobbies which have now become a part of my normal life. In March of 2020 I suddenly found myself unable to go into nail salons that had been closed as nonessential businesses. I found online advertisements for at-home dip powder nail kits and ordered to materials to turn my living room into a makeshift nail salon to do my own nails. The smell of a nail salon is distinctive, and I found that smell filling my living room every time I did my nails. Also in March 2020, my office shut down and the entire staff was sent to work from home. At the same time my kids’ school was also closed and they were sent home for virtual classes. My quiet private office at work was traded for my noisy house with dogs barking, teachers teaching over Zoom, and kids in group videos talking with their friends. With all our usual reasons to leave the house gone I found little escape from the chaos that was now a typical day at work in my house. Looking for a reason to get out of the house I took up running. A few days a week I would head outside for a quiet neighborhood run trading in the sounds of Zoom calls with teachers and kids for the occasional neighborhood bird. Over two years later and life has returned to a version of what we used to call normal. Nail salons are open, I am back to working in my office, and my kids are back to learning in their classrooms. However, some of these hobbies I picked up out of necessity have found their way into my life permanently. I still do my own nails at the house, turning my living room into a nail salon every other weekend. I still go for neighborhood runs a few times a week either before or after a day at the office. While these have become fixtures in my life now, the smell of a nail salon in my living room still reminds me of the earliest quarantine days and when I head out for a quiet neighborhood run, I still recall the peaceful feeling that brought me when life at home was becoming too stressful in 2020.
• 
  2022-04-29

  An ~Interesting~ Time to Say the Least

  After living through it for the past two years, there is SO much to say about the COVID-19 pandemic, and I don’t even know where to begin. I guess the main takeaway is that it really forced everyone’s true colors to show. At the beginning in March of 2020, everyone was so uncertain of what was to come, and that alone made it so scary, that most people had no choice but to make light of the situation. I remember not only the grocery store shelves being empty because of everyone over-stocking their pantries and shortages in general, but also the hobby sections of Walmart and Target being empty, which was truly a really beautiful thing to witness. People were taking the time in quarantine to learn more about themselves whether that meant learning new skills or trying out new hobbies and spending time with their families doing puzzles and playing games as well. For me personally, I taught myself how to sew, which is depicted in the attached photo, as I needed to make face masks for my boyfriend and me (out of an old t-shirt) so we could safely go to the grocery store, before masks were widely available. I also learned how to bake really delicious treats, got back into reading, and even painted a few pictures here and there. Aside from these positives, it also brought out a lot of negatives as well including built up anxiety and anger that came out in the form of a new equal rights movement: Black Lives Matter after George Floyd's murder. It was scary at the time because protests and riots got very violent, but any movement for equal rights is a good movement, so it was a positive in the long run. I would say COVID-19 also played a role in the insurrection at the capitol on January 6th of 2021, and more division between political parties regarding vaccines and mandates. One could go on for hours listing all the positive and negative aspects that came about from the pandemic, but it's most important to recognize how resilient we as humans are. I'm proud of how far we've come.
• 
  2020-05-09

  Successful Homemade Cake Donuts

  In May of 2020, it was the middle of the pandemic and I wanted to try and make homemade donuts. Everyone else in lockdown was making homemade bread, but I wanted to do something a little more sweet. With that, I searched on Amazon for molds that someone could use to make the circular donuts. I knew without them, the donuts would not come out well. Once the molds were delivered and using a box of cake mix, I tried to make donuts. Now, you would think the second picture of Devil's Food favored donuts was the first batch, but no it wasn't. My first batch came from Funfetti cake mix (my favorite boxed cake mix), but it was a disaster. The donuts got stuck in the mold and would not come out until I used a butter knife. It left a mess because only part of the donut came out sometimes. I was disheartened because since I had time on my hands, I thought I could make donuts because the recipe I found was easy to follow. I gave up for awhile but decided later on to try again. In January of 2021, the date for the second photo of the Devil's Food donuts, I succeeded. I had sprayed the molds thoroughly and took my Mom's suggestion to spread flour around in the molds. I was proud that my second batch of donuts came out successfully!
• 
  2022-03-20

  Cooking During the Pandemic

  This is one recipe I learned to make during the pandemic. It is a chicken pot pie with a biscuit topping (that I luckily did't have to make myself). I've made many things over the course of this pandemic. Restaurants became too much of a hassle for a while in 2020, and many weren't even open. I used to go out to eat more often before the pandemic, but with me starting school again in the fall of 2020, in addition to masks being very annoying for me to want to wear, I would either order takeout, or make food myself. Between school and the pandemic, cooking has become one of my favorite hobbies, as I need to eat anyway, and I have been able to try types of food I didn't know I'd like. Prior to the pandemic, I would not eat pickled things as often, but now I seek it out with recipes to try. I also learned some new skills, like discovering I can make the non freezer variety of jam, and how to use cast iron the right way. I maybe would have learned these skills later on anyway because I enjoy cooking, but being at home more has made me want to try more recipes. Contrary to the stereotype, I did not learn how to make sourdough from scratch during the pandemic, but my dad did, and now he's on a kick with making sourdough bread weekly when he is home. Cooking has been one constant I have had, and I did it before the pandemic, but currently, I am doing it more often to save money and learn more skills. I intend to teach my kids in the future on how to cook things. It's more than a hobby for me though, as the better I can cook, the less likely I am to want to spend money on takeout. With rising prices of food in 2022, knowing how to cook has been a blessing.
• 
  2020-09-27

  My First Pie and Other Sensory Snapshots

  I gave birth to my first child two months into the COVID-19 pandemic, and so to me, memories of this time are centered around life as a new parent. Because we live in a different state than most of our family, and because we had a newborn (whose immune systems are not well-developed the first several weeks of life) in a global pandemic, we did not go anywhere. I had a few months off of work and school to care for my son, so my experience of COVID-19 to that point was time spent just with my son. As any parent knows, those first few weeks are an exhausting blur consisting of the never-ending cycle of feeding your baby, changing them, and helping them sleep. But the sensory memories from this time of my life that have stuck with me the most involve the feeling of holding my baby; feeling his head on my shoulder, hearing his tiny little breaths and occasional squeaky coos in my ear, noticing the sweet smell of his baby shampoo on his head, feeling him stretch and reposition from time to time. Though it seemed like the days when he would sleep independently would never come, little did I know how quickly they would, and how much I would miss these quiet moments. When he started getting the hang of napping, I suddenly had these open stretches of time in my day, which I was not used to. What to do to fill this time, especially in the midst of a pandemic and with a baby to boot? Like many people, I developed a baking hobby while my little one napped. Now I associated his nap time with the sticky feel of flour and butter on my hands as I kneaded dough for soda bread, the smell of buttery, sugary deliciousness coming from the oven as scones were baking. On my husband’s birthday, I produced my most time-consuming bake so far: a strawberry rhubarb pie. This one required some cooperation on the part of my little guy, whose giggles I heard as he batted at toys in his baby swing while I chopped and prepped the filling and made the pie crust. The finished product wasn’t necessarily perfect, but I was proud of it, and the memory of making it will always stick with me since it is a representative snapshot of that moment in time, a few months into a global pandemic with my young son.
• 2020-06-19

  The bracelet my mother made

  During the peak of the pandemic, my mother learned to make intricate bracelets. She made me one, and I have not taken it off since. In a way, it symbolizes my relationships with my family during this hard time.
• 
  2020

  Cooking During Quarantine

  As a 14 year old kid during quarantine, I had not much to do. I was separated from my friends and longing for ways to feel free. At times, I even found myself begging to go into school, wanting to go back to the old world. Now, everyday would be the same routine. I would wake up and get on my zoom class, eat, and repeat. Yet soon, I began cooking. I found a way to connect and find myself through the foods I baked with my family. Now, I cook whenever I can.
• 
  2021-12-17

  Cooking During Covid

  These photos are a couple of many foods I have created during the Covid-19 pandemic. Although these times were depressing and lonely in ways it was a gift for me to be given the time to find my passion as a chef. Homemade pasta takes 2+ hours, and homemade bread takes 4+ I never would have had the time to do this before Covid. I think that during this time it is very important to find a little bit of light in a time of darkness, and that's what I did.
• 
  2020-05-21T22:21

  Lockdown Jigsaw Puzzles 2020

  One of the ways that my family and I relaxed in the evenings during the first COVID-19 lockdown was by doing jigsaw puzzles. Here are just two examples of the many we completed throughout 2020. We set up in the living room using a board of sorts (cardboard from the box our television had been in) to do it on so that all the pieces would stay within one area and the whole thing would be portable if we needed the table back. The map one (left) had 1500 pieces and was the first one we completed in May. The second puzzle pictured here (right) was a particular struggle because it did not come with a picture of what the finished puzzle looked like. We all worked on our own little sections before figuring out how they all came together. It was an incredibly satisfying moment to see the puzzle completed finally knowing how each of our little parts fit together to create it. Jigsaw puzzles have been something that have helped me relax for years. There was often one at my high school library that I would do to have a break from my studies in order to take my mind off things. As it was in the library multiple people would join in making it very much a collective effort. Thus, doing jigsaws with other people, in this case my family, during these hard times was one of the things which helped keep me relatively sane during 2020. It was a very rewarding activity that allowed for greater engagement with one another than simply watching television for hours on end.
• 
  2021-10-13

  HIST30060: My first pandemic quilt

  Last year (2020) I was living at home with my parents. My mum noticed how the pandemic was affecting me mentally and suggested that I make a quilt as a therapeutic tool. It was my first ever quilt, and it took several months. I enjoyed making it so much that I've kept on making quilts ever since. This quilt, therefore, reminds me of the pandemic's silver linings; it forced me to take up a hobby, one that slows me down. This photo is of the quilt on my bed now in Melbourne (2021).
• 
  2021-04-13

  HIST30060: Pandemic cookbook

  I bought this cookbook earlier this year from a local Melbourne lady. During the 2020 lockdowns, she decided to write a cookbook celebrating cooking and sharing food with friends during eased restrictions. Whenever I cook from this cookbook, I am reminded of how the pandemic was also an opportunity for many people to pursue new hobbies and interests, often creative ones, that they previously wouldn't have.
• 
  2021-09

  The comforting smell of cardamom and cinnamon on a Sunday morning

  One of the most defining characteristics of my quarantine has been learning how to bake. After a year and a half, I am finally comfortable kneading, proofing, and baking. I have learned the tell-tale signs of under-proofed and over-proofed bread by touch (slightly indent the bread with the end of your finger and how the dough springs-back will tell you all you need). I have learned to listen for the hollow sound of fully cooked bread. However, one of the greatest joys I have found with baking is filling the house with the smell of cinnamon, sugar, and cardamom on a Sunday morning with my slightly adjusted cinnamon roll recipe from our well-used Betty Crocker’s 1961 New Picture Cookbook (it was my mum’s before me). My family is Scandinavian, and the smell and taste of cardamom is ever-present in Scandinavian baking. Kanalsnegl, klejner, and fødselsdagboller are all delicious Danish and Norwegian cardamom classics. But Betty Crocker’s cinnamon rolls are also highly popular in my house. From this, a fusion roll was born. On Sunday mornings, the house is filled with cinnamon and cardamon of these classic buns. The Betty Crocker recipe calls for two teaspoons of cinnamon filling, but I sub one teaspoon with cardamom. I also add a pinch of cardamom to the butterscotch topping. In a time of stressful uncertainty, the smell of freshly baked rolls with cinnamon and cardamom is like wrapping up in a comfortable blanket. I have attached the recipe if you want to try this sensory smell experience, too.
• 
  2021-10-17

  Fish Food

  Since the Pandemic began and I was moved to remote work I have been spending more time than ever in my apartment. I bought some house plants to liven up my humble abode but they are easy to care for and don't do too much other than exist. I was looking to get a pet to occupy some of my time but unfortunately my building does not allow for cats or dogs, so I went for a fish friend as the lease was ambiguous towards fish. In college my roommate had two fish tanks and cared for them very well. The fish were always big hits with house guests and caring for them seemed easy enough. It was with this in mind that I purchased a male betta fish, which I named Tarzan after the drug smuggler Ludwig Fainberg from the documentary "Operation Odessa" which I highly recommend. However caring for a betta fish is not as simple as I initially thought. Yet with the help of the internet and all its wisdom I was able to do enough research and find exactly what I needed to make my tank as comfortable as possible for Tarzan. I purchased a five gallon tank along with, a filter, a heater (betta fish like it warm), gravel, a background poster, a pagoda, live plants, a net, a gravel pump for cleaning, ph chemicals, a large moss rock and of course fish food. He gets fed twice a day, once in the AM and once in the PM. The tank needs to be cleaned at least once a month and the filter is changed during that process as well. Every time I crack open his food my nose is greeted by a distinct fish food smell that is unmistakable and equally unpleasant. While I do not think that it would be impossible to care for Tarzan if I was still going into the office every day, it is definitely easier now that I am home more often. Cleaning the tank takes about an hour and can get smelly at times depending on how long it has been since its last cleaning. Without the current work from home situation brought on by the pandemic I would not have considered owning any type of pet that I would have to care for on a daily basis. The average lifespan of a betta fish is between three to five years, hopefully with enough care Tarzan can live to the full five and see the other side of the pandemic.
• 
  2020-03-07

  Strengthening friendships and learning new hobbies

  When COVID-19 hit the states back in March of 2020, I was a freshman in college. I was sent home to and had to take the rest of my classes from home, for what we thought would be two weeks. Boy, was I wrong, two weeks turned into the longest and most memorable summer vacations of my life. When we had been sent home me and my three best friends wanted to make the most out of the time we were given, so we turned to our hobbies, which was fishing. Ever day I woke up earlier than I would have while at school. I found myself to be busier and more active during the pandemic due to all our fishing adventures. My relationships grew plentifully with my friends, and I was able to do well in school all at the same time. Throughout the pandemic I consider myself to be very lucky and blessed to not know anyone personally who had died from COVID-19, and I am beyond grateful for that. Not everyone is able to say the same. Even though I was active during the pandemic does not mean I did not take it seriously, we made sure to wear our masks, and practice social distancing. My friends and I decided that fishing would be the perfect activity to be safe while all still being together. We fished 7 days a week and gained so many new insightful skills and memories during our time. One fond memory that I have from the pandemic is when my friends and I went into a lagoon in the beginning of May when the ice had just melted, and the water was unbearably cold. At the time we didn’t have waders so we went in with whatever boots that we could find from home the water was much deeper than we had anticipated, by the time we made it through to our location that we wanted to fish in all our pants were soaked to our waists but that didn’t stop us from making it to our destination. I will never forget that day because it was a Tuesday in the middle of the day and we all had classes. It’s a great memory and I will never forget it because it was so unique compared to anything we have ever done in our lives prior to.
• 
  2021-09-20

  Lauren Leonard Oral History, 2021/09/20

  A classmate and I interviewed each other about our first-hand experiences with COVID-19 in the past year and a half.
• 
  2021

  COVID-19 Story

  During the pandemic, I was able to get back into reading and also once the restrictions were lifted, I was able to get back in the gym and start biking again. I would try and bike anywhere from 10-15 miles per day which was a goal of mine to hit.
• 
  2020-03-01

  Increase of Outdoor Participants since the Pandemic's Onset

  Since the start of the pandemic, I've begun to both run and hike when I get the chance. After talking with people who have done the same since before the pandemic, they've noted how there is absolutely an increase of people outdoors. For me, it's a great way to escape and improve mental health, and I think it's worth noting how many are trying to find ways to improve themselves and keep going through various ways during such a tough time.
• 2020

  Quarentine and Self-Reflection: A Time To Work On Oneself

  When the pandemic started, I was told that we were staying home for two weeks. My first thought was “Sweet. An extended spring break.” I thought I would have to come back to school after those few days and continue on with my life as it always has been. I was wrong. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months and before I knew it, I had lost an entire year of my life. I had no human contact outside of my family that entire time. I was kept in my room all day, everyday. After a while of online school and nothing else going on, I think that's when something had snapped inside of me. I experienced self reflection. With all of that time and no one but me, I just looked at myself, looked back into everything I have done and pondered on what I wanted to do with myself. I was already aware of how insignificant I was and how little I have done in life but I did not really understand just how little until I had that time to myself. I already had a list of things I wanted to change about myself and things I wanted to do so I think that is when I began working to be better. I spent a lot of time alone practicing how to act more patient and be friendlier. I practiced baking, I took care of babies a lot, I appreciated the little things I always have since I was young like a video game I play called Minecraft, I began documenting and recording everything I did, I studied foreign language, etc. Soon I started to make changes to myself. When I got mad, I would think of my nephew or I would imagine I am watching the kids and remember that I have to be patient with them. I practiced self love so when I got major depression episodes or anxiety attacks, I was able to comfort myself easier and walk myself through my struggles. I also cut back on the food I ate and the types of food I ate. I lost about 10 pounds in one week and I was super proud of myself especially since I was working out like every day. I was in really good shape and proud of myself for that. I had better stamina and my clothes fit better and I was getting a lot of foreign language practice in and I finished learning how to read and write korean as well as some simple vocabulary and sentence structure. I improved on writing since I wrote a lot more and helped develop my techniques and practiced some drawing. I spent a lot of that time sitting alone in my room and adjusting to that silence. I've improved as a listener and began to crave silence all the time. My life has not been peaceful in the least bit but I have been able to find peace within myself which has really helped in the long run so far. Having improved on myself and re-exploring hobbies and interests of mine, I was reintroduced to the loud and crowded public abruptly to which I responded with an anxiety attack but then I got more comfortable. I was super shy at first but now I feel generally happier all the time and I believe that has helped people around me relax and enjoy my presence more. I am glad I seem less threatening or mean because that is all I have been called my entire life. I am still weird and awkward and I am not anyone’s first option but I am glad I am not the last option now. My goal now is to enlist as soon as I can and go into community college. Once highschool ends for me then I will begin my life and I am super stoked about that. I have a few ideas of what I can do after highschool so I am just waiting it out now. At least this much good came out of quarantine.
• 
  2021

  Home Brewing Beer During The COVID-19 Pandemic

  I think my story in the attached document details how someone coped with the monotony of restricted activities from COVID-19, as well as the shutdown of social drinking.
• 2020-03-13

  Abnormal Rona Year

  In 2020, everything I had planned for school and summer came to a halt. Even though we were forced to stay home, I still went to friends houses and played community league sports. The air smelled cleaner because there were no vehicles in sight for miles. Everything you touched was soaked in disinfectant and cleaning supplies. All you could hear was just pure silence other than the animals that live out in the woods. The birds were chirping and animal density grew due to no one being active and scaring them away. I would tend to head to my friends' house quite often. Me and him would help his father fix up a house then head to my friend's house to go fishing, trail riding, and practice baseball. We even went to the store where there were only workers inside.2020 was a completely different feel to my life than my past years, but will go down in history and my best year for trying and learning new things.
• 
  2020-10-07

  Pandemic gardening: More than half of Canadians were growing their own food at home this year, study shows

  Gardening and growing one's own food became more widespread during the pandemic, led by worries about food shortages and prices along with the desire to engage in new hobbies during the pandemic. This article discusses a study done by Dalhousie University regarding Canadians' growing their own food during the pandemic and compares the current gardening trend with the victory gardens prevalent during World War II.
• 
  2021-03-01T00:00:00-12:00

  This is Not a Story Of Hope

  'Tis not a story of hope/ 'Tis not a story of fear/ But harken ye this candid tale/ Of what transpired here/ In the year of twenty twenty/ In the fairest, Lincoln green/ I found a special love of/ The unsightly and unseen/ Nay, not quite an animal/ Nay, not even plant/ But decomposing both/ The fungi doth enchant/ Enraptured thus/ I took the plunge/ And threw myself/ Betwixt two suns/ One of light/ That carried me/ And one of shade/ That buried me/ So out I came/ From times so crude/ The viral curse/ My life unglued.
• 
  2020

  Humorous Memes About Quarantine and Covid

  During quarantine I collected many humorous memes about staying at home and the problems that brought. All sorts of subjects were covered: cooking, getting along with your spouse/roommates, homeschooling the kids, learning to bake bread, being stuck at home, sanitizing, facemasks, people hoarding toilet paper, boredom, effects of isolation, etc. Here are a few of those memes.
• 
  2020-03-30

  The Real CovidBusters

  This is a drawing that I created in Mar 2020 after I had been let go from a 14 year factory job. In 2020 I created a series of drawings to get through the loneliness of the lockdowns. Now in 2021 I am going to school to become a PSW, which is a hospital worker who helps clients with things like bathing ,and dressing etc... hopefully I can make a difference in the future.
• 
  2021-05-24

  After “Normal”

  alorant is a game created by Riot Games, and it was initially known as Project A. It borrows elements from League of Legends,Counter-Strike: Global offensive and Overwatch. It is a 5v5 first- person shooter where there is one attack team and the other defends. It is very similar to search and destroy. Since the pandemic it has become mportant to me since im not allowed out of the house, it is where I can get on and play or socialize with my friends. It is where i can talk to others and just relax.
• 
  2021-05-21

  Quarantine Enjoyment

  During the first few months of the pandemic, I got to relax and sleep in with basically little homework. After school ended, I got to spend more time with my sisters inside and I found new hobbies. Hobbies that I picked up during quarantine are embroidery, volleyball, and badminton. When we had to return back to school, I didn’t have to go to in-person school and got to wake up a little later than usual. During quarantine, I spent most of my time with my family, so we went over to my cousin’s house weekly. My cousin got two new Yorkie puppies named Mochi and Matcha. Since we went there often, I got to spend more time with the puppies. Quarantine was also a great time for me to binge animes and read manga. Even though some of the new and ongoing animes were delayed, I was able to finish animes I was currently watching quickly without distractions. I usually watched animes and TV shows with my sisters whenever we were all available, which was most of the time.
• 
  2021-01-04

  Old Hobbies, New Beginnings

  This is my first day back from the new year and I am making my resolutions. I had recently found out that Stefan and Hudson play tennis which is a sport I used to play. I also just finished music class where we played the piano and I thought it was really fun so I wanted to get into it. Tyler 1/4/21 New Orleans, LA Coronavirus Journal I am going to start playing tennis again. I used to play it, but because of covid I stopped taking lessons and never really got back into it. I am also getting into piano, so my mom said she could get me some lessons for that. I don't know if I will have time to do these both considering the fact that I have baseball 3 days a week and workouts 2 days a week, but I will try and make it work. Piano is also an old habit as I played it a couple years ago. I didn't really know much, but now I understand the piano and not just memorize the notes, so I think I could be successful in getting much better at piano by taking lessons. I also hope that I will improve more than I did at tennis the first time. But of course this will all take a lot of hard work and practice. Stefan and Hudson also play tennis and they play each other sometimes, so I hope that once I am good enough I will be able to beat them. I will need to remind my mom that I want to begin practicing these things though as I think she forgot to sign me up for piano lessons and about me playing tennis in general. I am excited to start practicing these things and improve. Especially tennis because I haven't played in a long time and I really enjoy it.
• 
  2021-05-15

  Coping With Quarantine

  During the pandemic, I was had more free time. When quarantine started, I was just using my phone all day since I couldn't go out, however, I became tired of just using my phone all day. At first, I didn't know how I could cope with my boredom, but then I remembered the instruments I had my ukulele and guitar. I started playing my ukulele first since I already had some experience doing so, and I improved, learning new strumming patterns and songs every week. However, I ran out of songs to learn, so I went to my guitar, which was a struggle to learn at first. I started out with some basic chords that allowed me to play plenty of songs, and I built up from there trying new complex chords. Playing these instruments gave me something to look forward to when I started quarantine since I had more time I knew what to do with, but now playing instruments has become a regular hobby. Quarantine was tough for people worldwide as we were separated from friends and loved ones, but I believe with the extra free time people are able to work and improve themselves, making them more interesting individuals.
• 
  2021-05-05

  Covid-19 Lockdown

  I decided to put together a collage of some of the paintings/drawings I have made since Covid-19 started. Most of these were from when the pandemic first started which was when we could not leave the house at all. Under the collage I added a little comment describing the word lockdown and what it meant to me. My artwork does not specifically show things like wearing masks, the number of cases we had, or schools shutting down but the artwork signifies the thing that kept me sane while the lockdown was happening and while doing remote learning I explained in my source that the artwork was basically my escape from the real word and the horrible pandemic we were experiencing. I chose to represent my experience in this way because the lockdown, not being able to see friends and families was a huge effect from Covid-19 and it was also one of the hardest things for many people to do.
• 
  2021-02-28

  #JOTPYLesson from Jamie Bryant

  I have learned that I'm really terrible at time management. To achieve everything I want to accomplish, I'll need the lifetime of two Methuselahs. Now that I'm officially half-dead (middle aged), perhaps it's time to push some things off the table and hope I can make time for them in the next lifetime. Like sky diving.
• 
  2021-03-31

  Mohammed Husain Oral History, 2021/03/31

  This interview speaks about a teenager, Mohammed Husain, who has described her life through the course of the pandemic including how she has felt what she had experienced including some losses, things that have changed and ways she has coped. The set of questions provided are descriptive and offer directed questions that allow the interviewee to answer them thoroughly. Mohammed speaks about how she felt lonely during the pandemic. She describes things she has missed such as shopping going out with friends and effects on her mental health. She has also spoke about the limitations and how they have made her enjoy her own presence and made her evolve into a person who enjoys her own presence. She lists some positive aspects of the pandemic including closer relationships with family members along with a time to reflect on her own self. She has included that she has taken advantage of the time of the pandemic to really look back on her life and understand the moment as not everyone in their lifetime gets to live through such a scene.
• 
  2021-02-22

  #JOTPYSilver from Tina

  #JOTPYLesson I learned that quarantine is a great time to pick up a hobby. I didn’t start drinking coffee everyday until quarantine. Now every morning I have a cup of coffee to look forward to. I try to think of a new recipe every morning. I can’t believe this all started because of the dalgona whipped coffee trend on TikTok! And shoutout to my friends for gifting me a lovely Keurig!!☕️🍵
• 
  03/14/2021

  Layne Williams Oral History, 2021/03/14

  Layne Williams is a Physical Therapist Assistant who was working in a hospital during the pandemic. Her role shifted during the early months of the pandemic and she found herself doing any job that was needed to help with the increased numbers of patients coming into the hospital. She recalled the surreal feeling of walking into her first Covid positive patient’s room and how the mentality of healthcare providers shifted as more information came out about Covid. She also discussed the challenges of being a healthcare provider while living with her husband who is not in healthcare. Her job certainly exposed her to increased risks and those risks spilled over to impact her home life. However, her overall impression from the pandemic is that it showed what the healthcare field is capable of achieving when challenged.
• 
  2021-03-08

  Article: Late Stage Pandemic is Messing with Your Brain

  I read this, & it struck a chord with me. Several elements in it range true. I thought it was important to save.
• 
  2021-02-22

  #JOTPYLesson from Tina

  #JOTPYLesson I learned that quarantine is a great time to pick up a hobby. I didn’t start drinking coffee everyday until quarantine. Now every morning I have a cup of coffee to look forward to. I try to think of a new recipe every morning. I can’t believe this all started because of the dalgona whipped coffee trend on TikTok! And shoutout to my friends for gifting me a lovely Keurig!!☕️🍵 @zafinasinha @avi.puppala @shaantala @tahs.in @jake.dallman
• 2021-03-06

  A Niche Online Community of Writers

  It feels a little strange to be sharing this on this platform since it’s not typically on the hobbies-to-try lists. It’s roleplaying. It’s like acting, but with writing. Instead of on your own, it’s with a partner, a community, and so on. I’ve been roleplaying for over five years now, and I’d always find solace in joining the community of writers. If one group didn’t work out, there was always another that was a quick search away. I started because I wanted to live vicariously through my characters. Everyone has different reasons for doing this, and a common one is just to escape from real life. With the pandemic, it’s easy to see people cling onto this hobby if they already had it or wanted to start. There’s been a lot of escapism behaviors during the pandemic, and this is easily one of them. What I noticed, however, was many of those groups closing their doors. Some long-running communities with likely a hundred different writers just stopped because they couldn’t find joy in it anymore, it got too hard to manage, or otherwise. I’ve also seen a great deal start brand new groups only to close down within a month, or not even get to open (one of which closed due to the group manager getting covid-19). As a result, these writers have been left “homeless” in a way, because now they have lost their safe haven to get creative and use the groups as their stress-relief. I’m sharing this because I know many roleplayers wouldn’t even share this hobby with others who don’t share it. I feel like it’s a niche that’s neglected in the mainstream world. I also think this is a part of fandom culture that doesn’t get talked about because it’s so common nowadays that we’ll simply assume that it’ll always be there; that we’ll always know without any context.
• 
  2021-02-26

  #JOTPYPhoto from Rebecca Wingo

  Late to the game, but I wanted an even number of #JOTPYPhoto posts for my students. (Sorry, #ucincyPH students). In my desperation to leave my house, I took up hiking. Over my birthday week in July, I hiked 45 miles! And I kept up the habit all winter, even on icy days like this one. #TwinValleyTrail
• 
  02/21/2021

  Annika Lauer Oral History, 2021/02/21

  I recorded a mini oral history with my friend about her pandemic experiences
• 
  02/19/2021

  Janice Simone Simon Oral History, 2021/02/19

  Silver Linings Oral History with Janice Simone Simon
• 
  2020-10-29

  Video Games to Pass Time

  2020 was a good time for video games, particularly those that I am interested in. Releasing in the middle of the year, games such as the highly anticipated Mount and Blade: Bannerlord and Crusader Kings III managed to provide time-wasting opportunities to many people. The latter, abbreviated CK3, is pictured here. CK3 is essentially a feudalism-simulator with role playing game mechanics, famous in the PC gaming sphere for both its complexity but also its ability to organically allow stories to form in the most Game of Thrones way possible. This was one of my earlier games, after I was more familiar with how the game differed from CK2. Starting as the Raja of the real-life Northern Indian dynasty of the Imperial Gurjara-Pratihara in 867 CE, through many generations of rulers I managed to consolidate the entire subcontinent through diplomacy, intrigue, and warfare. Around 1000 CE one of my rulers who had a more intellectual education rather than the usual military one, consolidated all imperially sanctioned Hindu beliefs into the Charvaka school, a real-life ancient Hindu belief based on materialism and empiricism. As this new consolidated Hinduism united the subcontinent at a more local level, regional governors along the Indus River took advantage of political fragmentation around the Indian Ocean and pushed west, taking over not just Persia and Central Asia but also establishing Hindu-Somali outposts in Africa and Yemen. By the 1300s the empire spread from Burma in the east all the way to modern day Libya and Greece, with Rome itself falling to a Pratihara expedition. Peace was maintained within the empire's vassals by a robust series of alliances, as well as the use of the "dread" mechanic to scare any more unruly subjects into submission via planned executions and threats. The most serious threats the Pratihara Empire faced was a series of crusades launched from Western Europe, and the Mongol Conquests which were ended by assassinating a few generations of Mongol Khans leading to political infighting and collapse. Beyond the fake history being made in game, this single play through gave me enjoyment for dozens of hours. While psychical entertainment was shut down, travel impossible, and the shadow of the pandemic hung over everything, games like CK3 allow people like me to immerse ourselves in what begins as real history and ends with an alternate history that we ourselves designed. Many people who don't usually play video games became engrossed in them, particularly early on in the likewise open-ended game Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The need to develop new hobbies as a way to cope with isolation was a boon for the video game industry, which despite its massive market was seen by many people as quaint at best, or worthless at worst. There is value in video games, especially during the pandemic.
• 2021-02-09

  Puzzling Pandemic Pandemonium

  A freshly opened, hardly touched puzzle. In a time where there’s nothing, and yet too much going on, I clear my head by putting together an image I connect with, and the exuberance of finding pieces I’ve lost at my feet. COVID-19 brought numbing boredom to a new height, along with finding new ways to challenge myself and my family members. March of 2020 brought the first puzzle, and it’s been a fluctuating number both of pieces and images that include big cities and paintings ever since. I’m piecing my world back together one jigsaw at a time.
• 
  2021-02-18

  Learning a passion

  During covid, like most people life was isolating for a reasonable amount of time. The people one did stay around managed to get on our nerves anyway. I am however luckier that most because we’re some 11 months in now and I have my health as does my family, and I have discovered a new passion. Since many restaurants were fully closed the only way to eat the food I was craving was to cook it. In this simple activity I found a passion that very quickly turned into something relevant to me as I found a job at a restaurant cooking, and getting paid for that passion.
• 
  2021-01-30

  Covid lockdowns turned buying plants into the next big pandemic trend — for good reason

  During lockdowns, people have taken to keeping houseplants as companions. These plants help people that live alone feel less lonely and ground them. People have had varied results with their plants, but plant influences have seen a surge in people asking for help with their plants.
• 
  2020-01

  Fortune Teller

  Towards the end of 2019 if some sort of fortune teller warned me that the COVID-19 pandemic was on its way and the faces of the world would become covered with masks indefinitely, I would tell them that they are crazy. The spring semester was picking up and the coronavirus had become public news in China for a month or two. One of my closest friends Zach was very interested in Chinese politics and current events. Ever since the first cases were being reported he had warned me that the world was going to change. (He was that fortune teller figure.) I remember us taking a trip to Aldi’s so he could stock up on the regular number of weekly groceries. However, he had quite a few cans and non-perishable goods in his cart. He told me he was stocking up for the lockdown that was about to come. Today he’s known as the man who saw it coming all along. After that night my fear of the unknown began to grow. I began telling my friends/classmates at Duquesne casually saying the word “coronavirus.” They thought I made it up or it was a prank. I explained to them that this outbreak may hit the U.S and affect the entire world. Classes were still in session but as cases started rising in the U.S, the fear of school closing became closer to a reality. Fast-forward to the first couple days of lockdown. I was becoming extremely overwhelmed adjusting to a new format of learning. I wanted nothing more than to see my friends and have them tell me that everything was going to be okay face to face. The days started merging together and my sense of time was gone. I tried my best to look for the positives but there really are none when the entire world is faced with a potentially life-threatening illness. As months started passing by, I had started to realize that the only thing that would keep me going is patience and a good attitude. Even in the current moment I still long to go to concerts or have big group gatherings with friends or family. A habit I started picking up is whenever I would watch movies or tv shows was pointing out that people were not wearing masks. That’s a scary thought knowing that masks have become an external part of our identity. Let’s look at the positives though! I became a lot closer with my best friend by playing Xbox with her. This was one of the only things that I looked forward to, so I played games with her almost every day. I also started playing the piano again after stopping when coming to college. A new hobby I picked up was making meals for my family which was something I found relaxing. I even dyed the front strands of my hair pink from the TikTok trend! All of these hobbies were new beginnings that I don’t think I would’ve initiated if it were not for being in quarantine. As each day goes by, I can only hope that we are closer to “normal” and that the coronavirus can be a thing of the past. I am blessed that my family and friends are in good health and that they stay in good health until the end of the pandemic is in sight.
• 
  2021-02-07

  Covid Baking Trial and Error

  One of the things that I have recently attempted during the end of the Covid 2020 year and into 2021 is to learn how to bake using healthier fats and alternatives. I love cookies and other baked goods, but I could certainly use less butter and unhealthy fats in my life. Instead, I have spent the past few months of the Covid plague year trying to learn how to substitute things like avocado and applesauce for butter. Sometimes this works really well, other times it comes out horribly. I am trying to use this crazy Covid year to become better in the kitchen with healthier and delicious cooking/baking, but it can certainly be a frustrating process. At least it is fun and a productive use of my time in a time when nothing is open.
• 
  2021-02-07

  Kitchen Organization during Covid

  During Covid, I started to cook a lot of different foods that I had never before. I was always cooking simple things with chicken and potatoes mostly, sometimes pasta and other easy dishes. During Covid, I started to experiment with new styles of cooking and cuisines. I quickly found that my small kitchen was filling up with items and ingredients which was causing chaos and disorganization. I bought a bunch of bins to get things organized. For all of the terrible things going on during the Covid year of 2020, I tried to take advantage of the time by upping my kitchen game as best as possible.
• 
  2020-06-26

  My new hobby

  During the summer of 2020, not a lot was going on in my life. I had just recently finished my undergraduate degree and had little to do on a daily basis, there were no jobs, no friends, not even family. Gradually, I got sick of just playing video games day in and out; however I wasn’t getting sick of the music of these games, many of which used the banjo. Some of these songs seemed pretty simple, and with my previous experience rudimentary experience with the guitar I figured I’d be able to some of these tunes. I started picking up my dad’s banjo, which is in the photo I provided on a daily basis; using YouTube tutorials I started to pick up the basics. In all honesty it was pretty easy to pick up, and just a relaxing experience, I even grew to like the feeling of developing callouses on my fingers? That’s a little weird but it felt like they were physical reminders of how much work I was putting into learning this new instrument. Recently I’ve kind of stopped playing, but I still love just plucking at it every now and then. My friends online similarly liked hearing me play every now and then, so in a sense it was a great coping mechanism to boredom and loneliness. However, I’ve really stopped even plucking at it, I don’t feel a drive to do much anymore; so I just kind of stare at it now every now and again, which is incredibly weird. This item maters to me as it helped me through the initial stages of the pandemic, and helped me stay mentally active during quarantine. However, as the pandemic has dragged on I kind of have lost the desire to play it, or do much of anything else really. I’d like to add this item to the collection of performing arts as it is a musical instrument, and I would perform for my friends on Discord every now and then (but then again I’m not a professional artist or performer so I don’t think it’d be appropriate for me to be in that collection) Mental health on the other hand is a way more accurate collection for this item, as it really helped me stay mentally active during the pandemic.