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2021-02-18

Early Retirement Reflection

While I am grateful and privileged enough to have quarantined at home with my family, it was certainly frustrating. Once I had conquered my first taste of online learning all I had ahead of me was an uncertain and potentially endless summer. As someone who is a high-risk individual, I didn't feel comfortable going back to my summer job in retail immediately. Thankfully, both of my parents were able to continue to work and I was able to stay home. Being able to stay home for the summer and relax in my hammock most days was unsettlingly different than how others experienced this past summer. I regret not better using my free time to help those that lost jobs and housing and support, while I still had mine. Shockingly the gleam of my extended vacation wore off pretty quickly with my parents. When my parents finally got fed up with me drinking an afternoon coffee in my backyard every day they told me I had better find something productive to keep busy. After sending an unbelievable amount of e-mails and a couple of phone calls with some busy executives I landed an under-the-table research internship. The only issue? Not being able to research through their physical archives. Go figure. While my research wasn't extensive it did keep me fairly busy for my remaining time at home. My early retirement this past summer was a substantial setback in accordance with my previous plans, but it was thoroughly enjoyable.

2020-04-17

COVID-19 and Social Justice

From the article: The COVID-19 pandemic is a health and mental health crisis, to be sure. But it is also a crisis of social injustice, inequitably affecting vulnerable and marginalized populations that include, among others, individuals who earn low incomes, or are incarcerated, homeless, in foster care, over 65 (especially those in long-term care facilities), people of color, or undocumented. Social work practitioners, educators, and policy makers are working to address the needs of these populations despite the unpredictability of the virus’s secondary impact on systems.

2020-04-23

what to do after you graduate in a pandemic

This is an article talking about what someone should do after graduating from college in a pandemic. I felt this was an important article to include in this collection because not only is it important to know what the graduations were like but it is also important to know what someone did after graduation. Jobs were very hard to come by and unemployment was at an all time high during these times and after graduation usually someone goes and gets a job with that degree but with businesses closing it is hard to find one. This article gives tips and tricks on how to obtain a job during this pandemic as well. This article explains how any job is a good job in a pandemic which is very true. The article also explains that it is normal to feel discouraged at this time and to not give up. The pandemic will end and jobs will come back.

2020-10-15

The Olympics

Crazy how the olympics was postponed and cancelled. I met a Japanese lady who worked as a tour guide. She said the olympics was going to be an amazing time business wise for her. She works with olympic atheletes who need translation for Japanese to English. I remember carrying her golf bags. Everyone on the ship wanted to carry her golf bags considering she tipped $20 everytime!

2020-10-15

Do You Know I'm Smiling?

I pride myself on being a friendly southerner, mainly while out shopping or eating at restaurants. I know retail and food service employees have very difficult jobs, so I always try to be friendly, understanding and tip well. One of the ways I’ve always tried to appear friendly is by smiling. But now with the COVID-19 pandemic, masks are required pretty much everywhere. Essential workers are overworked, and now my face, covered with a mask from the nose down is hiding my smile. They cannot tell how friendly I appear; now I just have to try and say loudly(so they can understand me from behind the mask), that I don’t mind how long I had to wait, I understand they are busy, and it’s okay. I usually try to ease their concern with a nice smile. I never realized how much not being able to smile at people would impact me. I’ve never felt more pressure to “smile with my eyes” or “smize” as Tyra Banks would famously tell the models on the America’s Next Top Model television show. Life’s hard for smilers, no one can see our beautiful expressions with masks on.

2020-10-07

Time of Change

First off, I have to say that so far I have been lucky, if one can call it that, to not have lost anyone in any of my circles to this terrible pandemic so I view any of the misfortunes I have had during this time were all only minor inconveniences compared to the way too many others out there. First off, the industry I worked in got pummeled. I had two jobs. I worked for an Audio Visual Company in New Hampshire who did a lot of work for pretty much every presidential candidate producing quite a few of the events such as town halls and rallies. If you saw any news feeds from New Hampshire, there's a good chance the audio you were hearing was from us. My other job was being a tour manager for a French guitar player. I happened to be just starting the tour as Covid was known to be hitting our shores. It was odd time because the tour started in the south and traveling through North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee got pretty interesting with many peoples' opinion of the pandemic. Anyway, what was supposed to be a four month tour got cut short to about a week and half and during this time I was also informed that there was not anymore work to be had being that all in person campaigning had stopped. So the ended and I did not have a job to return to heading back to my temporary home. I had the "good" fortune of getting to live in two hot spots. My wife was in her last semester at Harvard Divinity School and Boston was hit pretty hard in the beginning. It was an interesting time, but things got a bit more under control as mask and social distancing mandates took effect. As the pandemic slowed down, it was really weird watching my home state of Arizona deciding not to learn lessons from the areas that had been hit early. After my wife's graduation, we came home to a governor who finally was forced to order mandates because covid was getting out of hand. It was quite frustrating to witness this after coming from a hotspot in which many lessons had been learned. Here is where I have to say, nothing was bad as it could have seemed. Being that there was no work to be had, I took advantage of my extra time off. I took the opportunity to practice guitar more seriously than I had for the decades before. I honed my skills in the kitchen. Between getting the bug to restart my education by getting to sit in on classes with Cornel West, E.J. Dionne and quite a few other world class educators as well seeing that this pandemic would be sticking around for a while, I decided that now was as good as a time as any to finish what ended up being only two more semester of classes to get my bachelors in both History and Religious Studies. The program has changed a little being that it was about 15 years ago so there's some new core classes that I need take because not all the classes I had taken before completely translated, but I have appreciated them so far and am very much enjoying being back in school. I feel rather fortunate to feel that I have been fortunate enough to be able to make the best of this time of somewhat chaotic transition.

2020-09-15

ASU COVID-19 Interview Image

This picture is of me taken after an EOSS Social Roundup interview about my experience with school, work, and life during the COVID- 19 pandemic. This picture was also uploaded to the Arizona State University Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation Instagram page (asunursingandhealth) and scholarship page. This interview will be incorporated to a video that will be shown to incoming first year students. The goal of this project was to clarify any questions that any future students may have and provide comfort to them through the firsthand experiences of multiple students at Arizona State University. Students were taken to various parts of the Downtown Phoenix Arizona State University campus and were asked questions pertaining to their involvement in campus, class, and how they incorporated safety measures while attending on campus. Personally, I was able to give detailed responses about how professors handled in- person classes and what measures they took to keep their physical students safe. I was also able to share my work experience at the university during this pandemic. I work at the university residential hall and Sun Devil Fitness and Wellness Complex. I was able to give a detailed description of how we, at my student jobs, have taken various measures to keep a safe and sanitary environment to keep our residents and patrons safe through this pandemic. My interview was also able to give an insight of living on campus during this academic year. I was able to answer questions about precautions that has been taken by university housing to keep their residents safe from this virus and reduce the potential spread. Overall, I hope that my insight given in this interview will put future incoming students at ease or encourage them to come to campus. All of this is to show the students that we are taking various safety measures to keep them at low risk and show them that they are in our best interest.

2020-05-12

small businesses in America are going

millions of americans are losing jobs as small businesses employ 47% of the work force and many business owners are losing their livelihoods

2020-06-01

Life During Covid-19 Digital Pop-Up Exhibition

Students in Dr. Michael J. Kramer's Digital Methods for Historical Projects seminar at SUNY Brockport share stories about one object from the spring of 2020 during the Covid-19 Pandemic, https://brockportkramer.com/covid19/. Alan Gowans—Getting Past Personal and Public Anxieties Carson Werner—The Day Baseball Stood Still Cecil Frazier—Double Standards Gilberto Diaz III—Memes of COVID-19 Education Jared Rosenberg—Diary From a Mini-tunnel Joe Lasky—The Twitch and the Rosary Jordan Aviles—Music and Other Necessary Items Joseph Massaro—Music as an Escape From (and Turn to) the New Abnormal Leslie Hoag—TikTok-ing History Connections Nate Mundt—Recognizing First Responders Ryan Gibbs—Am I Doing It Right? Samantha Symonds—Saving Lives or Saving the Economy? Sebastian Phipps—Living In a Twenty-First Century Pandemic Steven Willard—Brutal and Grim Realizations Will Secules—Bringing The Office Home

2020-09-16

The Crushing Reality of Zoom School

This article is a candid look into how doing school online through Zoom has proved to be an exhausting challenge for children, teachers, and parents.

2020-09-17

Northeastern University COVID-19 Interview #2

A realistic account of daily life during the COVID-19 and how a Northeastern University student views the pandemic response in the United States.

2020-09-19

Interview With NEU Student Cameron Mitchell

The submission is a testament to how much the pandemic has influenced this very important year of both our lives, that a class we take in our first semester revolves so heavily around COVID-19.

2020-09-18

Trisha Howes Interview

This is an interview with a Northeastern Student, Trisha Howes as part of our HIST 1215 class.

2020-05

Time

Time. Time is an interesting concept. Everyone always wishes for more of it, but most people are not sure how to use the time they are given. Well, the point I am trying to make is that there are so many hours in a day, but do we know how to use them? Due to Covid-19, I really was able to think about this. For the first week or so, I saw this pandemic as a vacation from my rigorous class work. In the following weeks after that, I was in a constant state of boredom. I feel as if this is the story for most college students. This is when I decided I needed to do something about it. As the school year had concluded, I began to look for a job. Come to find out, it was truly not as hard as it seemed to find a job during a pandemic. In a week’s time, I had started my full-time job and could not be more excited. Of course, it took time to get use to the long hours and the physical demands, but, in time, it had become the perfect cure to my boredom. In fact, it felt so good that I did not want to stop there. With my newfound energy, I began to exercise for a minimum of two hours a day. When that was not enough, I decided to teach myself about the economy and the stock market. Now, me sharing my quarantine experience is not to gloat or to try and portray myself as one that is greater than another. With this story, I am trying to portray my realization that my view of time has changed. Before the pandemic, I would not believe that I would be working a full-time job, working out, and learn for fun all in the matter of 24 hours. I would not have thought I had enough time. With proper motivation though, and a more strict schedule, I had begun to realize that time is something that you will not have forever, so try and use the time that you have currently to its maximum potential.

2020-05-05

Finally Taking a Step Back

As a college student who treasures every bit of time he can with friends at school, getting sent home two months early sounded like the worst thing in the world. Not only would I not be able to see any of my friends as often due to being far apart, we had a global pandemic preventing us and everyone else from feeling a sense of companionship for the better part of 2020. School work kept me busy for the first couple months and that was very clearly my number one focus until May. Once finals were done though, I had absolutely no plans for the next three months of my life. With work being near impossible to find and no school to worry about, I contemplated what I should do with this newfound free time. The solution was a lot simpler than I thought it was, with three months of time on my hands, why worry about what you can do and instead focus on doing things you enjoy? And that was my mindset throughout the summer, which actually helped pass the time incredibly well. I spent a lot of my time making improvements in my various hobbies and eventually, this mind set landed me two jobs for the summer. I got back into running, started learning how to arrange music, and had a large list of projects around the house that I wanted to do. I had a lot of passion projects that I was working on and by the time I was ready to go back to school, I had accomplished the vast majority of these goals. By having this free flowing mind set and no pressure on me to do things I didn't want to do, it kept me happy throughout my time at home, but at the same time I was feeling productive and like I was doing things that were making me a better version of me. At the beginning of the year, I told myself that 2020 was going to be my year and initially, the pandemic scared me away from accomplishing many of the goals I wanted to accomplish. What I found instead is that with the right mindset, your goals are still achievable and while the circumstances may not be ideal, I’m still doing everything I set out to do.

2020-06-10

Virtual Talent Show

The whole summer I had this looming inexplicable fear that time was running out, and I guess that was really embodied by my job search. I feel like I applied at every fast food place on the westside of Albuquerque and the south side of Rio Rancho and I had gotten a call back from only a few. All in all I got 5 interviews from different places and none of them were for jobs I ended up getting. This was because there were so many downsized companies and competition for the jobs that they had. I was driven to madness by the midpoint of the summer and I felt like because the summer was halfway over that I was running out of time. By the end of the summer I didn’t start working until the weekend after the second week of school at Sonic.

2020-06-15

Graduation

I graduated with my Masters during the pandemic. School was changed as we finished the semester online due to the quaruntine. Then all celebrations were canceled. Things were virtual. I found out I got a job that would bring me from AZ to MA and I would have to move before things got back to normal. I started a job remotely, and took graduation photos alone, without the pomp and circumstance. Then I had a social distanced party outside to celebrate both. Only a 10 people came to be safe, even though more were invited. Many did not feel comfortable to attend. It was what it was but definielty not the big party I had hoped for.

2020-04-13

A Very Covid Birthday

This year I turned 25, a quarter of a century. I definietly did not expect to celebrate as I did, but nonetheless this birthday in 2020 was one to remember. I through myself a party and luckily my mom and brother came to town to visit. We made dinner, I made my own cake, and we took pictures to celebrate, including some covid satire. I also got news on my 25th birthday that I landed my dream job and would have to move across the country during a pandemic, without many proper goodbyes. Bittersweet, but a birthday I will always cherish.

2020-08-26

Arizona nonprofits boost aid to help refugees impacted by COVID-19 pandemic

By Sarandon Raboin/Luce Foundation: Southwest Stories Fellowship

March 26, 2020

COVID Share Your Story #RITtigers #10, Mechanical Engineering Technology Major's Point of view

Well outside of the obvious classes going to online, I have had to give extra attention to my classes regarding assignments and due dates, it isn't the teacher's job anymore to hand out stuff. I have had to learn on my own, I can't go to the lectures to learn, I have to read the textbook, or attend Zoom meetings which only some of my teachers have. I sort of have this feeling of "you're on your own now" and it's completely up to me to succeed. It does feel quite lonely even though I am with my family because all of my friends are away back home and the only interaction with them is through social media and such. What really upsets me is that I had a job on campus and I liked going to work and making money. Now, I don't have any income and when I am not doing schoolwork I am doing generally unproductive stuff like watching TV or playing video games. The adjustment is a weird one, I feel like I am getting used to it but I am still wary that this new system will come up and screw me out of nowhere. I guess some good things to come out of this was that I am finally getting proper use out of my laptop, I finally cleaned my room and I have interacted with my family more. I do enjoy the home cooked meals. I also am really excited for when this is all over and I can have fun with my friends again. If I could give a message to myself at the start of this semester, what would I say? Enjoy your time while you have it. Spend as much time with friends as you can, and make more friends. No one saw this coming and the lack of social interaction has really taken a toll on me.

2020-08-04

A Positive Spin on Pandemic

WIth Covid, I have been making use of my extra free time and working at an ice cream store. This has helped me make a lot of extra money for college.

2020-08-04

Life in a Pandemic

My laptop represents life during a pandemic because it shows how technology was used to overcome the challenges of being isolated and away from school, work, those that we love, etc. The laptop helped me personally because I was able to stay in touch with friends, become an ambassador for a company close to my heart, learn new skills, and get a marketing job.

May 6, 2020

Plague Journal, Day 54: Jumping down a right-wing rabbit hole

I'm keeping a Covid-19 journal. In the latest entry, as the bodies pile up I explore a Trumpian disinformation rabbit hole involving a Wuhan lab, a New York-based research group, and an NIH grant. Also, a potential job goes up in smoke.

2020-07-25

Phillip Hoile Oral History, 2020/07/25

This is an interview of Phillip Hoile about the impacts that COVID-19 pandemic has on his job. He also speaks about questioning the information and why there's so much conflicting information in the media about COVID-19. Phillip offers his thoughts on why he and his family chose to take preventive measures such as masks and social distancing during COVID-19. He also talks about what it's like to live in a small community like Blanchard, Oklahoma instead of a larger city and the benefits it provides during a pandemic. He also explains the ways COVID-19 has altered his family plans and what he has done to create new activities to spend time with his granddaughter. Phillip offers advice about living through other crises, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, and his optimism that these things will eventually pass too.

2020-06-04

Educator Layoffs

I am worried about layoffs next year. I recently moved to a new school and the potential for layoff is high.

2020-06-12

I can't leave.

My wife and I moved to an expensive metro area for her job last year---it's a specialized skillset in a limited market that doesn't pay well, but one she's very passionate about. She has since been furloughed (two months to start, officially TBD for an end date), while my job has moved fully remote through the end of the year. I hate this job. I was already looking for other work shortly after we moved here. There are no job prospects in this area (even if I wanted to go outside, which I don't), and more employers in my industry shifting towards remote work means that suddenly I am in competition with everyone else globally for every position I go up for. We have no idea if my wife is going to have her job or not next month. Our lease on our apartment has 9 months left on it. On my salary + her unemployment, we can barely afford it now, but the real estate market here is so bad that we definitely wouldn't be able to afford anything else when our lease is up at the rate things are going. I cannot quit my job or we will be homeless, with or without my wife's job coming back. If her job doesn't come back, we will be stuck in this lease for 9 months for no reason. My life is a prison cell without a door or window. There is no way out that I can see. The chop of low-flying helicopters and the whine of emergency sirens every night make it hard to sleep while the world burns. I can only hope that something better is born from the ashes, and that I'll be able to see it before I go.

2020-03-28

Lost my dream work

I passed the interview and was about to do the job starting March. I really wanted to take this job since I want to be a therapist in the future, and I think I can a lot from this job. However, due to pandemic, the center was shut down, and I could not work. That also interrupted my plan about working for a year and going to study my master degree, Right now, I don't know what I am going to do in the next year.

2020-05-19

Helping The One I Love

2020-05-17

State of Nevada

#unlv #psc100 #mlphelps

2020-05-13

Finding hope in a pandemic

A personal account of the pandemic.

2020-03-12

Last Day at the Office

Two coworkers discuss the coronavirus oubreak, unaware that it will be the last day at the office for everyone before the Stay At Home order, in some cases permanently because 10% of the staff was laid off a month later. It illustrates the rapidity in which conditions can change.

2020-04-28

Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians Pre-School Teacher Thinks Outside the Classroom

“Instead of being thrown by such an unorthodox teaching situation, Julissa Garcia and others at the school have gotten very creative. ‘One particular highlight was Soboba Spirit Week while quarantined,’ she said. ‘Each dress-up day was dedicated to the various people in our communities who are affected by COVID-19.” One of the first dress-up days was to honor the elders who had been struggling. “Julissa dressed up as an elder and made a video of circle time as Mrs. Doubtfire. She is such a team player.”

2020-04

Little Animated Living Room

The only things keeping me sane this Q-teen has been delving into art, drawing, and practicing animation. I have been using animation as a way to make money as well, since I lost my job. It's not much in commission but it helps fill in blanks of income. I have been animating people's favorite places- that they can no longer go to- during the lockdowns so that they can feel less anxious about what is going on, even if it is for a second.

2020-04-29

Graduating College in a Pandemic

Landing a full-time job before graduating from college is a daunting task for every student. Now that Covid-19 has spread all over the country and social distancing has gone into full effect, it is much that harder to land a job. Before the pandemic hit, the job market was at its best it has ever been; there were more jobs than people looking. However, from one month to another that all changed. I was active in clubs and everything and anything that would make my resume stand out. I also had 3 internships in my respective major throughout the 4 years of college. During my last internship, which was during the 2019 Fall semester, I got offered a full-time job starting 2 weeks after graduation. However, the offer got rescinded a couple weeks into March. Given the circumstances, I knew that it was going to be hard to find a job. I started tracking all of the jobs I got rejected from and all in all it was 26 jobs. Most of the companies rejection letters started the same way, “Due to Covid-19…”. It would have been easy to give up applying to jobs and wait for the pandemic to die down, whenever that was. I told myself that if the next company I applied for rejected me I would stop applying. Luckily, this time I got an offer. This comes to show how the pandemic has affected every college student around the country, regardless of experience. #REL101

2020-04-28

REL Arizona State University Ghost Town

I work at the Sun Devil Card Office a the Memorial Union on the ASU campus. These are the signs that are on every door of the MU that has been closed. Usually, the Memorial Union is filled with people at the food court, dining hall, or just studying, but now there is nobody but the 10 employees that still clean/ roam the building. The virus has made this lively campus a ghost town. Students and faculty haven't been on the campus since spring break. This shows you just how serious this pandemic is. Usually, around this time, students would be studying for finals in the MU or the library, but now there is no one studying here.

2020-04-28

A Personal Reflection on the Pandemic

In early March of 2020, it was business as usual. I had a full schedule that included a 50 hour a week job, classes at Arizona State University, friends to socialize with, and of course, my family. As the next fifty-five days (and counting) marched on, everything changed. First, my workstation, a nice area with two large monitors, printer, and scanner was reduced to my kitchen table. There I had the luxury of no commute, but I was relegated to a small ten-inch laptop and none of the other accoutrements of my office. I realized that my breaks, often taken outside, had been taken for granted all these years. More importantly, I missed the social engagement of my colleagues and supervisor. School work was the least impacted by the pandemic. I was already working on my curriculum online so there was little impact. I did miss having the option to study in a public forum, as all public areas become vacant. I think the biggest change and challenge from the current two-month quarantine revolves around my family and friends. My husband and I use weekends and vacations to go to the lake, ride motorcycles, and meet friends for dinner. Birthdays and Easter rolled by without the usual gatherings and celebrations. Churches gathered online for services; a major shift from thousands of years establishing a place for worship. Social media played a larger part in my life, but there really is not a substitute for human interaction. There is an emotional gap that is lost when the interaction is two dimensional on the phone or computer via FaceTime and Zoom Meetings. I believe that much will change once things return to “normal”. It will be commonplace to see people wearing medical masks. Social distancing (staying six feet apart) will be marked in supermarkets and malls going forward. People, homes, cars, and offices will be cleaner on a daily basis. The most positive change, hopefully, will be the inclusion and follow up on our elderly friends, family, and neighbors. Many will have similar difficulties getting out, even after the quarantine is lifted. Our newfound awareness should impact all mankind, as we work harder to take care of one another.

2020-04-27

Finished my first semester of grad school amid a global pandemic

Juggling grad school and a full time job hasn't been easy. The outbreak of Covid-19 made this a more difficult task, as I work at a school and teaching was shifted to an online format within a matter of days notice. It often feels that things have been moving so quickly that I haven't had time to fully comprehend them. Nonetheless, I must take note of some of the accomplishments along the way, such as finishing my first semester of grad school at Arizona State University. 10 monographs, some dozen scholarly papers, and two major papers I feel both relief and a sense of accomplishment.

2020-04-14

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