Items

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  2020-03-31

  I hate this so much

  On March 31st 2020, my state governor, J.B. Pritzker announced that school would be out of session till the 30th of April. I was a senior in high school, and hearing that broke my heart as the last day of school for the seniors was May 8th 2020. The biggest year of most young adults lives is their senior year of high school, as it signifies their last moments of childhood before embracing adulthood. I was in my mother's bedroom sitting on her bed with my sister watching the live newscast. My sister was a freshman in college at the time and about two weeks before had to clear out her dorm room and bring it all home shortly after her Spring Break had ended. She didn't have a particular reaction to it, not that I can remember. After the governor stated that school was out for another month, I began to cry. My mother cried for me, as she knew how much I had been looking forward to my senior year, and graduation, and prom. While I was crying and watching the newscast continue on, I took a photo of myself on Snapchat, and typed out "I hate this so much". I did hate it, because there was nothing I could have done about it, and I was being robbed of a particularly precious moment in my life. Many seniors in the class of 2020, both high school and college, were robbed of what they deserved that year. I'm submitting this because this is one of many real reactions students in my age group had, and it is important to me since I am currently in college to become a history teacher. I'm living through a historic time that I will be teaching my future students about, and I will use the photos and videos I took as primary sources for it.
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  2020-11-14

  Maggie's Covid Experience

  Maggie shared a condensed version of her experience with Covid-19 with me. Among her experiences she had to quarantine during her birthday, cancel vacations, and work life was disrupted. She was able to turn these negatives into positive experiences that enriched her life none the less. Maggie- "When it comes to Covid-19 it has affected me in both positive and negative ways unlike most people who I feel like it’s only brought negative outcomes. My roommate left our place for months during the start of Covid. I had to cancel my trip to Florida because family I was visiting has Lupus and we couldn’t risk it. My summer job was not going to start till end of July when it usually starts at the beginning of May. Luckily, we started Memorial Day weekend. Once work did resume it was hard because we didn’t have a full staff and the new regiments were hard at first to get used to but the positives things that came out of it, during the summer where I work were usually working 60+ hours and never really get any downtime except at night but I became closer to my island family because we’d close a couple days a week due to lack of workers which meant we all could become closer and hangout with each other. I spent more time on the lake this year than I ever had. I became closer to a lot more people than usual and even despite Covid it was one of my favorite summers. With summer over and jobs being hard to find I am now traveling the NE states going from national park to national park while practicing social distancing and Covid procedures. So for me it’s brought me closer to myself and created stronger friendships."
• 
  2020-04-07

  Postponed 30th Birthday Extravaganza

  Seattle- Michelle had to cancel her 30th birthday that she had planned to make into a large event with friends and family travelling from all over the country to celebrate with her.
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  2020-03-24

  Walsh Family's Missed Funeral

  Scott hasn't been able to properly mourn the death of his Grandmother. She was in the high risk category of people that could die from Covid-19 infection with having Alzheimer's disease and her family missed the opportunity to have a proper funeral for her.