Items

• 
  2021-05

  Reopening too Soon

  In many states, the government seemingly ended mask mandates and opened back up in one day. Washington State lifted mask mandates and reopened everything at 100% only to reinstate mask mandates and reduce compacity a few weeks later. This has lead to the meme of everything is on fire but let's just reopen anyways.
• 
  2020

  Nervous Cats: Pandemic Pet

  I first adopted my cat, Beans, in 2018, so she wasn't technically a "pandemic pet." However, she ended up becoming very anxious during the pandemic, especially with the first lockdown of March 2020, since I was home all the time! She has since developed mild "separation anxiety," and has to travel with me wherever I go. She is super adorable though :)
• 

  Anxiety during the Pandemic

  Since I can remember, I have always been a very nervous and anxious person. On my first day of second grade, I couldn’t even bring myself to leave my mom, and usually kids grow out of that stage when they go off to kindergarten. Throughout all of grade school, and my freshman and sophomore year of high school, I was always insecure, self-conscience, and very sad. It finally got better my junior year of high school and the only reason it got better is because I was on medicine. I went to a therapist and took my medicine on the regular, but I still was very anxious. I guess anxiety is just a part of who I am, and it is not something I can grow out of. After giving explaining my background with me being a very anxious person, you can probably see where this story is going. Obviously moving away for college was a very scary and anxiety increasing time. I could not sleep, eat, or smile the two weeks leading up to leaving for college. The sad thing is is that I was finally getting better, but then college came. Believe it or not though, I moved to Pittsburgh for college, and my anxiety got better. I was not as insecure and really learned to not let things get to me that used to get to me. It was March 14, 2020 where my life, and my anxiety started to go back to how it used to be in grade school and the beginning of high school. This pandemic has not been easy for anyone, and everyone can attest to that, but having anxiety and then having a world pandemic hit was horrible. I remember getting the email that told us we had to go home, and I had an anxiety attack. Because of my anxiety, I am a big planner and having to leave campus and not knowing when we will return put me in a state that I hope I never go back to. My mom picked me up on Sunday, March 15th, and that day I did not sleep, eat, or talk for about fourteen hours. I did not like how I did not have a scheduled day to go back to school, which made me so anxious because like I said before, I am a planner. We never got to go back to school and let me tell you online classes made me so anxious. I felt so behind, because going from all in person classes to all online classes is not an easy transition for anyone. Being a person with anxiety, I felt as though I was put into a world, I was not meant to be in. It felt so rushed, confusing, and honestly, I was at my lowest in the middle and end of March. I remember crying to my parents about how I didn’t want to do school because it was miserable and going out in public was so scary to me. This pandemic was publicized everywhere, and I thought in my brain, if I go into the grocery store, I will get COVID, and I know that is not true, but that is how my anxiety works. I did not go anywhere for about four months, and if I did, it would be for a drive in my car. I did not see anyone for about five months because I was worried about where they have been, and if they have the virus. This whole virus really made my anxiety worse and put me at my lowest point in my life. I felt like I did not have any friends, and I also felt very dumb because I thought I knew nothing that was going on in my classes. I started seeing a therapist again and it really helped. The fact of being scared to go into the grocery store or mall or even seeing friends seems silly. I wasn’t scared, it was just my anxiety because I wanted to make sure I did not get the virus. I hope this virus comes to an end, because I know how much it took over my mental health, and I believe I am not the only one.
• 
  2020-08-21

  College Through A Pandemic

  While I have been incredibly fortunate to remain shielded from the harsher effects the pandemic has wrought on so many families and individuals over the course of the past year, I have faced a multitude of inner challenges in the transition from high school to college. Attending college, in the most normal of times, can prove a formidable adversary for those like myself who struggle with anxiety. Navigating a new campus, facing distance from loved ones, and managing an increase in course load all were deeply concerning facets of the experience in my eyes, even when a global pandemic was an inconceivable complication to these already daunting tasks. Most paramount of my worries, perhaps, was the social aspect of college. Though incoming freshmen are often reminded that this is an area of insecurity common to every new student, the restrictions that students were dealt amplified my ever-growing hesitations. Mandatory isolation, lack of social gatherings, and limited opportunities to meet others culminated into the manifestation of my deepest social anxieties. If I couldn’t cope with the pressures of normal interaction, how could I be expected to thrive in an environment barren of the very opportunity? I spent many nights leading up to the looming day of move-in sitting on the couch with my parents, often talking until the early hours of the morning. I was, at first, hesitant to express my feelings and risk sounding ungrateful or ignorant of the great privilege I possessed. So many people yearned to be in the position that I myself wanted any way out of. I was thankful for the opportunities that I had been given, and I felt that squandering them and conceding to my anxious preconceptions would be an insult to all those who weren’t given the same chance under the difficult circumstances the pandemic established. After many hours of deliberation with my family, I felt that letting my increasing social anxiety dictate my future would be disposing of a precious opportunity for personal growth. When the day of move-in arrived, it was impossible to ignore the pit in my stomach and the tightening in my chest once my parents had said their goodbyes and departed. Though I couldn’t have felt more alone in that moment, I quickly learned that this was far from the case. After only a brief period of awkward silence, my roommate and I set about decorating our space with posters representative of our shared taste in music and love of hockey, interests we soon found to be shared among a small group of people in our building. Through our conversations that first night, it was not only clear that good friends are much closer than my anxiety would have liked to admit, but also that we were going to establish a deep bond in experiencing the often challenging, always unique adventure of attending college in a pandemic.
• 2021-01-21T12:09

  Covid symptoms

  Neither me or my family has gotten COVID but two of my closest friends got it along with their family. One of the families didn't feel any symptoms but had to get tested for sports. When it came back positive they quarantined but only two of them felt sick. They described it as what a cold feels like, "just a little out of it". The other family I know actually felt very sick. When the parents felt sick they got tested and where posited but only 1/4 kids were positive too. Their symptoms were head aches, fever, and stomach aches. Loosing smell and taste is very common but I don't know any one who dealt with that. I know a few people who thought they had it, tested and came back negative. After going to the doctors it turned out to be the flu. I got tested for sports over the summer despite feeling normal (everyone who trained had to do it) and it came back negative it was rather uncomfortable but not painful. I wasn't very nervous I was positive but I was nervous the test would hurt. I know a few people who said they wouldn't be surprised if they had it and probably did at one point but never tested to confirm or deny their theory. Even though its very well possible.
• 2021-01-20

  My Story About My Great Uncle Having COVID-19

  Back in the summer of 2020, my great uncle got COVID-19 and he had to quarantine himself from the outside world for 2 whole weeks. The reason I heard about this was because my mom had told me and it made me feel kind of scared because I was afraid he was going to die. After 2 weeks, he got better and he no longer had COVID-19 which made me feel less nervous. He is my only relative that has had COVID-19 before.
• 
  2020-06-07

  The New Age After Covid-19

  This picture indicates the strong measures put into place by businesses to help prevent the spread of Covid-19. We couldn't enter the cafe unless we had a face mask on.
• 
  2020-05-01

  Living

  Living