Items

• 
  2022-05-10

  BA Oral History, 2022/05/11

  A student describes their experience working during the Covid-19 outbreak.
• 
  2022-05-10

  JA Oral History, 2022/05/11

  A student describes their experience working during the Covid-19 outbreak.
• 
  2022-05-10

  GC Oral History, 2022/05/11

  A student describes their experience working during the Covid-19 outbreak.
• 
  2022-03-20

  Working in a Casino Post-Covid

  Living in Las Vegas, it was quite noticeable when Covid hit. The city that always seemed to have something going on suddenly ground to a halt. Working at a casino, I noticed as our usual volume of guests and tourists started to lessen until we were shut down altogether. So, getting back to work after the shutdown was a bit of an adjustment. My workstation, usually with 6 of us working together now had half that amount. Hotel and casino floor capacity had to be kept low. I also remember the temperature checks that both guests and employees were required to do at the entrances. Enforcing the mask mandates with guests would also prove to be a hassle at times as some guests were more receptive than others. As travel restrictions and mask mandates started being lifted, it didn't take long for many of our regular guests to start showing up again. We recently started having live music performances at our property that guests had been inquiring about quite regularly beforehand. As of now, we're basically operating at full guest capacity again with a full casino floor and regular events. While there are still people wearing masks, myself included, there is a sense that the worst is behind us.
• 2022-03-20

  Day in the Life, Post COVID

  Now that it seems the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is over, it is interesting to look back and see how the quarantine, rules, and regulations have changed our day-to-day lives. For me, I would say that it has changed many aspects of my day-to-day, here is a list of my routine and how it is different from before COVID. 1. I make coffee at home every morning. I hand grind whole beans and methodically use a French press. This came from not being able to get coffee at a coffee place on the way to work during covid lockdowns and closures. This one really is better; I save money and get to have better coffee. 2. I listen to one of the many podcasts I am subscribed to now on my commute to work. Prior to covid, I never really listened to podcasts but started to during the lockdown as there was literally nothing else to do. Again, I see this as a positive. Now I am learning things when I would usually just be listening to the same songs over and over. 3. As I walk into work I check to make sure I have a mask, even though it has been over a month since we have had to wear one indoors. It still feels weird not wearing a mask sometimes and I have little panic moments occasionally when I realize I don’t have a mask on me, then remember I don’t need one. I think that a lot of people experience this same thing. COVID changed a lot for people and many things will be the new normal. 4. My workday really did not change because of covid. Due to the nature of my work in the military, we did not have the opportunity to telework as we need access to certain systems that cannot be accessed from the regular internet. So I think there is probably resentment in there, seeing stories of people being able to work from home and spend more time with their families. Though other parts of the workforce, such as the service industry also did not have the opportunity to telework. I think it will be interesting to see if teleworking stays, I hope it does as it seems to have a lot of benefits that I would like to experience. 5. Another thing I do every couple of weeks is going for a drive. I never did this prior to COVID, but I would do it at least once a week to get out of the house in a way that wasn’t just going to and from work. Even though now I can go places and do stuff, I still find myself just wanting to go on a drive and clear my head. 6. I go home and make dinner. I never really ate out before covid, but my cooking skills greatly increased during the covid lockdown as I used cooking like a hobby, branching out and trying to make a bunch of different things. This was also a positive as now I can make a wider array of meals. The pandemic has forever changed our lives and though we may not think it, if we go through our daily routine, we can see things that echo that time. Hopefully, we can find that the changes are positive.
• 
  2022-02-01

  Patio Sounds

  I never heard the sounds of my backyard and cared – now, it is my favorite sound, and my patio is my favorite place to work. I work in education, in March of 2020 our campus went virtual, and we began to work from home. My two kids, age 3 and 6 were home with me as well. Fast forward to today February 2022, our campus is still working virtually, however my kids now age 5 and 8 are away at school for 6 hours a day; this is the first time in my work history I have been able to work from home, and the first time I have been able to work kid free in two years. Prior to the pandemic, I was a busy person, work, school, kids, home, husband, dog – I did it all – what I didn’t do, was stop and listen to the peace I literally had in my backyard. Now, I sit on my patio from 9:00am to 3:00pm, rain or shine, and even though I am working, I listen and take it all in, I feel recharged to take on all my daily tasks. The calm and quiet time on the patio is much welcomed in the hustle and bustle life can become. Listening to the bird’s chirp, leaves rustle, dogs bark, sometimes the hum of a hummingbird, or the light drops of rain – it is therapeutic. The pandemic has been many things, but for me it has given me time to discover the peace the sounds around me can bring. This recording was taken on my patio, listening to the sound of my backyard as I wrote this description, appreciating the time I have.
• 
  05/07/2021

  Janice Hughes Oral History, 2021/04/22

  Janice Hughes, currently living in Madison, WI, is a medical abstractor for UW Health. Within the interview she talks about how the workplace has changed, along with day to day life during the COVID pandemic. She talks about her experiences with COVID and how her community around her has been dealing with it. She talks about how mental health has been affected with the pandemic along with physical health. Janice Hughes discusses what it was like to receive the vaccine and some of the lessons she has learned overall with the pandemic.
• 
  07/30/2020

  Christopher Viveiros Oral History, 2020/07/30

  Northeastern University student Alex Bice interviewed the Director of Communications at Fenway Health Christopher Viveiros. In this interview, they discuss what Fenway Health does for its community and how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their interactions with the community. Fenway Health has been able to create signage, update its website, send out emails, and resort to telehealth appointments to help the people in the community that doesn’t to be seen in person. Viveiros is concerned that the voices of many minority communities are not being heard, but is glad that some health officials have been able to speak the truth.
• 2020-06-01

  Retail in Covid

  As someone who works at a grocery store I was considered an “essential” worker during the height of the beginning of the pandemic I witnessed quite a bit. First off when it first started and people weren’t aware of what was going on people were confused and didn’t have any guidelines to follow. And thus unknowingly were spreading to the general public within the walls of my work place. Later when the safety measures were instilled there was a lot of push back from ignorant people not wanting to conform and wanted to be difficult causing workers to feel unsafe. Eventually most people followed the safety guidelines. But weren’t pleasant about it. There were many complaints of customers arguing with each other in an attempt to police each other. Not to mention the mask mandate was another issue. As employees we had to wear a mask for 8-10 straight while working. And while customers were in and out they refused to wear a mask properly and weren’t understanding to the fact that is as employees had to wear one all day so there’s no reason they can’t for the quick 30 minutes they are in the store. Then there were the out of stocks. Due to manufacturing/supply chain issues we were unable to keep shelves full. We would regularly have customers not understand what was going on and argue with employees that we weren’t doing our job because we couldn’t keep the store stocked. All in all the pandemic has shown me that the general public is mean and inconsiderate. We were already dealing with the fears of being forced to work in hazardous conditions and to top it off most customer interactions resulted in the employe being unnecessarily harassed in some manor or the other.
• 
  12/15/2020

  David Huber Oral History, 2020/12/15

  C19OH
• 
  12/11/2020

  Mark Larson Oral History, 2020/12/11

  C19OH
• 
  12/16/2020

  The Bulgarian Oral History, 2020/12/16

  In this interview the interviewee wished to be anonymous. In the interview we will be interviews a gentleman from Bulgaria in Eastern Europe. He works in a for a tech company and had to move into the city to find the job away from his small hometown. He tells us what it like in the city and why he would rather be in his hometown. As well he talks how COVID-19 has affected his job and family life and life around the city. In addition, he gives on interesting perspective on how the Bulgarian government is handling the pandemic. As well as what many people in Bulgaria think of the virus such as conspiracy theories and protests not things he personally believes but what citizens around him think at times.
• 
  05/16/2020

  Kevin Secker Oral History, 2020/05/16

  University of Wisconsin Eu Clair student, Glenn Walborn interviewed Tyson factory security worker Kevin Secker. In this interview Secker discusses how the pandemic has impacted his life. Secker is also a student and discusses how his classes have changed to accommodate online learning. Also discussed is Seckers new job as a plant security guard for Tyson factory in New London, Wisconsin. He discusses the changes that factory workers had to adhere to and their reaction to all those changes. He also discusses his opinions on government response to the pandemic and skepticism he experienced in the factory. He briefly discusses conspiracy theories he has heard and remedies that some factory workers have been sharing. Secker finished off the interview with hopes for the future and lessons he hopes we as a society have learned.
• 
  2021-11-10

  Employee Weekly Covid-19 Test

  Since the pandemic and everyone returning back to work a vaccine has been provided for everyone to take the vaccine if they choose to. The vaccine is to help with Covid, if received it can help with less symptoms if one happens to catch Covid. At my place of employment we have received emails from HR that anyone who has not been vaccinated must take a covid weekly test in order to ensure we do not have covid and make sure the campus is a safe place to be and ensure that everyone stays virus free.
• 
  2020-07-10

  HIST30060 Texts from a supermarket service manager regarding COVID cleaning

  These are screenshots of text messages sent from a supermarket manager to a group chat of service team members of a major Australian supermarket in Altona North, Melbourne. They detail the new cleaning regime that became part of the responsibilities of working in a supermarket during the pandemic. These include instructions about wiping down surfaces with sanitiser and keeping 1.5m distance from coworkers. These texts came a few days after Victoria's third lockdown was announced. I worked at the supermarket at the time and it was an extremely chaotic period, made more hectic by ever-changing restrictions and developments in COVID-safe practices. We would get texts like these quite frequently during this third lockdown because it was so important that supermarket essential workers kept abreast of COVID developments and worked to make supermarkets as safe as possible.
• 2021-10-17

  The Covid Disconnect

  The story and my experience are an example of the many ways in which the pandemic affected individuals in different ways. It goes without saying that each person was impacted in varied ways due to Covid-19, however, not all of them were either explicitly negative or an outcome that is easily defined as being either beneficial or harmful. During the height of the pandemic in the United States, I was employed as an Assistant Warehouse Manager in Green Bay, WI. My workload and responsibilities were already a little taxing, but once things got in full swing with Covid they became even more so. I went from working an average of 60 hours a week to over 75. This was mainly due to about a third (or more) of our employees being out of work due to quarantine-type measures or actual illness. This went on for months at the beginning. Many weeks out of that time period there were as few as about a dozen of us running three shifts in a warehouse that normally employed roughly 40 workers. Also at this time, my wife became unemployed because her place of employment shut down. Others around me were losing their jobs in droves and facing financial hardship. But due to my position and the nature of the job, I had never had more job security and we never faced any kind of financial difficulties. On the contrary, during the entire pandemic, my wife and I never went without or struggled. This gave me a surreal feeling and one that I almost felt guilty for living through. Aside from some minor changes in my daily life, I barely noticed any personal changes due to Covid. All in all, it was an extremely odd time to live through; the pandemic wasn't necessarily bad for my wife and me, but I know it was for countless others. And that made it all the more strange.
• 2020-04-16

  Happy Birthday...

  Today is April 16th, 2020. Instead of waking my mom up with breakfast in bed, she sends me a photo of herself layered in protective gear. At the time my mother was working at one of the largest hospitals in Queens. She went from working four days a week to working six-seven days a week as the rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations increased. Today is her birthday and instead of celebrating life, she is surrounded by fear, death, and uncertainty. Thank you Mom for being strong and putting your life at risk as an essential worker. Happy Birthday
• 2021-08-02

  Giving The Family Covid

  One day I woke up fine and normal like every other day and I went to work. At round 2 pm that day I started getting headaches and my body was cold. It was really hot that day too while my body was cold. I told me boss I'm not feeling too well and I wanted to go home. I called my friend who works in a pharmacy my symptoms and he said its possible to be covid-19. He went to my house and waited outside with a rapid test and I met him there. We did a test in the car and after 15 minutes it came out positive. I called my dad who was in my house to come outside so I can break the news to him before the rest of my family because they would've freaked out. I told my dad that I'm positive for covid-19 and he went to setup the house for me and seclude me from everyone else. I went upstairs and I saw my family waiting for me and my uncle had his hand out to greet me and I ignored all of them without giving eye contact and went straight to my room. I rarely ever get sick from anything really. Im sitting in my room thinking I really got covid-19 thinking I'm immune and invincible because I'm a healthy 21 year old and I never get sick. Also no one in my family previously got covid I was the first. This pandemic has showed me what I'm not and I'm just like every other person. The good thing is I mentioned it to my boss and asked my friend to test me right away. This is what everyone should be doing, check up on yourself right away.
• 
  2021-09-17

  The Census in Lockdown

  The Australian Census looked little different this year. Census employees in states and cities in lockdown had to conduct contactless follow up visits and were issued with ABS branded masks for the purpose.
• 2021-04

  Teleworking: Good and Bad

  I started a job earlier this year that is entirely remote. Before COVID-19, I would never have considered a remote job/ the possibility of teleworking simply because I thought it was something that wouldn't be possible in the field of History. Obviously this all changed when things shut down in 2020- and in some ways, the work realm changed for the better. I was able to secure a remote job relevant to my field for good pay, something that would not have been possible before the pandemic. On the other hand, working entirely remote makes it much harder to connect with coworkers and get out of the house.
• 
  2021-03-18T11:10

  Brianna Tong Oral History, 2021/03/18

  Self description: “I am sitting in my bed right now as I’ve done for a lot of this quarantine. In regular times and I guess still now, I’m in three bands and I also work at the library, the public library. So I’ve been working there in person since we came back to work in May. I was contacted for this interview through Bussy Kween Power Trip, which is a Black queer punk band with three people, no guitars, so my close friends. I’m in two other bands. One band is called Je’raf and one is called Cordoba. And one person each from Bussy Kween is in each of those bands. Haven’t played a show in forever. I can give a little about what I look like or am like. I’m a woman. I’m 26, almost 27 I guess. I’m Black and Asian. I’m kinda short. And during this pandemic I’ve been in general super lucky to have a job still and a great living situation. And I met my partner right before the pandemic, so we’ve been chilling a lot and that’s been amazing. She is so great. Yeah, just going to work and working on all kinds of things in my home. And sometimes having the energy to do a bunch of music and crafts and other art things, and sometimes laying in bed for a full day.” Performs in: https://amalgamusic.bandcamp.com/album/throw-neck https://bussykweenpowertrip.bandcamp.com https://cordoba.bandcamp.com See more coverage on music: https://web.archive.org/web/20201125235322/https://chicagocrowdsurfer.com/brianna-tong-amplify https://web.archive.org/web/20201111045606/https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/chicago-jazz-fusion-unit-cordoba-actualize-their-ambition-on-specter/Content?oid=83730117 See more coverage on pre-pandemic organizing here: https://dailynorthwestern.com/2015/02/18/campus/chicago-black-lives-matter-activists-speak-at-second-breathe-in-event/ https://dailynorthwestern.com/2016/11/16/campus/students-take-action-to-support-undocumented-peers-in-light-of-election-results/ Some of the things we discussed include: Humour in the early stages of the pandemic and developing a fear for the safety of others; empathy The journey from vaccine apprehensions to getting the first shot of the vaccine, household and coworkers doing the same; the importance of vaccine access for Black and Latinx communities; resisting the narrative that all rural people and Black people are anti-vaccine White supremacy, the murder of Black people by police, the mainstreaming of “defunding the police” activism Difficulties getting out of bed and noticing new behaviours; taking up new activities: stick-and-poke tattoos, embroidery, cooking elaborate meals Therapy Pre-pandemic life: going to queer parties, busy with rehearsal What community support means for health, the harms of for-profit healthcare, growing up with access to good health care coverage and racism and sexism in the healthcare system, ableism, fatphobia, and the crises of inaccessible healthy food, lack of parental leave, pollution Working in the public library system: working remote for the first two months, reduced libraries services upon reopening, prophylactic supplies and cleaning regimes, the importance that libraries serve in communities (access to internet, printing, and books), enforcing mask mandates, shifting to online programming How the return to work at the library normalized being inside indoor spaces when it is still unsafe Doing outside live music Looting as purposeful resistance to corporation Union of Musicians and Allied Workers protests against Spotify (https://louderandclearer.byumaw.org) Biden’s failure to get the $15 minimum wage Murders tied to racism, sexism, sexworkers, anti-Asian violence that was committed the day before the interview. See coverage here (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/us/atlanta-shooting-spa.html), here (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/17/eight-killed-atlanta-area-spa-shootings), and here (https://www.npr.org/2021/03/17/978141138/atlanta-shooting-suspect-is-believed-to-have-visited-spas-he-targeted) The expectation that lots of art and reflection will come out of this experience, wanting solutions from the humanities and social sciences, the importance of preserving stories of people ignored by media
• 
  2021-08-26T14:54

  The not so boring every day life

  I used to work at a store called Bed Bath & Beyond. It was a mediocre job at best. Getting up at 9am and working until 5pm. The occasional customer who’d come in every now and then and brighten my day was nice, but there has to be a balance. The occasional customer who would come in with the sole purpose to ruin your day. Pre December 31st, 2019. After work I would come home and play some video games, do homework, and if I had time go to the skatepark late at night. When I wasn’t at work, I was at school. I went to Palmetto Ridge High School, and it was my junior year. I was looking forwards to just graduating already. It was fun, I met a lot of friends, but it was just getting tedious, going to the same classes over and over again, just to meet the state requirements. I couldn’t wait to go to college, to pursue only the classes I needed for my future career. Life was pretty much mundane, no action, repetitive. December 31st, 2019. I had just awoken from my sleep and was getting ready to go into school, since it was a Tuesday. I turned on my TV and switched to the news channel to see if anything interesting was happening on the news, and to my surprise, this “virus” was said to have started in Wuhan China. Our “wonderful” president said it was nothing more than the common flu, so I shrugged it off and got ready for school. A couple of days had passed since the announcement of COVID-19 and things only escalated. I still thought it was nothing more than a virus, because at the time I followed Trump, (still don’t know why I ever did). That was until a customer came in, coughing their lungs out. I made sure not to check her out because she looked really, really ill. I stayed in the back most of the day, claiming that “Today was just not my day, I am tired, and I do not feel well”. I asked to leave work early that day and left. January 21st, 2020. By now I was seriously worried. I heard over the news that COVID-19 was spreading fast, and that it had just infected its first citizen in the U.S. I did not know what to do to counter it, so I treated it like a plague. I wore a medical mask everywhere I went, and double layered my hands with two latex gloves. My coworkers teased me, saying I was too worried and that it would pass. I almost wanted to listen to them, but I stuck to my guns and wore my protective gear in work. March 14th, 2020. Schools were now closed until April 14th. Things were starting to get serious, now my friends weren’t doubting my use of masks and gloves and they followed in my footsteps. There was no school now, which meant I had to work more hours. It was really weird not going to class, but I was kind of glad we weren’t. I was just happy to still be earning money. March 15th, 2020. I was supposed to work today, it was a Sunday, but seeing as my job was overstaffed that day, I called off saying that I was sick. (I really wasn’t). I wanted to go to the skatepark today with my friends and did not want to work overnight today. I am glad now that I skipped because a customer that had COVID-19 was not wearing a mask and had infected two co-workers. This had forced the building to shut down, and had the CDC close the building down to quarantine it. I really dodged a bullet. August 26th, 2021. (Present Day) A lot has changed over these past few years. Mainly lockdowns and mask mandates. I have been fully vaccinated with Moderna and am going to take my booster shot when the time comes. Oddly enough after the first major lockdown, nature started to come back. A lot of deer in the roads, alligators in swimming pools, and a ton of insects and amphibians. It is present day now, and we have a new variant of COVID-19, named the Delta Variant. Mask wearing was mandated, and then unmandated, and since Trump left office cases dropped with real facts on COVID-19 daily, none of this “fake news” as Trump used to say. COVID-19 is starting to die down a lot more now, but it still is not over. Hopefully people will use their brains and get vaccinated, and if they don’t, hopefully they use masks.
• 
  2020-04-02

  Banner Redeploys Corporate Employees To Help Frontline Colleagues

  A blog post from Banner Health about corporate workers going back to a nursing role.
• 
  2021-08-22

  What COVID-19 Meant for My Mother: A Latina Small-Business Owner’s Experience in the Bronx.

  The item I am submitting is a pandemic auto-ethnography detailing the disproportionately negative impact of COVID-19 on Latinx businesses. I do so through the narrative of my own family's experience, specifically my mother, as well as supporting academic research of general demographic trends. This piece speaks to how the pandemic, while in and of itself does not discriminate, has proportions of its impact that demonstrate a systemic bias leaving certain racial and ethnic groups less protected and far more targeted than others. The piece also connects how these discrepancies are not products of the pandemic, but rather were already systemically there and exacerbated by the pandemic.
• 
  2020-03-18

  Banner Health will not provide COVID-19 'back-to-work' clearances

  A press release from Banner Health announcing that employers should not advise employees to use emergency rooms for back-to-work clearance
• 
  2021-07-23

  Boundaries Between Home and Office

  It’s difficult to work from home and maintain a boundary between home and office. When your personal life is conflated with your professional life, it can be a struggle to keep your professional life from intruding on your personal life and vice versa. My friends have developed various rituals to establish a break between their working life and their home life. One friend gets into her car each morning, as she did formerly when she went into the office, and drives around the block. She then enters her house and goes directly to her desk and begins work. At the end of her workday, she reverses the process. I have a ritual to begin and end my workdays that is aligned with my yoga practice. I do a specific yoga sequence that is different from sequences I do at other times of the day as well as do meditation. This clears my mind and signals to me on a subconscious level that it’s time to work. At the end of the day, I do another unique yoga sequence and meditation to dispel the work energy and switch my mind and feelings towards personal matters. I’ve heard colleagues mention other “tricks” they use to differentiate their work life from their home life. Some change their clothes when they start work and then change them again at the end of the workday. Others take a walk outside before and after the workday, take all their work supplies and computers and put them away in a closet so that you don’t see your work while you’re focusing on your personal details, or take a shower to both begin and end the workday. The importance of these rituals can’t be overstated. When you’re working, whether at home or in an office, you should approach the situation in a professional manner. When you’re not working, for the sake of your mental health and happiness as well as the quality of your relationships with your friends and families, you need to leave the work behind and focus on personal matters.
• 
  2021-07-15

  Dr. Marissa Rhodes, Oral History, July 15, 2021

  Curator for the JOPTY program, Angelica S Ramos interviews mother of three, Dr. Marissa Rhodes. In this interview she discusses her role as a professor and how COVID-19 halted all the plans she had for her classes. She also discusses her pregnancy with her third baby and the struggles that came with prenatal care and birth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Rhodes also relates her birthing experience and how different the pandemic made it from her first two pregnancies; she discusses the complications that she faced and the stresses she dealt with. Dr. Rhodes also discusses how her social life was impacted and the struggle to find a balance between work, children, virtual-learning and a new baby. Lastly, she reflects on her personal silver lining and the lessons that she hopes will be learned from this experience.
• 
  2021-07-09

  Charlotte Tibollo Oral History, 2021/07/09

  Mother interviewing 5 year old daughter about the pandemic.
• 
  2020-09-12

  Coronavirus and pets: How the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked an increase in pet adoption

  This video talks about the shortage of available dogs for adoption in the United States during the pandemic. It describes the huge demand in the North East, California, etc. but packed shelters in the South. This is a trend that started long before the pandemic. Southern shelters are shipping dogs to shelters in the North for adoption. Millenials and Gen Z people want more pets and are willing to spend more money on their pets. This trend is expected to continue after the pandemic as more people negotiate with their employers to have non-traditional or hybrid work models.
• 
  2021-05-13

  Pandemic Pets Return to Shelters

  Sadly, as the nation returns to work and activities, pets adopted during the pandemic are paying the price. According to the article, owner surrenders are up more than 80% from this time last year. People did not think far enough ahead about what would happen once the pandemic was over. Now its the poor animals who have to pay the price. When will people learn that animals are not toys to be thrown away when it becomes inconvenient?
• 
  2021-05-09

  Fred O'Gorman Oral History, 2021/05/09

  Interview conducted by a nephew with uncle regarding the COVID response as it occured in the Republic of Ireland. Interviewee Fred O'Gorman discussed topics ranging from business closure and government response to personal and communal attitudes and behaviors in relation to pandemic in Ireland. The discussion also discussed ongoing vaccine rollout in Ireland and the dynamics of mental health through the course of the pandemic.
• 
  2021-01-06

  Dealing with Covid at work

  Dealing with Covid at work has been the worst thing that has happened to me. I was at work and had just found out that one of my close co-workers had tested positive for Covid. I was shock. Everyone at my job was scared but in honest truth I was just relax because I knew I didn't have it. Thought wrong. A week after I started to feel a little light headed but I figured it was normal. I had went to go get tested just in case and believe it or not my test came back Positive as well.
• 
  2020-12-31

  I could not hug my mother

  For my primary source, I selected a screenshot of me and my mom while we talked through Facetime. In this facetime we were in the same house but unable to see each other in person since she was infected with the covid-19 virus. Apparently, my mother became ill with covid-19 while celebrating the end of 2020 with close relatives, they were around 6 members of my family and they decided to go celebrate that day since they had not seen each other for a long time. That day I was working at night and cannot go to the party. Well, on the first of January I couldn't go to my house either since my co-workers called out and I had to do a double shift. I left the first of January around 3:00 pm from my work, before arriving at my house my mother called me and told me that she was not feeling well and that she believed that she was infected with covid because she had all the symptoms related to this virus. She went to do the test so I went to my girlfriend's house to wait for my mother to call me to confirm what we already suspected, around 5:00 pm she called me to tell me that she, my aunt and my cousin were positive . We could not leave our house for 16 days and only seeing each other through Facetime. I remember we took turns using the kitchen or leaving our rooms. To use the bathroom, we each entered with a Lysol to disinfect before and after using it. We used gloves and a mask when we left our rooms, so that I would not get infected. Today, 5 months later, my mother is still suffering the consequences of being infected, she gets tired when she walks for a long time and is in training since she has bacteria in the lungs as a result of covid-19. I decided to select this screenshot as my source because it represents what many people went through during the pandemic. Family that lasted months without seeing each other when before the pandemic they saw each other every day and grandparents without knowing their newborn grandchildren were some of the scenes that we could see during the pandemic. I am the only son of my mother and we have a remarkably close relationship. Never in our lives would we have lasted so long without seeing each other in person and without having hugged each other, it was very painful.
• 
  2021-03-26

  Choosing between Work and Health

  This short piece shares the struggles and experiences of choosing between working as an essential worker and worrying about my family's health during the peak of the pandemic.
• 
  2021-04-22

  Uncertainty, Spirituality, and the Inevitability of Change #REL101

  I foolishly thought that it would be easy to write this post. I didn’t anticipate struggling so much with finding the right words to explain the impact the last year of pandemic life has had on me, but I’ve deleted about a hundred paragraphs of rambling, existential stream of consciousness nonsense about cherishing the small moments and growing in the face of adversity because it is surprisingly hard to be concise about your feelings on an event you’re still living through. I’m starting to think that maybe doing so is impossible, so instead of falling into cliche and flowery prose, I want to just be blunt. I haven’t seen my family in two years. My grandmother has dementia and in that time it has worsened exponentially. On a weekly basis, I have a call with my mom that starts with a debrief on whatever the newest updates in her condition are and ends with a plea to visit as soon as I feel comfortable traveling. Every day, I go into my retail job and tell them no, I don’t have symptoms or live with anyone with symptoms while waiting for the beep of a thermometer meant to ensure I don’t have a fever. I breathe through two layers of fabric, disinfect my work area between transactions, and field rants about restrictive mask mandates for six hours a day, then come home and begin the process of undressing, banishing my clothes to the washer, and trying to relax before I have to do it all again. Everything in that paragraph is, to put it nicely, so bleak it hurts. It’s easy to get caught in the feelings of overwhelm that came along with this pandemic and it would be a farce to say that there aren’t days where everything feels like way too much for one person to handle. Surprisingly, though, the thing that has blissfully not survived the most turbulent year of my life is the apathetic, empty cynicism I used to feel. Instead, I feel weirdly hopeful that this is the beginning of massive change both in myself and on a global level. Maybe it’s naive to think that way and maybe it’s just a coping mechanism to help me through the pandemic, but there’s a part of me that thinks that may not even matter because the changes are coming regardless. In the last year, I’ve moved out of Nevada and into a pink house in California with the love of my life. Despite a fraught, stressful prior experience in college, I’ve finally come back to higher education in a way that feels both healthy and exciting. The field of religious studies has reawakened my passion for learning and my ability to grow in academia. I’ve abandoned my skeptical, agnostic views and traded them out for a brand of religiosity that combines self-improvement, magic, and trust in something bigger than myself. I know how that all sounds and if the last sentence has you rolling your eyes reading this, I get it. The last year has been weird, don’t get me wrong. If I told a 20-year-old version of myself that one day we’d be living through the plague of a lifetime, studying religion with hopes of examining cultism, and practicing a version of witchcraft grounded in our ex-Catholic roots, I doubt she would believe me. It admittedly sounds pretty wacky all laid out in plain English like that. Part of what I’ve learned throughout the pandemic, though, is that suspending cynicism, skepticism, and disbelief can sometimes lead you to unexpectedly lovely places. Whether I saw it coming or not, Covid has changed my life in countless ways, just as I’m sure it’s changed the lives of everyone reading these entries. Some changes have been for the worse, certainly, but the things that have changed for the better are what I’m choosing to focus on. I’ve read articles about a reemergence of spirituality amongst young people that make me think others have been having similar ideas and something about that feels good. We’ve spent a lot of time isolated, lonely, and missing a sense of belonging we took for granted before, but there’s reassurance for me in knowing that my experiences aren’t all that different from anyone else’s. That type of community, however it manifests, is (and I hope you’ll forgive this admitted slip into flowery prose) something that the pandemic has taught us we must cherish above everything else because it’s what makes our little human lives worth living. More than anything, whenever this pandemic reaches the time where we split our lives into not just before, but after, I hope we don’t forget that.
• 
  2021-02-28

  #JOTPYLesson from gedco45

  #JOTPYLesson For me, the pandemic has forced me to slow down a bit, and to take more time for myself than I'm used to - when the pandemic began I felt incredibly guilty for taking more than 30 mins for myself to relax with. Now, I'm kind of forced to acknowledge that I deserve to rest or even just have fun every now and then, that I have value when I'm not working. @lordfrogman @amjugan @dankzestykale @kategillis @father_keaton
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  2021-04-15

  Second Semester Done, One Year In, But What Will I Miss?

  The end of the semester is near, with one week left in my college semester and only a few weeks left at the high school where I work. As my first year as a Ph.D. season comes to a close, I have to say I am actually going to miss some parts of spending the year going to class via Zoom. It’s been nice to not have to worry about superficial things like my outfit and practical things like making sure my water bottle is full and that I have had lunch before class. Zoom is exhausting. Being aware that my classmates can see me, and I can see everyone else all at once. Sure, I can hide self-view, but in a way that makes me more nervous because I won’t be able to see if my face looks silly. I spend a lot of time holding my face in a specific way to avoid “resting bitch face” that I often end my 2.5-hour classes with headaches and jaw tension. I guess I won’t miss that. Monitoring chat and live conversations is a nightmare. So much so that I don’t pay much heed to the chat at all. I won’t miss that. Not having to find parking on campus though... that has been super nice. Not having to account for traffic, being able to schedule appointments more easily. It’s also allowed my professors to be in other states for meetings when necessary or step out for other Zoom meetings when they have to for a few minutes and then return. I guess it is what we have been saying for the better part of nine months now, that we have always had the ability to be flexible, just no willpower, and the pandemic has shown us that we really can be flexible. Selfishly it makes it easier to work and go to school as well. I haven’t missed a single class all year. It made being a TA easier too, since I didn’t have to go to campus for those classes either, which would have further complicated a work schedule. I am ready to go back to school, after three online master’s degree, the perpetual student in me was so excited to go back to campus for classes and be a part of a college campus again and I didn’t get that because of the pandemic, but I think in some ways it made the transition easier for me. It made it easier for me to feel like I could do it all at once.
• 
  2021-04-07

  Little Gifts

  My dad is a paramedic currently working three jobs within the EMS field. He's basically only home one day out of the week. I take care of the house and my little sister while he's gone but I know the job is hard right now, especially with Covid-19. When I can, I buy him little gifts I think he would appreciate, like this Hawkeye Funko Pop. I honestly just wish they would pay paramedics and other EMS related first responders more than what they get now, especially since this pandemic has shown how necessary and essential their job is.
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  2020-04-02

  College Student in Covid

  I wrote about my story through covid. I am a college student studying Early childhood education. I am also a child care worker. My submission is about what it was like going through college during covid. This is important to me because it's my experience and I know many other college students feel the same way.
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  2021-02-15

  #JOTPYPhoto from Marissa Rhodes

  This picture encapsulates my home life (which is my ONLY life) during the COVID-19 pandemic. It's difficult managing kids, their school, and working full time with absolutely ZERO separation between work, school, and play. #JOTPYphoto
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  2021-02-17

  #JOTPYPhoto from Gina Heart exclamation

  Staying home cuddling with my dog = work @mollyc @mollycho @Gee_La_Dou @edgartoo12 @Lightskill1
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  2020-11-11

  Paid Leave Approval for COVID-19

  My entire family had contracted COVID-19 and in accordance with company policies I was required to apply for mandatory paid leave for a minimum of 2 weeks and a COVID-19 test after that 14 day period. COVID-19 had a large impact on both my job and my family.
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  2021-02-21

  Mini Oral History with Paul Keagle, 02/21/2021

  This is a mini oral history with my husband, Paul Keagle, regarding silver linings during the pandemic.
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  2021-02-20

  Mini Oral History with Peg Spangler, 02/20/2021

  I recorded a mini oral history with Peg about silver linings and positives during the pandemic.
• 2021-01-31

  Freezing Masks

  I live in Massachusetts, which certainly isn't the coldest area in the United States, but it is definitely not warm during January and February. Whenever I go out in public areas, like when I am walking my dog downtown or going to work in Boston, I always wear a mask. I personally feel that wearing a mask is a personal responsibility that we owe to everyone else around us. I work for hours wearing the mask, and have no problem doing so because it's the right thing to do. However, it has been particularly cold in Massachusetts the past week or so, which has meant that my mask freezes almost immediately when walking around. The condensation from my breathing quickly freezes from the inside which makes wearing the mask even more uncomfortable than usual. Then, when I get inside, the frozen condensation defrosts and the inside of my mask is soaking wet (not pleasant!!). But at the end of the day, we do what is necessary for the common good, and winter and the virus will soon be behind us!
• 2020-09-15

  How I learned in quarantine

  I would wake up as late as possible. I would usually wake up 10 minutes before my first class. I would throw on some sweat pants and a hoodie, no shirt and not style my hair. I would finish school and take an hour-long nap. On Wednesdays I would wake up at 10 to my work and go to golf.
• 2020-09-14

  My start into school during 2020

  My summer was completely ruined by covid-19. I spent most of my time indoors and doing online classes. My sports were canceled and I could not even start practicing with my travel lacrosse team. I was able to hang out with my friends but we were very limited in activities. I did enjoy working though I was able to get a lot of hours. Overall I wish COVID-19 never happened at all it changed everything in the worst way ever. Over the past few days, I have been overwhelmed with homework and projects. I miss real school and I feel as if it is so much better than an online school. The in-person school gives me access to talk to teachers and I can study together with friends. Online school limits me so much in my resources and for me, I do not do well in an online class. This pandemic and the California fires are really messing with my life. Most people say they have more time because of what’s going on but to me, this is definitely not true. The online school consists of more homework over teaching this is not the way people should learn.
• 2020-12-17

  How COVID-19 Affected My Daily High School Life

  This is a journal entry I created when school started online learning. At the time, I was frustrated and upset at the online learning, but now I have been able to adapt and overcome the adversity our society faces. Covid-19 has greatly impacted my family. I have been continuously doing online school at California high school and at DVC. I personally strongly dislike it. We are staring at a computer all day for classes and to do homework. The online classes make me tired and lazy. With sports pretty much stopped, it is hard to go outside and practice all by yourself. For my dad, his work has been greatly affected. His workload has dropped and he has constant precautions for his employees. He almost even had to shut down. For my sister, she was finally able to college three months late. They might also cancel her soccer season at UCSB. For my mom, she is very cautious about being around other people because of her parents and their health. This pandemic has influenced the world away from socializing. I can rarely hang out with people and being on zoom is annoying. We are doing the same thing over and over again when it seems like there is no purpose. Our entire world as we know it flipped over and is completely different now. I need school to go to hybrid and sports to start back up soon.
• 2020-09-29

  Covid-19 journal entry

  When quarantine first started I was happy we didn't have to go to school and i thought we would only be gone for a couple weeks. Now that it’s been more than 28 weeks I obviously am not happy about it anymore. I can’t hang out with my friends anymore and going to work is kind of scary. I hate that we have to wear a mask because when I smile at people they can’t see that I’m smiling at them and I just creepy. My mom is a hair stylist so she was out of work for quite a while, fortunately now she open back up again. My brother also lost his job because the business he worked for had to shut down. My other brother Chase was a senior when it first happened and he just went off to college a couple weeks ago. Chase actually got COVID-19 and that was pretty scary but he didn’t show any symptoms or get sick at all. This journal entry was written as a part of the American Studies class at California High School in San Ramon, California.
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  2020-12-10

  Burnout: A Sociological Analysis of the 24/7 Work Mentality and Its Impact on the City That Never Sleeps

  The item we are submitting is a reflection of society at large, something imperative as we have all been forced to self-reflect on a personal scale during this pandemic. Being forced to recharge and take a breath from the tech-fueled, on-the-go, culture we are entrenched in is a psychological challenge in and of itself. Therefore, starting a conversation as to why work is seen as a means to an end rather than as a self-fulfilling contribution to society and, consequently, something that leads to burnout is a conversation worth having before we enter into a society once again that causes severe stress and anxiety for most people. This is important because we must look at not just our personal lives, but the society we live in so that we can properly address the factors leading to major decline in the mental health of so many, as well as whether or not we want to re-commit to such a society once life returns to some sense of normalcy.