Items

• 
  2023-04-29

  Post COVID in El Salvador

  I recently went on a trip with my dad to his home of El Salvador. I wasn’t too surprised that most COVID restrictions had been lifted three years later. I was more surprised that some people were still wearing masks. I leaned that people who work hospitality are still required (or strongly suggested) to still wear masks. There are hardly any remnants left from all the COVID mandates but I found these signs at one of the restaurants we went to reminding people to social distance. It’s interesting to see people now still wearing masks and sanitizing their hands in excess. I wonder if this is the “new norm” we were all talking about two years ago.
• 2020-12-10

  My pandemic mental condition

  During pandemic, I was in the online English Bridge program of my university. The amount of assignments were a lot, and all I did during the pandemic was just waking up at 5am, eating break fast, going to class on zoom, eating lunch, doing assignments, eating dinner, and sleep. I could not even going grocery store to buy food or snacks because I could not finish assignments unless I just kept studying. Thus, in my room, I was alone and studying without any joy. My family supported me a lot for my study but I felt that only I was doing what I wanted (study), whereas my family was just working and doing domestic affairs. I was so depressed because if I was not existed, I did not let my family work so hard. I wanted to disappear at the time.
• 
  2023-05-15

  Unique Patterns of Behaviors Observed from Endless Masking in Japan in this "Post-Pandemic"

  Although the world is approaching the post-pandemic, many people are still wearing masks in Japan. It can be attributed to unique conformity to others who still wear a mask and the establishment of masking as a habit after 3 years of masking.
• 
  2021-09-30

  Masking through the pandemic

  I have submitted this picture to show what it was like just to be at school during the pandemic. This is a picture of my friend and I in band class. We had to wear masks, and even had special musician masks we had to wear while playing our instruments. This was a very hard time, especially with it being my senior year of high school. I just wanted things to be normal again.
• 
  2023-05-15

  Pandemics and Human Tendency

  Human beings have experienced pandemic throughout the history. However, the there are always conflicts, violence, and division occur. In order not to repeat the history, it is important to learn from the past and apply to our everyday lives.
• 
  2023-05-15

  What we need to learn from Covid

  This is based off of what I have seen and heard throughout the pandemic. I have decided to post this because we need more awareness of the issues in education.
• 
  2023-05-15

  Analysis of "The School Where the Pandemic Never Ended"

  Analyzing a New York Times article entitled, "The School Where the Pandemic Never Ended" through the lens of Daniel Defoe and Thomas Paine
• 2020-03-14

  My Sedentary Lifestyle Prepared me for What Came

  In the year of the pandemic I was not aware of everything that was occurring all around me, I did not watch the news; however, I did get news updates on my phone and people would tell me what was going on. I was working as a personal attendant at an elementary school when covid began, and I did not feel the effects that covid 19 has been changing society, the community that I lived in, and in my life until the lockdown began where everyone had to stay inside their houses. Before the lockdown began I was living a sedentary lifestyle where I would spend the whole day inside the house on my phone or watching TV, so staying in my house was an everyday thing for me and many of my family members and friends did not live near me, so I would always call them; however, I have heard about a couple of family members who I have grown up with mention to me that they had covid and before I returned to work after the lockdown was over my mother tested positive for covid, so this is when covid 19 was hitting hard to me because many people that I was close to were getting sick, when my mother was sick I began to worry whether I had covid 19, because I fell ill before her, however, I tested negative for covid 19 which I admit was a huge relief for me, but I was worried about my mothers well being, until she felt better. In news updates I heard about a lot of people who lost their jobs, and places that were shut down, because of the pandemic, so I felt fortunate to still have employment at the elementary school even if my hours were shorter than before because of the changed school hours, but I still felt fortunate that I still had employment and that none of my friends or family lost their lives to covid 19. When I first heard about the lockdown it was when I realized how truly serious the situation was, many people had trouble staying inside their houses during the lockdown; however, I always stayed inside on my phone, playing video games, and watching TV so remaining in my house was never such an issue for me since this was part of my everyday life so my sedentary lifestyle is what prepared me and got me through the lockdown during covid 19.
• 2020-08-22

  Finding peace during the pandemic

  During the pandemic, like most people, I experienced high amounts of stress and feeling kind of hopeless. I would spend the majority of my day playing video games in my house which doesn't really seem like a bad thing to be doing, but over time I could feel myself being lost and not the same person anymore. This was because before the pandemic, I was constantly on the move and interacting with people, so when this was taken from me I was unable to resume the things that I had always done. I began school at a local university and found myself unable to make friends as I had easily done in the past, because my social skills had taken a huge fall due to the pandemic. I found myself being a really quiet person and would only talk when I was talked to, and also found that I did not have the drive to complete tasks that should have been easy to complete. The way I began to overcome this was when I joined a local dance group. They were practicing at a park following social distance regulations. I did not instantly feel comfortable because I was unsure of myself and was not very confident when I first joined. However, the group was very welcoming and friendly towards me and they gave me all of the time and space I needed at the time to begin coming out of the shell that the pandemic had formed around me. Within about a year, these members have become some of my closest friends and we hang out daily. My confidence has reached an all time high that honestly I think might have caused me to become bored whenever I know something is a waste of time but is something that I have to do. This isn't necessarily a bad thing because it is definitely an improvement from before where I would not attempt to do things because I did not feel the confidence to complete them. Had I not joined the group, I would've stayed in my shell and would not have made the friends I have today. They gave me a chance to become active again and become socially active as well.
• 
  2021-12-01

  Taylor Schneider Oral History, 2021/12/01

  Taylor Schneider lives in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, and currently works in sales and marketing. She discusses that she did not think that the virus was a big deal initially until everything started to shut down. She talks about her job opportunity and how it was rescinded because of the virus and how job searching was difficult because no one was hiring. She discusses how her communication with her friends and family was changing since the beginning of the pandemic with the use of FaceTime and Zoom. She goes on about how the mental toll of being on lockdown and staying at home affects her and the ways in which she passes time during the time.
• 
  12/14/2021

  Anonymous Oral History, 2021/12/14

  Anonymous is a person who, in his senior year of university, was hit by covid. Anonymous goes into detail on what went wrong with the pandemic, how new sources are at the biggest fault, and how it affected his personal life when looking for a job, and interacting with family and friends who both do, and do not want to be vaccinated, and self-isolating with many precautions despite Wisconsin having very few mandates.
• 
  11/29/2021

  Don Knutson Oral HIstory, 11/29/2021

  Don Knutson is the Rescue Squad Director for the Village of Colfax Wisconsin. In the interview, he goes into detail about his job and how it changed because of Covid. As he has taken care of patients that go by ambulance but as a director and how he has seen things change in the profession. He also is the health advisor for the Village of Colfax which was the main source for the community. While he also shares how his work life has also affected his personal life because of the added reasonability from Covid. Finally, he comments on how the political atmosphere has affected the pandemic.
• 
  11/27/2021

  Thomas J. Miller Oral HIstory, 2021/11/27

  Thomas Joseph Miller was born in St. Paul, MN, and currently lives in St. Louis Park, MN where he has lived for 20 years. He recently started work as a real estate agent during the pandemic. In this interview, Thomas Miller discusses how COVID-19 has affected his work, his family and friends, and his overall mental health. He shares his experience of transitioning from one job to another during the pandemic as well as how the real estate market was affected. He also discusses the ways COVID has impacted the people around him, both good and bad. Additionally, he speaks about the vaccine and his thoughts on it.
• 
  12/01/2021

  Cathy Mitchell Oral History, 2021/12/01

  Cathy Mitchell was born and raised in Champaign, IL, and currently works as a paid caregiver for a 91-year-old lady. In this interview, Cathy Mitchell discusses how COVID-19 has affected her life, including her work, family life, and mental health. She shares what it has been like to adjust to life as a newly widowed woman and caregiver during the pandemic, and how the pandemic has affected her in terms of her mental health. She discusses her thoughts and experiences, as developed from the initial crisis until recently in this interview, consisting of 3 parts.
• 
  12/07/2021

  Heather Perrault Oral History, 2021/12/07

  Heather Perrault is an Eau Claire, WI resident and currently works for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections as a parole officer. In this interview, Heather talks about her experience with COVID and how it affected her life as a stay-at-home mom/ pseudo-teacher for her kids as well as her job that she rejoined about halfway through COVID. She also talks about how COVID has affected her family and friends in terms of their physical and mental health and how the people she oversees as a parole officer may be affected by COVID as well. Heather also gives future generations advice on how she thinks they should look at information about the pandemic in the future.
• 
  12/04/2021

  Karen Porter Oral History, 2021/12/04

  Karen Porter was born and raised in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and still resides there, where she works as a custodian in the Bridgeman dorm at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. In this interview, Karen gives critical information on what it’s like working as a custodian during the pandemic, being the person the community relies on to keep things clean and safe. Karen also reflects on how COVID-19 has affected her life, including her job, family and friends, personal life, hobbies, and mental health. Karen shares additional insight on hot topics of the pandemic, like vaccines, government response, the healthcare system, and collective memory.
• 
  11/30/2021

  Melinda Ruzich Oral History, 2021/11/30

  Melinda Ruzich is a 20-year veteran kindergarten teacher from Hibbing, Minnesota, a rural town 229 miles (about 4 hours) north of Eau Claire. Melinda is also undergoing treatments for breast cancer, and she has been immunocompromised for the entirety of the pandemic. In her interview, Melinda discusses how her cancer treatments impacted her ability to teach during the early stages of the pandemic in 2020 as well as how her job has changed over the past 20 months. Melinda shares how childhood development has evolved at the early childhood and kindergarten levels and how her role as a teacher has shifted. Melinda also discusses how parents and the public have interfered with her (and other teachers in her district) abilities to teach in schools safely. She discusses her school district’s mask mandate and the public’s response and pushback to vaccinations and masking in the small, rural community in Northern Minnesota.
• 
  12/01/2021

  Taylor Schneider Oral History, 2021/12/01

  Taylor Schneider lives in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, and currently works in sales and marketing. She discusses that she did not think that the virus was a big deal initially until everything started to shut down. She talks about her job opportunity and how it was rescinded because of the virus and how job searching was difficult because no one was hiring. She discusses how her communication with her friends and family was changing since the beginning of the pandemic with the use of FaceTime and Zoom. She goes on about how the mental toll of being on lockdown and staying at home affects her and the ways in which she passes time during the time.
• 
  2020-04-01

  Coronavirus Journal: April 2020

  The essay is composed of entries from my daily journal during the month of April 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic quarantine. It shares the perspective of my partner and me, retired senior citizens in Up North Michigan.
• 2020-03-13

  March 2020

  March 13, 2020 was a memorable day for all of us. It's the day we got the call that the schools would shut down for who knows how long due to the virus that was rapidly spreading. It was a scary time for everyone due to all of the unknowns. We were stuck in our houses for months with nothing to do. Being quarantined did teach me a lot of things, such as how to have fun at home. Once the restrictions got lifted, and we were allowed to see our friends, I remember spending everyday outside, finding our own ways to have fun since everything else was closed. 2020 was year none of us will forget. We found ways to make light of a horrible situation.
• 
  2023-03-21

  Escaping from Fear at the Shoreline

  Submission for #LockdownStatenIsland exploring Fear and the complexity of emotions during COVID Lockdown while at the beach - a place I visited often for a little peace and tranquility during that scary time.
• 
  2020-07-27

  Patience and Fortitude

  The New York Public Library’s website explains, “During the 1930s, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia named [the library lions] Patience and Fortitude for the qualities New Yorkers would need to survive the economic depression.” I remembered this fact and connected immediately with it the first time I saw Patience and Fortitude wearing their masks in solidarity with the New Yorkers they have watched over for more than a century. It struck me that we would need those virtues to make it through COVID-19 as well. “Those lion statues have seen New York struggle through and overcome many hardships from the 1917 Flu to the Great Depression to September 11th,” I thought. Things were grim in New York in 2020. We were the first to experience the horror that would eventually engulf the whole country. The infection rate was high, hospitals were full, people were dying. It was easy to despair. The masked lions were a powerful symbol of the resolve and resilience of New Yorkers and a reminder that this turmoil, too, would pass into history and the city - like the lions - would remain standing.
• 2020-05-02

  Social distancing

  This photo is taken from the CSI Public History Coronavirus Chronicle Facebook page. (May 2, 2020, author unknown) I look at this photo and remember when social distancing was still fresh and new and everyone did it. Now, it feels like people are starting to lose that boundary of personal space and wanting to stand as close as they can behind you in a check out line. I remember actually enjoying the distance people were forced to take, and a part of me wishes social distancing was still in effect.
• 
  2020-04

  Pandemic public bus

  Photo credit goes to the Coronavirus Chronicle Facebook page. The photo shows the locked front part of the MTA bus. This photo directly connects to my experience of taking buses during the surge of the Covid-19 pandemic in March and April 2020. I observed absolutely the same picture of the bus interior every single day on my daily trip to work. The front of the bus was purposely locked by crisscrossed chains and two safety belts. Hence passengers could not get on the bus in the front and the machine that took trip payment money and cards also were not available for public use. Passengers had a free ride throughout the pandemic on all NYC buses. MTA drivers avoided close airborne contact with other people to keep themselves safe and not lose their in-person work respectively. Such isolated buses reminded me of a post-apocalypse underground train in one of the parts of the Matrix film. Neo and his fellows had to hide from computer program agents that try to invade their shelter at the abandoned subway system.
• 
  2020-05-29

  Trader Joe's Limited Number of Customers

  Due to Covid-19, Trader Joe’s on Richmond Avenue is limiting the number of customers in their store, which leads to long lines of shoppers waiting to enter.
• 
  May 2nd, 2020

  CVS in Lockdown

  The CVS on Armstrong and Arthur Kill Road requires masks and social distancing if you are shopping there.
• 
  May 2nd, 2020

  Wait Here

  Wait here. This was the story of Covid Life. We had to wait in specific spots, and not crowd registers until called on. This happened quite often, especially at the pharmacies!
• 
  May 2nd, 2020

  Visiting the St. George Market

  People waiting 6 feet apart at St. George greenmarket. A good turnout, but everyone was following the new rules of not touching the food and social distancing.
• 
  May 2nd, 2020

  Sign of the times at St. George Greenmarket.

  Sign of the times at St. George Greenmarket.
• 
  May 1st 2020

  The New Normal

  The New Normal: People had to stand 6 feet apart when they went shopping. It caused a lot of problems. We also had to wear face masks which caused tension among guests.
• 
  April 8, 2020

  The New Normal on Staten Island

  Is this the new normal or will Staten Island go back to the way it was before the pandemic?
• 
  April 8, 2020

  Public Health Measures on Staten Island

  Social distancing, face masks, empty shelves and restrictions throughout Staten Island.
• 
  2020-07

  Someday his photo will be historic.

  Someday his photo will be historic. For now it’s just everyday reality. Front of bus blocked off for social distancing.
• 
  April 23rd, 2020

  Hospital During Lockdown

  What Hospitals were like doing during lockdown
• 
  2020-06-17

  The New NormalS F

  Love in the Time of Covid-19. A great video by Shania Fagan, titled The New Normal. Will our lives go back to normal anytime soon?
• 
  2020-06-17

  A Case of a Different Perspective

  Youth, Students, Perspective
• 
  June 28, 2020

  Staten Island Ferry Social Distancing

  Screenshot of the Staten Island Ferry with social distancing tape on the seats.
• 
  Summer 2020

  Culture at a Social Distance

  My submissions for #lockdownstatenisland are two examples of creative measures local cultural institutions implemented in Summer 2020 to continue to serve the public safely outdoors. The first is the #WomenoftheNationArise outdoor exhibition at the Staten Island Museum. The gallery exhibition opened a week before lockdown during Women’s History Month - March 2020. Since the galleries had to be closed, the outdoor exhibit gave visitors to Snug Harbor Cultural Center had the chance to explore Staten Island’s role in the fight for women’s right to vote from a #socialdistance. The second is at Historic Richmond Town’s socially distanced recreation area. With picnic tables and chalk circles on the grass, Historic Richmond Town provided a safe outdoor space to enjoy fresh air, sunshine, a book, an ice cream cone, and some time with friends or loved ones.
• 2021-02

  Touring COVID Texas

  When reflecting back to my traveling during the COVID-19 pandemic I think of constantly waiting. I was overseas when the pandemic started and was not worried at all about travel restrictions. I was not even concern about what might happen to me. All of a sudden traveling stop in the middle of March and I was supposed to leave in April. I felt the full effect of the restrictions of where I lived and I made sure I followed every restriction because I wanted to come home. Forward to three months later I was able to come home after travel was open back up but I immediately noticed a difference. We could not leave the plane during refueling. I quarantine before I left and again once I arrived. The world I left had change entirely. Mask were worn by almost everyone and lines were longer because of spacing. Sometimes there would not even be a line because stores and shops were closed down. Once I finally made it home my day to day routines became less adventurous. I used delivery apps on my phone to order the majority of what I needed. This was continuous until the end of 2020 leading into 2021. Restrictions to COVID were becoming social norms and less enforced, specifically where I lived, Mississippi. The first trip I took once restrictions of travel were lifted was to San Antonio. Touring in in Texas was thriving when I initially got there. However the very next week Texas had frozen over. We did not have electricity or water for almost a week. Texas was in a state of emergency. Traveling on the road was highly advised against. Getting resources to feed myself was difficult. I waited in line for two hours to gather groceries for myself because the line stretch around the store. Once I was able to leave Texas and return home I did. My time traveling to Texas set a precedent for me. I now travel with extra food and water no matter where I go.
• 2020-10-05

  Water Slides in the Days of Covid

  My family resided in Columbus, Georgia during the Covid-19 pandemic. In October 2020 my sister-in-law’s family came to visit us from Arizona. We decided to take our families to Great Wolf Lodge in LaGrange, Georgia, just 45 minutes from my home, for a two-day vacation. This was my first experience traveling after travel restrictions were lifted. Great Wolf Lodge houses an indoor water park, restaurants, and family entertainment attractions, as well as hotel accommodations all in one building. My family had visited before the pandemic, so we were familiar with the resort and procedures. This made changes in policies and behavior more evident than they may have been otherwise. Safety protocol set in place at Great Wolf Lodge included mandatory mask wearing in the hallways and open areas of the resort. Masks were not required in the waterpark; however, signs were posted throughout detailing mandatory social distancing protocol. Individuals were to remain at least six feet apart from each other in all areas, especially when waiting in lines. The guidelines were a nice idea, but large swarms of children eager to get onto a waterslide cared little for waiting in lines any distance apart. The adults seemed to feel the same way too. There was no personal space while waiting in lines, much less six feet social distance. In normal times, Great Wolf hosts bedtime dance parties and stories in their main lobby for the kids. Due to Covid restrictions, however, these dance parties were canceled and instead were broadcast on a set TV channel that could be viewed from guests' rooms. Our families arrived around 1:00 in the afternoon on day one. One person went in to do the checking in and then we headed to our rooms to change and head to the park. Everyone played for at least three hours. A few of the older kids tired out earlier and headed back to the rooms. The rest of us headed back to the rooms for dinner with the plan to meet up again afterward and play until the park shut down. Over the next hour, almost all of my kids started coughing. We started to wonder if they were having a reaction to the chlorine. Then the runny noses started and even the most excited kids said they were too tired to go back that night. After talking to my sister-in-law, the same thing was happening in her family. We decided to call it a night and check back in the morning. By morning, we had to call it. Even mild cold symptoms were enough in those days to get you thrown out of public places and we had to be cautious with even the smallest symptom that might indicate Covid-19. We knew the only responsible thing was to pack it up and head home. We had a great three hour vacation the day before, but the rest of it just wasn’t going to happen. It was the most expensive three hour vacation I think I’ll ever have. We felt like criminals smuggling our tightly masked children through the halls that morning and begging them to hold in their sneezes or coughs until we got outside. We were so glad we had chosen to vacation only 45 minutes from home that time. The colds passed, and eventually we returned to Great Wolf Lodge to enjoy a full vacation. We still laugh, though, about our attempt at a “normal” vacation in the midst of Covid-19.
• 2020-12

  Hawaii - December 2020

  In March of 2020 my family and I were supposed to go to Hawaii for our spring break. When I was at work around St. Patrick's day, the school administration announced that all sports were postponed because of covid-19. A couple of days later I found out that we would be moving to virtual learning until spring break. During this time I remained hopeful that we would be back in the classroom after the break and that I would still be able to visit Hawaii. As the weeks went on it became clear that this was not the case. Eventually we moved to permanent virtual learning and the airlines canceled and refunded my ticket for Hawaii. As 2020 continued on I became more and more frustrated over the impact of covid, especially as what seemed like 3 weeks at home, turned in to several months without travel and in person interaction. In December of 2020, after completing a semester of half virtual, half in person learning I was in need of a break and a change of scenery. On Christmas my family and I found really cheap flights to Hawaii, however these flights were leaving the next day. Since I was a teacher on Christmas Break I had the time off, the only issue was that we needed to get a negative covid test before landing in Maui. We quickly booked the flights and scrambled to find a place we could get a covid test. In order to get off of the plane in Hawaii we needed to take a covid test 12 hours before arrival and our results needed to be negative. We did not have enough time before our flight to have a test shipped to our house nor did we have enough time to wait 2-3 days for results. Luckily we found a place 45 minutes from where we lived that had an opening for four rapid tests. After acquiring our test, 18 hours before our flight we eagerly awaited the results. All four of us had a negative test and we were able to board our flight to Hawaii. When we landed in Hawaii, in order to get off of the plane we had to show our negative test results. If someone did not have test results they had to remain on the plane and wait for it to return to the mainland. After showing our tests, we had our temperatures taken again and and our visit, including our accommodations, had to registered. The remainder of our trip to Hawaii was relaxing. Although it was weird to walk on the beach with a mask and sit far away from other guests, it was nice to get away. While we were in Hawaii I remember talking to a waitress we had that explained that from March to July residents were not allowed to enjoy the beaches. She described how lonely and isolated she felt stuck in her small apartment by herself. Even though it was difficult to get to Hawaii during covid, we needed a getaway and the hospitality workers in Hawaii were glad to see things slowly picking up again.
• 
  2021-06-09

  Professor Vanlife

  In the summer of 2021, I accepted an adjunct job at a college back East. Rather than spend half the salary on rent and in order to socially distance from others, I fixed up a Toyota Sienna minivan so I could live in it for the summer. This was the first trip I had taken since the late winter of 2020. On the drive out from California, I stopped to climb a mountain in Wyoming and had the trail to the summit mostly to myself. Here's what I wrote about it on Facebook: "View of Laramie Peak (elev. 10,275) in present day Wyoming, an important landmark on the Oregon Trail. For those emigrants not from Appalachia or northern New England, it was the first really big mountain they’d ever seen and it loomed in front of them for several days as they approached it from the plains. Mark Twain passed by here in 1861 and recollected later, speaking about the mountain in the third person: 'Looming vast and solitary -- a deep, dark, rich indigo blue in hue, so portentously did the old colossus frown under his beetling brows of storm-cloud. He was thirty or forty miles away, in reality, but he only seemed removed a little beyond the low ridge at our right.'"
• 
  2021-04-08T09:16

  6 feet apart

  This was the first time I had physically gone back to the doctors since the pandemic. At this point in time, virtual or phone visits were the option available to seek help for the minor things. Unsure of the official protocols, as it felt like the world was stuck between going back to what was once normal and isolation - I sat next to my son, who was five at the time, like normal. He stared at me for a moment, scooted away and said, "Mom, you have to stay 6 feet apart." As I went to go sit by myself in a chair, I snapped this photo of him looking out the window. It was the first time I ever truly felt that things would never go back to normal.
• 2023-01-22

  COVID Restrictions and Visiting Mom.

  My mother has special needs and since 2014, lived in a townhome with three roommates, facilitated by Penn Foundation, a behavioral healthcare provider. I lived only 10 minutes away, and once a week I would visit her on my days off. I would bring fast food or pizza and we would watch movies together in her room. When the pandemic began, Penn Foundation - like most other healthcare facilities - imposed tight restrictions for the safety of those under their care. As a result, I was unable to visit my mother for half a year, and after restrictions were loosened, our visits were relegated to sitting on her front porch eating and talking. Due to a deterioration in her condition, she was moved to a nursing facility. We never got to have another movie day. The pandemic had changed the way I visit my mother forever.
• 2020-07-13

  The Last Man on Earth

  I run almost every day. During the summer of 2020, I was undergoing prostate salvage radiation therapy. Radiation therapy is sometimes proscribed after one has their prostate removed. I ran no less during the prostate radiation therapy. I've always eaten healthy food. Still, I drank water more regularly during radiation therapy. Driving from my home to the Anderson Cancer Center was an enjoyable experience, mostly because the freeway was so deserted–there were almost no cars on the road. I live in uptown San Diego, so my long runs take me through downtown San Diego. Before each run, I spend a few minutes practicing martial arts. I imagine the neighbors watching me thought I was having some kind of fit. After warming up with martial arts, I start my run. The first place my run takes me is through the Hillcrest community, usually a place with the lively hustle and bustle of people moving about, but on this day, Hillcrest was deserted. Most restaurants were closed, and a few people were milling about–Hillcrest was a ghost town. It reminded me of the town portrayed in the 1973 film High Plains Drifter. Folks were hiding, hiding from COVID by hiding from each other. From Hillcrest, my run took me through downtown San Diego where the streets were equally deserted. The deserted streets reminded me of running through another movie, the 1964 film, The Last Man on Earth. I imagined inhuman monsters were preparing to spread COVID that would spring into action without warning. Of course, all this fantasizing made my daily run even more fun and pleasurable. I could let my imagination wander momentarily, then return to the peaceful meditation of running through deserted streets. The COVID protocols made possible the escape from the COVID reality itself. I'm convinced the long runs played a vital role in mitigating the effects of radiation therapy.
• 2020-03

  Zoom, Kraft Mac & Cheese, and Avatar the Last Airbender

  These three things basically sum up how I spent my days during the lockdown of the pandemic. I would go on Zoom for class, would typically make some Kraft mac & cheese for lunch or dinner, and would binge watch Avatar the Last Airbender on Netflix. Sometimes I did a combination of both; I remember eating mac & cheese and playing hangman with my friends on Zoom. These are three things that I associate with quarantine.
• 
  2021-12

  Plastic Dividers

  The plastic dividers were and are an integral part of COVID. My high school's cafeteria had them and it made it hard to hear my friends when we were conversing. Like this TikTok post I saw awhile ago, it reminded me of how it separated me from the customers at my job around a year ago. The dividers were made to keep people safer from COVID-19 even when at a close distance from each other. However, one time when I was at work, the sliding doors to the entrance were open, and it was so windy outside one day that the wind blew the plastic divider onto my back when I was turned around bagging an item for a customer. I have a personal grudge against those things now.
• 
  2021-09

  Rising Profits

  HIST30060: This is a screenshot of a whatsapp group chat for the workplace I was in during the sixth COVID lockdown in Melbourne. Despite restrictions being at its highest at this point, the profits for my workplace broke new records this week, similar as to how other major companies raked in major profits during the lockdown era. I remember working that Wednesday night, me and the few coworkers I was with were inundated mostly by online delivery orders but there was still a steady stream of customers coming in (quite often without masks) to order in person. There was little reward for our efforts, but at the very least I was afforded some peace and quiet on the commute home with the lockdowns in place.
• 
  2021-10-20

  Picnic in Royal Park

  This was a more joyful moment from lockdown. For long periods of Melbourne's lockdown a picnic in the park was the only way to catch up with friends. It became a very popular activity for my friends and lots of other people in Melbourne. Every evening when the weather was good the parks would be full of groups.
• 
  2020-12-01

  Carpark Run

  To return to New Zealand in late 2020 I had to complete 14 days of hotel quarantine. Luckily, my hotel had a fenced off area of the carpark that we were able to use for exercise for an hour each day. This strava activity shows a run I did around the very small carpark (one of six during the two weeks), which involved running in my mask and staying a few meters from the other people in the space. Without these bursts of activity, two weeks in a hotel room would have been much less bearable.