Items

• 2020-08-10

  Saying Goodbye during the pandemic

  During the pandemic my grandmother acquired the virus and desperately needed medical attention but the Healthcare system in a third world country such as Peru was saturated. she had to wait outside the hospital in a temporary medical tent. my grandmother passed away two weeks from her diagnosis. many other families experienced the same situation. this story is very important to me in order to spread awareness of what can happen if a country's health system is not equipped with the necessary tools to handle such terrible events like the pandemic.
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  2020-08-10

  Working hard on Covid

  A comic strip about Covid-19
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  2020-08-10

  Smelling the labor shortage

  Trash stinks. This fact is universally recognized, except, maybe, by raccoons and the like. Nobody likes to have trash around, let alone piled up and overflowing. And that's not something that most people have to really worry about. The – at least relative – cleanliness of the streets is taken for granted by the vast majority of people who are privileged enough to enjoy regular cleanup services. For most of my life, I placed my trash in a bag in a bin in my kitchen until it was full, or, if I made chicken for dinner, until I was done cooking. Then I took the bag out of the bin and out to the larger bin outside – out of sight, out of mind. When Sunday night rolled around, I emptied the kitchen bin one final time, took it out, and wheeled the larger bin to the sidewalk. It was empty when I woke up on Monday and thus began the cycle again. The city's sanitation workers faithfully took care of mine and everyone else's trash before the crack of dawn. But something changed one Monday morning in August 2020. I pulled in the driveway at 3:30pm after having just finished an exhausting shift at a coffee shop, where a third of my coworkers had called out sick over the course of that week. As I always do, I walked over to the bin, grabbed the handle, and started wheeling it back to its usual place by the back yard gate. It felt heavy. It wasn't full; I usually don't produce enough trash to fill it up every week. "Was today a holiday?", I thought to myself. No, it was just a regular Monday – as regular as any day could be post-March 2020. Maybe they were just behind schedule. I kept walking back to the back yard gate and. as usual, I spun the bin around intending to just walk away. Being clumsy, I managed to set it off its balance and knocked it over. Trash spilled onto the ground and one of the bags broke open. The smell of rotting eggshells, an old hunk of cheese I found while cleaning out my refrigerator three days prior, and the, er, soiled, cat litter wafted upwards creating a smoldering cocktail of aromas that left me coughing. I got gloves and a mask (something I never would have owned six months back) and cleaned it up – no big deal. Tuesday came and still there was no sign of the sanitation workers. Sunday arrived and again I wheeled the bin to the road; this time it was so full that the lid would not fully close. I assumed that last week's interruption of service was a one-off. As I got home from work Monday and saw the bin still full, I realized the degree to which I had been taking the trash service for granted. I wheeled it back to the gate, went inside, and opened up the news app on my computer. I stumbled across an article about the disproportionate affects of COVID-19 on essential workers. The lack of service was not a one-off, it was a problem. Recent photos of streets littered with trash and overflowing bins abounded when I did a Google search for them. I went outside to go for a walk. That smell – the cocktail of cheese, eggs, and cat litter – was now at my front door. Similar cocktails emanated from each house I walked past, each with their own garnish, so to speak. It was overpowering. It was the first time I had experienced the result of our modality of living in such a visceral, sensory way. But beyond my own discomfort and beyond the discomfort of my neighbors' similar experiences, that overpowering stench that saturated the air made me conscious of the people who clean it up for me every week. It made me conscious of the degree to which we as a society depend of them and people who perform other services we take for granted. It highlighted, in a very stark way, what our society prioritizes above the health of its people. The sanitation workers don't make very much money. They have to go to work, even if they are sick, because lack of guaranteed sick time even in the midst of a raging pandemic puts their lives at risk. Either way, their lives are at risk.
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  2020-08-10

  HIST30060: 5G Conspiracy

  (HIST30060) This photo is of a drawing by one of my housemates of part of a postcard that we received during the first lockdown in 2020. Conspiracy theories surrounding the virus and 5G had just begun to spread during Melbourne's first lockdown, yet my housemates and I felt quite removed from this phenomenon as our social circle mainly consisted of other young, progressive students who were very against these sorts of theories. Receiving this postcard in the mail however, was quite a shock, knowing that people close to us in our area of Melbourne shared these beliefs. Whilst we initially found the image of a man with a hole cut out of his mask humorous, hence the drawing, we were also astounded at the intensity of the covid-scam propaganda. This also marked my first taste of the bitter divide that was to come between pro and anti vaxxers in 2021.
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  2020-08-10

  Seeing the Shades

  It is human nature to ignore somethings over others through the application of selective attention. According to human psychology, we tend to focus on information that we think matters more while ignoring the presumed irrelevant details. The same applies to colors. They are flamboyant, bringing out the best, most salient parts of objects. However, they are merely as alluring without the shades, the easily ignored parts that make objects pop. If you were to ask me before the pandemic COVID-19, what the utensil that produces shades means to me, I’d probably tell you schoolwork. It means working on an assignment in Spanish class, drafting an artwork for art class. It’s something that blends into my life, something so easily accessible that I had ignored. COVID-19 inspired me to expand my selective attention, giving me an opportunity to deal with my personal crisis. It allowed me to realize the importance of shades. Pencils are typical. They have long and narrow bodies, a burgundy pinkish eraser on the top, and a greyish carbon tip. It’s everywhere, in school, stores, houses…So obtainable that people tend to disregard its essentiality. Before the COVID crisis, I use a pencil mostly under instructions: “use a pencil to darken circles for this section”, “please use a pencil to do the annotations”, “always draft your artwork with a pencil”. It had been an object that I associate with obligations and restraints. I enjoy socializing and being in crowded locations. Deep down, I know that spending time with others provides me an excuse to not face “me”. Being accompanied by technology since my early childhood, it’s easy to feel lost and hollow when I’m idling around; when I’m truly alone with myself. I didn’t like being with myself because I know I would overthink. So, I used to go out whenever I could. It is a personal crisis that I have avoided and procrastinated on fixing. Coincidentally, the pandemic happened, and I was forced to quarantine in my house, with me. As a member of Generation Z, I spent most of the first two months immersed in technology: Tik Tok, Instagram, and YouTube. I used all my time absorbing useless information online, to fill the emptiness I feel from lack of social stimuli. Until one day when I was spacing out at my desk, thinking which information dump to go to next, I noticed my pencil lying on the table. I picked it up, with nothing in mind, I started scribbling on a piece of paper. The products are in all forms, intersecting with each other but not showing any outline of specific objects. They are abstracts piled together. It struck me as I realized the freeing side of pencil. When you press it on to the paper lightly, the shade that comes out is lighter, and vice versa. I understood that I have control over the pencil and over what I want to do. Not some structured art assignment that tells me to have a meaning in my artwork, to go with the norms of art. It’s a language of my own. When I see the overcrowded lines, I feel the noisiness; when I see spaced lines, I feel the indifference and coldness. That day, I spent the entire afternoon scribbling and looking at lines and shapes that I had created with a pencil. A language is forming. Being focused on my “language”, I registered my change as I started tuning out my anxious and overthinking self. I am feeling the present, because every single line, is controlled by me. I need to stay focused on expressing my feelings through lines. One might ask why I wouldn’t write journals instead, that way I can articulate my feelings more intentionally. But writing is restrained, you have grammatical and spelling structures to follow. There are so many rules to adhere to in order to let the future you look back and be able to understand what the present you are trying to say. That’s exhausting. I started to use pencil to scribble every day before I go to bed. It’s refreshing, almost like a personal space where I express all my feelings that I’ve experienced in the day. Through utilizing my pencil, I can appreciate the beauty in gradient of shades, the beauty of my consciousness. I consider penciling the medium that allows me to connect with myself and be more aware of my thoughts and feelings. Even though pencil can only produce monochromatic colors, they mean color to me. It is my form of communication with myself. I’ve been out with my friends several times after quarantine. But now, I no longer feel the constant need to be accompanied by someone to be distracted from my thoughts. I’ve learned how to respect my personal space and alone time. A clear line between my “me time” and my socializing times is established. This change for me is immaculate as I change the lens I use to see the world in, but this time, with more self-consciousness with it. Pencil helped me comprehend the importance of self-acceptance and appreciation of the unnoticeable things in life. It made me more conscious of my surrounding as I continuously try to seek things that I’ve taken for granted or have ignored. It freed me from my personal crisis, giving color to my world through shades.
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  2020-08-10

  NCAA Football May Be back

  During the reopening phase, many schools were deciding on if there would be a college football season, after many of the professional sports seemed to be ok in starting. Baseball started out with a few games that were cancelled but would travel, and test players. The NBA had figured a way to play in a “bubble” where the players would stay on Disney resort and play each other and be regularly tested. But the NCAA had yet to figure out it’s procedure for College Football. Trevor Lawrence the star QB at Clemson wanted to play and let his voice, as well as other be known that they hoped to have the chance to have a season, and through playing many of these players would have a better chance of avoiding COVID-19 at school versus where they would normally be if no football or school happened.
• 2020-08-10

  The Boys

  Over the beginning of the pandemic, many people were feeling bored and hopeless and felt like there was not much meaning to anything anymore. Then when we realized the pandemic was not serious I was asked to hang out with a few of my closest friends and a few I didn't know as well. The feeling of having such a great time just being normal and hanging out with good people in the pandemic just made me happy and feel warm inside. The feeling of true laughter and joy, which I haven't felt for a while meant the world to me. We hung out all summer with Us 10 or 11 almost every day and I believe it helped all of us through the pandemic and made our lives better and hopefully created some lifetime bonds that we won't lose. Just the feeling of being a part of something and something that made you happy during the pandemic is the best feeling you can create.
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  2020-08-10

  Staying Active during Quarantine

  This photograph shows how different the time is compared to before the pandemic. I used to go to a gym called Orange Theory a few times a week to do HIIT workouts, however during quarantine they were closed and I had to find a way to still stay fit while not being able to actually go to the gym. I ordered some dumbbells and resistance bands on Amazon and would set up a space outside to do my workouts after running outside. It was different for me because I like having a coach present to give me workouts to do and to push me harder so it took some adjusting. Overall, this picture represents quarantine because it shows how we much adapt in order to keep going with our daily routines.
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  2020-08-10

  Reflection

  It's a flip side and it is important because it highlights one of my main transitions
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  2020-08-10

  Music That Got Me Through Quarantine

  Music is something that has always helped me. But music has helped me the most with getting through this pandemic. It allowed me to just escape to a whole new world. This playlist in particular has many uplifting songs and very few down songs. I want more uplifting music because we need more positivity at a time like this. I hope my playlist can give others a positive vibe and good feeling.
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  2020-08-10

  The life of a HCW testing positive for coronavirus

  I wrote this article for my internship and I've always wanted to see it published given that it gives us a perspective of a health care worker that became a patient for coronavirus. In the months that the Philippines has been on lockdown and cases continue to rise up, it's very telling that those who are vulnerable to the virus still aren't secured and compensated for the work they have done so far.
• 2020-08-10

  Going in Blind

  Throughout this pandemic, one of the hardest hit groups of people in terms of how much the community wide lock down halted life for the time being, were high school seniors. This picture was taken as a replacement for what prom photos would have been in May. While this might come off as a shallow thing to place importance on, these prom photos we took mean more than just trying to reclaim the high school experience. Of the girls in this photo, four of us are now college freshmen. In our last few weeks together we took every opportunity to get together for lunches, dinner, or drive in movies, things that we took for granted pre-covid. As a result, the pandemic has ingrained in me a very important principle to have: live as presently as you can. I can honestly say that my best friends and I are closer than we ever could have been had our high school experiences not been put on pause for six months. I appreciate their company more, and I believe wholeheartedly that our experiences apart, and subsequently together, have strengthened our bond for good.
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  2020-08-10

  Wildfires in California and Unprepared Care Homes

  Emergency preparedness for California after care homes is lacking in the face of increasingly devastating wildfires, causing pain, trauma, and loss of life for the state's elderly citizens.
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  2020-08-10

  The Working Artist Needs Your Solidarity

  An item curated for the Performing Arts collection to highlight the plight of the American theatre professional. "It’s looking more and more likely that, barring an incredible about-face like a spectacularly successful vaccine or a powerful and immediate treatment option, a majority of U.S. theaters won’t survive the pandemic. This includes theaters that were financially flourishing in the Before Times, like Mercury Theater Chicago. And along with these institutions, a majority of theatremakers — not just actors or directors, but costumers, musicians, composers, wig masters, props masters, designers, electricians, stage hands, carpenters, stage managers, company managers, house managers, administrators, wardrobe crew, production assistants, ticket sellers, concessions vendors, marketing directors, photographers, choreographers, venue staff — will not be able to wait this out."
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  2020-08-10

  Florida inmate, prison worker COVID-19 cases soar

  This article highlights the amazing speed at which Covid-19 spreads through the nation's correctional facilities. Over twelve thousand incarcerated people have the virus, of which sixty five have died. As an example of how quickly the virus spreads the article sites the Taylor Correctional Institute going from 25 cases on August 1st to 564 on August 10th. To date over seventy-three thousand tests have been conducted in the states correctional facilities.
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  2020-08-10

  Defacto Death Sentence

  This Tweet shows that 22% of those that have died of Covid in Florida correctional facilities were eligible for parole. Early release for people convicted of nonviolent crimes has been a topic of discussion since the virus first struck the US back in March. The theory is releasing some people early will help make it possible for those still incarcerated to be able to social distance. Others point to the fact that incarceration and covid should not lead to a defacto death sentence.
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  2020-08-10

  San Francisco Announces All Phone Calls From County Jails Are Now Free

  San Francisco has stepped out to lead the nation in criminal justice reform by cutting the cost of phone calls and commissary items from its jails. They cite the change as especially necessary during the Covid pandemic.
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  2020-08-10

  Tweet Changes Headline

  Language is changing to be more people focused. This has happened in several arenas including incarceration. Instead of calling people inmates, prisoners, or convicts there is a movement to change the language to a people first option such as incarcerated person. One activist, Adnan Khan, of Restore Justice, a California based nonprofit seeking to change the criminal justice system, saw his Tweet about people first language cause the Los Angeles Times to change their headline.
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  2020-08-10

  Correctional Sergeant Dies from Covid Complications

  This Tweet expresses the lack of concern for the incarcerated people dying from Covid 19. California Governor Gavin Newsom expresses his sympathy for the family and friends of one of the correctional facility staff who recently passed from complications due to Covid-19 but he does not mention the many people incarcerated in these facilities who have also died from Covid-19.
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  2020-08-10

  COVID-19 Share Your Story

  COVID-19 has definitely made a huge change to my everyday routine. Before this all hit Arizona, my weekly schedule was gym in the morning, and depending on the day i would go to work in the afternoon and then do some homework before bed. On my days off from work I would go to school in the afternoon and usually do homework after. I would usually only have free time on Sunday's. This hasn't really affected my schedule negatively, but has definitely changed the origin of where I do things and has limited my abilities to do a lot of things as well. I now work out from home and had to purchase equipment and do not have access to anywhere close to the amount of equipment or weight that I normally have access to at the gyms, but have to make it work with what I have. I also have had to work from home, which is the same schedule I was on before and it definitely took a little bit of getting used to since I have roommates, but I made it work and I'm very fortunate to have a reliable job during these times. Most of my classes I take are online, so that won't have a very big impact on me other than if I ever have to go to campus, which I haven't had to yet. This has also had a huge impact on my relationship with my family. I went from seeing them once every 1-2 weeks to never seeing them because of me being a risk. My grandparents are very old and I haven't been able to see them since March. It is definitely tough for me, but i try to call them everyday to stay in touch with them as much as I can! Overall, I don't thing this whole COVID situation has impacted me as much as a lot of others and I and lucky to be in the situation I am in.
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  2020-08-10

  Powering your immune system

  After much investigation about COVID-19 I have realized that your health and wellbeing have more importance than anything else, especially wealth. I have embarked on this "getting healthy" journey, and eating a more balanced diet with lots of fruits and vegetables and cutting processed foods has helped me deal with stress and given me strength to continue and cope with the new normal. The media should be encouraging people to eat a healthy balanced diet and exercise, if this were the case; the mortality rate would be much lower. Healthy people don't get as sick. Let's all get on the good health boat and remember that together we can fight this. Get your health back, be metabolically healthy and COVID-19 will be yesterday's news faster.
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  2020-08-10

  Three questions for religions and Individuals of the World in 2020

  Within my contribution to the Covid-19 Archives project, I wanted to reflect on how my beliefs have changed over the year of 2020. In best coming up with where my thinking has been, I developed a few xelect questions which could be asked, or answered by anyone in contemporary settings and are highly relevant to any life, spiritual or secular. I will reflect on insights I have internalized from both secular and religious texts. It is my underline perception that all religions strive towards a union with a divine principle, In this way they are all equal. As famously spoken by Swami Vivekananda “We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true.” So long as a heart has a desire for God; In whichever form the seeker finds. The desire of man is grand, and will not stop on this side of infinity. Therefore, so long as the desire of an individual is to expand one's own awareness to ever greater extents, one will always be prepared for a wider more complex existence. How does your faith address the issue of ‘evil’, ‘suffering’, or ‘sin’ within the world? This question is a common contention of every faith, particularly with wide evidence of natural disasters and illnesses, culminating in widespread suffering within the human and animal world. As many ideas have been put forward through faiths and philosophies, many such explanations leave much to be desired. For instance; theories such as character building or developmental and growth theories. Ideas that God is ‘testing us’, or preparing us for something in the future. Such answers are unsatisfactory in that a God deemed as all loving would not Inflict suffering. Similarly freewill is given, or a deviation from moral principle. Yet the same question arises. What suffering is experienced because of ‘freewill’. To give a lit match to a child is dangerous because they do not know the burn of the fire. In a similar fashion, ideas which argue the fault of man do not give justice to the hardships of life in any given society. It is my belief, similar to what might be seen in non-dual Vedanta, that issues of suffering facing the world are a result of ignorance. That an individual, as a single focal point of reference is never isolated, yet rather synonymous with the whole of conscious awareness. What does your belief have to say of the relationship between the individual and the world? I am a centre of Thy golden light And I its vast and vague circumference, Thou art my soul great, luminous and white And Thine my mind and will and glowing sense. Thy spirit’s infinite breath I feel in me; My life is a throb of Thy eternity. - Sri Aurobindo Personally, this is one of my favorite short poem reflections by Aurobindo. It is my understanding that I am not alien to this world, yet rather emerge into it. As a tree produces a ripe fruit, the planet has produced the human brain as the most ‘conscious fruit’. I appreciate the idea that we are to be shepherds of the earth and do right by the planet, as it is no different than us, and will be the ingredients of future generations. What do your teachings define as a moral and ethical life? I believe in the concept of doing unto others as we would have done to yourself, or the idea of doing right by one's neighbor just the same as one's enemy. It is because I know that who I define as an enemy defines myself. Rather, the Idea for me is to dissolve conceptions of enemies or friends alike. That all may have the opportunity to be admired with fresh eyes as pure and worthy of love and respect. Once the obsession of noticing the wrongs of others has been observed, we may slowly begin perceiving our own wrongdoings. Thank you for all and any who took the time to read over this! I hope you too felt compelled to consider such questions. This year has left all with tremendous insight.
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  2020-08-10

  "Recalibration"

  I wasn't quite sure what to do at first, and it was almost like I'd forgotten how much I loved writing. How I love the way I dress up words and the cathartic experience of just letting what is in your brain be seen. Having a guest for the mental dialogue makes me feel seen.
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  2020-08-10

  The New Normal

  I uploaded pictures as to how the COVI19 has impacted my everyday life. The first picture shows me working out of my room because we are all working from home now and this is the quietest place in my home. I basically do everything from my room now, sleep, work and eat, it really doesn’t feel like my sanctuary anymore. The second picture is with me and my children around the kitchen table. I feel like I am losing my sanity because I now play many different roles such as: teacher, employee, student and mother. It is hard for me to hold everything together nowadays but there is no other option. This is the new normal and we are trying to get better acquainted to it. I included a picture of my children waving to their great grandmother from our truck. In the beginning of COVID19 my children were not able to see their great grandmother because no one knew who may have the virus. We had to quarantine ourselves for about a month before my children were able to see their great grandmother. Me and my children are more appreciative of my grandmother now. We really did not pay attention to how much she meant to us until we weren't able to see her whenever we wanted to. The COVID19 pandemic has taught me to appreciate the things that I hold close to me like my family, friends, health and my job. I am very fortunate that no one near me has been infected with the virus and we are all healthy. I am very fortunate that I am able to work from home, still have my job and a roof over my head. My family is getting used to the new normal and everyday it does get easier. I just hope I still have my hair and my sanity by the end of this pandemic.
• 2020-08-10

  Challenges accessing unemployment

  I was unable to work starting on March 17th 2020 and it took me until the end of June to receive my first unemployment check. I did not receive back pay and then not too long afterwards to Federal Government unemployment benefits ended. It was almost a full time job trying to apply for benefits and/or checking the status. I live in California.
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  2020-08-10

  Paste up street art, Ballarat

  The pandemic has inspired a lot of creativity including street art. This example on a mail distribution box was spotted while walking in the local neighbourhood (walking being another popular pandemic past time). The design has a virus symbol together with a rat. ("The rat" is a colloquial term for Ballarat).
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  2020-08-10

  The nature got some rest.

  We have all heard the phrase "a pictures tells a thousand words". This is a picture of a park I visit in Jersey City, NJ, USA every day in the evening. When the pandemic began the parks were shut down due to the geographical location of Jersey City, NJ so close to New York City, NY, being the city with the most cases in the US. Slowly but surely NYC started going into the reopening phases. This photograph was taken in phase 2 of reopening. People can be seen coming back out to enjoy the sun. But, the most intriguing part of the picture is how nature has had a chance to recuperate from human impact. I am a 3rd year medical student, was doing clinical rotations, when the COVID-19 pandemic closed down the whole world. I was forced to be confined to my home. I could not just sit by while all healthcare workers were being overworked with little to no sleep at all. 3 weeks into the lockdown I decided to use my acquired knowledge and get a job as a medical assistant/Scribe. I wanted to contribute anything and everything I could to save lives. After saving my first paycheck and receiving my second check, I decided to spend it all $798.00 on buying masks and gloves from wholesalers. Because of shortages of these supplies was so critical to all essential workers. I was able to donate the supplies to hospitals, clinics, religious institutions and homeless people (that are forgotten through these times). When I started going back to the park for my evening runs, I had to take a photograph of how beautiful the nature is and how we take it for granted on a daily basis. I am still working at my job and still donating all my earnings towards supplies that I can buy so we can all stop the spread of the virus, and come back out of our homes to really enjoy the nature that we had taken for granted in the past.
• 2020-08-10

  Finding Out My Grandfather Has Terminal Cancer in the COVID-19 Pandemic

  In the midst of an already chaotic season, my family and I received news that my grandfather has colon cancer. It started with the doctors first finding multiple masses on his colon as well as his liver. As time passed, multiple tests, scans, etc. were done and the results came back as cancerous. When we got the phone call that it was incurable, all I wanted to do was drop everything and go see him but then I remembered.. We are in the middle of a pandemic. So then the anxious thoughts started to creep in of whether or not I would have a chance to see him before he dies. My grandfather lives in Texas, while my husband and I live just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. We had a trip scheduled toward the beginning of the summer and had already pushed back so I didn't want to reschedule this trip once more knowing it could be the last time I see him. Coming to a conclusion was very challenging. We changed our minds back and forth multiple times and almost didn't go. However, my husband and I were able to pack up a week's worth of clothing and technology (I am a full time student at the moment) and we drove down to Texas. We were given the opportunity to see my grandfather at my grandparents house while we wore masks. Overall, the trip was great. My husband and I were grateful for the chance to see my family, especially my grandfather. While the decision of if we should see him or not was a difficult one that took a lot of thought and guidance, I am glad we went in the end.
• 2020-08-10

  Children in a pandemic

  Children and the pandemic. My four year old daughter does not understand what a pandemic is. She repeats that she cannot go outside or to school or to the park because of "the coronavirus". Her and her siblings, along with children all over the world, have been greatly impacted by this pandemic with no understanding of the ramifications of it's spread. Children have been sent home, isolated, many removed from space places like schools or after care programs. They have lost friendships and socialization. They have lost structure. Some have lost family members. Parents out of work have cost their family food or housing. Adults struggling to cope with their own depression and anxiety has increased children's as well. For me personally all seven of my children have been affected. My son was forced to move home from college and fell into a deep depression. My oldest daughter never walked across a graduation stage or finished her senior year. My fifteen year old with autism lost support services from school. My thirteen year old lost sports and his friendships. My ten year old with epilepsy had medical testing pushed back and then had hospitalizations with only one parent allowed, even had to be taken by paramedics alone to the hospital once. My seven year old with ADHD lost all class structure and intervention programs to help him and his anxiety and panic attacks have grown more severe. And my four year old, pictured above, lost her classroom and her joy from attending preschool daily. The new round of "return to school" virtually is brought with more anxiety and worry that the kids are not alright. The picture above showcases the innocence of a child wanting to explore the world, trapped inside and the slight sadness that this may be for the long haul.
• 2020-08-10

  Essential worker and a baby

  In the beginning of the pandemic I was 7 months pregnant and working in an ICU. As things starting getting worse more changes would come on how we operated day to day. Day to day became hour to hour, things would be changing. New policies, then new policies would change. I was also becoming concerned about how the rest of my pregnancy and delivery would be. When the policy came down that all hospital personnel had to wear a mask at all times I started to have a problem. Due to wearing a mask and being pregnant my gag reflex would be triggered and I would get sick. After trying to work for 3 days my only option was to take early maternity leave. So while I was not at work for most of the worst part of the first wave of the pandemic it was still a little unnerving. I stayed in contact with my coworkers and stayed up to date on my unit and the hospital policies. It was not only going to affect my job but also the rest of my pregnancy and delivery. On my last doctors appointment I was sent to labor and delivery to have my baby. I was nervous because honestly who wants to bring a life into a world of pandemic. I feared for the health of my newborn child. Upon admission you have to be tested for Covid-19, it was very uncomfortable! I was lucky to be able to have my fiancé there with me for the labor and delivery but once he left the hospital he was not able to return but only to pick me up from the door. Granted, this was my 4th child and I knew what to expect, it still was sad that he was not able to spend the entire time with me nor were my other children able to come and visit. At least I was able to have previous experiences of giving birth before the pandemic. After giving birth, we were pretty sheltered. No one visited. We never left the house unless absolutely necessary. My newborn son had only left the house to go to the doctor before this past week. I had to return to work so he is now attending a small daycare along with my 2 year old daughter. Their father and I are both essential workers. Having children during this time makes things so much more complicated. Can't take the kids to the store or to any appointments so trying to organize schedules is very complicated. I miss going out as a family. Before the pandemic my family and I would go every where together. Even if it was just the store. We loved just to spend that time together. Now I feel like we are never all together unless we are sleeping, then we are all home together. I pray for the day that we are all able to go out together, take kids to do activities and just spend time all together outside of the home. This pandemic has made me and I am sure many others realize how truly blessed we were and if at any point in our lives things get back to where they were before the pandemic to not take such things as going out as a family for granted.
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  2020-08-10

  Working During the Pandemic

  When the whole pandemic was starting, I was currently unemployed but my store manager at Starbucks kept us posted daily on whether we will be able to serve customers again. It was always an on and off conversation because our store manager had to get the approval of many people above her on whether it will be safe to work in the area of Springfield since cases for Covd-19 was increasing by the minute. As the store opened back in May, I was able to work again but with many health restrictions between I and the customers. In the picture provided, we were not able to use our computers and machines to process payments, which dramatically dropped sales because our only means of store sales were through mobile ordering. My team were still to be determined on whether we will stay open since sales were so low and also only limited amount of parters were willing to work, due to the concern of their health. Yes I worked more hours but the anxiety of whether I will get catch the disease and also the stress of whether our store will close again really affected how I saw hope for my financial strugggles. Fast foward to current day, Virginia names stores like Starbucks an essential for everyday, which allowed our store to open to customers but with six feet restrictions, mandatory masks, and as well as checking partner temperatures daily. The tasks due everyday is a heavly load of sanitation, which in the beginning was hard to handle because we also had to serve the customers at high volumes. Covid-19 has affected not only my passion to work at the store but as well as the partners since at any moment of time we can close and become unemployed again.
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  2020-08-10

  The COVID Chronicles

  This is a piece of word cloud art where I fed in every major word I used in every major conversation I've had with friends and family. This truly captures what life is like in the United States in 2020.
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  2020-08-10

  Corona and Coffee

  I'm a barista at Starbucks coffee company. It's been a disturbing and fascinating few months, to say the least, and like most, I've experienced some significant changes to my work and personal life. Most notably, my job is now my bubble. When the quarantine orders went out in Oregon, Starbucks kept going. I had two weeks of mandatory self-isolation after one of my work crew came into possible contact with COVID early in the pandemic. Otherwise, I've been working more than ever before. Interacting with the public makes me constantly on edge. But the coffee industry seems to have been deemed "essential," and my team and I are kept busy supporting the public's caffeine addiction through the global madness that has been 2020. Because of my hundreds of interactions with strangers daily, I've cut off almost all contact with my friends and family outside of work. The risks of my coming into contact with the virus are high, especially when not all of our customers feel inclined to comply with COVID-19 regulations. I'm happy to have my job and not have experienced the economic uncertainty that so many have dealt with in recent months. Despite the loneliness of feeling removed from my family and friends, this pandemic has brought my work team closer together. We have all experienced the pandemic the same way and become a support system for each other for which I feel lucky.
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  2020-08-10

  A Tale of Two Masks

  Working During a Pandemic is Fun In late March both of my part time jobs closed down. I have two contrasting occupations. One is at a Worldwide cooperation. The other is a small, locally owned business. I’ve felt the effects of the pandemic most forcefully while at work. Before the pandemic, I was working 60 hours weeks to support myself and go to school. I did not go anywhere else but work and home. The bars, salons, and other recreational areas shutting down had little to no effect on my day to day life. This is a cross correlation of the similarities and differences of the issues I have run into while working through the pandemic. At the beginning of the shutdown, my corporate job surprised me with increased wages and benefits to help aid through the initial closings. At my corporate job I was considered an essential employee, but my particular store did not have a drive through. I was able to stay safe at home for four weeks while the company shipped in barriers and masks and other COVID equipment. My other occupation at the small business, as a swim instructor for children shut down immediately and opted to put their employees on furlough until we were allowed to open back up. Because I already worked one part time job, I did not receive much unemployment benefit. Through no fault of my own, my income was cut in half and my savings are, to this day, empty. Even with the temporary pay raise given to me by the corporate job, rent and my 3,000 dollar tuition made my expenditure even to my income. When I went back to work at my essential job, which was making coffee, there were a lot of new rules to keep up with and enforce on customers. On my first day back a lady threw a handful of rocks at our window because we did not allow her to sit down at the facility. Many, many more occasions like this happened on a daily basis. People were frustrated with the new rules and unclear on their necessity. Customers were not required to wear a mask in the facility until very recently. This was very frustrating. If only one part of the party is wearing a mask no one is protected. It felt useless to be wearing something that was only designated to make customers feel better without risking their own comfort. The pandemic started affecting Butte county at a dangerous level in May, but people were not required to wear masks in public until four months later. Around mid July is when the Governor issued a State wide mask regulation and we were finally allowed by the company to ask customers to comply. Even with the statewide mask regulation, and every single business requiring it, customers continue to yell, demean me and blatantly not follow the rule. Every time a customer comes in without a mask I get extremely anxious at how they are going to respond to me politely asking if they have one. My company is even allowing me to give our mask supply to customers without one, for free! Even when offered a free mask, I am turned down and shamed. On this occasion I have to politely reply that I can walk their beverage to them and they can wait outside the store without a mask. If even one person is not wearing a mask, they are spreading their germs and infecting the entire room. If they are contagious or asymptomatic, COVID droplets can live on clothes, and services for up to three hours. It can reach your eyes and infect you that way. If you go to the Doctors office you will see them wearing a mask and face shield for this very reason. My finance, whom I live with, is immunocompromised. He has had bronchitis twelve times in his 21 year lifetime. This is due to being exposed to mildew and mold in his formative years creating a deadly combination of asthma and a severe dust allergy. If he was to catch COVID-19, he would become fatally ill and possibly die. This thought is on the forefront of my mind everyday at work. I am becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of knowledge and leadership in the Trump Administration during the Pandemic. It is now 5 months since we first started practicing half hearted health regulations. We are at 1,500 American deaths a day. Our death to population ratio is shameful compared to other countries. We have mass graves being dug on an island in New York for the unnamed victims of COVID-19. This is affecting our prison populations, our urban and rural communities. No one is safe. We have very simple precautions to follow but the constant negation of the validity of these practices from our president has left most of the population under a false sense of security. I have begun to resent customers I once enjoyed chatting with, due to their constant apprehension of wearing a mask. My other job, as a swim instructor, opened up June 17, about three months after my job as a barista did. This came with the forced opening of the economy. Within the first two weeks of being open, three teachers had to be tested and put into a two week quarantine.However, due to constant sanitation and all employees wearing masks, the spread stopped there. At this job, masks are required or no service is given. All staff and teachers wear masks at all times, and the building and equipment is decontaminated every night. Even with this constant sanitation, you can’t control people’s personal lives. As time goes on people are becoming more restless. When the president claims he does not believe in masks, and holds rally not servicing personal distance or masks, the populace feels safe to socially fraternize. Many of my coworkers are holding small gatherings, drinking with acquaintances and risking contamination through ignorance. The customers of this job are a lot more understanding. We make it abundantly clear what is required of them and we will not give them service otherwise. These clear boundaries, ultimately, are what ensure proper cooperation. We called every single client personally before we reopened and confirmed the new rules. We sent out emails, we have signs posted and every employee is specially trained on how to facilitate the new rules. I believe these regulations reflect how the populace responds to strong leadership. If we had clear rules from the beginning, with strict boundaries, would this second wave of infection have spread?
• 2020-08-10

  How COVID-19 Affected Me in 2020

  2020 started off just like any other year. I was gearing up for my last on campus semester and continuing my job search for when I graduated. This was the year that I told myself that everything was going to fall into place. This was going to be the year that I found an apartment by myself, bought myself a new car, find my career, and get financially stable. Then i started hearing about the Coronavirus across seas, and I did not think much of it. I did not think that it would result in me being unemployed at age 22 and as a recent (almost) college graduate. However, I think the pandemic is almost what I needed, and what a lot of people needed. All throughout college I was working one if not two jobs while going to school full-time. It was stressful and overwhelming most of the time. I had bills to pay and ambitions to fill. In March of 2020, I secured a job within the hospitality industry, thinking this was something I would be truly happy doing. About a week later, I was furloughed from that job and my serving job due to COVID-19. I took this time to focus on my studies and finish up the semester. That first week was rainy so it almost felt right. Then another week passes, and another, and another. Until finally, I started receiving unemployment. I was filled with panic through the media and refused to leave my house in fear that I was going to die if I breathed the same air as another infected person. After that, I drove to my dads house in California in a rental car. I needed to get out of my small apartment and be with family. While I was there, my stepmom gifted me with her old car as she had bought a new one. I was shocked and overwhelmed with happiness. Fast forward a couple months and my lease was ending. I was searching for studio apartments to live in but was worried I was not going to get accepted due to being unemployed. I considered moving back home to Minnesota where my mom resides and where I went to high school. This was something that I did not want to do as I had established my own life, completely independent, out in Arizona. To add another factor was that my boyfriend lives in Arizona and I did not want to move away from him but our relationship was too new to move in together. One night, as I was laying in bed crying due to the overwhelming amount of stress that took over my mind about finding somewhere to live that I could afford and that was safe, I got a text from my stepdad. He asked if I would be interested in them purchasing a condo and I would pay them rent. This was something I was not expecting and was so grateful for, as this meant I did not have to go through the application process myself. I end up finding a place and move in end of July. Three weeks prior to moving in, my boyfriend gets infected with COVID-19. Now, I felt fine. I stayed inside for two weeks waiting for symptoms to show up. 11 days after exposure to the virus, I lost my sense of smell and taste. That was the only symptom I had, but after waiting a week and a half to get my test results, they came back negative. Although I was relieved, I did not, and still do not, believe that those test results were accurate. I slept in the same bed as my boyfriend the night before he came down with COVID-19 symptoms. There was no other explanation for why I lost my sense of smell or taste. During this time period, I put my fate in the hands of God to protect me. I prayed that I would be okay, and although my panic had subsided, I knew that I could trust God. 2020 has been a very rocky road, but I have accomplished so much throughout this year and I am grateful that I was able to experience this. I still hope and pray for the people who are losing their lives and losing loved ones, but it is just a matter of time before this subsides.
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  2020-08-10

  The Glass Half Full of Covid.

  Forced time off of work led to forced introspection. And the outcome was newfound passion, direction and family.
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  2020-08-10

  COVID-19, Religion, and Public Life Reflection? Catholicism Under COVID-19

  This year has been a difficult year for myself. I have had to endure many uncertainties in my personal life such as the loss of a very close friend due to suicide and the practice of my religion has been something that has helped me to cope with depression and despair but the practice of religion has been something difficult to do during this time that requires social distancing. I thought I could perhaps contribute my personal feelings and emotions as it relates to the practice of religion in the everyday world of a person during this moment in time.
• 2020-08-10

  Emptiness Around Us

  The month of April found me back in my parents home in a suburb of Albany, NY. My university was closed, and I was forced to move out of my on-campus housing a month earlier. All of my classes continues online, and my film photography class was required to move to a digital photography platform as we were not allowed access to our university’s darkroom to develop our film. I found myself wondering how to find subject matter amidst a global pandemic, where at the time grocery stores were just about the only places open, in what I considered to be the most boring small town in America. After weeks of submitting photo after photo of my backyard, house, dogs, and siblings, my professor asked me to try and find a new subject for my photos. I really had no idea what else to photograph, but on a trip to Target for groceries with my mother, I found myself wandering through row after row of bare, colorless shelves. I took a photo of this to send to my father, proving that there was not a roll of toilet paper to be had, but then thought about how interesting it could be to document the rows and rows of desolate shelves, leading me to a new subject for my photography class assignments: emptiness. I moved from documenting empty shelves, to empty parks, to empty streets. Emptiness was a subject I could find nearly everywhere I looked during the coronavirus pandemic. Looking back on these photos a few months later, I am so glad I was able to use an art form I love to document what life was like during this strange and scary time in our world. I hope that years from now, my photos could help someone have some idea of how empty our world truly felt during this time.
• 2020-08-10

  A View of the World During and After Covid-19

  No one could have seen Covid-19 coming. Starting off in China, then spreading to other countries, the virus flipped the whole world upside-down. We watched it tear apart every country before us, until it reached the United States and we really began to feel the effects first-hand. Normal life came to a halt. Businesses were forced to close, travel became a risk (if permitted at all), and simple every day tasks became difficult. But the consequences went, and continue to go, much deeper than what we see on the surface. In addition to the tragedy of thousands of lives being lost, many people's livelihood was lost as well. Unable to go to work and unable to provide for themselves and their families, Covid-19 has inflicted many, many hardships upon Americans. Some have lost their jobs, some have lost their businesses, and some have lost their loved ones. In a very short period of time, life completely changed. They say you do not truly appreciate something until it is gone. We do not realize what we have when it is in front of us. This can be taken lightly, in terms of simple things like going in public without a mask. Or, it can be a serious lesson, because you can lose who or what you love in an instant as well. No one could have predicted this, but now we are living it. We should enjoy every moment we have and not take advantage of the time we are given, because you truly never know when it can all change.
• 2020-08-10

  Being a single parent in a time of covid

  Being a Single Parent in a Time of COVID-19 My daily family life has changed since the global rise of the coronavirus disease pandemic since parenting is coupled with more responsibilities. Being a single parent to two children has arguably increased exposure to caregiving stress, especially with two teenagers, 16 and 17 years. My younger child has dyslexia learning disorder and has an IEP since kinder garden comprehend without additional help from a special ed teacher the struggle in school became much harder. I focused more of my attention on my younger son being that he was a freshmen level while the older child is attending to his senior year of school. I have been helping them adopt and utilize online schooling programs effectively while attending to my full-time job. Markedly, finding a balance between caregiving, offering them help in school work, and attending to my career has proved challenging during this COVID-19 period. The most robust experience I have so far is to offer them guidance to enable them to comprehend the content accessed from online sources. I dedicate more time to my younger son since he has a learning disorder, limiting his ability to follow directions given on the online platforms. Besides teaching, teenagers' lives have been affected since they are in the development stage characterized by socializing, finding new friends, and distancing from parents. In the earlier stages of the spread of COVID 19, the teenagers perceived the quarantine measures by the government as weapons to suppress their freedom and had to sneak out sometimes. I have experienced a parenting burden in training them to exercise self-care during these tough times, and they still seem distressed since they can no longer meet their friends. Moreover, online learning and their daily upkeep have incurred additional expenses, which may hamper my ability to meet the schools' future mandates. Markedly, it may become difficult for me to purchase learning resources in the future since there has been a reduction in my earnings and hours.
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  2020-08-10

  Growth, Gratitude, and Green Babies

  Teddy Roosevelt said, "The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future." As the pandemic and panic seemed to spread wildly across the globe, I found myself turning to my relatives for answers and advice. When specifically in their lifetime did they remember a time of uncertainty? What did they do to maintain a sense of direction, clarity to make decisions, a sense of well being and safety when each day's events are unfathomable? My mother responded with stories of her mother. My grandmother has always been the most resourceful person I know. Growing up in the Great Depression planted seeds of ingenuity and self sufficiency in her, which she continued to cultivate along with priceless experience and knowledge. She recalled people taking responsibility for their situations and security, and doing their best to make the most of what they had, which at the time wasn't much at all. I will never understand the scarcity she faced in that era, but I did experience the eerie alarm that washed over my fiancé and I entering a nearly empty produce section of our local grocery store, then another store, then another store. Almost every store in our small town of Lewes, Delaware had been almost completely panic-bought out of produce, meat, cleaning products, and hygiene products. It was at that time we decided to take a life lesson from Grandma, gain some grit, and get our hands dirty. Early June, we began a basic herb garden to get the hang of being "new parents to green babies" as we expressed it to our friends and family. We soon adopted a couple of tomato plants, bell peppers, red lunchbox sweet peppers, and as of recently, sunflowers. August brought our efforts to fruition when tiny peppers and tomatoes started to develop and today we plucked our first ready to eat hamburger tomato along with a few green bell peppers and scarlet red sweet peppers. Tending our garden has grown more than just invigorating herbs and veggies, but it has cultivated therapeutic peacefulness and tranquility while watering, cleaning, and caring for these little forms of life. We learned first hand the valuable lesson of just how giving and selfless nature is, ex. planting one seed and getting three pieces of fruit in return from that one plant, or planting one bulb which springs forth four blossoms. Giving life and helping maintain that life in something smaller than you grows a beautiful relationship between humanity and nature, a relationship which has become more and more distant. Growing a garden reconnected us to the knowledge, innovation, and self reliance, of our grandparents. It reconnected us to getting outdoors, getting our hands dirty, and getting into a flow state of mental clarity and caring for another living being apart from human kind. It reconnected us to nature, to the valuable lesson Mother Nature can teach us about selflessly giving and sharing, and a reminder of the respect she so deserves and is so lacking in the current state of the environment. I hope our story of our little backyard garden will encourage you to plant seeds of your own, to look to the priceless knowledge and experience of your relatives for advice in facing an uncertain future, and to share your lessons and stories of how COVID-19 impacted your life as well.
• 2020-08-10

  Customer Service in a Global Pandemic

  I have been working during the COVID-19 pandemic at a beverage/fast food restaurant. When all the news about the pandemic first started coming in, a lot of my co-workers just said that it was not a big deal and that it was basically the flu. However, there were also people who felt the complete opposite. I, like most people, try to gauge how I feel about something by listening to how others feel and researching the issue. Since it felt like there was not much true information going around, I felt I had to rely on other people's opinions in the beginning. That was a rollercoaster! I feel like in the beginning, there was no inbetween! People were either incredibly opposed to the fact that this virus is actually killing people, or they were terrified by it. I did not know how to feel. Eventually, I began to realize how serious this situation was. In these past months, I have been through many different mindsets. When I really started to realize how serious this situation was, I decided I would not leave my house. And I didn't. I took a month and a half off of work and stayed inside all day fearing the outside world. Little did I know, this was when there were very few cases in my area. After that, I began working again. My next mindset was that I needed to do all I could to keep myself safe because I needed to work. I began to think, if I get it, I get it. All I can do is try my best to stay clean and safe. But that didn't stay for long because my mindset would change constantly. I am writing this for my english class and I am required to add the hashtag
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  2020-08-10

  The Heart of Fuquay-Varina

  All of the small businesses in downtown Fuquay-Varina, a small town south or Raleigh, NC, painted hundreds of hearts on their windows while they were closed during COVID. It brought a sense of togetherness for the entire town while we were all isolated at home.