Items

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  2020-03-12

  A Permanent Break

  This image shows how much almost everyone underestimated the pandemic. It also highlights the uncertainty it brought. Most thought we were just getting one extra week of staying home. We would be heading back to campus after that so we were grateful for the extra vacation time. Little did we know that there would be no end in sight for this pandemic for almost two years. No one knew how long it would last or exactly how much it would affect our everyday lives. Procedures constantly changed as institutions tried to figure out the best way to respond to this unprecedented situation. I think this image would spark student memories of the reaction they had to similar school announcements. Many people were on vacation and came home to a total shift in society like panic buying. My family was in Mexico at the time and in the middle of the vacation the hotel switched from open buffet and people roaming to encouraging people not to interact with others. Before my family left my stepdad had bought some nonperishables to store. I didn't know why he did this and thought this was silly and just a habit from his Red Cross responder days. It turns out he was correct in predicting people would flock to the stores once institutions started practicing preventive measures. This image is just one of the many that demonstrate how people's lives began to change during this time.
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  2020-05

  Colorado Academy student prompt

  Description of assignment prompt given to Colorado Academy 6th grade students by instructor Eric Augustin- May 2020
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  2020-03-14

  Last show before Quarantine

  This photo was taken at the last show I went to before the my university, school, and the world all shut down seemingly within around a week. It was in the middle of ASU spring break. It had around 100 people there, all outside. At that point, people were aware of Covid-19 and I expressed concerns going with my friends but we still went. The only protocols that people there were taking was hand sanitizer but at that point there were no established protocols with Covid-19 beyond hand hygiene (at least to the general public). I at that point had wore disposable face masks to my classes as the ASU health services were giving them out for free in the lobby and ASU seemed to be downplaying the threat.
• 2020-09-29

  So Close, Yet So Far

  When my best friend came home to Florida from school for spring break in March of 2020, we quickly learned that she would have to stay home for the rest of the school year, which was all so bittersweet. Since our families and us created boundaries to keep everyone safe, her and I decided to spend a few weeks together since we were already in contact and would not be able to see each other for a while once we do separate. We spent the first few weeks of the pandemic laying out in my backyard all day, getting our homework done and soaking in the unexpected extra time with each other that we were so grateful to have. I lost my job at my schools on-campus Starbucks and had all online work for the remainder of spring semester, so we both did not go anywhere for the next months to come. We went through an accelerated collegiate high school program together which made us feel like we needed to slow down since we are two years ahead in school and always busy with changes. In a way, we both felt that we needed to take advantage of a horrible situation, making us stop and be present with our lives, each other, and our loved ones. Eventually, we separated after weeks of soaking up each other’s love and company but would occasionally meet up at our favorite park for socially distanced car visits that helped pass the time between our next weeklong hangouts after getting tested. Since the beginning of this pandemic in March 2020, summer has come and gone, the Fall school semester has begun, and her and I are now apart again. Being away from each other at school before the pandemic was difficult, but when we were distanced from each other at home when normally we would be together almost every day, was honestly harder than being our typical 1,300 miles away from each other because we were so close, yet so far.
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  2020-03-15

  Our Vancouver Covid-19 Staycation

  We’re a Vancouverite family of three who cancelled plans to go abroad due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Instead, we spent our spring break two weeks with daily cookies and bicycling around our city, under the lockdown rules of our province. This blog tells the story of what that was like in Vancouver in March 2020.