Items

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  2021-05-18

  Staying Connected

  For my primary source, I selected a video/ photo that shows my discord community watching a movie together. As for the movie we were watching Justice League Snyder Cut. A movie that caused a lot of problems and controversy back in 2017. Due to Zack Snyder having to step down from the movie and Joss Whedon not a lot of people liked Whedon version. Years later Snyder released his version on HBO MAX. I created the discord server due to the COVID-19 pandemic when it started. The community has over 300 members from all over the world. With discord friends can connect directly through many ways such as voice call, video call, or text on Discord, and they can also enter servers where wider groups can connect. Discord is free to download and use just like you would use zoom or skype, but it has more to offer. Discord for me is a home. Discord allows you to establish your own sense of belonging. A discord server is your personal space, shared only with the individuals you want to invite. When I created my community on discord it was so bring people together. I started with around 10 or so friends. Anyone who joined with in the discord and wanted to invite a friend or a family member was welcomed to due so. It felt like every day we would get more and more people from all over the U.S, the UK, South America, and many places. Within my discord we help people with Homework, assignments, we host game nights as well as movies night and if some need to talk we always have people on to connect and talk to if they want someone to just listen. AS well we have text channels for memes, a place to introduce yourself when people join for everyone to read. Common games that people play and want to talk about or even just chill with some music together. With my discord community I decided to make the community because I had some free time on with school and with not working, I wanted a way to connect with my friends and family while still being under lockdown. Discord seems the best option. Anyone can connect via phone, laptop, or any web browser. I honestly did not think it would last this long or even grow this big. But then again, we did not think about that with covid-19 we thought the lock down was going to be two weeks, four weeks tops.
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  2020-05-01

  Social Distancing - Self Distancing

  When the Covid-19 pandemic caused New York City to go into lockdown the second week of March, it never once crossed my mind how large of an impact this shutdown would have in my personal life. In the picture below I show a poem I wrote during the sixth month of quarantine: My days felt like they were going on a loop. Everyday felt like a continuation of the day before and my mind was tired of it. In my poem I expressed that I felt like a bird that crashes on the windshield of a car, signaling the repetitiveness of my life in my small NYC apartment. I think that this time was one of the most difficult times for my mental health and I tried desperately to find a way of coping. Essentially, this poem represents the mental state I found myself in trying to find different ways to deal with the fact that life had paused abruptly and that nothing was certain anymore. One of the ways that I found myself doing a lot during this time was sleeping. I began to get worried when one day I woke up at 4pm and felt as if I had woken up at 9am. I knew my sleep schedule was a disaster, but I think that this represents how monotone life felt. On another hand, I think that the lockdown served as an opportunity to reorganize my priorities and discover new likes and dislikes. Since I had recently changed my major from Biology to English, this time helped me realize how much I enjoy writing and learning about other writers and their work. I never thought I would enjoy my major as much as I am enjoying it, especially since I can dedicate more time on it thanks to the spare time staying at home gives me. I think that this poem will benefit future historians in their study of the effects the COVID-19 lockdown on people’s mental health. Specifically, historians will be able to be exposed to the anxiety the world felt knowing that there was little we could do to reverse the effects the lockdown was having in our mental stability. Basically, historians will be able to analyze how much the pandemic affected us beyond the physical aspect but the detrimental effects it held against our mental health. All in all, COVID-19 surely fits the line by Charles Dickens, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times”.
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  2020-06-19

  The Dangerous Luxury of Claiming You've Rejected Society

  Early in the pandemic, a man I knew died of Covid-19 in an overwhelmed hospital. I kept thinking he might not have died if the hospital had been better funded. Then I remembered he had once insisted to me that he lived outside society. I saw a sad connection: hospitals and public health in general were underfunded because too many people felt they did not share a common society with others. More thoughts about Covid and community started flooding my mind. Eventually I pulled these thoughts together in a short essay.
• 
  2020

  Fear of the Unknown

  Dealing with the coronavirus, I now appreciate the outdoors and what I previously considered daily hassles have become beautiful memories. I have become more patient as the unsurety of the situation is intense. We are left wondering when public institutions will open or merely when we can step outside the house without worrying about the six-foot distance with others. The initial shock and denial have metamorphosed into solidarity among communities and humankind. Whereas otherwise we would have ignored the part of our routine in which we communicated with others, we now felt a longing for that same one-minute interaction. The minute-by-minute increase in deaths instilled fear in the hearts of many and individuals were living on the edge. It was fear of the unknown and desperation for an end to this extended period of isolation. The most significant change I am noticing due to this pandemic is that people have mellowed down. People have put their fast-track life on pause, specifically New Yorkers, and are waiting out the storm to pass. During the pre-quarantine life, not many would have payed attention to the needs of their elderly neighbors. However, the current situation has encouraged everyone to be on the lookout for anyone who needs help. People have become more sympathetic and I envision the same of the post-coronavirus world. The world will change in the future as a result of this pandemic as everyone will become more cautious, constantly monitoring the littlest of changes in our health. People will think twice before touching their face or a seat on the bus. Ultimately, I envision a post-pandemic world to be more sensitive and informed.
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  2020-03-31

  Hate Speech: Community and Family

  The covid-19 pandemic has shaken the world in an unexpected way including myself. Several Americans have been affected by the pandemic losing jobs with panic wreaking havoc across the nation. My family was also affected with the pandemic as they operated a family owned restaurant. Many customers started to slowly disappear until my family was forced to close the restaurant from quarantine. Everyone that I knew was affected mentally as they did not know what to do indoors and eventually broke down. During this time, I was also in my second semester of my freshmen year looking forward to interacting with new people and professors. My first semester was enjoyable as it was a whole new experience that I was exploring. The pandemic made all classes remote and the atmosphere just did not feel the same as being in person. I was overwhelmed as most of my family lost their jobs including myself and the transition to online was unexpected. I lost all motivation to even focus on schoolwork as I was also affected mentally, but I managed to get through. The reopening phase of New York slowly recovered my family as they were able to open back their restaurants, but there was still a decrease of customers. The pandemic was not the only cause of the decrease of customers, but also my family being Asian was a factor. Many people engaged in targeting Asians around my area as the form of hate speech grew more severe as time passed by. My family did not feel safe operating their restaurant as they would not know what would happen to them. The community around me were mostly Asians and there was an increase of violence around my area. The community used to be lively with neighbors interacting with their kids constantly with everyone knowing each other. However, everything changed as everyone is staying indoors and is afraid to walk out in fear of being victims of the pandemic and hate speech. This story is important to me as the pandemic not only affected my family, but the community I live in. family, hate speech, restaurant, job, college, community, Asian