March 14. That was the date everything became real. COVID-19 had personally reached my life. My restaurant, my livelihood was gone and I found myself scared for my safety, my well being and I wondered how I was going to survive this pandemic with no income. My family and loved ones were in Los Angeles, CA, my birthplace. They all encouraged me to "come home" but I vowed to stay in New York, the place I had been calling home for the previous three years. Once I received the email from the general manager of my restaurant, I felt as if my world had shattered and I realized New York City was going on lockdown. As one of the most eccentric places to live, we have been hit the hardest by this virus, arguably more than anyone in the world. Six months later, with 200,000 American lives lost and counting we are still in the midst of this global pandemic. There have been moments of fear, unification, division, perseverance, and love among other things. Looking forward, I hope there is a means to this end and as we arrive there we treat each other with the love and respect that we each deserve.

My experience throughout this unexpected pandemic took a toll on my state of mental and emotional health. When I first found out about how quick this virus was spreading throughout our city, schools were still not closed officially and I was still traveling on public transportation to work. When taking public transportation, due to the lack of masks, I had to wear a scarf around my face because that was the only way I could think of protecting myself. I was anxious all the time, but most especially on the train and bus rides, my anxiety would get the best of me, so much that at times I felt like I had to hold my breath so that I can minimize my exposure to contracting this virus. Once things started getting really bad and schools and non essential jobs finally shut down, it was a slight relief. Switching from in person lectures to virtual learning was not as easy as I had thought it would be. I was now not only anxious and worried because of this pandemic and the health of myself and my loved ones but also because I was having a hard time trying to adapt to a different style of learning. I was taking two science courses, both biology and chemistry which were not the easiest topics for me. To prevent us from "cheating" professors had made the exams much harder which was another stressor. Throughout the spring semester I was staying up really late at night trying to study in every way possible so that I would do well on my upcoming exams. Whenever I had the time to sleep I just couldn't because my anxiety wouldn't let me. I would have never imagined this getting so bad, I thought maybe with quarantining we would have it under control but unfortunately this virus is still on going and who knows when we'll get back to what was considered normal.

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

This passed year has been a journey for everybody all over the world. We each were forced to figure out what to do, how to deal with our problems and adjust to it. The Corona pandemic changed everybody's lives with out a choice as well as some permanent changes. The corona virus also did change my personal perspectives on life and towards how I feel. When the corona virus began I lost my job, I wasn't able to see my friends ,I was forced to do things I never done and I felt miserable. Now looking back this journey was super important and it opened my eyes to the idea of change and to be grateful. The corona virus allowed me to work and change many of the habits I didn't like about myself like my eating habits. The corona virus forced me to try to figure out how to use a computer better. The corona virus also allowed me to understand the importance of what patience. Another thing I gained was realizing how important family is especially in a miserable time and why support is needed. Overall we can say go bad and how much damage there is or we can look at the greater picture and look at many of the changes we went through and look at that as an opportunity to be grateful like appreciating health and coming out of this alive and well!

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

I wrote a story about my grandmother's visit at the start of the pandemic and how it affected her stay.

This is an auto ethnography about me and my mom's experience when the Covid 19 outbreak and quarantine first started. My mom is a Black woman with Schizophrenia and I am her caretaker so it expands into larger societal issues as well.

My immediate family, sister and mother, live in the city of Albino, in the province of Bergamo, the hardest hit area in Italy. The rest of my family lives in Cremona, the second hardest hit area in Italy. My sister contracted the virus at the very beginning of the pandemic, sometime in February 2019. She locked herself up in her room for 6 weeks and eventually recovered. Six months later she still suffers from fatigue and on-and-off muscle pain. Two older relatives died of the virus. One was in a hospital for minor surgery he had postponed for a few months. When he finally decided to get it done, it was right at the beginning of the storm. He was infected and died in a matter of days. The second one was in assisted living. The angel of death glided over the facility and took more than two dozen residents with it. The most painful was the death of a high school friend, a family doctor in Como. He started seeing patients with strange symptoms. With no guidance and no information from the Health Dept, he kept doing his job. When he came down with the infection, the virus load was so high he only lasted a few days. My mother escaped the infection. She lives in the same building as my sister, but they didn't see each other for months. She lived alone like a recluse. Friends or relative would drop off food by her door, she would put out the garbage and that was it. In the meantime she kept hearing stories of people she had known for a lifetime who passed away "they are dropping like flies" she told me one day. She mentioned a famous poem by Italian poet Giuseppe Ungaretti, a poem he wrote while he was fighting in the trenches of World War I: "We are like leaves on a branch in autumn." I spent hours every day, sometimes several times a day for weeks, trying to console and give her courage. At a certain point I thought she was about to give up. She wasn't eating anymore, she was getting weaker and weaker, half asleep the whole day, awake in terror and sorrow at night. As to my life, it is similar to that of most of you. I live outside NY, my wife, two daughters and I managed with some adjustments in our routines. I avoided social networks like the plague (sorry for the metaphor), stayed away from the news and commentaries, focused on my teaching as much as possible, even took care of the backyard. Over the months, it was discouraging to the point of banging my head on my desk when I was watching Europe slowly getting control over the pandemic, while in the US we were and still are stumbling like blind morons, clueless and bamboozled by borderline criminal propaganda. I am not talking about all, of course. But it is frankly horrifying and terrifying to find out that 1 out of 2 people - more or less - I see in the streets live in a state of willful derangement, posing a danger to themselves (I could care less about them) but most of all to the rest of us.

Using autoethnography as the method of research, this paper explores the fears and anxieties exacerbated in the Latinx community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through narrative snapshots, I depict how the pandemic worsened due to policy meant to limit undocumented Latinx immigrants’ access to health services. By focusing on the evolution of the public charge, this project depicts the ways the Trump administration’s hateful rhetoric and racist policies exacerbate the fear, life-threatening conditions, and long-lasting trauma on undocumented Latinx immigrants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Closing in on one Brooklyn family’s navigation of the 2020 political climate, worsening pandemic, working-class realities, and immigration system, I take you through the present realities often left unseen by mainstream media.

With the introduction of Corona to my daily lifestyle I was forced to reflect a lot about the choices I made and also my general day to day routine. Everything was turned upside down on its head and everything I once knew was now unrecognizable. Gone were the days I would spend hecticly trying to rush to and from school running past people to catch a train. Now the only running I was doing was to and from the kitchen because my tv show was going to start and I needed a refill on my drink. Covid introduced a introverts dream and an extroverts worst nightmare. Confined to their houses like a turtle to its shell. Leaving the house became an escape but not before the 30 layers of disinfectants and masking products. But nowhere fun. Only the supermarket and back. But it was still better than nothing.

My project sought to examine and understand the historical resilience of Black motherhood and its relation to the life altering pandemic, COVID-19 and racially driven uprisings against systematic oppression; How Black motherhood and resistance through Black motherhood adapted, how it’s changed and what new radical resistance through motherhood was conjured in face of the pandemic and race clarity. As an autoethnographic account this research project was centered around my experience of motherhood and communal connections, as well as the experiences of Black mothers and birth workers. The political positioning of Black mothers was considered through essays and poetry written, as well as photos during the lockdowns in relation to the concepts of birth and death, the idea of radical mothering and activism, and the umbrella term of community.

My boy-girl twins had their b'nai mitzvah during the pandemic. It went from me planning a big party, to me trying to make them feel happy about themselves on Zoom. But the secret is: This was possibly the best thing that could have happened! My son is autistic, and we were struggling with how he would deal with the sensory overload of performing in a large synagogue. I wrote a story about it that was published in the Forward, and I want to share it here.

There's a lot wrong with the world and it seems that with everyday that goes by, there is a new challenge that we are faced with. This pandemic has been quite the paradox for me. Before the pandemic, I always wished I had more time to myself to do more creative things. As an artist, i am always sketching and designing but between work and school, I have no time to to bring my sketches and designs to life. When Covid-19 became a threat and quarantine was implemented, it put everything in my life on hold. Society in general was turned upside down. From, coronavirus deaths, to George Floyd, to riots and protests, everyday presented itself unrest and sorrow. During these chaotic times, I decided to capitalize on the time I had, therefore I referred to my sketches and designs, and began creating as much as I could. No matter what i created, i found that I would be immersed in the creative process and would in fact be meditating without realizing it. When i would create, everything going on would be temporarily non-existent. The circumstances of the time I had suddenly acquired was not ideal but I was nonetheless thankful because in some ways, i learned about myself. I created many things during quarantine but due to the virus, I like many other people made masks. Masks have became a household essential seemingly overnight and the demand for them were through the roof. I never made a mask before but i decided try. It took a while to get the exact look and aesthetic i wanted to incorporate in the design but i found way through looking at numerous YouTube videos. I got to work and before i knew it, i created 20+ masks and began to sell them. From friends to strangers, people wanted a mask from me and i was more than happy to make them because i knew i was making something that not only looks good but also will protect people and last a long time.

The document I'm submitting is a collage of poems, interview excerpts, and personal reflections. It was an exploration of lockdown and how that affected the people of the community I grew up in.

This is a message to everyone that was affected by the lockdown, both physically and mentally.

The purpose of “COVID-19 and the Escalating Mental Health Crisis among BIPOC and Immigrants” is to analyze the already existing socioeconomic conditions in BIPOC and immigrant communities that perpetuate mental health stigma and are also causes for the rising mental health crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research project aims to investigate generational trauma and its correlation to the pressurizing notion of the ‘essential worker,’ how the silence of trauma creates stigma, and the lack of representation and affordable mental health resources for low-income BIPOC and immigrants.

Throughout my life I have heard stories about past and all the hardships that was encounter and I never thought I will go through the same thing. 2020 brought about a pandemic that will always be remembered. The virus was heard in December 2019 and everyone downplayed the seriousness of it. Everyone thought it was not serious however as it traveled across the globe it laid waste in its path. Killed about 1 million people including friends of mine who fell victim to it. I was emotionally drained and physically depressed due to our new style of living. We lost what we knew was life. Our every day norm and the whole world was on pause. Class being moved to remote didn’t help me academically because not only was I distracted but I kept thinking of what was going on in the world. COVID 19 affected me by ruining all the opportunities I had lined up for 2020, it wasted 1 year of my life and I failed to do anything productive. If life has thought me anything is that nothing last forever and fortunately we are beginning to enter our old life and I can make up for everything I couldn’t have done this year.

I am submitting an auto-ethnography on my experience as a college student in the CUNY educational system during the transition to online learning and the pandemic.

Several articles seek to expand the conversation of educational inequity during the pandemic in New York City public schools, however many exclude key aspects of inequality that predate the pandemic. This narrative acknowledges and challenges notions that use the pandemic to explain the inequality. It is not only my personal experience throughout the pandemic, but also the experiences around public education of me, my students, and co-workers. Amplifying the necessity for leadership, mental health, and technology to combat the concerns of racial and class retraumatization, the aspiration and achievement gap, and other aspects of inequity. In this analysis, we transform ideas about inequality in relation to [rather than caused by] the pandemic and challenge readers to think about solutions in a different way.

the time was stopping. the schools, restaurant and government offices or department was closed. Only a few of people were walking on the deserted street. the bustling New York was deserted. Everyone were stay in home, students taking the class from home, the worker doing their job from home. Everyone were keep the distance between each others. The city become tense atmosphere. the covid-19 changed me a lot of from the normal life. i had to wear a face mask to anywhere. Even though, most of the time i just stay at home. The most memorable experience during the covid 19 is my summer time. i was plan many to finish at the summer period, but i suck at home, and doing nothing. Only thing that i did, taking a summer class. I was happy that i can earn class credits. One of important things that i learned from the pandemic. This is put your healthy on the first and cherish every moment. you never know that you will catching or missing.

Back in March 2020, when we were first placed under quarantine, I was scared. I decided that in order to protect myself and the ones I care about, that it was better to stay home. I got my food delivered, if I had to go out, I made sure that I had my 'N95' mask, face sheild and gloves, took all the necessary precautions. Towards the ended of may, when the police shooting started happening again. I realized that even though we are in a pandemic the world hasn't stopped moving like I had, people were fighting for their brothers, sister, and families lives. They weren't fighting for better health care nor more food. They were risking their lives to protest against police brutality in their communities, and everywhere in the world. For the first time in months, I choose to get up and leave my little street, and join the people who were fighting for Black Lives. I found this so interesting, because no one could have told me that I would be marching through NYC during a pandemic. I wasn't only risking my health by protesting, but also my life. I'd seen the news showing the violent protests, cops body slamming people, tear gas in the air, and most importantly people showing solidarity to fight for what was right. And that when I realized time doesn't stop, because you do.

The winter seemed to go on forever

"Brooklyn College" in white text with a red background used as a logo