Items

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  2021-12-28

  COVID-19 Infectious Snowballs

  COVID-19 gave us a tough time, and many of us haven’t had a chance to stop and check in with ourselves about what has actually been happening around us. Coming to New York was a new beginning for me that came with additional responsibilities. I had to balance my personal and academic life, family’s financial needs, extracurricular activities, and work. Just when I felt that everything was going smoothly, I was shattered to hear that it had been three months since my I-20 was terminated because of an academic document transfer issue. I could not go back to my country as I was part of “Hizmet,” a faith-inspired civil society movement, which at that time was facing oppression and persecution due to the bogus allegations of orchestrating a failed coup in Turkey. Therefore, I had to apply for asylum, which caused me a lot of stress, and it affected my academic career as I had to focus on court procedures. Even though due to the pandemic, the scheduled hearings got canceled, prolonging this challenging period, and I lost my job which was the only source for me to pay for my college tuition and support my family, still I tried to engage rather than focus on the negative side of the situation and depress myself. I put all of my efforts into being academically productive and doing something one day I could be proud of by boosting my academic performance leading me get several scholarships, involving myself in research programs, and focusing on advocacy as a student leader. As the responsibilities got heavier and more stressful, I just kept telling myself: "The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory." Life goes on... This funny story comes to my mind when the topic is about COVID-19. This past winter, the weather got really cold and snowy, and the lake behind a rental Pocono house froze over. With all the snow around us, we inevitably enjoyed a good-old fashioned snowball fight where the snowballs were called the "COVID-19" infected snowballs. Once you get hit, you get the virus. However, we soon found ourselves chasing one of our friends on top of the lake due to the ferocity he threw the snowballs with. One by one, we raced our way towards the middle of the lake. It may be obvious what happened next, but it took us all by surprise at the moment. The ice that once was had cracked, and I found my body submerged in the ice-cold water. As I tried to make myself back to solid ground, the image of my other friends frantically trying to stay calm caught my attention. When we finally did make it to safety, I couldn’t help but laugh at the events that just transpired.
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  2020-03

  Everyday Life During Lockdown

  March 2020 when the lockdown first started I was not aware of how big this pandemic was going to be. It was the second half of my senior year of high school and I remember we all thought that the school wasn’t going to close. Our principal was telling us a few days before everything was shut down that the school will not be closing and to not be worried. Next thing you know Spring 2022 is the first time back in person for most of my classes. It was a big change having school online in the beginning, it was difficult to fully concentrate in classes and harder to stay motivated. It is a weird thing to be slightly removed from the fact that I graduated high school and started college because I wasn’t able to do certain things in person. There was at least one positive experience throughout the pandemic though. My family and I would have dinner together every night then go into the living room and watch whatever show we were binge watching at the time. It was a time where we got really close and it was a nice routine to have. It was a way for us all to be together and bring some happiness in that sad time.
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  0000-04-14

  The Start of the Pandemic for Me

  The file I am submitting is of a journal I kept for the first six weeks of the pandemic sharing the different events that occurred and how they impacted me and my family.
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  2020-05

  My COVID-19 Experience

  My experience during the peak of COVID-19 was just a ball of anxiety, nerves, some good moments, and some bad moments. The transition from always going out, being on campus, hanging out with friends, eating out to suddenly being stuffed into staying home every day for 3 months was very tough. Especially, with the mass amount of misinformation being spread about COVID-19 at the time- it was just scary. No one really knew what this virus was, new information was being released everyday, you had people who suddenly became doctors overnight and try to tell you what to do, and so on. Going to the supermarket became like this crazy mission where every inch of skin and orifice of your body had to be covered and every single little thing had to be sanitized before it was brought back into the house. There was even a point where my family wouldn't even open the windows. It was very extreme but, I don't blame them for having that fear. I was afraid too. I was home for three months straight with very little to do besides mulling over my own stressful thoughts. The news gave me anxiety. Having all my family members suddenly be home all the time led to us stepping on each other toes more often than usual. Things began to lighten up after a while, thankfully. I was given the opportunity after three months of strict quarantine to work in a food pantry for a non profit organization in my community. To finally be able to go out, see a friend or two, and give back to my community? It was a definite yes. Working in the food pantry was an extremely rewarding experience. We served almost 300 to 400 people daily, giving them free meals, groceries, and essentials. It took my mind off of a lot, especially after a rough three months. I was also glad I was able to maintain social distancing and safe mask practices throughout my time there because it was essential that I did not bring anything home to my family. Overall, my COVID-19 experience during the peak of the pandemic was just a rollercoaster of emotions.
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  2022-02-27

  The Covid-19 Pandemic

  Covid -19 has changed how many people lived their lives. It was a hard time for everyone that lasted quite long. From being unemployed, remote learning was difficult for families. I was in my senior year of highschool when the pandemic first hit. I went from being social with my friends everyday to being home quarantined with family for months. Not only was this hard but I had to learn how to adapt to remote learning. This was not an easy task due to the fact your teacher wasn't there to give you a real classroom vibe. We did not even meet on zoom til graduation. This was very upsetting because I never had a real prom and was looking forward to it for my senior year. Being a student during the pandemic was not easy. There were times I wanted to just give up because the teachers would assign a load of work sometimes with no explanation on how to go about it. I can say I made the best out of it. Though we were not able to celebrate graduation the traditional way my highschool stool did their best and it was greatly appreciated. Throughout this whole pandemic my family lost some friends. This was heartbreaking because we could not even go visit them in the hospital or anything. My family made sure every morning my sibling and I were taking our vitamins and these natural remedies to make our immune systems stronger. We changed what we usually eat to more healthy types of foods that will benefit our body. This was a hard experience for my family but we made the best out of it. We spent months together everyday because we did not want to go out and risk anything. Lysol and Bleach became our best friends over time. Food supplies became short when you went to the supermarket and many people were losing money because they couldn't go to work. This was a hard time for many families because a lot of people suffered due to these reasons. It wasn't till a couple weeks after being in quarantine for months til the government decided to give out unemployment. This was a benefit for some familie and hard for others because they still couldn't feed their families. Our lives changed from walking everyone and seeing people's faces to seeing everyone in a mask. Many people till this day don’t feel like it's safe to leave their homes. It's been two years since the pandemic first started and now we have a vaccine that's out here. This may seem like a benefit but even if you do take the vaccine you can still contract Covid-19. This is a main reason as to why many people don’t see the point of taking the vaccine. In the beginning of the pandemic the main people who were getting the virus were older people and those who had weak immune systems. Hospitals were packed with many cases and nurses even became short staff. That was a very scary time to witness the pain in the nurses and patients faces. Overall this was a time to remember. It was many hardships but we made a huge progress to where we are today. I am glad to say I am fully vaccinated so I am doing what's best for myself. I am in college now and finally in a inperson classroom. They soon will drop the mask mandate which will be a complete change when you see people’s faces again. I am glad we are getting back to our normal lives.
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  2020-03-17

  A dream with a twist

  Growing up, everyones dream is for school to be permanently closed. If you are not in school then your dream going to bed every night is for your work-place to be closed. Just hanging out at home watching movies and playing video games or painting or doing nothing but your favorite hobbies seems like the perfect life. This is what everyone had thought until it actually happened, but with a very, very negative twist. Even though it was not too long ago, to this exact date and for the rest of my life I will remember when this "dream lifestyle" became a horrible reality. After hearing my professors say that class might be moved onto zoom for 2 weeks and hearing my boss say that the catering hall might be closing for approximately the same amount of time, it hit me that this was going to be very, very bad. I remember being 16 years old in the heart of New York City with my friends saying that never could I imagine times square empty at any costs. Without having a hint, this was coming to an unfortunate fruition. Everyday life had become class or assignments on my laptop in the morning, then going for a long walk, then playing video games or watching tv the rest of the day. No physical contact with any other humans outside of my household. Groceries were being delivered straight from the store and it seemed this was an endless repeating cycle, simply sitting there waiting for positive news and updates. I will say that with my personal experience, I am extremely fortunate that I did not have nearly the negative time that a high percentage of people had. I believe that the reason why it was so strange was because of the sudden halt of our routines and lifestyle. During this time, I took time to reflect on everything but also to embrace and make the most of the situation. As I previously stated, I am very fortunate to go through this time with not much tragedy. I was going for long walks with the family members in my household and also bonding with friends through video games. I was learning more about stocks, cooking, fitness/health as a whole, and more. However, I do remember my father coming home everyday from 16 hour shifts for weeks being exhausted because he is a funeral director. He would come home and tell us how he was seeing first-hand something he has never seen before and what he was seeing in terms of the deaths from COVID19. This story is important to me because while I was finding positives through this tough time, it put into perspective how many, many people were going through the complete opposite with extremely tough times. A big life lesson that I learned is that even if you are finding positives in something and doing well personally, it is essential to take a step back and try to do more for the people going through tough times. This applies through every single day of life and every aspect.
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  2020-03-11

  A New Normal For COVID-19

  The story I uploaded expresses my experiences overall during the pandemic and how it has contrasted and compared with another epidemic as well as how it contributed to people's perspective (worldwide) on COVID-19.
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  2020-03

  The Pass

  summary
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  2020-06-06

  One essential workers perspective during the covid pandemic

  This was my experience as an essential worker during the Covid pandemic.
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  2020-09-25

  Reflections on COVID-19 - A Certified Pharmacy Technicians Perspective

  A letter written by me to describe my experience with COVID-19