Items

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  2020-07-27

  "Hope to see you soon"

  Due to Covid-19 my uncle's birthday party was turned into a Zoom get together. The participants were asked to create a video and submit it before the event. Normally, I probably would have just said a simple hello but feeling isolated and full of stored creativity I decide to make song. Aiso, I had lost my job due to covid. The subject of the song was the wish we, I , have to interact with fellow humans at a time when we are not able to. Who even knew what Zoom was before Covid and would I have ever tried to create a song with a harmonica if i was not quarantined, probably not. I do not think I even said the word "quarantine" more than once a year, and then only for a crossword puzzle. I tried to create a song that expressed my feelings for the time and create a performance piece that was challenging for me to do. I think after the tenth take my lip muscles were cramped and I had actual lip abrasions from sliding the harmonica back and forth. The finished product was rough and maybe one of the other 30 takes would have been better but i was on a birthday dead line so it is what it is. Unfortunately, the video file proved too big or the sound too bad that when my video was played for the Zoom "party" most of the sound was lost. Hopefully, it was not edited out. This little video will always be my gateway memory of time spent during the Covid-19 lock down. Through this song I will remember everything that happened, which was and is a lot. During my time at Brooklyn college getting my MA in education there was a focus on different learning styles which I think is typified by my video.
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  2020-04

  A Year I Will Never Forget

  2020 started off a great year for me, I was so excited to turn 21 and envisioned this amazing year where I would travel, meet new people, etc. However quickly that dream ended, working in a pharmacy I was always on edge about the virus especially when the cases were spiking which caused this worry inside my family and I. I worried about my two immunocompromised parents mostly, what would happen to them if they got sick? Would I be the reason they did so? Would I bring home something from the pharmacy? Fortunately my family is safe and healthy but I wasn't, what I assumed was just a cold turned out to be one of the worst experiences of my life. I couldn't believe I had COVID-19, I was taking all precautions and yet it was inevitable thought I will never forget this birthday; celebrating turning 21 with COVID and eating ice cream cake in my pajamas. I was grateful I ended up recovering but it was devastating when I would hear almost weekly someone I knew had passed away whether it be a friend, patient, a familiar face. Sometimes I can't wrap my head around all of this happening, we have been in quarantine for over six months and it seems like there will be no end to this either. I want to remain optimistic and look forward to things but it so hard to when everything seems almost draining. The small things that once brought us to ease seems to be so far away now.
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  2020-03-26

  The day it all went south

  From the beginning of quarantine till now the simple, everyday things I used to do has now become a difficult. Such examples would be going to the bodega or going to my therapy appointments or even going to work. There’s now so many extra steps and protocols as if my job wasn’t already stressful enough. While I personally haven’t been affected by corona virus in terms of health, I can still say that it has turned everything upside down. I still can hang out with friends but I’ve missed so many events that I was looking forward to. Anime event to birthday event, all of those experiences missed. The biggest thing about COVID for me was that it showed me just how selfish and ignorant others are by not only people refusing to wear masks but some even denying it’s existence.
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  2020-03-10

  Full plate Spilled: Essential Healthcare in a Pandemic

  I've lived in New York for 5 years, moving at 18 and worked my way up to feeling at home here. I'm a full spectrum doula ( a non-medical birth support coach), a public health student, and healthcare worker. Right before the pandemic I was very busy. I had a birth client who was also my friend who gave birth on Tuesday, March 10th. That was the day the South Brooklyn Maimonides Hospital had it's first two Covid patients. I was kicked out that evening as were all non-birth parents in the maternity ward which was heartbreaking as my client had a difficult pregnancy and a c-section earlier that day. I was the only person allowed in the operating room while the baby was born. On Friday is when everything changed as the pandemic was announced when the baby was 3 days old. My last good moments before quarantine was holding the newborn daughter of my client, reading the news on the TV while my client slept. I was worried about what would happen to them and for my own health as I have health conditions that put me at risk for worse outcomes. I work my main job as a HIV prevention and HIV treatment navigator at a major health clinic conglomerate. We had stopped all in person appointments the following week on March 16th, but it was too late, in our 14 clinics we had 2 co-workers die from Covid-19. In my clinic alone there were 11 cases within our staff. I got sick on March 21st, and had what was diagnosed as pneumonia (although my doctor believes it was covid that hid in my lungs and was not detected by tests.) I couldn't breathe most nights and while quarantined at my friend's two bedroom apartment I found my fingers and toes turning blue and had a fever of 102 for over a week. My job was in chaos, half staff people working from home, and all essential staff coming in to report in person. Just two weeks after getting ill and still recovering from pneumonia I had to return to do in person care at the peak of NYs Covid-19 first wave. Due to a loss in funding we did not and still do not receive any hazard pay to come in. In my first two weeks back, my godfather's healthy mother died of covid, my high school best friend's mother Carolyn died of covid on March 28th and on April 6th her brother Thomas died on his 30th birthday. By May 1st I was still going to work every day and had lost 8 people in my life to Covid-19, such a high number that I still haven't come to terms with. I have recovered from my pneumonia and thankfully have now tested negative for covid 5 times since March, however the fear is still there if I were to get it from my in person patients. I had to stop doing doula work, which is a passion of mine. However there have been some positives to make things a little easier. I became a godmother. My client's baby is 6 months old and thriving. I'm fortunate to be employed during a time of such financial upheaval. I am also fortunate enough to be in therapy for my mental health which has suffered during this time. I hope this pandemic ends soon and wish no one will have to endure what I've had to go through.