Item
Collin Mullen Oral History, 2020/09/19
Media
Title (Dublin Core)
Collin Mullen Oral History, 2020/09/19
Description (Dublin Core)
Collin Mullen talks about his displacement from college in the spring and how his daily life has changed.
Recording Date (Dublin Core)
09/19/2020
Creator (Dublin Core)
Juliet Bussell
Collin Mullen
Type (Dublin Core)
Interview
Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)
English
Education--Universities
English
Labor
English
Emotion
Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)
work
pandemic
school
Cambridge
student
Boston
mask
Date Submitted (Dublin Core)
09/21/2020
Date Modified (Dublin Core)
11/17/2020
04/14/2021
05/24/2022
Date Created (Dublin Core)
09/19/2020
Interviewer (Bibliographic Ontology)
Juliet Bussell
Interviewee (Bibliographic Ontology)
Collin Mullen
Location (Omeka Classic)
Cambridge
Massachusetts
United States of America
Format (Dublin Core)
audio
Language (Dublin Core)
english
Duration (Omeka Classic)
00:07:29
Transcription (Omeka Classic)
Juliet Bussell 00:03
This is Juliet Bussell here with interviewing Collin Mullen for the history archives project. It is 11:25am on Saturday, September 19 2020. Collin, do you consent to this recording this interview?
Collin Mullen 00:23
I do.
JB 00:28
Okay. So what is a little background on where you're from? What's your normal life, day to day life? Like?
CM 00:39
I'm so I am from Cambridge, Massachusetts. It's where I'm living right now. Currently, I'm staying with my family. And day to day, you know, I've been in classes since this all went down through the was the spring semester. And then I did summer one and two, now finishing up for the fall. So that's most of my time. And then otherwise, I just work at a at a bar.
JB 01:18
Okay. And how did the pandemic change your daily life when this first started?
CM 01:25
Um, so I guess the biggest thing was just the classes immediately just shut down. And there is just, you know, some kind of shut out from people for at least a couple of weeks. And then, yeah, things were just really slow, for a couple of months, probably three months, until I was able to get back into work. But, um, yeah, day to day, I guess, just a lot less contact with, like, you know, my friends and stuff face to face, and things like that. Which is, you know, a lot more caution and how I'm going about my life.
JB 02:12
And how did you cope with those changes?
CM 02:18
Um, I guess. I feel like I don't know, I just kind of rolled with the punches. I'm probably not any better or worse than the average person. It wasn't, you know, wasn't the greatest time but you know, it was only a couple months. So it was only just in the last maybe, you know, month or so. But I've really started, you know, getting stir crazy with all the changes that I've made. But, you know, in the immediate aftermath. Yeah. Just just kind of going with the flow. Hoping that things get better at some point.
JB 03:11
Yeah. Were you surprised at all about the level of caution or the lack of caution of people rounding?
CM 03:20
So I think, you know, in Cambridge, where I'm from, I was, you know, pretty happy with how people, you know, we're really serious about wearing masks, and, you know, all of that. So that was, you know, encouraging. I guess I was kind of surprised when I actually went back to work. Where we're requiring that customers like wear masks, and there was some kind of pushback from them on that. That was kind of surprising. But um, I mean, I guess like, deep down, I kind of understand where they're coming from, but because, like, you know, they're going to be eating kind of a mask on and you're eating but I don't know, I feel like a lot of it's just kind of like a almost symbolic show of like, solidarity that
JB 04:20
Yeah
CM 04:21
they care about other people, we care about them.
JB 04:25
And taking on that note, how is your community affected? And what changes? Did you notice?
CM 04:35
Um, so I think Cambridge was had relatively high rates. We had some people there was like a Biogen conference. towards the beginning of all this was a super spreader event. We had some people that lived in Cambridge, that works there. So, I guess, you know, the infection rates were, I guess, kind of high, relatively Cambridge. And then I guess the other major change is there's been a lot of like, kind of hard to explain. They're called shared streets in Cambridge, just to try to encourage people to get out, you know, do exercise, though. They just kind of lined the streets with like, traffic cones and everything. So cars can't go that fast. And they give like, you know, half the streets to pedestrians, which, you know, I'm all for in a time like this. There's a lot less traffic out. So you might as well let people use that space. So that was one good change in my community as well.
JB 05:52
And it's actually being so high in your community. Do you know many people who would go down the virus?
CM 06:01
Yeah, I actually don't know anybody to go. Yeah. Which is kind of surprising.
JB 06:10
And going through this whole pandemic, how has your perspective changed from the beginning until now?
CM 06:19
Um, I guess that I would say, the biggest change, in my perspective, it's probably been, like, you know, how, like, a group effort can kind of go a long way. Like, if everybody was wearing masks this entire time, and like, actually, social distancing, we probably would be in better shape than we are now. Not saying that we're in, you know, as bad a shape as we were at the beginning. But I just feel like if, maybe, if it wasn't such like a polarizing issue that got tied in, with, like, you know, politics and everything, that this whole thing could have been handled a lot better. And, uh, you know, maybe for future things like this. This could be a good example.
JB 07:23
Okay, well, that's it. Thanks, Colin.
CM 07:26
Great. Thank you.
This is Juliet Bussell here with interviewing Collin Mullen for the history archives project. It is 11:25am on Saturday, September 19 2020. Collin, do you consent to this recording this interview?
Collin Mullen 00:23
I do.
JB 00:28
Okay. So what is a little background on where you're from? What's your normal life, day to day life? Like?
CM 00:39
I'm so I am from Cambridge, Massachusetts. It's where I'm living right now. Currently, I'm staying with my family. And day to day, you know, I've been in classes since this all went down through the was the spring semester. And then I did summer one and two, now finishing up for the fall. So that's most of my time. And then otherwise, I just work at a at a bar.
JB 01:18
Okay. And how did the pandemic change your daily life when this first started?
CM 01:25
Um, so I guess the biggest thing was just the classes immediately just shut down. And there is just, you know, some kind of shut out from people for at least a couple of weeks. And then, yeah, things were just really slow, for a couple of months, probably three months, until I was able to get back into work. But, um, yeah, day to day, I guess, just a lot less contact with, like, you know, my friends and stuff face to face, and things like that. Which is, you know, a lot more caution and how I'm going about my life.
JB 02:12
And how did you cope with those changes?
CM 02:18
Um, I guess. I feel like I don't know, I just kind of rolled with the punches. I'm probably not any better or worse than the average person. It wasn't, you know, wasn't the greatest time but you know, it was only a couple months. So it was only just in the last maybe, you know, month or so. But I've really started, you know, getting stir crazy with all the changes that I've made. But, you know, in the immediate aftermath. Yeah. Just just kind of going with the flow. Hoping that things get better at some point.
JB 03:11
Yeah. Were you surprised at all about the level of caution or the lack of caution of people rounding?
CM 03:20
So I think, you know, in Cambridge, where I'm from, I was, you know, pretty happy with how people, you know, we're really serious about wearing masks, and, you know, all of that. So that was, you know, encouraging. I guess I was kind of surprised when I actually went back to work. Where we're requiring that customers like wear masks, and there was some kind of pushback from them on that. That was kind of surprising. But um, I mean, I guess like, deep down, I kind of understand where they're coming from, but because, like, you know, they're going to be eating kind of a mask on and you're eating but I don't know, I feel like a lot of it's just kind of like a almost symbolic show of like, solidarity that
JB 04:20
Yeah
CM 04:21
they care about other people, we care about them.
JB 04:25
And taking on that note, how is your community affected? And what changes? Did you notice?
CM 04:35
Um, so I think Cambridge was had relatively high rates. We had some people there was like a Biogen conference. towards the beginning of all this was a super spreader event. We had some people that lived in Cambridge, that works there. So, I guess, you know, the infection rates were, I guess, kind of high, relatively Cambridge. And then I guess the other major change is there's been a lot of like, kind of hard to explain. They're called shared streets in Cambridge, just to try to encourage people to get out, you know, do exercise, though. They just kind of lined the streets with like, traffic cones and everything. So cars can't go that fast. And they give like, you know, half the streets to pedestrians, which, you know, I'm all for in a time like this. There's a lot less traffic out. So you might as well let people use that space. So that was one good change in my community as well.
JB 05:52
And it's actually being so high in your community. Do you know many people who would go down the virus?
CM 06:01
Yeah, I actually don't know anybody to go. Yeah. Which is kind of surprising.
JB 06:10
And going through this whole pandemic, how has your perspective changed from the beginning until now?
CM 06:19
Um, I guess that I would say, the biggest change, in my perspective, it's probably been, like, you know, how, like, a group effort can kind of go a long way. Like, if everybody was wearing masks this entire time, and like, actually, social distancing, we probably would be in better shape than we are now. Not saying that we're in, you know, as bad a shape as we were at the beginning. But I just feel like if, maybe, if it wasn't such like a polarizing issue that got tied in, with, like, you know, politics and everything, that this whole thing could have been handled a lot better. And, uh, you know, maybe for future things like this. This could be a good example.
JB 07:23
Okay, well, that's it. Thanks, Colin.
CM 07:26
Great. Thank you.
This item was submitted on September 21, 2020 by Juliet Bussell using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: http://mail.covid-19archive.org/s/archive
Click here to view the collected data.