THE ITEM I WILL BE SUBMITTING TALKS ABOUT THE COVID 19 IMPACT ON ME AND MY COMMUNITY(MY CHURCH)

Over the years my favorite part of life was hanging with people and saying hello and being with them. this could be walking driving or anything else that be a fun time. But due to COVID-19 meeting with people is not the smartest move. This did not hurt my friendships with my friends because most of my friends talk online and play video games online as well. So, my friends and I did not struggle in our relationship. the hardest struggle this pandemic had on me would be my relationship with my grandmother. She lives in a nursing home and knowing anything that the news has said is that nursing homes have been in lock downs. These lock downs are helpful for the residents that live in them but it has been almost a year since I have seen my grandmother. She has been alone for most of it due to her building having lots of cases she had to be in her room by herself for months. This strain of not being able to see her is not the best that came out of this and I worry for her all the time, but she is an iron will lady so I know she will be fine. The other relationships that have been hurt due to COVID-19 would be in the same house with my parents and sister. There is no doubt that I love my family, but it seems that since me and my sister have been in college, we have found our own ways to live life. It seems that both my sister and I have felt that our family is very pushy and that most of what my mom and dad do is still treating us as kids. this is due to our close quarters having but heads all the time. If there is an issue on someone doing something different chaos would erupt. It seems that both my sister and I are on the same page, but my parents are not really. Either on what we can do in or outside the house. So mainly what this pandemic has done for me is to put some tension on my relationships with my family but has left my friendships with normalcy. This pandemic is not welcomed and I would wish that it would go away but it seems that it is staying a little longer.

Towards the end of 2019 if some sort of fortune teller warned me that the COVID-19 pandemic was on its way and the faces of the world would become covered with masks indefinitely, I would tell them that they are crazy. The spring semester was picking up and the coronavirus had become public news in China for a month or two. One of my closest friends Zach was very interested in Chinese politics and current events. Ever since the first cases were being reported he had warned me that the world was going to change. (He was that fortune teller figure.) I remember us taking a trip to Aldi’s so he could stock up on the regular number of weekly groceries. However, he had quite a few cans and non-perishable goods in his cart. He told me he was stocking up for the lockdown that was about to come. Today he’s known as the man who saw it coming all along. After that night my fear of the unknown began to grow. I began telling my friends/classmates at Duquesne casually saying the word “coronavirus.” They thought I made it up or it was a prank. I explained to them that this outbreak may hit the U.S and affect the entire world. Classes were still in session but as cases started rising in the U.S, the fear of school closing became closer to a reality. Fast-forward to the first couple days of lockdown. I was becoming extremely overwhelmed adjusting to a new format of learning. I wanted nothing more than to see my friends and have them tell me that everything was going to be okay face to face. The days started merging together and my sense of time was gone. I tried my best to look for the positives but there really are none when the entire world is faced with a potentially life-threatening illness. As months started passing by, I had started to realize that the only thing that would keep me going is patience and a good attitude. Even in the current moment I still long to go to concerts or have big group gatherings with friends or family. A habit I started picking up is whenever I would watch movies or tv shows was pointing out that people were not wearing masks. That’s a scary thought knowing that masks have become an external part of our identity. Let’s look at the positives though! I became a lot closer with my best friend by playing Xbox with her. This was one of the only things that I looked forward to, so I played games with her almost every day. I also started playing the piano again after stopping when coming to college. A new hobby I picked up was making meals for my family which was something I found relaxing. I even dyed the front strands of my hair pink from the TikTok trend! All of these hobbies were new beginnings that I don’t think I would’ve initiated if it were not for being in quarantine. As each day goes by, I can only hope that we are closer to “normal” and that the coronavirus can be a thing of the past. I am blessed that my family and friends are in good health and that they stay in good health until the end of the pandemic is in sight.

The start of the semester was like that of any other except last semester I managed to secure an internship for the summer of 2020. Nursing school was already a difficult major to be in and I really didn’t think that it could get more difficult than that of junior year. I truly didn’t know what was to come. I will never forget being at clinical and hearing everyone mention the start of the virus. COVID-19 was on the backburner when it came to the most interesting topics of January 2020, but it would soon prove to be the most prominent in the upcoming months. I distinctly remember shadowing a nurse in the ICU one day and hearing the nurses discuss what was going to happen. “It doesn’t seem like it is coming here but trust me it is and when it does, we will need all the healthcare workers we can get.” This was a statement from one of the nurses that I will never forget hearing. At the time I didn’t fully believe the things that I were being rumored and didn’t think that we would ever be where we are today. As February and March arrived, COVID came to be part of everyone’s lives. Turning on the news, checking your timelines, and most day to day conversation held the topic of corona virus. Before we knew it, our lives changed completely. Our clinicals and classes were held remotely, you couldn’t leave your house without a mask, and we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to attend our internships. One thing that worried a lot of us was working while the virus cases began to spike. I knew that I would continue working as I was if not more than usual. Over the course of my internship I watched as COVID began to impact all the healthcare workers I was surrounded by. Safety precautions in the hospital setting were changing and at first, a lot of people were afraid to come in for their illnesses for fear of encountering a positive COVID patient. As time went on people became less and less afraid to come seek help at hospitals. With a large influx of patients coming in I could see nurses, aides, and doctors among others all begin to take the toll of the virus. This wasn’t necessarily due to exposure but more so that our exhaustion kicked in. Health care providers were and still are working countless hours to help in high census situations. The most frustrating aspect of quarantine has been watching people be noncompliant with mask requirements and stay at home orders. I wake up for work everyday and risk the wellbeing of everyone in my home including myself to help take care of those who need it. As the media has portrayed us as frontline workers, it felt slightly misleading while some of the public wasn’t contributing to lessen the blow of the ongoing problem. I started my internship to gain experience for my career. I didn’t know that I would grow accustomed to death and grief as fast as I have in the past year. COVID has shown me what it means to work hard and what struggles I can encounter in my career before I have even graduated and hold my diploma in hand. I currently work on the same unit I held my internship on as it has been converted into a COVID care unit. I go into work and experience exposure situations day by day but wouldn’t change my career for anything. The corona virus has taught me so much about what it means to be a nurse and take on healthcare as a career. In a few months as I graduate I will be prepared to take on whatever challenges it may have.

A group gathers to protest against social isolation rules of the COVID-19 pandemic in Edmonton, Alberta.

Senior year of high school my hometown friends and I all chose to go to schools in different states so when we all got sent home last March it felt strange to be back from our freshman year of college so soon, but still having to do classes completely online. About a month before college students got sent home, I joined a sorority called Sigma Kappa. These girls quickly became some of my best friends while I was still at Duquesne, and once covid-19 hit we still advanced our connections even further. Everything was shut down and online, including classes for my first time ever, and the social aspect of my life was confined to my immediate family in my house like the rest of the world. The majority of my time was either spent binging Netflix shows or spending time with my friends and family virtually through Facetime and Zoom. This became my own little paradise inside of my house in which I was sharing my experiences with the people in my life in my own area and comparing them to my friends experiences in other states. When my family started to drive me up the wall and I needed an escape, I would hop on Facetime with one of my friends from home or one of my new sisters in my sorority. Once the weather started to get warmer my friends and I followed the lead of the rest of the country’s friend groups by going to a parking lot and sitting in the trunks of our cars socially distanced to get some sort of in person contact. This activity became almost a daily occurrence to get out of our houses for a short drive and fresh air. At this point in the pandemic, I was beginning to go star crazy, and I will never forget hearing the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, announcing that quarantine will be extended even longer. I burst out in tears in my kitchen because all I wanted to do was hang out with my friends in a normal setting. As this was happening, I relied on my best friends virtually and spent multiple hours with them over Facetime talking it out and realizing that this will eventually come to an end and normal life will begin again soon. One of the biggest things I can take away from this part of quarantine is how much my friendships mean to me. I was not a huge fan of Facetime, but the pandemic has really made me realize how necessary it is for me to keep in contact with my friends to check up on them and have them check up on me, even in the future when normal times occur again. As terrible and heartbreaking covid-19 was and still is, my friends were truly an escape from reality for me through Facetimes, Zoom, and car circles. I believe that my friendships became even closer through this shared trauma of covid-19 and I couldn’t have gotten through lockdown without them.

Every year since I was a child I always looked to the holidays for multiple great reasons. When I was young of course the idea of getting presents always trumped the other great qualities that comes with Christmas. As I grew older, I started to appreciate what these holidays really meant to me. That is family, seeing everyone all together happy for a moment in time like nothing else mattered. When Covid hit now over a year ago it seemed like a bad dream that would pass in a few weeks, but a few weeks turned into a few months which turned it over a year now. When Christmas came around this year, we knew it was going to be different and that was okay with me. What really upset me was that I wouldn’t be able to see those I’m closest to and those I cherish my time with. I am mostly referring to my grandparents, on both sides of my family I have loving grandparents who are always a joy to see. In the last few years, I have come to appreciate every time I get to see them one because I love them but also because there could be only a handful of times left that I will get to see them. It is a morbid way to look at family, but one has to come to reality that family isn’t here forever, and this fact helps me appreciate family while they are here. Covid comes into play in this story because this year the virus separated us at a time when family should be together. It deeply upset me to not be able to make another unforgettable memory with my grandparents. What really hurt me was how I could imagine they were feeling about all this. At their age family is everything and they just want to be around everyone as they are getting older. So, we tried our best to all zoom in on Christmas eve and Christmas morning to try and make it as normal as every other year. Of course, it was not the same but with the technology we have today we were still able to share some great moments through the video cameras around the room. After we had the family zoom call I could tell my grandfather really just wanted to be here with all of us and that is a hard pill to swallow on a day like Christmas. I proceeded to call him and reassure him that with time this will all go away, and we will make up for this lost time that we have all suffered through. He told me through it all through world war 2, Vietnam war and the cold war that this pandemic was the hardest to overcome in his lifetime. Which puts into perspective that this is my first true struggle to go through and has seen to be one of the worst events in recorded history. If I look at the right way, it can only get better from here and I’m ready to make up for that lost time with my close family and friends.

Image from Macleans Magazine of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressing the nation at the beginning of the pandemic.

This is a collage of the various BLM protests across Canada from the summer of 2020. The images are (top row, left to right): Toronto, Chatham, Vancouver, Calgary and (bottom row, left to right): Montreal, Ottawa, Halifax

What I have submitted is important to me because I learned that I don't need a lot in life in order to be happy, but instead I have more than enough with the people that love and support me.

Video created by the Government of Canada urging the public to wear a mask so "one day we can go back to" travelling, getting together with friends and family, and eating at restaurants.

Image from an article in the McGill Reporter titled "COVID-19 pandemic uniting Canadians like no other event in decades".

Logo created for the COVID-19 Canada exhibit from students at the University of Western Ontario.

Along with COVID-19 came a spike in identity theft. These thieves then use the stolen information to apply for COVID-19 unemployment benefits. In some cases, the states try to get the victims to pay back the money given to the thief.

We all remember where we were on March 13th. That is the date that quarantine began, I remember sitting in my classroom and being told that we were going to be off for two weeks. At first, I was excited, a two-week break sounded like something I would love. I would have never expected this. I then found myself on April 12, 2020 celebrating the first holiday in quarantine. Easter was usually something pretty big in my family the whole family got together. We did baskets and candy was given out and we had a big dinner. However clearly because of the restrictions it was much different this year. It was only my mom, my two other sisters, and who spent the day together. However, my oldest sister, who is a nurse at a hospital had to spend it alone away from us to ensure the safety of her patients, herself, and us. we are a pretty close-knit family, so going through this experience was hard. Only being able to see my sister through our door or outside significantly distance apart was not the same. Staring through the window as we had conversations through our phones was not something, I thought I would ever experience. Not only, did I not get to see my sister, I did not get to see my Aunt, Uncle, cousins, and Grandma. We always spend Easter day with my mom’s side of her family. This probably was the first time in my entire life that I did not. this day was probably one of the hardest days in quarantine for me, because I really took in account that this is my life now. Easter is usually a time for happiness, celebration, and spending time with your family however this year it was filled of heartache and separation. As I sat down to my table that was set for only four, we put our computer at the end of the table to start the zoom call connecting my family together. We are all separated by miles apart, all in our own houses, yet we were together through this call. Having our dinner looking through a computer screen definitely was not expected. I am very grateful that my family has the technology to still talk to each other see each other's faces even if it is over screen. Something that I will never forget is when we were taking our traditional Easter photo. Usually, my three sisters and I all get together and take a happy picture. But this year we took the picture with my two other sisters and I inside and my sister who is the nurse on the outside of the door. That Easter in quarantine really made me realize what we took for granted. We simply took for granted each other's presence.

The news story is both an interview with a street artist in New York and an exploration of how street art has taken off in New York as a result of the pandemic. The artist and the article report that many businesses have boarded up their windows and vacated, leaving a lot of unattended public space for artists to occupy, especially for illegal graffiti. Not everyone supports the increase in graffiti and street art, as other residents complain about the graffiti-related crime and vandalism.

This Instagram post was made by the street artist Velvet Bandit of their work depicting a chemistry beaker with cartoon style viruses inside. The message, "A moment of science please," is a play on a well-known phrase "a moment of silence, please" that is used in gatherings to honor people that have died. Hundreds of thousands of people have died from the pandemic and this street art is making commentary on pandemic deniers.

This post is a picture of paste up of well known cartoon characters Tom and Jerry. Both are wearing masks and Jerry is telling Tom, "That's one meter!" in Italian.

This post was made by the street artist, Velvet Bandit, of their past up on a pole in Petaluma, California. The artwork is a cartoon virus with the message "Baby it's covid outside" over it.

This post is by the artist Velvet Bandit of their street art pasted on a pole. The work is a cartoon image of the virus with a text box reading, "Hide Yo Grandma."

This is an Instagram post of street art in Bexhill, East Sussex. The street art is a stencil of US President Trump as a nurse with an oversized syringe and the phrase, "DONT TRY AT HOME." This is a reference to comments made by Trump to try injecting bleach as a remedy for the coronavirus.

This article explores how street art expresses community sentiment in a public arena, as expressions of emotion, desire, creativity, and human rights.

This article quotes several street artists about how the pandemic has impacted their art and their messages. The direct quotes amplify their messages, although the street art speaks volumes in its public arena.

This article talks about street art around the world responding to the pandemic with satire, humor, political commentary, observation and expression. What stands out most with this article is the video interview of a street artist while he is completing a piece of art honoring frontline workers.

This article, written by Jana Fedtke for PopMatters, describes instances of worldwide street art as political critique and social engagement during the pandemic. Examples of street art shown include stencil work. The author explores the ways in which street art relay information about how government agencies have handled spreading information and health care and in turn, how street artists depict social engagement with pandemic procedures.

The year 2020 feels like a never-ending nightmare. January and February of 2020, were just like any other ordinary month. I was getting my life together, planning my year out. I had gotten a new job as a patient care technician, I was going to Japan in the summer, and was hoping to be a resident assistant at one of the abroad programs in the summer as well. I remember being in the student union waiting for Josh Peck to arrive as a guest star at Duquesne. My friend asked me about my trip to Japan and if I was still going. Thinking back to it, I wish I weren’t so naïve. I told my friend how I was not worried and that it should all be fine. I was not expecting the impact it would have to how the world functioned. As Spring Break came along, I began training for my job as a PCT. I was ready to start work but that was when we started to get information about universities around us closing. I thought it would be any day now that Duquesne would also follow. A week after we got back from break is when Duquesne finally decided to close. Once I got home, it took a while for me to adjust to the new teaching style. While doing so however, I also took on some new interest and hobbies. First, my family and I worked on a renovating my room. We built a new bed frame, painted my room, and redid all my furniture. At the same time, I started to cook and bake every single day. In all the craziness of online school and renovations, I found comfort in the kitchen and working out in my basement. I would always find some new recipe to try out and because of my excitement, I would spend most of my time of the day in the kitchen. While doing so, I found time to workout so that I did not gain COVID weight. I was lucky enough that my classes for spring semester was comparably easier than my past semesters. This helped in being able to continue my hobbies and do online school. Starting back Fall semester was another challenge I faced. It was the start of my senior year and it felt depressing. It was supposed to be an exciting year and I was ready to get involved more around campus. However, with the new policies set, I do not get to see my friends often, or ever. Classes are more difficult to follow along because of the hybrid system and while I am supposed to be getting ready to be a nurse in a year, my experience in clinicals are being reduced. In all the darkness that COVID brought however, I am hoping with the new vaccine that we will start moving towards a normal life again. I cannot wait for the day I can be with people without the concern of COVID.

For much of 2020, the thought of having fans at sports games seemed far off in the distance, especially considering the part where professional sports were cancelled altogether. However, thanks to the adjustments made toward the pandemic, in January 2021, I had the opportunity to attend a NFL Divisional Playoff game between the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens in Buffalo. It took the whole season but for the playoffs, Bills fans were finally going to be let in the stadium, even if it is only at about 10 percent capacity. The process to get tickets was brief, as the game was only confirmed to host fans less than a week beforehand. We got lucky, and my dad and I were able to get tickets. One of the requirements to attend the game, was to get a COVID 19 test on the Wednesday beforehand. The tests were done simply, and quickly with the results being sent to the patient the next day. I would have been more worried to test positive and miss the game however, I had COVID already a few months beforehand and the chances of getting it again are very low. We soon received our negative results, and it was time to prepare for the game. When we arrived at the stadium the day of the game, there were significant differences to the regular pregame scene. There was no one out tailgating, which would otherwise be done all day in preparation for the game. Entering the stadium was a bit different too, on top of presenting your tickets, everyone entering was required to provide their negative COVID-19 test results to security to enter. Once inside the stadium, the most notable changes are the complete lack of seating outside of the stadium bowl. Alongside this, concessions were more limited, walkways were marked for directional flow, and everyone was required to wear a mask at all times. In the bowl, the seats were mostly taped off, with openings where people purchased tickets in small groups of two to four seats. Despite the audience capacity being around only 10 percent, I was surprised at how loud the stadium got throughout the game, it did not get quite as loud as it does at full capacity, but it was a lot louder than you would expect from only seven thousand fans. Overall, the game experience was not ruined by covid, but I hope soon we can go back to not worrying about keeping a mask up while cheering at a sporting event.

We are approaching a year of dealing with COVID-19. Our little Presbyterian congregation has been worshipping by Zoom during this time. Zoom Palm Sunday; Zoom Easter; Zoom Advent and Christmas. We are preparing for Zoom Ash Wednesday as we live through our second COVID Lent. How do you do Ash Wednesday over Zoom? We will impose ashes on our households or by ourselves, as we hear “From dust you came, and to dust you shall return.” The PCUSA sent advice about what kinds of ashes are appropriate. Burned candle wicks, outdoor dirt, or even house dust were all deemed OK. This letter, with ashes from last year’s Palm Sunday palms, came from one of the church elders. It speaks to the longevity of the pandemic and its disruption. It also speaks of all the little things that individuals have done to keep our traditions in some form and keep our community connected to each other and to our communal rituals.

Many are criticizing provinces plan's to continue to open up as Covid-19 variants are springing up throughout the country. Places like Quebec have begun to reopen businesses such as museums, malls, and hair salons while having a curfew in place. Newfoundland is facing a current surge with a variant strain.

poem The world was fine, Because we were all able to physically intertwined. We were able to roam the streets freely, Walk the park carelessly, Praise in church effortlessly, And enter our homes easily. For the past year, Livelihood has been invaded by a monster called covid-19. The WHO has declared a world pandemic. New protocols in place in order to win drastically. We are told to stay indoors, Wash our hands frequently and wear a mask when outdoors. No more social gathering, visiting friends or family. Life has become a solitary If we disobey, The monster virus will lend our life journey. Thousands have been killed and millions affected. It attacks the human lungs, That makes breathing feel like misery. Compared to the flu, It makes one sneeze and cough, With unbearable body pain. We just got to keep praying that God keeps and protects us during this time. Despite the introduction of a weapon vaccine to take control. The frustration, anxiety and fear kicks in daily. Still wondering when will life return to normalcy.

IMPEACHMENT TRIAL, CONSTITUTIONALITY?

COUNTRY DIVIDED

BLACK HISTORY MONTH, QUOTES

San Francisco school board erases school names

BIDEN CANCELS PROGRAMS

REPUBLICAN INTRAPARTY PROBLEMS

Biden as the great unifier?

This Year of the Ox is coming in much differently than the Year of the Rat. Last year, with the smallest shadow cast over the new year with news of a SARS type virus spreading through China, we were still able to celebrate normally, and thought those who had taken to wearing masks were exaggerating the seriousness of the disease. We had new year’s dinner with family, the kids wore their traditional outfits to school and fed red envelopes to the lion dancers, the city held their annual parade, and we even celebrated at Disneyland’s California Adventure, with local community groups coming in to perform and celebrate. Whether you say “新年快乐,” “Chúc Mừng Năm Mới,” or simply “Happy New Year,” Lunar New year is a huge celebration in our community and that celebration certainly isn’t happening in the same way this year. However, even though it’s tempting to focus on the fact that we’re sequestered at home and are physically separated from family, friends, and big celebrations, there is much optimism with the hope of the vaccine. All day, my phone’s been buzzing with new year messages, most of which end with “may the new year bring better tidings” or “may this new year bring much health.” Even talking to my in-laws for the new year today had an extra sense of joy, because they shared they are getting their second dose of the vaccine on Thursday. With light at the end of the tunnel, we are able to talk for the first time about maybe being able to see each other in person by the spring. When my son played piano for them virtually, I imagined it won’t be too long until these FaceTime visits will be replaced by the real thing. So here’s to the new year - may we all see health and peace.

When my daughter's birthday arrived this past summer, we realized any in person party was out of the question. Trying to think of what we could possibly do, we reached out to our friend, a part-time artist, and asked if she would mind hosting a virtual painting party for our daughter and three of her friends to do over Zoom. Our friend was amazing, leading the girls in painting a Captain America shield. She made my daughter's birthday quarantine memorable and fun. Three months later, and desperate for ways to make our virtual Girl Scout meetings exciting, I asked if she would consider leading our girls in earning their "Drawing" badge. Not only was she excited, she went above and beyond. Her husband, who does tech work for films (including the Mandalorian) set her up with various camera angles she could toggle back and forth through. She didn't just have the girls copy a picture, she taught them about all the different tools, how to shade, different techniques. Honestly, I learned a lot myself! Though she did this out of the kindness of her heart, I seriously think she should make a career out of this! She was amazing with the girls, they LOVED the meeting and talked about not only how much they learned, but how helpful and patient our special guest teacher was. She really should start an art for kids YouTube channel. One of the greatest things that has come out of this pandemic is the willingness of people to assist and support one another, and use their talents in ways that they may not have thought of before.

The one thing people seem to know about Girl Scouts is they sell cookies. What people don't know is that the profit from the cookie sales is how troops pay for their activities and service projects. My daughter has loved selling cookies since she started Girl Scouts in kindergarten. For the past three years, she has sold over 1,000 boxes a year, which is a crazy amount of cookies to sell! Of course, having a mom who has an entire high school student body to sell to, and a dad who has an entire college campus to sell to doesn't hurt. This year, both her parents are working virtually, which means her customer pool has shrunk considerably. The Girl Scouts, knowing how important cookie sales are to the girls, moved the sale online. To try and drum up sales, my daughter created an online sales pitch to send to friends and family, and post on our social media along with her personalized link to sell her cookies. We are all completely shocked that she has managed to sell over 500 boxes through this platform. I am so proud of her, and all our girls who have worked to achieve their two profit goals: first, to buy supplies and fund activities for another troop in our area that is run out of a local rescue mission and serves girls experiencing homelessness, and second, to go horseback riding.

When our Girl Scout troop transitioned online in the spring, we never foresaw the entire year being online. When my best friend/co-leader and I made the calendar in the summer, we originally made it through the end of 2020, thinking that by January we’d be back in person. I guess that shows how short sighted humans can be, a virus doesn’t run on a calendar, so it was silly to think things would be dramatically different without widespread access to a vaccine. So here we are in 2021, pushing through every other week. It has been really great to maintain the normalcy of meeting together, though. All the girls are either going to school on a hybrid (half the week in person, half at home) schedule or a full distance learning schedule, so it’s just nice to have the regular interaction with each other just like they did before quarantine. This also was a perfect opportunity to give the girls increased ownership of the troop. Now that they’re in fourth grade, we have made leadership roles, so the girls are responsible for different parts of the meeting. This takes the pressure off me for having to fill two hours on Zoom in a way that is fun and meaningful and doesn’t feel like school! I absolutely love seeing their creativity in making up games, activities, snacks, and issues/problems in our community they want to help fix. There also are some girls who used to be passive who have really loved this platform and have really stepped into being leaders. I am, however, running low on badges they want to earn that are easy to do over Zoom. The one shared here ended up pretty fun. To earn the “Simple Meals” badge, the girls worked in virtual groups to make different breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals. Then they basically did their own cooking show by walking the other girls through making whatever the dish was. Bonus - everyone was nice and full by the end! I miss my girls terribly, but we are so fortunate to be able to have the girls continue to meet, share, and support each other while we patiently wait for the cases to decrease.

This year, my daughter’s Girl Scout troop, like every other troop in the country, has moved their cookie sales online. Even cookie pick up is strange this year. Instead of having families come by and pick up cookies to sell, I leave the cookies on the porch with the receipt and wave through the window. When my best friend (and co-leader) came with her daughter to pick up cookies, we chatted through the window and took a picture to save the bizarre moment. I mentioned that when another family from the troop came to get cookies, I almost didn’t recognize the girl because she had gotten so tall. My best friend then had the genius idea to take a picture of her daughter by my front door. She said I should take a picture of my daughter so we could compare their heights, as they have been the same size their entire lives. And then she said a statement that shocked me: “I mean, it’ll be a year next month since they’ve actually stood next to each other.” I guess since my best friend and I text almost every day, and have seen each other over Zoom, I hadn’t processed how truly long it has been since we’ve all been physically together. I met my best friend when I was 11, we were college roommates, married guys we were all in the same friend group with in college, had our first kids exactly six months apart from each other, our second kids two months apart from each other, and live 15 minutes away from each other. We have been lock step since we were kids, so not seeing each other for almost a year is insane. As the picture shows, our daughters are still basically the same height, so even apart, we're still lock step. Still, hoping we’ll be able to be together again before the girls grow anymore!

An unexpected benefit of quarantining for the past eleven months is my son has become quite the pianist. Since we’re always home, he wanders to the piano often to play his pieces - during recess, lunch, waiting for his sister to be done with whatever she is working on. Honestly, because he has endless practice time he has advanced much quicker than he would have if life were normal. His teacher and he share a dry and quirky sense of humor. My son’s favorite part of the week is when "Mr. Carl" calls for their virtual lesson. Carl noticed early into quarantine that the way the phone sits on the piano makes his picture reflect in painting on the wall. He told my son he is always watching him, and it has become their inside joke. When we put up Christmas decorations, the painting was temporarily replaced. Being a creative and funny guy, Carl photoshopped himself into the decoration and texted it to me to share with my son. Now after every single lesson, Carl texts me a picture of where he is that week. Carl’s positivity, consistency, and continued high expectations have helped my son thrive and I am so thankful for him.

When I first heard of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was entering my third quarter of my senior year at Berks Catholic High School. I initially took this as an extended Easter break, finding what opportunities I could find before my inevitable return to school. Except I didn't return to school, no student did. I actually visited Duquesne University to find out more information on March 13th as students were moving out; nothing could prepare us for what was to come of this pandemic. During the last two weeks of March I did as any teenager would do during an extending break off school- absolute shenanigans. I got extremely into urban exploration (essentially exploring abandoned buildings) and loved finding these forgotten pieces of history around Pennsylvania. My friends and I would often go to the local skatepark and make acquaintance with fourteen-year-old teenage boys, as we hardly knew how to skate. About a week after the beginning of this break, I decided the best course of action would be to visit my friend Parker who lives on the other side of Pennsylvania. After driving four hours across the state, we began our beautiful adventure. From hiking, exploring abandoned places, and almost getting arrested, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Western Pennsylvania. Following this, I had the opportunity to pick up my now-girlfriend and take her across state lines to Maryland. She had never tried Wawa, which I deemed an indescribable experience and finding out the closest one was in Maryland, of course I decided that going there past midnight was the best decision. It was probably the best decision I had made all year as I am still with her, even through this pandemic. Returning home I had received the news that we were not to return to school. This sent me into a very confused mindset as I was unsure of what was to come. Then came spirals of misinformation and political divide of what this virus truly was. This was no help to the nation, let alone those of us at home who had no control over what was going on. It was April now, online school had begun for my high school- I did not attend a singular zoom class. A little over a month had passed and the nation came under racial turmoil after the killing of George Floyd. I was a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement and had attending multiple protests. The most notable of these protests came to be the "D.C. Blackout". The night of May 31st, 2020 was that like none-other. I contacted my friend from Harrisburg earlier that day and asked her if she would travel to D.C. with me to participate in the protest; we had no idea what we were going into. We arrived in the D.C. area around 9:30 that evening, what turned to a night of complete anarchy. I have never seen or felt anything like I did that night and do not have the necessary words to describe what truly happened that night, or how some of the protesters that were arrested are still missing to this day. Three days following the blackout, I graduated high school. This was not your typical high school graduation with a huge ceremony filled with friends and relatives; this was a drive through by homeroom. Quite anticlimactic if you ask me. My life continued on after this and I now find myself in the midst of my spring semester at Duquesne University (pandemic still occurring of course). Mere words can not describe the true feelings and experiences I have gone through in the past year, I just ask that eventually this country ties up its loose ends.

On March 13th, the day after my birthday, I had treated myself to finally getting my septum pierced after wanting that piercing for months beforehand. Little did I know then that I would be almost the only one that has seen it in person since then. Two days after that, we had received an email from our university’s administration informing us that we would be allowed to leave school and continue classes online at home if we felt unsafe at school as concerns of the virus got bigger and louder with each passing day. The writing was on the wall; Duquesne University was going to be closing down. That email would come on the car ride back home an hour after me and my sister had already left campus. Once the semester was over and summer began, even with our own specific set of challenges, I actually feel my family was surprisingly equipped to handle the new world we were thrust into. Both of my parents are severely disabled; my mother has not been physically able to work for years and my father recently had to give up his floor cleaning services once his health gave out. As a family, we’ve found that we are much stronger together, and we “make it work” as they say. My mom did have a little fun in responding to our physically healthy friends and family talking about being trapped in their house for months on end with “Welcome to the club, you get used to it.” She was always (mostly) joking, of course, but I do think there is some truth to this joke. I grew up with a mom who rapidly succumbed to multiple debilitating chronic disorders, and that kind of circumstance opens your eyes to different experiences than many of your peers who did not experience the same. Listening to the words of more people than I can count who thought being disabled was all about staying home and collecting a check have now maybe had their opinions changed based on this new perspective, I hope so at least. This all being said, I also have to acknowledge the privilege I have in having a socially stable homelife. I personally know more than a few friends from school who had genuine, serious concerns for their mental or physical wellbeing when we were told everyone had to return home. I try to remember every day not to take what I have for granted. If the plague year has taught me anything, it is that I have a lot to be grateful for.

COVID-19 The Good, The Bad, and The Deadly…. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck I was in the spring semester of my second year of nursing school. Being naïve and not having experienced a pandemic before, I expected COVID-19 to breeze in and out like the flu every year. What I didn’t expect was a deadly virus that would leave behind it a path of death, despair, and devastation. One of the biggest areas in my life that was impacted by COVID was my education. As classes moved to virtual platforms there was a major learning curve for both students and professors. CDC guidelines and social distancing made it difficult to find areas on campus to study and next to impossible to study in groups. My friends and I worried about our lack of clinical experiences and how that was going to impact our future. Since I had virtually no clinical hours during my specialty rotations, not only was I unsure of my skills, I was also unsure of where I wanted to take my nursing career. Returning to work over winter break was also very challenging. I am a patient care assistant and medication technician at an assisted living facility. All throughout the summer I worked with the threat of COVID looming above my head like a dark cloud. It was the first time in my life that I felt people really depended on me. I understood that my actions impacted the health of others. Fortunately, my residents all remained safe. However, I was not prepared for my return a few months later. The residents were no longer allowed to have visitors and they started testing positive for COVID. At one point we started to run low on personal protective equipment, but we were still trying to take all the precautions that we could to keep us and our residents safe. It was heart breaking to be the one holding a residents hand as they passed away due to coronavirus. My job became a lot more difficult having to communicate with families and watching their final moments with their loved ones. The residents that were lucky enough to not contract the virus were lonely and couldn’t understand why they had to quarantine. They felt abandoned and afraid. It was a very trying time for all my coworkers since we were all working overtime due to our staffing shortages. Working overtime was both physically and mentally draining. Even on my days off I was called in because staff members were getting sick and were unable to come in. It was mentally exhausting because every day I would come in to work and be nervous to walk in to report and see who had passed in the hours I was gone. COVID-19 also brought about some remarkable changes. I have spent a lot more time with my family as we have discovered our new passion-hiking. My co-workers and I have a new appreciation for one another and take the time to have meals together and support one another to make sure we are doing okay mentally. I have been part of innovative changes like my COVID-19 remote patient monitoring job and positive experiences at the COVID vaccine clinic. I have seen the medical and scientific communities collaborate on treatment guidelines and the development of a vaccine. It has also been an incredible period for change and innovation.

The way covid has affected me has been through seeing my family in Canada. Each year my family travels from Akron Ohio to Ontario Canada so we can see my mom's family. My dad's side lives in Akron so we see them a lot, but it is hard to travel to see my family in Canada sometimes. Covid just made it that much harder. Clearly traveling up there in the middle of the epidemic in the spring would be a bad idea so that already took away one of our three trips out of the year. Then halfway through the summer before we were thinking about going up to our cottage the borders shut down. That really put a damper on things because now two of our trips were cancelled. At this point it has been a little over a year since I have seen my family and that is unprecedented in my lifetime. Finally, as Christmas was approaching, we had hopes that covid would be handled by then, but the borders remained closed and the cases and deaths kept rising. This was upsetting because I was looking forward to seeing my family at least once in 2020 and those dreams collapsed. When we go up to see my family at Christmas time it normally starts off as the first few days are catching up with each other. I love to tell them my stories and they all love to hear them. We then proceed to relax the next few days by going out to lunches with everyone and then making dinner at someone's house. Things can get pretty wild once the people of age start drinking. We have had many karaoke nights along with pool parties and barbecues during the spring. They may not go smoothly, but everyone ends up having a great time. I miss goofing around with my cousins who are all younger than me by one to 8 years, so I always am the leader of the group and decide what fun we get up to every night. Often times we end up chilling in their basement listening to music and telling stories after everyone starts to go to bed. Then on Christmas we wake up to a big breakfast and start opening up family gifts. After all the gifts are open it's time for lunch and to start partying again. We then proceed to get dinner ready and then after dinner we go right back to partying. We normally stay another two days and then leave. All in all it is a really relaxing experience and a chance to get away from the world. It really sucks that covid ended up taking that away from me.

In March 2020, my life would change drastically, as I was just turning nineteen, but also entering one of the craziest pandemics the world has ever seen. It was not just my life that would change. My family, friends, and millions of people all over the world were affected by the deadly COVID-19. Because it is such a deadly virus, people were forced to go into lockdown and isolate themselves from one another. During this time, it got much lonelier in life as there was not as many people around. Many people were sad by this; however, I took it as an opportunity to look at myself and truly focus on what I needed to do to improve. There was less outside noise, so more of my energy was directed to my schoolwork that needed to be done which boosted my grades over the course of a few months. Also, working out is a great passion of mine and I was able to get more physically fit as I had more free time. However, it was hard because all of the gyms were closed, and I had to find an alternate route to reach my goals. In the basement, I had some rusty dumbbells that I am grateful that I was able to put to great use. It was enough for the chest, back, arms, shoulders, and legs that I was so focused on training at least. This situation was great to prepare for my life because I was faced with a minor inconvenience and set out to overcome it through strategic perseverance. This pandemic taught me that if you want something bad enough, you can attain it through determination and hard work. While I never saw many friends during the first lockdown, I was spending even more time with my immediate family. While I usually would have been at college, the pandemic gave me the opportunity to get closer to my parents and siblings. We made time for evening walks, family game nights, family meals, and also various other movies and activities we would love to participate in. At first, I did not know what to expect when I we were asked to move off of campus due to COVID-19. While there was a great deal of hardship that the pandemic brought upon the world and my family and friends, is gave me the chance to find myself and grow as a person, which I will always be grateful for.

During the pandemic, I have noticed that my local Starbucks drive-thru lines are still long, maybe even longer than before. Even during odd hours, like 5-6pm, when people are usually eating dinner. This has been happening even before companies stopped doing work from home. I wonder if some of the people in the lines are bored teenagers like me who just want something to do, and maybe a little social interaction. It could also have to do with TikTok, where people share their favorite Starbucks orders. It seems like every week there is a new Starbucks trend that people have to try. It is interesting to see how the pandemic has affected consumer behavior.

Coronavirus hit the United States during my senior year, and it made things very difficult. No one was really worried about coronavirus at the beginning of 2020, but when March hit people started to realize that coronavirus was more serious. March 12, 2020 was my last day of in-person high school and I had no idea. I did not get to go to the actual last day of in-person high school because I had a respiratory infection at the time. Halfway through the day on March 13, 2020, is when they decided to close all schools in the U.S. for two weeks. All of the kids in my grade thought it was only going to last two weeks and then we would be back in school to finish the year, but that didn’t happen. After the two weeks off, they gave an extra couple of days off to figure out how to change completely to online learning. We ended up finishing the year online and although my classes got easier, my life got so much harder. I am an essential worker that works for a long-term care facility and when I was not doing school or schoolwork, I would be at my job doing as much as I possibly could to keep my residents fed and safe. I had a lot on my plate at the beginning of the pandemic with balancing school and work and trying to figure out how to still have a social life while staying in my house. I also had to be very careful with whatever I did because I needed to protect my parents who are sixty years old and seventy years old and also protect my residents who are mostly sixty or older. Since I was so busy working and doing school nothing hit me until May when the school decided to cancel prom and graduation. This hit me hard because I worked so hard for twelve years to now get nothing. I worked so hard to have all A’s in middle school and high school and be on the honor roll all of those years to not even get to celebrate my achievement. I had one night when I was thinking about all of it and I ended up having an anxiety attack and crying to my sister all night because I was so upset with how I was ending my senior year. I eventually got over it and starting college was such a weird experience it’s been so hard to make friends with people and we haven’t been able to have normal college experiences. Now that it is almost a year after the schools closed there are now two vaccines out and I have been able to receive both rounds of it because of my work, but there are still so many that need to receive the vaccine and we still have a long time before we return to normal.