My dad was diagnosed with cancer in November of 2019 and it came as a shock to all off us. He started chemotherapy in February of 2020, and a as a result of his treatment his immune system was becoming weak. My dad continued to get better but the issue became about his immune system and covid. Covid-19 became a big issue for the United States in March so my family was very worried about getting sick for my dad since his immune system was getting weaker. As a result of this, my family and I did not go out and see other people CDC guidelines would be violated. This meant none of my siblings and I could ever truly hangout with our friends over the entire summer and Christmas break. Some people were violating Covid restrictions and stay at home orders, however, we could not because my family and I could not take the risk of getting my dad sick. While our friends were all hanging out we could not go because the risk wasn't worth the potential outcome of getting our dad sick. Even after some of the covid restrictions got lifted towards the end of 2020 I could still not go out because my dad could not get sick. This picture represents what me and my family would do since we could not hang out with our friends or extended family. We would play board games and would do trivia with our extended family. This was not ideal for me and my siblings because we wanted to hang out with our friends, but we knew we could not. Many families endured this over the course of this pandemic. Even just seeing your grandparents was hard to do because they are old and cannot get sick with covid. Many families including mine sacrificed seeing their other family because it was too big of a risk to see them and potentially get covid. This picture is an important representation of my covid experience because it brought me and my family closer together during a hard time. We spent a lot more time playing games and just hanging out with each other over the several months we were home from school.

When the world went on the first lockdown on March 12, 2020, it caught everybody by surprise. I woke up that day in New York City and went to practice to prepare for our basketball game later that night. We found out around noon that the whole tournament, along with pretty much every sporting event in the world, was cancelled. We flew back to Pittsburgh a few hours later and from there I drove home to Northwest Ohio, which is the last place I expected to be at that time. It was such a surreal feeling to watch the whole world shut down and know that life as we knew it wouldn’t be the same for a long time. I was really looking forward to the spring semester and spending a lot of time with 3 of my best friends whose last semester it would be at Duquesne. I came to the sad realization that I wouldn’t get to have that time with them and I’ve only gotten to see them once since everything went down. With everybody being on edge because the virus was such a new thing and we didn’t know much about it, I also didn’t get to see my hometown friends for a while. It was just my parents, brother and I at home. It seemed uneventful and monotonous at times but looking back on it, I really enjoyed that time I had with my family because I am at school during the summer semester and usually don’t get to come home much during the school year. The picture attached is from one of the best memories of the quarantine when my dad, brother, and I went on a trip to our family cabin in Michigan. We haven’t had time like that to ourselves since I left for college and it really brought us closer together. I also got to spend a lot of time alone, which is something I don’t usually do and had to learn how to do. This is another reason I am thankful for the lockdown because I learned a lot not only about other people, but about myself as well. I revisited some old passions of mine, like making art and music. It was nice to be able to really relax and come back to the things that I was into as a little kid. This alone time allowed me to do a lot of self-reflection as well and helped me realize what I am doing right and wrong in all aspects of my life. I had always thought about playing professional basketball, but over this time I realized that it is a goal that I want to put all my effort into achieving. I had to reassess my habits, which pushed me to work really hard to get into the best shape of my life over the quarantine. I knew I needed to take advantage of the time because I was just coming off of a serious knee injury that I wasn’t fully recovered from. I ended up accomplishing a lot of the goals I had set over the lockdown and I stayed disciplined with my diet and workouts and this helped me learn a lot about myself. Some of the things that still stick with me might sound cliche, but they are true: be thankful for every day, be better than you were the day before, and stay patient through frustrating times. Overall, I am thankful for the time I was able to spend both alone and with family through this pandemic and those memories and lessons will stick with me forever.

Relief was what I felt when I received my covid vaccine. I felt even more relief when my 21-year-old daughter was able to receive her vaccine since she would not have been able to have gotten vaccinated until early summer. My first vaccine appointment was at 12:30 in the morning, and my daughter rode along with me to keep me company since I had to drive to State Farm Stadium. As we exited the freeway to go to the stadium, the parking lot where the vaccines were being administered could be seen, and I was surprised that it looked relatively vacant of vehicles. When we reached the parking lot, we were directed to follow the signs and pull up to the first checkpoint, where a person verified I had an appointment. At the second checkpoint, a person scanned in my appointment and asked if my passenger had an appointment as well. I told the person “no,” and they said, “we have had a lot of people not show up tonight for their vaccination, so if your passenger would like to get vaccinated, they are welcome to do so.” I immediately accepted the offer for my daughter to get her vaccination, and we were directed to another spot where she could fill out her paperwork for getting a shot. Once my daughter completed her paperwork, we were sent to wait in a line where the vaccines were administered, and after a five-minute wait, we had our first vaccine. After we had our shots, we were directed to wait in a line of cars for fifteen minutes to ensure we did not have any adverse reactions to the vaccination. While waiting for the fifteen minutes, an individual came to our vehicle and scheduled our second vaccination appointment, which was a huge relief since going through the computer system the state had established was cumbersome. What was surprising to my daughter and me was that while we waited during that fifteen-minute time frame, a nurse came by to ask us how we were feeling. We both said we were okay and stated we were surprised that we could get through the vaccine process so quickly and how there were so few cars. The nurse told us that many people were skipping out of their appointsments out of fear of rumored side effects from the vaccine, which was why there was extra serum for individuals like my daughter, who had ridden along. So I had the right schedule for the right night for my daughter to ride along. And now my whole household has been inoculated, which is a relief after three times of being in quarantine. Whew!

Since I can remember, I have always been a very nervous and anxious person. On my first day of second grade, I couldn’t even bring myself to leave my mom, and usually kids grow out of that stage when they go off to kindergarten. Throughout all of grade school, and my freshman and sophomore year of high school, I was always insecure, self-conscience, and very sad. It finally got better my junior year of high school and the only reason it got better is because I was on medicine. I went to a therapist and took my medicine on the regular, but I still was very anxious. I guess anxiety is just a part of who I am, and it is not something I can grow out of. After giving explaining my background with me being a very anxious person, you can probably see where this story is going. Obviously moving away for college was a very scary and anxiety increasing time. I could not sleep, eat, or smile the two weeks leading up to leaving for college. The sad thing is is that I was finally getting better, but then college came. Believe it or not though, I moved to Pittsburgh for college, and my anxiety got better. I was not as insecure and really learned to not let things get to me that used to get to me. It was March 14, 2020 where my life, and my anxiety started to go back to how it used to be in grade school and the beginning of high school. This pandemic has not been easy for anyone, and everyone can attest to that, but having anxiety and then having a world pandemic hit was horrible. I remember getting the email that told us we had to go home, and I had an anxiety attack. Because of my anxiety, I am a big planner and having to leave campus and not knowing when we will return put me in a state that I hope I never go back to. My mom picked me up on Sunday, March 15th, and that day I did not sleep, eat, or talk for about fourteen hours. I did not like how I did not have a scheduled day to go back to school, which made me so anxious because like I said before, I am a planner. We never got to go back to school and let me tell you online classes made me so anxious. I felt so behind, because going from all in person classes to all online classes is not an easy transition for anyone. Being a person with anxiety, I felt as though I was put into a world, I was not meant to be in. It felt so rushed, confusing, and honestly, I was at my lowest in the middle and end of March. I remember crying to my parents about how I didn’t want to do school because it was miserable and going out in public was so scary to me. This pandemic was publicized everywhere, and I thought in my brain, if I go into the grocery store, I will get COVID, and I know that is not true, but that is how my anxiety works. I did not go anywhere for about four months, and if I did, it would be for a drive in my car. I did not see anyone for about five months because I was worried about where they have been, and if they have the virus. This whole virus really made my anxiety worse and put me at my lowest point in my life. I felt like I did not have any friends, and I also felt very dumb because I thought I knew nothing that was going on in my classes. I started seeing a therapist again and it really helped. The fact of being scared to go into the grocery store or mall or even seeing friends seems silly. I wasn’t scared, it was just my anxiety because I wanted to make sure I did not get the virus. I hope this virus comes to an end, because I know how much it took over my mental health, and I believe I am not the only one.

The Corona Virus aka COVID-19 has drastically affected my life as well as the entire world. COVID-19 first affected my life during my second semester sophomore year of college. The beginning of sophomore year was when we first started hearing about COVID-19. At that time, it wasn’t really a big deal. It was more like a myth in a sense; it was happening everywhere else but here. And then, March came. More and more reports of COVID-19 in the United States were being presented. It was starting to become a serious threat. The day after Saint Patrick’s Day, I was with some friends and we were all hanging out and getting lunch. During our lunch, we received an email saying that we had to move off campus within the next week due to the threat and seriousness of COVID-19. We were all so shocked and upset that our sophomore year was cut short. In the blink of an eye, we had to pack up our entire college lives and leave to go home. All of the memories we were supposed to make were gone. For me, all of my friends were at school so going home was very hard for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family but, I also want to be able to see my friends. Once I got home, I had to do the rest of school online and had to be quarantined in my house. Online school was such a new and difficult experience. I had never done online school and neither had the professors, so it was a very difficult transition. Something else that was difficult was being trapped in a house from March until May. I am not the type of person to just stay cooped up in a house. I like to be out doing things and socializing with others but, I couldn’t do that. I was confined to my house with only my family. It was hard finding things to keep us all entertained every day while also trying not to kill each other. We tried puzzles, games, family walks and hikes, movie night, and everything in between. These things worked but only for a short period of time. Being quarantined really does affect your mental health. I also had to celebrate my twentieth birthday in quarantine which was not fun at all, but at least I was with my family which made it better. Then came July. July first was when I was moving into my first house in Pittsburgh for college. I thought that it was going to be such a fun and exciting time. But it was difficult with the whole pandemic going on. It was hard to see my friends, go out to eat, and go to the bars. I was still able to have fun, but it was still difficult to adjust to a new lifestyle. Online school full time was also hard, but I got through it and figured out how to do school efficiently. Come end of October, I got COVID-19. I didn’t realize of shitty COVID-19 was and that I could even get it because I was so young. I had all of the symptoms except loss of taste and smell. I was bed ridden for two weeks; it was awful. After that things were as good as they can be during this time. A week before New Year’s Eve, my entire family tested positive for COVID-19 except me since I had already gotten it. They got really sick and I had to take care of them and grocery shop and run errands for them. That was hard for me to watch them all be so sick. But they got better and became healthy. Yes, I haven’t had this extreme story due to COVID-19 but it did affect my life in ways that I didn’t think it could. I had to change my entire way of living because of this virus.

While I have been incredibly fortunate to remain shielded from the harsher effects the pandemic has wrought on so many families and individuals over the course of the past year, I have faced a multitude of inner challenges in the transition from high school to college. Attending college, in the most normal of times, can prove a formidable adversary for those like myself who struggle with anxiety. Navigating a new campus, facing distance from loved ones, and managing an increase in course load all were deeply concerning facets of the experience in my eyes, even when a global pandemic was an inconceivable complication to these already daunting tasks. Most paramount of my worries, perhaps, was the social aspect of college. Though incoming freshmen are often reminded that this is an area of insecurity common to every new student, the restrictions that students were dealt amplified my ever-growing hesitations. Mandatory isolation, lack of social gatherings, and limited opportunities to meet others culminated into the manifestation of my deepest social anxieties. If I couldn’t cope with the pressures of normal interaction, how could I be expected to thrive in an environment barren of the very opportunity? I spent many nights leading up to the looming day of move-in sitting on the couch with my parents, often talking until the early hours of the morning. I was, at first, hesitant to express my feelings and risk sounding ungrateful or ignorant of the great privilege I possessed. So many people yearned to be in the position that I myself wanted any way out of. I was thankful for the opportunities that I had been given, and I felt that squandering them and conceding to my anxious preconceptions would be an insult to all those who weren’t given the same chance under the difficult circumstances the pandemic established. After many hours of deliberation with my family, I felt that letting my increasing social anxiety dictate my future would be disposing of a precious opportunity for personal growth. When the day of move-in arrived, it was impossible to ignore the pit in my stomach and the tightening in my chest once my parents had said their goodbyes and departed. Though I couldn’t have felt more alone in that moment, I quickly learned that this was far from the case. After only a brief period of awkward silence, my roommate and I set about decorating our space with posters representative of our shared taste in music and love of hockey, interests we soon found to be shared among a small group of people in our building. Through our conversations that first night, it was not only clear that good friends are much closer than my anxiety would have liked to admit, but also that we were going to establish a deep bond in experiencing the often challenging, always unique adventure of attending college in a pandemic.

This is an oral history of my mom, Dianna Sundell, sharing that being able to spend a lot more time with her grandkids (my kids) and having time to bake and make crafts have been positives of the pandemic. The picture is of cinnamon rolls she made based off a copycat Disneyland recipe.

It has been weird. A time where the words “pandemic” and “quarantine” are not just being used in a book or video game. Isolation is a weird thing too. It is good in moderation, but what now draws the line between too much and too little? An hour can seem like days and a day can seem to be the same over and over again. I have been delving further into art and music as the days pass. It seems strange that sometimes exploring art and music has the same effect as isolation such that time does not seem to exist in the expected way. I sometimes forget that we are in a pandemic when drawing or alone as if it were already in the past. Art and music have always been in my life, so I expanded on them by trying new genres and mediums. It is not always easy to try new things or to be forced into new things. Often times, I did not appreciate or even like what I attempted in art. It would be quite hard to count the number of drawings I have thrown away or canvases I’ve painted over. Somehow, over the course of quarantine, I have found myself to be more critical of the things that I create. Perhaps it is from being isolated which gives me more opportunities to overthink. Perhaps it is the constant comparison to other people on social media. Perhaps my disgust is not a new development at all, but it seems more pertinent since it is difficult to focus on other things. Of course, this disappointment is crawling into other aspects of my life. The drawing is one that I used to think was decent, but I find myself only critiquing it. It depicts a human floating and wrapped partially in fabric. In October of 2020, I erased most of it and tried it again, but the results stayed the same. Art is interpreted on an individual basis, but I personally found it to be about identity. Everyone wearing a mask made me think about who we really are. I have certainly run into people where I did not recognize them at all with a mask. Part of the identification process is how people look and how they act. If we don’t know who they are, do they act differently? Does this make an individual, a different person?

This past November was the weirdest and hardest time during this pandemic for me. In Early November, I had made new friends with other people on my floor and I had been working as a Nighttime desk aide here at the University. At the start of the month, it was election time and it stressed me out. I was concerned about the election, but I was more concerned with how each candidate would deal with COVID-19. With one candidate promising to make things better, and with the other still not believing science, I became even more worried for the future. To get my mind off the election, my friends and I went out to eat and got Mexican. Little did we know, that within the upcoming weeks that we would get sent home early. Before we got sent home, we discovered a hamster on our floor, after we saw the cage in our communal bathroom. To this day, we never discovered who had a hamster. Other highlights that we had was getting Millie’s ice cream, which for me, was the first time I had ever had Millie’s. On November 14th, my friends and I learned that another one of our friends had contracted COVID-19 and we had all been exposed to it. That same day, all of my friends and I packed up and either went home or went to the Hotel. My first worry was that I was going to be losing my paychecks, as I have bills of my own that I pay, including my credit card, and I did not have a job at home to rely on. My second worry was my family, as I didn’t want to possibly give them COVID-19, as my Dad works in a hospital and is at higher risk. I didn’t want to go home at first, but my Mom wanted me to come home and keep me close. Over the next two weeks, I sat in my bedroom at home, with no human contact and I just had my dog to keep me company. After going home, I had to attend all my classes online, which was a struggle for me, as I have a family of 5 including myself, with 2 younger siblings who are also doing online school. Keeping up with my classes became a lot harder because my Wi-Fi at home didn’t support 3 people being on zoom at the same time almost every day. On Thanksgiving Day, I was finally able to leave my room, as I had shown no signs of COVID-19. I ended up getting tested for COVID-19 and tested negative. I also ended up getting a seasonal job so I didn’t worry about money as much. Overall, the month of November was one of the hardest months for me.

COVID-19 has affected me in a way that seemingly everyone has felt in some way. This pandemic has brought my family closer together, physically and emotionally, than ever before. My family is usually the type to cover up our feelings and hide our thoughts with sarcasm, but this pandemic has unleashed all of those hidden feelings. Being stuck in the same house I have been in for the past 21 years has changed how I view family and the time that is spent together. When the pandemic first occurred, we were all devastated and annoyed, just like the rest of the world, that we were instructed to stay in our homes 24/7 and only leave our homes for certain conditions such as essential work, food, and outdoor activities. During the first few weeks we were all getting antsy and annoyed staying inside all together, but we had to come to terms with the fact that were stuck with each other whether we like it or not. We slowly began to play board games, go on outdoor walks, and spend quality time together because we were all that we had. I used to hate having family dinners, being asked a million questions by my parents, fighting over the bathroom with my siblings, playing family game nights, and much more. Over many months of being cooped up in the same house with my whole family, I started to realize that I cherish those moments more than I thought I did. During the past few holidays that occurred during the pandemic; Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and soon to be Easter, it is easy to see that close family should be cherished and held close to our hearts. Not being able to see my cousins and grandparents for these holidays has been a different kind of experience. We always take for granted those times where we get to casually see them or plan gatherings, but now we’re forced to stay distanced to keep everyone safe. My mom has recently said, “We are showing how much we love them by not seeing them”, explaining that we are keeping everyone safe and healthy by not gathering and possibly spreading Covid-19. Looking into the future and the years to come, I hope to keep appreciating the time with family that I will have and look to make the most of situations I am put into. This pandemic has taught me many lessons that I wish to further learn from and value the important thing sin life that we usually take for granted.

It feels like we are entering a new phase of the pandemic, one in which getting as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible in now the most important -- though not the only -- public health priority. Perhaps the biggest problem in getting people vaccinated is the on-going issue of vaccine hesitancy. One issue is that a significant portion of people in certain non-white communities seem hesitant to get the vaccine. On the one hand, this is understandable given the ugly history of scientific experiments being conducted on people of color. On the other hand, many of these communities have been hit disproportionately hard by the pandemic, and gaining herd immunity via vaccine is really the only viable way out. So I think it's imperative that a great effort is made to get these communities vaccinated. This should start with President Biden -- who won the presidency in large part because of support from the Black community -- and Vice-President Harris -- the first African American vice-president. Because both of them have a significant amount of credibility in this community, they really should prioritize a public campaign to convince people that the vaccine is both safe and absolutely necessary, and also that time is of the essence.

Well the pandemic hit my school in the early week of March and we were only sent home for two weeks. As soon as we were ready to go back, we were sent home for two months after the first dismissal. After all that was informed, we actually stayed at home for the rest of our senior year. We missed out on our prom and that is something we looked forward to and something you cannot get back. After prom we normally go to a cabin and just enjoy ourselves after the dance, which is a highlight of any high schoolers life. Our past junior year, we had prom and proceeded to get a cabin on Lake Erie and it was an amazing experience. In the summer of 2019, all of my high school friends took a trip to Ocean City Maryland for about a week and that was our so called senior trip even though we we Juniors, let alone we did not know what would happen in 2020. Once we graduated, we decided we needed to end our horrible senior year with something we would remember. We decided to take a five day trip down to Hilton Head. It was convenient since my one friend moved down there for her college and she already had a place down there. We could not stay there because she just moved in, but we got a house very close to hers and it was right next to the water. This was pretty much our final goodbye before we all went to college so we took it all in and enjoyed our final summer together. When we were down there, it did not even feel like the virus was going around, no one had to wear a mask, families were every where with their kids, and it seemed like everyone got lost in the real world. This image is important to me because they are my boys, everything we do, we do together and that picture will hold memories. It will hold what happened in 2020, the virus that went around, and the last summer we enjoyed together.

I was in class on a Wednesday and my phone kept going off like crazy.it was being so distracting so I just decided to check why it was going off and then turn it off for good. I picked up my phone and there were thousands of text messages saying "you need to get tested", "go get a test". At this point I was completely confused, so I asked them what was going on and they said that one of my friends had tested positive for Covid and that I need to get tested because I'm hanged out with them on that Monday. Once I read this I completely froze, I didn't know how to handle this information. I was scared for my life, and for hers, I wasn't sure if she'd be okay. If I was going to be okay. I wasn't paying attention to class at all and everything my teacher was saying was going completely over my head. School got out and all I could think about was how am I going to tell my parents that I came home possibly with Covid. The thought of just having to tell them the news and how they could possibly react to it scared the life out of me. I didn't think that I could tell them because I was afraid they would be too disappointed in me and to scared. I finally got the courage to tell my mom and she surprisingly took the news well. My parents weren't happy but they definitely weren't angry so that's good. They told me that I had to wash everything that I have touched in the past 2 days. I was so glad to tell my parents because holding that secret in was tearing me apart inside. I checked in with me friend everyday to make sure she was ok. It's scary to see it on the news and to hear it on the radio but once it hits too close to home, it can really change your entire life.

When the Covid-19 Pandemic hit, it was very hard for myself and many other. Having to stay quarantined and not being able to see my friends and even family members was hard. On April 19th, 2020, it was my birthday and my parents knew all i wanted was to see my friends. They planned a drive by and one of my closest friends stayed the night at my house. 4 days I had learned that my friend tested positive for Covid-19, which ultimately led to myself getting the virus. This totally through my body out of balance. I sat around all day, barely ate, and constantly felt tired, but I knew I needed to do something about this. My older brother, who was at our house during quarantine, was an athletic trainer. He began to train me, even while I still had the virus. He set me up with workouts and I began to train in the basement of our house where we had dumbbells, bands, and a pullup/dip bar. I began working out 6 days a week and really noticed a change in my diet and mental state. It got me into a routine of getting good sleep, eating a full breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and kept me active and in better health. I went from being constantly tired, lazy, and not eating enough nor getting any sleep to always wanting to work hard, stay happy, and physically and mentally healthy. Although the pandemic has had many downsides, i learned to stay active in working out and staying in the best shape i possibly can be in.

RFK Jr has been censored for his opinions on vaccines. The secondary factor from this whole pandemic has been the evolution of social media and internet censorship of certain opinions and individuals.

Since its release in 1966, Star Trek has been an inspiring and comforting series to millions of people around the world. It is unapologetically utopian and hopeful, and throughout the pandemic it has been of incredible utility to people suffering from isolation and other stress in their lives. Even though the pandemic has had little real impact on my day to day life, Star Trek has still remained my favorite piece of media to immerse myself in to feel a little better about the future. Set hundreds or even a thousand years in the future, Star Trek is a setting where diseases like Covid-19 have been wiped from the Earth permanently, and even unknown alien diseases can be cured and eliminated in just hours of study and research. No one suffers from homelessness or poverty, as replicators have enabled extremely high quality of life for everyone. For me, in a time when not only is there uncertainty about disease but also high degrees of political and societal stress, Star Trek is a breath of fresh air whenever I sit down to watch it. For a time I no longer have to worry about Q-Anon cultists ransacking the capital or about catching the disease. I have seen Star Trek referred to as "competency porn," and indeed that is exactly one of the things that appeals so much in this time of strife and angst. Unlike most pieces of media, Star Trek doesn't rely on failures of communication and other frustratingly real issues to drive its conflict and stories. Instead, each show is focused on extremely competent and intelligent characters who are able to work together to quickly and efficiently solve issues using their pooled knowledge, despite their differences. Through this I can revel in the utopian ideal of the show and believe even for just a moment that we could reach that point ourselves one day, even if for now our society is plagued by the very issues Star Trek posits we can overcome. One could call it escapism, but I think many people would agree that escapism is exactly what people need and want right now due to the ever-present and overpowering feeling of doom surrounding everything else.

I recorded a mini oral history with my mom about silver linings.

I came across this article about how many people are "hitting the wall" with COVID fatigue, and it helped me realize that my current state is not unique. Lately, I have been feeling the cumulative effects of the isolation that the pandemic has created. I feel less physically healthy, and mentally as well. Frankly, I do not think I am as mentally sharp as I was a year ago. It is at least comforting to know that I am not alone in this. There is also now hope that the pandemic will end and that life will return to some degree of its former normality, but it seems clear that this will take some time.

The grassroots public awareness campaign Take 6! has started an art-focused COVID-19 awareness campaign. Their goal is to raise awareness of COVID-19, the safety measures against it, and the importance of getting vaccinated.

I feel like I am running out of ideas for JOTPY entries so I thought I would share my excitement for my second vaccine appointment next week. While I know we still have a long road ahead with COVID-19, I am excited to take this next step for myself. The peace of mind will be worth it alone. It will be nice when the "plague year" is a memory rather than a current event following herd immunity.

It is a newspapers article by a Russian media Medusa that demonstrates that Russia has one of the highest covid-related death rates in the world.

My introduction to COVID-19 was something I will probably never forget. March of 2020 I was in my freshman year of college halfway through spring semester. It was being rumored that COVID was taking over the US and people were dying from this virus. I was uncertain, as the rest of the country, as to how many more people were gonna die and truly how contagious this virus was. I had some knowledge on the virus because I actually did an informative speech on COVID back in the Fall of 2019 in my public speaking class. At the time of my speech there were about 10 possible cases within the US. That number today is about 27.3 million in our country alone. Everyday became uncertain with health and travel which both played a major role in my life. I attend my university in Pennsylvania, and I live in Florida, leaving me 900+ miles away from my family. Being 18 at the time, having rumors of our university closing down scared me. I became afraid of how I was supposed to pack up everything on my own, find somewhere to keep it or a way to ship it home, and be on an airplane, and finish my freshman year of college during a global pandemic. There were then rumors of states shutting down and people being unable to travel in and out which made my situation even worse and my stress levels to increase. Spring break was approaching, and many schools developed the same plan- close schools and universities down for a few days and go from there. This turned into schools remaining online for the remainder of the school year (3 months). This is where my story gets fun (heavy on the sarcasm ). Before I flew home for spring break my mother called my school and specifically asked if the university planned on shutting down so that way, I could properly plan out my flight, pack up my room and put everything in storage. The university said that they did not plan on doing so and if plans changed, they would notify us. Well….. I flew home two days later on a Sunday and once I landed, I got an email from the school that we would be remote for the rest of the spring, fall 2020 was uncertain and that all residents needed to move out within week time. I was filled with anxiety and anger. I now had to find a storage place, figure out how I was going to transport everything because I didn’t have my license, and if Florida and Pennsylvania would let me travel. This also meant that I had to pay for another flight to school and back home as well as a hotel. I was able to book my flight, work with Res Life on a timeframe to move my stuff out and a storage place with a way to transform. My main issue once I landed was a place to stay. Everything in the country began to close including hotels. I did not book a hotel in advance because I was told that I could stay on campus, but of course when I arrived, I was told otherwise and had to find a hotel. Once again, my mother made a phone call and was able to get me a two night stay at a hotel. In the end I was able to pack up everything and fly home without getting the virus, it just took a lot of hoops to jump through to get there.

On March 11th, 2020, my life changed drastically. Just over a month into my second semester of my freshman year at Duquesne University, I was excited to keep making memories with people who became like a second family to me. However, news of a virus on the other side of the world was spreading quickly. We never thought that it would come to this country or affect us in the slightest. But on this day, the entire student body received an email that would absolutely crush me: the email from the president of the University telling us that we would need to leave. When I received this news, I do not know which I was more scared of, this mysterious virus or not being able to see my new friends for a long time. At this point, I did not know how the virus was going to affect me. I had absolutely no idea how much tragedy was about to spread throughout the country. All I knew was that the high of being a college student, with independence and a new group of amazing people was being ripped away from me like a snap of the fingers. As soon as I got home, all I did was complain to my parents that I wished I was at school. Each time I did this, I would end up feeling terrible, because I knew that people were suffering. However, even though I knew I shouldn’t, I felt like I was suffering too. My entire life, I was raised as an only child. As a kid and in high school, I had an amazing group of friends that I still talk to today. When I went to college, I started spending every waking moment with my new group of friends, whether it be doing homework, watching movies, etc. I knew I wasn’t going to be with them year-round, but I knew that I was not ready to leave them in the middle of March. After all, the semester wasn’t even over yet. Spending the rest of my semester at home was extremely difficult for me. I felt so lonely, even though my friends were just a phone call or text away. However, every time I communicated with them, I somehow felt further away from them. It was a constant reminder that I should be with them, but I could not be. Throughout the last months of the semester and into the summer, my mental health rapidly. I knew I was experiencing a small form of depression, but I did not want to admit it to anyone because there were people in the world that were suffering more as a result of the virus. I soon found some form of comfort when I realized that other teenagers and first-year college students were going through the same thing as me. So many people were taken away from the people and places that they loved most, and everyone was having a hard time coping. The coronavirus has put the entire world through a lot, but each day I have hope that the end is near, and that we will all be reunited with the world we used to know.

I closed my laptop after taking my last final exam for my second semester of college. Rather than celebrating the end of my freshman year of college with friends, I was found alone in my childhood bedroom, wondering what the future had next to offer. The distraction of being able to focus on my schoolwork provided an escape from the other depressing reality that I found myself in. My parents were stressed for their own safety, and for the safety of their loved ones, as COVID-19 roamed rampant throughout the United States. My younger brother was attempting to balance online school at the young age of thirteen- stressing about online lectures rather than being able to play with friends as I did at such a young age. I felt angry and helpless that there are people in my community who would not follow preventative measures such social distancing or wearing a mask- simple actions that would be able to save countless lives. I felt frustrated that the leadership of the United States blamed other nations for causing this pandemic, rather than work tirelessly to find ways to stop the spread of COVID-19. In a time where I should have been surrounded by those who I cared deeply about, forming new relationships that would last a lifetime, and focusing on what I truly want to gain in life- I was found alone and wondering if the future I imagined would ever be possible. I imagined that I would be able to go back to school the next year- a campus that I grew up on and imagined making friends on and being social with others- with the hope that a vaccine for COVID-19 would be found. I remember my parents feeling scared about their future as educators, questioning if they would be thrown into the zoo of high school and elementary students, who may have contracted and spread COVID-19. I remember my brother being scared that if he saw his friend, he would make mom and dad sick. All of these depressive scenarios truly made me question the type of life that I was living. Before the pandemic, I remember living life freely; however, it was as if one day was simply repeated into the next, I was going through the motions of life in order to succeed and achieve the future that I desire. Being alone in my childhood bedroom allowed me to realize that life is truly precious at its core- one will never know when their path for life and their future may take a turn for the worst or run into a bump in the road. Nevertheless, spending time with my family for five months allowed me to become reawakened to the little things that life has to offer. The smile of saying hello to a friend without it being hidden behind a mask. The hug of a loved one without it being through protective plastic. Although the pandemic halted my path to the future that I imagined I would have, it allowed me to remember what life truly has to offer, ensuring me that I am still on my path to achieve the future that I desire.

This is a map of Canada that shows the regions of the country.

This is a map of Canada that details the provinces and territories.

I took my employee mandated COVID-19 test at 7:20 in the morning and recorded the process. Test result was negative. Transcript: Katy: All right, I’m taking my COVID test because ASU said that I needed to do it. It’s basically a saliva test. They give you a vile to spit into and a line that you have to meet. When I came in, somebody gave me the vile and wrote down my date of birth. I’ve got a straw. I’m just gonna fill this sucker up with saliva.

May 31, 2020 Senior year, something that every student looks forward to the second they enter high school. It’s supposed to be a time for celebration, big life steps, and most importantly, spending one last year with the kids you grew up with. Starting senior year in the fall of 2019, everything seemed laid out before me, it was just a matter of finishing college applications and deciding on a college, worrying about who might be my prom date, and whether I would be starting goalie for my varsity lacrosse team. All those worries disappeared when schools got shut down March 13, 2020. At the time only for two weeks, given that Covid-19 was really beginning to hit the United States. My friends and I thought nothing of it and were hopeful for a return to school to finish out senior year. But weeks went on, and one-by-one, everything began to be canceled. First, it was lacrosse. Next, it was the permeant switch to online school. And last, perhaps the worst of all, the cancelation of prom and graduation. When it truly hit that the end of senior year had been taken away from us, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I sulked around for a long time, and even began to feel like I was losing friends. Flash forward to May 31, 2020, and I’m sitting in the back of my Dad’s truck, which was decorated in my school’s colors of green and black. I sat in my graduation cap and gown all by myself with my parents in the front of the truck. The community had come together to celebrate the Class of 2020 in the only safe way they could think of—a parade. We waited in a parking lot to drive by my high school one last time. Most of my classmates were there, sitting on top of cars, looking through sunroof windows, or sitting in the back of trunks. It was heartbreaking to see all of my friends split apart, all waving from our cars. Friends who I was only really friends with in class smiled and waved, all of us wishing the other well, and dying to give out a hug. As we began to drive through the neighborhoods leading up to the high school, the streets were lined with so many people (all socially distanced and with masks), holding signs and screaming for us. I didn’t cry until I saw my favorite teacher, who saw me and also started to cry, saying she got the letter I had sent her, thanking her for being my support throughout high school. It was such an overwhelming feeling of sadness and joy. When we finally made it to the high school, we all parked and waited to drive by the entrance one more time where they would call our names, as if we were walking across stage. The picture I am submitting is a moment when we had stopped, and I was standing there crying looking out at the high school and all of my classmates. The picture I feel captures how so many were most likely feeling in that moment. Knowing there was so many you didn’t truly get to say good-bye to, but so thankful for the opportunity to see each other from a far. Covid-19 took away so many things for so many people. Graduation was something I had been looking forward to for years. But to see the community come together for us high schoolers in such a confusing time is something I will never forget.

The pandemic has allowed me to take a step back from everything in society to see what I truly care about and what truly matters to me. Not only what matters, but who in my life I love and care about that matters. The photographs I have attached show exactly who those people are. Throughout the pandemic I have made stronger relationships with my family. Although there were moments that it was hard spending time with just them 24/7. It was difficult knowing I could not see friends from home that went to different colleges during the year. This is because their parents were definitely stricter about COVID than my parents were. And I completely understood that, but it was tough not seeing one another knowing they were just five minutes away. To fill that frustration, we would have Netflix watch parties from our houses on our own computers so that it would feel as if we were all watching the same movie in the same room. Then after a few months we would take our dogs for walks outside, and that is shown in one of the pictures. We did this so that we could see each other while being able to properly social distance. It was just hard having to accept that for now it would be our new normal. Going home from Duquesne meant that all my friends from school would also be heading home. In another picture it shows a few of my friends and I all FaceTiming one another. We would all group FaceTime together just about once every day to play games and just catch up which also gave me something to look forward to. A positive that come from quarantine was being able to do workouts with my family three times a week. We never got to do this because I would be at school and my brother would be working. Two times out of the week we would work out at a local park near my house. Then every Saturday morning bright and early at 7 AM my dad’s trainer would pick a different sight throughout the city to work out at. This was something I definitely looked forward to once a week because typically we would just work out at the same gym. Now that the gym had to be shut down it allowed us to think outside the box. In one of the pictures it shows my dad, brother, his girlfriend and others that worked out at Point Park one freezing morning. It was definitely hard waking up on a cold morning, but having a change of scenery, being able to be outside and be physically active with some family and friends was nice and refreshing. We went to other destinations around the city too such as outside Hinze Field, PNC Park, and Pitt. In another picture is my mom and I. We have always been close, but with me being away at college COVID had allowed me to be around her more often. We would watch movies, cook dinner, and make fires together which was nice to be able to spend more quality time together. Overall, COVID was hard not being able to see certain friends that I have missed, but it had also allowed me to make stronger relationships with those I had not spent a lot of time with because I have been away at college. In some aspects I would say that COVID was a blessing in disguise for me and my family.

This story was important for me to share since it is my personal experience dealing with the pandemic. Although I was not sick personally, the virus took away the memories of my senior year.

As the vaccines were getting rolled out in Arizona, we were excited to learn that Arizona State University faculty fit into category 1B, as teachers. When the Arizona Patient Portal opened for 1B appointments on January 11 we dropped by the site at lunchtime, worried that we'd missed our opportunity. As luck would have it there were appointments available on January 15 at State Far Stadium in the wee hours of the morning. We were surprised as we'd heard the rollout of the site had met with difficulties earlier in the morning; we chose the a time just after midnight on the morning of the 15th, rather than at 4am (which seemed just too awkward.) On the 15th, we were antsy and hoped that the wait would not be too long; we decided to leave a bit early for the stadium, which is an hour drive from our home. As we arrived, we saw the shining portable lights of the vaccination center, just south of the stadium, in a parking lot. We navigated to the entrance and were delighted that nobody appeared to be waiting. Volunteers directed us through an elaborate maze of lanes, and traffic cones. (Many of my friends, in fact, served as volunteers, partly out of civic duty and partly to get the vaccine.) We showed one registrar our appointment slips (from the state website), and he wrote our appointment numbers on the window of my car (in either sharpie or wax pencil). We briefly waited in another line, as two registrars sitting under portable heaters that are so common on chilly winter nights in Arizona (normally you'd encounter them at restaurants.) They checked our identification and entered our names into the system, as well as asked about our health. From there we were directed around more cones into traffic lanes, leading up to where the vaccinations were delivered. Again, after a brief wait, and more checking our registration--confirming our appointment numbers (written on the windows) and names--we entered a tent. Two nurses briefed us on the vaccine and delivered our shots. They directed us to a waiting area, where we were asked to wait 15 minutes in case of an adverse reaction. And, voila, it was over--in under an hour.

My plague year story of the covid-19 pandemic is honestly quite a normal one. For me covid was not a barrier. It was an obstacle that I learned to get around. I did not let anything hold me back from trying to make the best of my situations. Nothing was ideal in any way possible. I never imagined my final months of highschool being spent at home or starting college online. But I always remembered to take a step back. To distance myself from the chaos and most importantly enjoy my time to the best that I could. Because as humans we have limited control on what happens in our life. It all really depends on how you react to what is happening. You can let the confusion surround you and hold you back. Or you can step out and keep strolling on your path to success, happiness, and love. So like I said my situation in life at the time of the beginning of the outbreak was not ideal. I was in my final few months of highschool and looking forward to graduation, prom, and moving on to college. Unfortunately those milestones did not occur according to plan. My highschool experience was cut short. Way too short. I was forced to adjust to online schooling in very little time. The teachers were still confused on how to teach online and kids were confused on how it worked. My school did not utilize google meets or zoom at the time. So my only connection to my teachers was email. The situation was pretty sad. I missed my friends from school and I missed my teachers that used to fill my day with fun. But I adapted quickly and got my work done. I did not let the communication gap stop me from finishing school on a high note. I utilized the extra free time I was presented with by working. All the time. I work at Target. So I am considered an essential worker for an essential business. So I was desperately needed at the store all the time to help out. I was working forty hour work weeks all while still making time for friends and finishing school work. I worked later shifts, came in on off days and came in earlier to help when they needed. I will never forget the benefits of the work experience I got during the first few months of the pandemic. It taught me a lot about managing my time and money well. I also made great connections with my coworkers and customers who came into the store. These experiences will help me greatly when I move forward in my life in many ways I do not even realize yet. I worked a ton, finished highschool, enjoyed my summer; which I still found a way to make memorable and started college. I may not have gotten the experience I had hoped for when I first came to my campus. But as I’ve said many times, I did not let the obstacles stop me from enjoying my life. I built the greatest support group of friends and I could not have asked for a better outcome. My group and I made the best of college campus life. We always find ways to have fun and still get our work done. So far college has been a fun time and I am glad I came. Again, my story may not have the same hardships as a lot of people may have gone through. My story has been pretty hopeful. So here is to passing the hope on. I hope I continue to grow and thrive and if you may not have had the best experiences yet, here is to hoping you can break free from the chaos and live life to the fullest capabilities right now. Life is not about how hard things are, it is about how you are able to overcome difficulties in your path.

This is a personal piece, more like a little rant, about essential workers and the ubiquity of the virus.

COVID-19 has caused a surge in deaths worldwide. Funeral homes in the United States are feeling the effect, with many workers sometimes working more than 12 hour days 7 days a week. There has also been a shortage of caskets and urns as well as a strain on the supply of creation boxes.

Attached is a picture of my planner from May of last year. I have always tried to keep a journal of some sort but over the past few years entries in my actual journal have become more sporadic, and I sometimes feel bad that I'm not documenting my life better. But I have found that I keep my memories and experiences in different ways. I keep post-its and planners and notes from past classes, all of which contain some view into a different time of my life. This page in my planner was probably drawn during class, or while waiting for another class to start. The goldfish stickers were there before I wrote the words around them, I'm pretty sure. Looking back now I could say maybe the goldfish and the misconception about their memory is a comment on the way isolation and lack of enrichment affects memory, but really I just had them nearby and thought they were cool. At this point the monotony of quarantine and online school and being out of work made a planner feel kind of superfluous and each page was less like an organized look at my week and more like a dumping ground for my thoughts. The speech bubbles near the fish read: "(I love you guys)" "What?" "I said let's count down so we can all sign off together!" Since moving back to my parent's house in March I haven't seen any of my friends in person. It's been nearly a year of movie nights over discord, all of us counting down and trying to press play at the same time despite the latency. There's a certain intimacy of talking to someone late into the night from my bedroom, surrounded by artifacts of my high school life. I'm afraid for myself and afraid for my friends but we don't talk about the big scary thing looming over all of us. It's been nearly a year and the space in between now and February feels both infinite and microscopic. I am still, but time goes on. I remember that I wrote "One day I will be disappointed (spelled incorrectly) I did not document history better" later in the week. Memory is fragile and I want to preserve it the best I can but lately I'm too tired to take down the details of each day. Maybe this vague collection of my thoughts will be valuable to future me, but I won't know until then so I'll hold onto it anyway.

My oldest friend—let's call her Dr. Z— is an infectious disease specialist. She has been working on an AIDS vaccine for decades now, so when COVID came along, it was traumatic for her in a different way. COVID has commonalities with AIDS and she was grim about vaccine prospects. Thankfully, a year later we are all getting vaccinated as a Herculean national effort unfolds. A few days ago New York State announced that pregnant women could now join the ranks of the vaccine-worthy, so my pregnant cousin asked me if I would ask my friend if it was safe. Dr. Z has two daughters, also both doctors in busy New York City hospitals. This was the exchange we had. And now, I ask you...what would you do?

What it's like to go to the doctor for a non-Covid19 reason.

We have preserved in this short film a selection of Theatre Workshop students' authentic experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and we want to share these stories with you.

There are a lot of rules to follow in this pandemic. The main rule is that you have to wear a mask everywhere you go so that you don't get anyone sick and so you don't get sick. Second you have to social distance from everybody. Third you have to wash your hands or put hand sanitizer on all the Time but that wasn't a problem for my family because we have always done the wash your hands/ hand sanitizer and don't touch your face if you hands are dirty. Lastly we did a great job following the rules this year.

I didn't want to do online school in the beginning of quarantine. I have anyways wanted to try something like online school and be able to stay home and I got to do that this quarantine. My daily routine is that I do online school, I eat lunch and then for the rest of the day we get to exercise our animals (horse, goats, pigs) until it gets dark. That is one of the up sides of this is that we can be at home with our animals.

ASU just announced a drop-off COVID-19 saliva testing program. Testing at ASU and in the community, thanks to the ASU Biodesign Institute, has been more accessible and efficient compared to other states. Now, ASU is letting people pick up kits, fill them, and drop them off at a collection box. Results are speedy, returned within about 48 hours. It's reassuring to work in an enivornment that takes the public health crisis seriously and is actively taking measures to reduce risk and exposure.

At the beginning of quarantine I was scared. I was scared because we were told that we had to do school from home. Also we had to where masks whenever we went out and we couldn't see anybody because my family is high risk. I was very scared because how people were talking about it, it seemed very bad and I was scared for my family to get it. In the end I was very scared that my family was going to get it but I am so grateful that no one in my family go it.

This years Christmas was not different from the rest of my Christmas'. Every year it is usually just me my sister and my parents at home because my family lives in Iowa. Occasionally my aunt will come over for Christmas but that is really all we do for Christmas. In the end Christmas was not different this year.

A flower shop in Medford, Wisconsin is letting people adopt a grandparent at a local nursing home. The flower shop plans to deliver flowers to all the nursing home residents on February 12th, just in time for Valentine's Day. Extra flowers will be given to other local nursing homes.

A pub in downtown London Ontario, Canada has been making its opinion of the pandemic restrictions heard through their ever changing sign out front.

Evaluating the financial impact of the pandemic on the country, House representatives are asking the government to remember and acknowledge those working on the frontlines and their families. The Bloc Québécois demands the government "significantly and sustainably increase Canada health transfers before the end of 2020."

Due to inadequate medical supplies, lack of vaccines, and inability to slow down the spread of the virus, the pandemic rages on. To make matters worse, over half of Canadian workers lack sufficient sick leaves, which contribute to more outbreaks and the dangers of contracting COVID-19.

This is the consent form sent to Oaks Christian Middle School parents. Please link to Oaks student stories

Retirement home residents have started to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. For many, this means they can visit loved ones in different care units and see family. However, high COVID-19 rates are keeping some retirement and other care homes from letting their residents visit or have visitors.

The article is a poignant example of the ways that the COVID-19 pandemic has created, and exacerbated, people's access to food. In communities across the country, the pandemic has caused shortages and delays especially for so-called "food deserts" These areas typically encompass a less-affluent neighborhood or block and service a relatively high population.