Explore the Archives
A Journal of the Plague Year Arizona Collection Australia Boston Bronx Community College New York Brooklyn College New York Canada Las Americas Lockdown Staten Island New Orleans Oral Histories Philippines Sacramento Community Based Organizations Southwest Stories Teaching the Pandemic The City College of New York

Collected Item: “Story of Sickness, Vices and Travel”

Give your story a title.

Story of Sickness, Vices and Travel

What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?

Text Story

Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.

I remember when then Covid-19 pandemic first started, I was working at my current suit store, and we did not know what was going to happen at first. I did not travel anywhere, as at this point the global travel market was almost completely shutdown. There was discussion between the managers as to whether we would close the store and wait this out until government officials set the release date, or stay closed indefinitely. Eventually as more earlier information was released, we closed the store. As the pandemic spread, most of Florida as well as the rest of the country was shutdown. I spent most of my time at home. I tend to enjoy a cigar with a whiskey and/or another drink while enjoying the cigar. Eventually the whole state was shutdown and completely incapacitated. I spent the time eventually trying to remain entertained within the "Tiger King" series on Netflix, but once that was over with, I went through other modes of Coping. Eventually I went through my late Fathers Cuban cigar collection to try and have some type of enjoyment. I smoked close to all of his Cuban cigar collection, which in case of misinformation, Cuban cigars in the USA are impossible to obtain by retail standards, otherwise my grandfathering them in pre-personal consumption ban. I smoked close to 90% of my late fathers Cuban cigar collection, something which I didn't want to do other than celebratory or personal reasons. Covid-19 was most definitely not a reason. Therefore with the smoking also came the drinking and drank almost every bottle of anything, within the 5 month period in the state of Florida for the outright shutdown. I think eventually after a long lookback into the vices that were involved in being so isolated, the vices reign supreme when human beings do not have each other. Which speaks to the point that throughout history we, as humans, are extremely social beings. Isolation does not work well for long term, and state sponsored isolations.
I think that if i were to travel, given the chance, I would not have traveled anywhere being so close to the genesis of the disease. Not in terms of China, but being so close and available to the disease without further info, would have been disastrous for my family. If I would have gone to any country would have been either to Israel or Rome, Italy, more specifically the Vatican. I believe my faith is primary to life, and either the homeland of the Christ or the home of the church during those times would have helped me spiritually, and physically, in tremendous ways. I probably would have documented my trip via my own phone camera or Instagram in whoever was viewing at the time. I would have definitely been sure to have gone to see St. Peters Square, The Sistine Chapel, and other sites in the Vatican City. Other than that the Israeli areas would be the supposed areas where Christ walked and spoke. Such as Golgotha, Garden of Gethsemane, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
These places during the pandemic, assuming they were open, were locations at the top of my list.
Date: These thoughts and events happened on March 19-20 of 2021.
Location: These memories and forethoughts would have taken place at the same time.

Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?

HST643
ArizonaStateUniversity
HistoryofTourism

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

"Self"

Give this story a date.

2021-03-07
Click here to view the corresponding item.