Item
Ariel Emrani and Kate Roche Oral History, 2021/09/17
Media
Title (Dublin Core)
Ariel Emrani and Kate Roche Oral History, 2021/09/17
Description (Dublin Core)
This audio file shares two perspectives and personal stories about the pandemic.
Recording Date (Dublin Core)
September 17, 2021
Creator (Dublin Core)
Ariel Emrani
Kate Roche
Contributor (Dublin Core)
Ariel Emrani
Kate Roche
Partner (Dublin Core)
Northeastern University
Type (Dublin Core)
Audio
Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)
English
Education--K12
English
Healthcare
English
Health & Wellness
English
Animals
Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)
high school
study abroad
France
healthcare parent
mask
grocery
restriction
bat
mental health
physical health
Contributor's Tags (a true folksonomy) (Friend of a Friend)
medium
mental health
physical health
family
lifestyle
new world
Collection (Dublin Core)
K-12
College COVID Stories
Curatorial Notes (Dublin Core)
Erika Groudle
Made item private. They did not want to be anonymous. Items needs to be un-redacted. EG 06/03/2022
Date Submitted (Dublin Core)
09/18/2021
Date Modified (Dublin Core)
09/29/2021
10/06/2021
04/12/2022
06/03/2022
12/29/2022
04/07/2023
07/11/2023
Date Created (Dublin Core)
09/17/2021
Interviewer (Bibliographic Ontology)
Ariel Emrani
Kate Roche
Interviewee (Bibliographic Ontology)
Ariel Emrani
Kate Roche
Coverage (Dublin Core)
2020
Language (Dublin Core)
English
Duration (Omeka Classic)
00:09:39
abstract (Bibliographic Ontology)
Two college students discuss how the pandemic effected their last years of high school and their mental health.
Annotation (Omeka Classic)
0 AE: Introduces self, KR gives consent and time. AE: What aspects of your life changed from the pandemic and how did they affect you? KR: Junior year was abroad in France. Found out about pandemic while there. Another program in China was sent home in January of 2020. Had to leave host family and school and go home.
1 KR: Were given announcement, had 12 hours to get home. Continued online with school. Tough part was school was keeping the rigor going, making it really hard. Asynchronous, assignments in French, very hard.
2 KR: Was senior transfer as well. Too expensive for private school they originally attended. Things were tough and different and took toll on mental health. M-F spent in house and weekends spent seeing friends. Stopped talking to alot of people.
3 KR: Friend group narrowed down. As Covid got worse, saw less people, and less time out of house. Lots of changes. AE: How did that affect the way you go about your life? KR: Changed routine. Would wake up at different times, more time in bed. Watching a lot more TV, not socializing.
4 KR: Those were the main changes. A lot more screen time, outside of Zoom. More time on phone, during class on phone. Study habits changed. Online tests things were open note. Screenshot instead of writing things down, staying home all the time. **AE and KR now switch roles.** KR: Introduces self, AE gives consent. KR: How do you remember the pandemic being announced? AE: Remember being in Hebrew class in high school.
5 AE: People were talking about bat soup at the beginning, was funny at first but confusing. Was just something in news. A few weeks later, had Jewish holiday off, and then recieved email school was canceled for several weeks.
6 AE: At first saw it as a positive, it felt like a break. Continued to turn worse, used Zoom, stayed at home. School trip to Alabama canceled and dance show canceled. Turned into something upsetting and confusing and new. Ended up at home like everyone else. KR: How did it effect your immediate plans?
7 AE: My birthday happened right after. Totally ignored it, but my friends pulled up in cars and spread out in front yard with masks on and celebrated. Parents both in healthcare, took pandemic very serious, restricted AE a lot. If they even went out for a walk, they would have to immediately shower, etc. No grocery stores, order stores in.
8 AE: Had routine where groceries would be left out for a few hours, and then washed in sinks. KR: How did pandemic affect your mental and physical health of you and your loved ones? AE: Toll on mental health, became more of a problem.
9 AE: Grandfather with dementia got worse, limbs stopped working, stopped communicating, started to sleep more, etc. Grandparents high risk.
1 KR: Were given announcement, had 12 hours to get home. Continued online with school. Tough part was school was keeping the rigor going, making it really hard. Asynchronous, assignments in French, very hard.
2 KR: Was senior transfer as well. Too expensive for private school they originally attended. Things were tough and different and took toll on mental health. M-F spent in house and weekends spent seeing friends. Stopped talking to alot of people.
3 KR: Friend group narrowed down. As Covid got worse, saw less people, and less time out of house. Lots of changes. AE: How did that affect the way you go about your life? KR: Changed routine. Would wake up at different times, more time in bed. Watching a lot more TV, not socializing.
4 KR: Those were the main changes. A lot more screen time, outside of Zoom. More time on phone, during class on phone. Study habits changed. Online tests things were open note. Screenshot instead of writing things down, staying home all the time. **AE and KR now switch roles.** KR: Introduces self, AE gives consent. KR: How do you remember the pandemic being announced? AE: Remember being in Hebrew class in high school.
5 AE: People were talking about bat soup at the beginning, was funny at first but confusing. Was just something in news. A few weeks later, had Jewish holiday off, and then recieved email school was canceled for several weeks.
6 AE: At first saw it as a positive, it felt like a break. Continued to turn worse, used Zoom, stayed at home. School trip to Alabama canceled and dance show canceled. Turned into something upsetting and confusing and new. Ended up at home like everyone else. KR: How did it effect your immediate plans?
7 AE: My birthday happened right after. Totally ignored it, but my friends pulled up in cars and spread out in front yard with masks on and celebrated. Parents both in healthcare, took pandemic very serious, restricted AE a lot. If they even went out for a walk, they would have to immediately shower, etc. No grocery stores, order stores in.
8 AE: Had routine where groceries would be left out for a few hours, and then washed in sinks. KR: How did pandemic affect your mental and physical health of you and your loved ones? AE: Toll on mental health, became more of a problem.
9 AE: Grandfather with dementia got worse, limbs stopped working, stopped communicating, started to sleep more, etc. Grandparents high risk.
Transcription (Omeka Classic)
Ariel Emrani 00:00
I'm Ariel Emrani. I wanted to ask Kate, if I have consent to record her right now and to ask her these questions
Kate Roche 00:09
I can send it's September 17, at 12:10pm.
Ariel Emrani 00:15
Perfect. So I wanted to ask you what aspects of your life change because of the pandemic COVID 19 pandemic? And in what ways did those changes affect you in your everyday routine and life?
Kate Roche 00:28
Well, so my junior year, I was actually studying abroad in France for six months. And I found out about the pandemic first, when I while I was there, there was actually another program with the same like school in China. And so we were like really aware of it pretty early because they got sent home in like January. So I ended up having to leave the My host family and school. And like fly home, it was like a 12 hour period, we had like a really finding out was like a school field trip we had were like waiting at the bus stop. And they're like, so we're gonna head back to the school, we have an announcement or like, this is the end of your time. And then we had like, 12 hours to get a flight and get home. And then we ended up continuing online with that school. The tough part with that was that my school was like really trying to like, keep the rigor going. And so like a lot of the schools in my area, they were like, okay, everyone's going pass fail, or like, you can get an A just like show up kind of like no homework type of stuff. But my school was like, No, we really want to make sure we still have rigor. And so it was like all asynchronous because of the different time zones that everyone was in. And they were like, so I had, all of my assignments are due like 1pm. And it was like a bunch of like, okay, read like this three page article in French, and then like, respond in like a two page article, like in French by 1pm. Like, oh, it's really difficult. And then I was a senior transfer as well, because it didn't really make sense to go back to I was at a private school before and didn't really make sense to like, go back to that. Because just too expensive for online school. And then like, once things, it was like a hybrid model that was like too far for me to like, commute. And so it was like I had to meet people, I didn't really end up meeting a lot of people online. And like, adjust to that. So that was definitely really different.
Kate Roche 02:29
And definitely took a toll on my mental health as well, because like, I'd pretty much spend like Monday through Friday, just like in my house, and like mostly in my room too. And then like on the weekends, I like would not come home, I would like go out and see my friends from my old school and stuff like that. But it was definitely a tough situation. Because also like, I kind of like, stopped talking to a lot of people once I went to France because it's just like, I had a lot of like acquaintances, and like you didn't really keep great and talk like that. So then I got back, I already like, my friend group was definitely narrowed down. And then like with COVID Got a lot harder, like see people so I found like, I was seeing a lot less people and like just much less time outside of the house. So that was definitely difficult. But I'd say a lot of changes from the pandemic. Definitely a lot changed in my life.
Ariel Emrani 03:19
And how did that affect the way you go about your life?
Kate Roche 03:25
Um, well, it just kind of changed my routine. So like, I would wake up at different times. And like, I would spend a lot more time just like, in my bed because I realized, oh, I can just prop A computer up and not really have to do it. I also noticed I was watching a lot more TV because like I said, with Zoom school, it's like easier, I could just like make myself launch and like watch a show on my phone. I wasn't really working with people during, like lunch hours in the same way that I used to, like sophomore freshman year. And so I'd say those were like the main changes just like a lot more screen time. Just like even like outside of zoom, just like I was spending more time just like on my phone. And then like, during class on my phone such like that. I'd say like study habits changed because of like, online tests, you know, things were open note, I took like notes, differently because it was like, I would just like screenshot instead of like writing things down. Yeah. And then also just like staying home for the whole week instead of like, going and doing things after school.
Ariel Emrani 04:33
Yeah. Yeah. Okay, thank you.
Kate Roche 04:35
Okay, my question. Oh, I'm i'll introduce. So my name is Kate Roche. I'm gonna be asking Ariel. So do you consent to being asked about your experience with in participating in this study?
Ariel Emrani 04:53
Yes. And it's currently Friday, September 17 at 12:14pm
Kate Roche 04:57
Okay, perfect. Um, How do you remember the pandemic being announced? Was it gradual, abrupt? And how did you feel and where were you?
Ariel Emrani 05:06
So I remember being in my Hebrew class in my high school, and people were talking about bat soup at the very beginning. And it started out as something that was, like, funny and confusing. And just, it wasn't really affecting us. It was just something like in the news. So I'm just some thing that came and passed. But it didn't pass. Because I remember a few weeks later, I went to a Jewish school, and we had Purim off. So that was on a Thursday, and we didn't go to school that day. And then we got an email that night that was like, we're going to be canceling School for the next few weeks. And at that point, it was kind of a positive, because I was like, Okay, I got a few weeks off. It's like a little bit of a break.
Ariel Emrani 05:55
But then it continued to be not just a break, and it went on and on. And we began to do zoom, and stay at home. And I remember we had a school trip planned to Alabama, which we did not get to go on. And I was looking forward to my end of the year dance show. Which also did not happen. And, yeah, so it started out as something that I felt nothing really strong about. And then it turned into something that was pretty upsetting and confusing, and just very new. But not in a good way, obviously. So I just ended up at home doing zoom like every other teenager in the world, basically.
Kate Roche 06:49
Yeah. And how did it affect your immediate plans, and then like the following week, and
Ariel Emrani 06:57
so I remember my birthday came up soon after. And I kind of like completely neglected it. I was like, I can't go outside, I can't do anything. And then I remember seeing my friends cars pull up. And it was really nice. And they surprise me. And we just kind of stood in my front yard, all very far apart with masks on. And I remember pretty immediately after. So my parents are both in health care. And they were both taking the pandemic very seriously, like from the get go. So my parents were like, you can't go out you can't see people, you always have to have your mask on. Like when the vaccine came out. They were very pro Vax. And they were like, we're getting doing this. And when we would go out, like even for a walk, we'd come home, we'd leave our shoes outside, we'd walk in, take our clothes off, take a shower, anytime we got a shipment of so my parents stopped going out unless it was for work. So that meant no grocery store or anything like that. So they would order groceries to the house. And they had this method where my dad would stand out one sink, and the mom would stand at the other sink. And they would bring the groceries, they would leave the groceries out for a few hours. And then they bring them in, and my dad would wash them at one sink. And then my mom would wash them at the other sink. And I thought they were crazy because they were literally washing the banana peels. And I was so confused by it. Yeah, that's kind of what to mind when you asked that question.
Kate Roche 08:29
Yeah, that's funny. And then how did the pandemic affect your mental and physical health of you and your loved ones?
Ariel Emrani 08:38
So I, there was definitely a toll taken on my mental health as I assumed there was on everyone else's. It became more of a problem and something I had to deal with more. And I don't care much, but I'll share about my family members. So the biggest thing was the grandfather who has demntia couldn't really speak to other people anymore, and like couldn't go out. So he stopped walking. So like his limbs kind of stopped working. And he also stopped communicating with people. So his memory started to fade more he started to sleep more. He's having like, more trouble speaking. And I just like I feel so bad for my grandparents because they're sick, because they're high risk, and they're just stuck in my house. So as things started to get a little better, we visit them outside with masks a lot more which actually strengthened our relationship. So
I'm Ariel Emrani. I wanted to ask Kate, if I have consent to record her right now and to ask her these questions
Kate Roche 00:09
I can send it's September 17, at 12:10pm.
Ariel Emrani 00:15
Perfect. So I wanted to ask you what aspects of your life change because of the pandemic COVID 19 pandemic? And in what ways did those changes affect you in your everyday routine and life?
Kate Roche 00:28
Well, so my junior year, I was actually studying abroad in France for six months. And I found out about the pandemic first, when I while I was there, there was actually another program with the same like school in China. And so we were like really aware of it pretty early because they got sent home in like January. So I ended up having to leave the My host family and school. And like fly home, it was like a 12 hour period, we had like a really finding out was like a school field trip we had were like waiting at the bus stop. And they're like, so we're gonna head back to the school, we have an announcement or like, this is the end of your time. And then we had like, 12 hours to get a flight and get home. And then we ended up continuing online with that school. The tough part with that was that my school was like really trying to like, keep the rigor going. And so like a lot of the schools in my area, they were like, okay, everyone's going pass fail, or like, you can get an A just like show up kind of like no homework type of stuff. But my school was like, No, we really want to make sure we still have rigor. And so it was like all asynchronous because of the different time zones that everyone was in. And they were like, so I had, all of my assignments are due like 1pm. And it was like a bunch of like, okay, read like this three page article in French, and then like, respond in like a two page article, like in French by 1pm. Like, oh, it's really difficult. And then I was a senior transfer as well, because it didn't really make sense to go back to I was at a private school before and didn't really make sense to like, go back to that. Because just too expensive for online school. And then like, once things, it was like a hybrid model that was like too far for me to like, commute. And so it was like I had to meet people, I didn't really end up meeting a lot of people online. And like, adjust to that. So that was definitely really different.
Kate Roche 02:29
And definitely took a toll on my mental health as well, because like, I'd pretty much spend like Monday through Friday, just like in my house, and like mostly in my room too. And then like on the weekends, I like would not come home, I would like go out and see my friends from my old school and stuff like that. But it was definitely a tough situation. Because also like, I kind of like, stopped talking to a lot of people once I went to France because it's just like, I had a lot of like acquaintances, and like you didn't really keep great and talk like that. So then I got back, I already like, my friend group was definitely narrowed down. And then like with COVID Got a lot harder, like see people so I found like, I was seeing a lot less people and like just much less time outside of the house. So that was definitely difficult. But I'd say a lot of changes from the pandemic. Definitely a lot changed in my life.
Ariel Emrani 03:19
And how did that affect the way you go about your life?
Kate Roche 03:25
Um, well, it just kind of changed my routine. So like, I would wake up at different times. And like, I would spend a lot more time just like, in my bed because I realized, oh, I can just prop A computer up and not really have to do it. I also noticed I was watching a lot more TV because like I said, with Zoom school, it's like easier, I could just like make myself launch and like watch a show on my phone. I wasn't really working with people during, like lunch hours in the same way that I used to, like sophomore freshman year. And so I'd say those were like the main changes just like a lot more screen time. Just like even like outside of zoom, just like I was spending more time just like on my phone. And then like, during class on my phone such like that. I'd say like study habits changed because of like, online tests, you know, things were open note, I took like notes, differently because it was like, I would just like screenshot instead of like writing things down. Yeah. And then also just like staying home for the whole week instead of like, going and doing things after school.
Ariel Emrani 04:33
Yeah. Yeah. Okay, thank you.
Kate Roche 04:35
Okay, my question. Oh, I'm i'll introduce. So my name is Kate Roche. I'm gonna be asking Ariel. So do you consent to being asked about your experience with in participating in this study?
Ariel Emrani 04:53
Yes. And it's currently Friday, September 17 at 12:14pm
Kate Roche 04:57
Okay, perfect. Um, How do you remember the pandemic being announced? Was it gradual, abrupt? And how did you feel and where were you?
Ariel Emrani 05:06
So I remember being in my Hebrew class in my high school, and people were talking about bat soup at the very beginning. And it started out as something that was, like, funny and confusing. And just, it wasn't really affecting us. It was just something like in the news. So I'm just some thing that came and passed. But it didn't pass. Because I remember a few weeks later, I went to a Jewish school, and we had Purim off. So that was on a Thursday, and we didn't go to school that day. And then we got an email that night that was like, we're going to be canceling School for the next few weeks. And at that point, it was kind of a positive, because I was like, Okay, I got a few weeks off. It's like a little bit of a break.
Ariel Emrani 05:55
But then it continued to be not just a break, and it went on and on. And we began to do zoom, and stay at home. And I remember we had a school trip planned to Alabama, which we did not get to go on. And I was looking forward to my end of the year dance show. Which also did not happen. And, yeah, so it started out as something that I felt nothing really strong about. And then it turned into something that was pretty upsetting and confusing, and just very new. But not in a good way, obviously. So I just ended up at home doing zoom like every other teenager in the world, basically.
Kate Roche 06:49
Yeah. And how did it affect your immediate plans, and then like the following week, and
Ariel Emrani 06:57
so I remember my birthday came up soon after. And I kind of like completely neglected it. I was like, I can't go outside, I can't do anything. And then I remember seeing my friends cars pull up. And it was really nice. And they surprise me. And we just kind of stood in my front yard, all very far apart with masks on. And I remember pretty immediately after. So my parents are both in health care. And they were both taking the pandemic very seriously, like from the get go. So my parents were like, you can't go out you can't see people, you always have to have your mask on. Like when the vaccine came out. They were very pro Vax. And they were like, we're getting doing this. And when we would go out, like even for a walk, we'd come home, we'd leave our shoes outside, we'd walk in, take our clothes off, take a shower, anytime we got a shipment of so my parents stopped going out unless it was for work. So that meant no grocery store or anything like that. So they would order groceries to the house. And they had this method where my dad would stand out one sink, and the mom would stand at the other sink. And they would bring the groceries, they would leave the groceries out for a few hours. And then they bring them in, and my dad would wash them at one sink. And then my mom would wash them at the other sink. And I thought they were crazy because they were literally washing the banana peels. And I was so confused by it. Yeah, that's kind of what to mind when you asked that question.
Kate Roche 08:29
Yeah, that's funny. And then how did the pandemic affect your mental and physical health of you and your loved ones?
Ariel Emrani 08:38
So I, there was definitely a toll taken on my mental health as I assumed there was on everyone else's. It became more of a problem and something I had to deal with more. And I don't care much, but I'll share about my family members. So the biggest thing was the grandfather who has demntia couldn't really speak to other people anymore, and like couldn't go out. So he stopped walking. So like his limbs kind of stopped working. And he also stopped communicating with people. So his memory started to fade more he started to sleep more. He's having like, more trouble speaking. And I just like I feel so bad for my grandparents because they're sick, because they're high risk, and they're just stuck in my house. So as things started to get a little better, we visit them outside with masks a lot more which actually strengthened our relationship. So
This item was submitted on September 18, 2021 by Ariel Emrani using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: http://mail.covid-19archive.org/s/archive
Click here to view the collected data.