Covid-19 has a wide range of symptoms. Some people can become very sick and even in need of oxygen machines, while others would have no clue they've contracted the virus at all. For example, my. aunt , uncle, and cousin all tested positive and none of their experiences were alike. My uncle was almost in the hospital with difficulty breathing, loss of taste and smell, and more. My aunt was coughing but other than that fine. The baby was extremely cranky but without any other symptoms. This proves how wide the range of symptoms really are.

The item that I have chosen that connects to the pandemic was a Starbucks Coffee. The reason why I decided to choose this item is that there are days that learning over zoom is quite a challenge and that it gives so much pressure on me to be able to adapt to this kind of style of learning. With coffee on my hand, I can focus on class more and it makes me more energetic. When I drink coffee during my zoom classes, I tend to be able to participate more. I love caffeine, it encourages me to also be a positive person during these times because, without any coffee, I wouldn’t be able to learn anything from a monitor screen. Coffee best represents my current experience as a junior in high school because there are days that are sad and depressing, and there are days that are happy and bright. Online learning is a cycle, wake up and learn, after that you rest. I have been doing this since MARCH. Again, this is me with coffee because without any coffee, I am really tired and not energetic. When I have my coffee, I am always feeling refreshed and active! Online learning is something that I am not used to and I fear how with the difficulty of learning online, I am not able to understand the lesson which can lead me to bad grades. Hopefully, I will be able to accomplish my goals by staying determined and dedicated to online learning, resulting in a better grade for my classes, (with coffee of course). One word to describe my 2020 year is a challenge. It’s a challenge because there are things I have been through, like losing my grandpa who sadly passed away due to a heart attack and not being able to visit him because of COVID. COVID was mainly the reason why my 2020 was a challenge because I have to figure out new ways to keep myself happy and motivating. Online classes have made me less motivated because it didn’t feel the same and that everything was quite last minute last year. I wasn’t able to keep up with lessons, which discouraged me to continue and of course my grandpa’s sudden death. As from my experiences, the various holidays looked the same for me this year. Christmas and Thanksgiving were the same because I usually hang out with my family. When I do my online classes, I usually have a workspace. Since I know for a fact I am going to sit in one place for the next 9 hours, I have my coffee next to me to keep me up, I have my water, some chapstick, a big monitor screen, my textbooks, and my journals. I also have an office chair with a pad seat cushion for me to be comfortable! Even though those were the basic items on my quarantine workspace, I like to keep things simplistic. I only have things that are essential for me to use for working online, so I am not bothered by that. The three things that I would include in my quarantine survival kit would be some energy drinks, chapstick, and a pen with a journal. The reason why I chose these items is that for the first two, I cannot do anything without them! It’s great to have a lot of energy to do tasks, and some chapstick to have my lips not chapped. I also wanted to bring a pen and journal to describe my experiences in quarantine. I would also use that journal to write down things that bother me and things that I am appreciative of. Words do mean a lot, so I love to express my feelings in a journal to remind me that overall in time, things can get better.

You know, I don’t see much difference between the lifestyle I’m living right now and to the one I was living 10 years ago. 6 year old Me’s daily routine: Wake up: check Do school work at my desk: check Mope around the house: check Annoy my siblings: check Attempt and fail at anything in the kitchen: check Look outside my bedroom window and daydream: check Draw and doodle endlessly: check Want to see my friends: check Think about what I want to be in the future: check Sleep without expecting much the next day: check This year was horrible. There is, of course, covid happening and political events and natural disasters and death. The world and society is constantly changing and shaping due to the actions of people, possibly in the worst way possible, while all I’m doing is sitting in my room, looking out to the vast blue sky. And I have a confession: I feel like I’m missing out on everything. I KNOW I SHOULDN’T BE SAYING I’M MISSING OUT ON CONTRIBUTING TO THE WORST YEAR POSSIBLE, but I just miss the other not-so-horrible things in life such as experiencing highschool (debatable though), meeting new people (also very debatable), going out for the day, traveling to see family and friends; you know, making memories, having fun, the things that make life worth living. For the past few years of my life, like any teen going through adolescence, I’ve met hardships, failures, tears, but during this lockdown, I’ve haven’t felt any of those things in a while. The same goes for the successes, the excitement, and the joy-- it’s been a while since I’ve felt those too. My life at the moment has reached a straight. Life is supposed to have its bumps - its highs and lows-- a road with unprecedented surprises, but I’ve been going through life as if I’ve pressed autopilot, set to one direction. Time is passing all around me and I’ve been on this one way road, destined to who knows where, and I haven’t done much to enjoy life for what it truly is. However, my situation hasn’t been nearly as bad as others though and I’m truly grateful for that. One thing I won’t ever regret doing is resisting the urge to go out. I’ve been tempted a few times, but I’ve stayed quarantined from others-- you know the one thing that we all should be doing. I’m glad to say that I haven’t put my family, my friends, my neighbors, heck, random strangers’ lives at danger and I’m going to keep doing this until things finally boil down. The last thing I want to do is change someone’s life for the worst. Though it sounds like I’m all gloomy and what not, I don’t think quarantine was a complete waste of time. I’ve been able to sit and reflect in my own thoughts-- the one thing I’ve been trying to avoid. Like I said in the beginning, the life I’m living now is nostalgic of my 6 year old self. Not like the goldfish crackers and PBS kids TV shows kind of way, but the experiences I’m reliving. The last years of my life have been hectic and I’ve been striving for self improvement. I haven’t really sat down and let those experiences marinate. I’ve been doing, doing, doing, but I haven’t asked myself the true reasons for my actions. Self improvement, development of my character, blah, blah, blah, everyone says that stuff, but I’ve asked myself what DO I truly aim for: an end goal? A life goal? Why did I do the things I did back then, and how would they affect me now and later. Thus I revert back to my 6 year old self-- curious about what I want to be in the future and learning what it is to be a good person. I’ve come to realize my many flaws and rethink my mistakes and actions I’ve acted in the past. I’ve come to realize some of the things I did back then and the things I do now aren’t very nice-- for others and myself. Sometimes I’m too judgemental, I overthink things, I’m brash, I take things for granted, I do things for my own benefit-- heck, I can keep listing. To say the least, I’ve become more self-aware. Things aren’t all rosey posey and sunshine and rainbows-- quarantine helped me back down to earth and analyze my own character. I’ve also begun to realize the small things. Not my patience, but the things that give me joy. The nature in my backyard, windy days, my favorite nail polish, hot meals. I’ve been on this 1 track mind for so long that quarantine has made me stop and find joy, even the slightest bit of it, in things I would normally overlook-- the things my 6 year old self would smile for the brim for. I guess it hasn’t been all that bad. Could be better since I miss seeing people THAT aren’t constantly nagging my name to do the dishes, but hey, at least I’ve got my family to entertain me. I don’t know if we’re going out of quarantine anytime soon, but we did just get out of 2020. Cheers to 2021- maybe it’ll get better, maybe it’ll get worse, but hey it’s going to be quite a ride. Hope you enjoyed reading my brain dump and wish me luck as I try to tackle my kitchen; I am very determined to make both something at least edible and some new memories I can look back on.

Having been in a year of the corona virus pandemic actually was very helpful in learning about health and disease although it is a terrible disease. We have seen many symptoms with COVID such as loss of smell and taste as well as other flu symptoms. Fever or chills and coughing or shortness of breath are the most annoying symptoms I have seen. One of my friends had the corona virus and had no symptoms in other words asymptomatic. Fatigue and muscle or body aches are another flu like symptom that is very common. So over all I have learned that through COVID we should learn to stay healthy and clean and wash our hands.

The different types of COVID-19 symptoms are Fever or chill, Cough, Shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing, Fatigue, Muscle or body aches, Headache, New loss of taste or smell, Sore throat, Congestion, or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, and Diarrhea. I do not know anyone close that has had COVID19 but it is hard for other families not to know what will happen.

At the start of this virus, I thought it was mostly respiratory problems. But after my dad tested positive, I knew what the symptoms were. At first, my dad was super fatigued and couldn't move like he used to. After that, he started to get very hot and feel like he had a fever. He didn't have respiratory problems. I think it is because Covid affects people differently. My dad had a slight cough when he had it, but that wasn't bad. But the main symptom that most people get from Covid is the loss of taste and smell. My dad lost both of those and it really annoyed him. I also read a story about an NBA player who lost his taste and smell, and I read about a lot of people who had the same thing. Luckily, my dad fought it off and is doing well. There are many symptoms for covid, but they all can be different for everybody.

The symptoms that I heard about very frequently earlier during this pandemic were coughing, shortness of breath, fever and fatigue. These symptoms are all common symptoms of the virus. Other symptoms are headache, sore throat and chills. A lot of symptoms are symptoms that are seen with other sicknesses like influenza. One of the symptoms that is not associated with influenza is loss of taste or smell. One of my cousins experienced mild symptoms of Covid-19 such as sore throat, fever and fatigue.

The symptoms of Covid are very similar to the symptoms of the flu. You usually get a fever, body aches, it is harder to breath, etc. Unlike the flu however Covid makes you lose your sense of taste. Of all the people that I know, only three people I know have gotten the virus one was my history teacher, another was my friend, and the last was my cousin. My friend remained mostly asymptomatic the whole time he was sick. My cousin got pretty sick and had a high fever and had a lot of trouble breathing. Thankfully he recovered and is okay now.

Some rules are to wear a mask and stay six feet apart. These are smart rules that are definitely helping. Wearing a face mask is irritating and bothersome because I have to wear it all day at school. But staying six feet apart is easy and not as bad as it seems. Obeying these rules are the only way you can leave your house and go places so I will do so without complaining.

I have The VID (coronavirus) It was horrible. I was in my bed for about a week and ate soup alot. I mean I got to play videogames a lot so that was good. Otherwise DO NOT GET THE VID!!!

In February of last year, I am not sure but I think I got Covid. My whole family ended up getting sick for about 3 days. It was really weird becuase we all felt really bad. I had like a fever and just didn't feel like doing anything. Since I happened to get a week off, I ended up going sking a couple days after, and I felt fine. Overall, it wasn't that bad and at the time we didn't even know that Covid was in the US and just thought it was a bad cold or something.

I haven't had Corona yet, or I don't think I have, but i certainly know people who have gotten it. In the beginning around April of 2020, everything had just shut down. My family had some friends who were exposed, and they all tested positive for COVID-19 right after we saw them. My family was in shock and we were scared. They began to quarantine, and then we had to quarantine as well because we were then exposed. They all got very sick and luckily no body in my family tested positive, but it was a very scary experience.

One of my friends tested positive for Covid. One day, I was playing video games with my group of friends. The particular friend who had Covid I had not talked to for a while. I playfully yelled his name and asked where he had been. He merely stated that he was asymptomatic and he got Covid a couple months ago. I was quite shocked. I had not heard a word of this before hand so I was not expecting this. He just blew it off and we started playing games. No more talk of the virus happened and no questions were really asked.

I have not been greatly affected by my friend testing positive for Covid 19. My friend had no symptoms of Covid 19 and said it felt like nothing. Nothing really changed because my parents didn't want me really over at my friends house since some of my family are high risk. He said he couldn't taste anything but said the only problem was he couldn't really see us. I still called him once in a while to see how he's doing but right now he doesn't have Covid.

Corona for me, has not affected my life much at all, but I do have a friend who's dad got corona. It affected me by me not being able to hang out with that friend. They did this just to make sure there was no risk of it spreading. Even though no one was really sick we wanted to make sure we could stay in school. The friend's father was completely fine and the rest of his family tested negative. I also had another friend that tested positive but had no symptoms and never got sick. These two cases are the only ones that have affected my life, but they didn't affect it a lot. I was only not allowed to hang out with them because of their parents, mine were completely fine with it because they know the virus is not going to kill anyone.

It was about a year ago we where in New Orleans and visiting our distant cousins a day after Mardi Gras my was feeling terrible and he slept almost all day and had many of the covid symptoms we thought he just was tired. so the next day came around and he was fine but my brother was sick with it. He had it for about three days. After that we lifted New Orleans and about last summer we found out that they both had it my dad and my brother so that's it.

In my close circle I haven't had anyone that has been tested positive for Covid-19. In the big circle, there have been a few though. All of them were school related. Some student in school were sent home for a week because one of their students got sick, and one of the teachers in my grade also got sick, but since I was indirectly related I didn't get affected. Most of the times where someone remotely close to me got Covid, I wasn't effected in any way.

So far, I have only know two people that have had Covid-19. One of them was my uncle who lives in New Jersey, and the other was a friend of mine who is my age. My family from NJ came to visit us two weeks ago(which included my uncle), and my uncle told us that a few months he had covid-19. He said that he had no symptoms at all, the only way he even knew he had it was because he had to get tested to go back to work. The test came back positive, but he still had not even one symptom. I also have a friend who had covid-19 over winter break. He said that he had no symptoms except for he lost his taste and smell for three days. Those are the only people that I've know who have had covid-19.

Personally I don't know anyone that has gotten Covid 19 and I would prefer not to start now. I have heard however that the symptoms in everyone are different depending on your blood type, if you have asthma, diabetes, or any other immune disorder. The symptoms in a healthy person is just like an extended common cold. There is coughing, fatigue, light headedness, and fever. But, once it hits people who have asthma that could be a problem considering that Covid 19 attacks the lungs. It could damage their lungs even more which could potentially lead to death. Other than that the symptoms are pretty much the same. The thing that makes this particular virus dangerous is that no one shows symptoms for at least 2 weeks. So before you know its there, there is already a couple billion little virus cells in your body making you sick or worse. This disease mainly affects the elderly and is hard to control. it spreads quickly because it is an airborne disease. Some other symptoms are nausea and diarrhea. By now it is very well known about by now mostly because an insane 3.12 million people have died around the world because of it.

My grandma and grandpa had Covid in November, before thanksgiving. My grandma got it from a nurse that had it from her work and then she got it and passed it on to my grandpa. My grandma had it for 3-4 weeks. She had a fever, cough, lost of taste, shortness of breath, body aches. My grandpa had it for about 2 weeks. He had body aches, headaches and a slight cough. My grandma has to go to the Los Robles Hospital because she had shortness of breath. The doctors helped her by giving her some oxygen, some antibiotics, steroids, plasma with with antibodies, Vitamin D and C, and Zinc. My grandpa did not have to go to the hospital. They are all fine now but that was a little scary when my grandma had to go to the hospital.

As you've probably already heard, many people have caught COVID. I don't know anyone in my family that has caught it, but I do have a family friend that caught it. I know that sympotoms and how the virus attacks your immune system can differ, but in this case it wasn't too bad. Some of the symptoms my friend is experiencing are tiredness, fatigue, fever, runny nose, and pain all over the body. Again, I've heard of others going to the hospital because they weren't able to breath. This friend, caught is a few days ago, so he is isolated in his home and sadly the rest of his family has caught it. As of now, they are doing fine and hope to have a swift recovery.

Someone that has covid may experience a lot of symptoms or not as many. Most symptoms are cough, fever, headache, sore throat, and muscle or body ache. If you are old or have diabetes, overweight, or heart problems than you need to take the virus more seriously. My uncle had covid about 3 months ago. He's probably around 50 years old. He was out for three days. He wasn't worried at all. He had a fever for a day and sore throat and a little cough. He got it over with.

I've heard many different things about Covid-19. I only know one person who got the virus but my family know a few. The person I know said that it wasn't bad. They just had a cough and a fever. I've also heard some other people say that Covid was really bad. As far as I know the main symptoms of Covid are a cough, fever, and runny nose. I haven't met anyone who had Covid and said it was really bad.

I have a busier schedule now than I did when I left the house for more than grocery runs and work. I spend a lot of my time on Zoom, as we all do, but doing things I was not doing before. In April, quickly after Friday the 13th, my #twitterstorian dreams came true when Dr. Joanne Freeman launched History Matters…. And So Does Coffee with the National Council for History Education. A couple of months later, The Gilder Lehrman Institute launched a weekly series talking with a historian about their book called Book Breaks. I could never attend conferences like the Southern Historical Association annual meeting, and now they were available to me virtually. The Western History Association annual meeting was online in October 2020 and was one of the best conferences and online meeting experiences that I think is possible given the circumstances. I have seen Joanne Freeman and Dr. Heather Cox Richardson speak together frequently over the last few months, and each experience is just as fun as the previous. I am on the board of the Arizona Technology in Education Association. The ability to host events and PD without needing to secure locations and catering has increased the number of events that we host by what feels like tenfold. I also started my Ph.D. in history at ASU, and with those added time blocks to my schedule expanded my little world with cohort and classmates. The pandemic has forced us to come together in new ways. By trying to carry on, those components of our lives shifted to the internet and thus actually made them more accessible to our larger communities than they were before. It has prompted even more of the existing conversations about virtual conferencing from an economic and environmental perspective. Don’t get me wrong, I am eagerly awaiting my 2nd vaccine and the days when I can travel for conferencing, community, and research again, but I think I will frame my plans around a different question. I don’t believe that I will have to ask myself to choose what to attend and not attend. Instead, it will be what things do I want to engage with in person (and what things can I) and what things I will still attend, but from afar. We are closing in on a year in this pandemic, and with the new year, I think it is essential to try and find some kind of silver lining – and it is that I think the communities that we have built over the last year and continue to build will be larger and stronger. Now I suppose I need to mull over the ramifications of overscheduling, burnout, and prioritization.

A few months back I started having covid symptoms so to be safe my family stayed far away from me and tried to bring me food or anything else I needed so I didn't have to leave my room. My symptoms ranged from the normal common ones all the way to the weird ones like my feet being freezing no matter what I did to heat them. Luckily none of them so bad I had to go to the hospital or anything. Covid soon started to go away and I had eventually tested negative but I wasn't done. For a few weeks, after I had caught another virus and had to deal with this with about the same symptoms besides the fact, my body now ached from being sick for this long without much motion in my day. not sure about date below

In December of 2019, I believe I had COVID-19. For a few weeks I was coughing uncontrollably, like hyperventilating but coughing. It was terrible, once I started coughing it felt like it never stopped. I had to take Sudafed's, cough drops, and NyQuil even just to fall asleep. It was terrible. I got my whole entire family sick, even my mom! Which was odd because she never, I mean never gets sick. My parents decided to take me to urgent care, where they swabbed my throat. Tested the swab and nothing came back positive. So they decided to do a chest x-ray, and I did not have pneumonia. After all of these tests and x-rays, they just said, we have no idea what she has but she has something. It was kind of scary to hear that. After the next week or so I finally recovered. It was a really rough few weeks and probably the worst cold I had ever had. To wrap up, I believe I had COVID-19 in December 2019.

When I heard my friend and her parents tested positive, I was freaking out. I was planning to hang out with her soon and if another friend hadn't told me, that would've been very bad. She was actually going to come to school and I was thinking if she would, I wouldn't be near her. But thankfully, she "changed her mind." I don't want to get exposed to covid even though it doesn't have a big affect on me. I have parents working in the medical field and it would make me feel so guilty. Since June, I've been hanging around with one specific girl and only sometimes we add this other one. I just always have an eerie feeling in public places now. And a guilty one when I think about it too much. I always try and be responsible and take others in account.

I have not been affected by anyone I know testing positive, and i have not been tested positive. My brother has to get tested every month and he has never tested positive. I guess my moms cousin tested positive and was in the hospital, I don’t know if he died or not though my parents just stopped talking about him. I never met him.

I woke up one day got ready for school put my water polo stuff in my bag and I was out the door. I was excited to train so I could get ready for a big tournament coming up. I ask my dad, what time is practice. HE said people in the high school got Covid so practice is canceled for a couple of weeks. A couple of weeks I said. Then I won't be able to train for the tournament. He said yeah I know we are just going to have to figure out another way. So I had to find out a way to practice without a pool.

Me personally has not been affected to much by covid. No one in my family or friends has even tested positive. The hard part for me is that i am not allowed to see my grandparents without wearing a mask and social distancing. My nana is ok we go to lunch and hang out sometimes but my grandparents are paranoid. Luckily my grandparents got the vaccine early with no side affects and now once we get it we will be able to see each other.

Our family friend Joe Diffie had and died of Covid in March of 2020

I decided to do a series of portraits of family members in masks to document the pandemic.

I decided to do a series of portraits of family members in masks to document the pandemic.

School used to be a place where I would find comfort; a place to escape. Ever since the pandemic started, school has been the root of all of my problems. My mental state has hit an all-time low and I often wonder when I will become the cheery and spirited person again. Learning materials used to come easily to me but now I find it so difficult to retain a small amount of information. Now that I am a junior, I've realized that I only got to experience a year and a half of it. I am afraid that by the time the pandemic gets better I'd leave high school with nothing. As a child, I always envisioned my life to pan out to be like those in shows. That is quite a stretch, isn't it? A selfish part of me wants to be able to go live life like past generations have but that doesn't mean I will go out and risk the safety of others as well myself. The world right now is scary... Fate has a mind of its own and as people of this Earth, we will never know what it will throw at us. With that being said I find that the load of work that teachers hand to us derives my motivation. I knew for a fact that this school year would be hard but I never realized how much of a toll it would take on me. Even though this was enough to discourage me, I tried - believe me - to find something that will spark my drive again. I tried to challenge myself and reward myself to fuel my passion for school but it's proving to be impossible as of lately. Will this ever get better? It's been like hell.

The media focuses a lot on the losses children are facing during the pandemic. And while I certainly would prefer that the virus was contained and my son would be able to attend school in person, take piano lessons with his piano teacher beside him instead of on a Facetime call, and play with a friend outside of his older sister, my six year old son is genuinely enjoying quarantine. I realize this is a privilege - we have a backyard, space, two working adults who can afford food and technology, and a live-in grandma who can help with any distance learning issues. But my son seems to be thriving in this much simpler and quieter life. We always did a lot together as a family, but we did not spend a lot of time actually at home. Now that we’ve been home together for over ten months, we have settled into this new life that involves my son helping my husband make dinner every night. And he LOVES it. It’s not as though he had never cooked before, but to be able to do it every night, side by side with his dad is an experience he did not have in our pre-quarantine life that was much faster paced and on the go. Many nights, the little chef will bring me a menu that outlines the dinner and asks for my order. He takes such pride in telling all of us what parts of the meal he was in charge of. He assures us he is both the owner and the “cooker” of the restaurant and that his daddy is his employee. When dinner is over, he asks to take my plate, and has recently become very interested in washing all the dinner dishes himself (no complaints here). I certainly long for the day that we can go back out in the world, but I feel very blessed that my son will be able to look back at this year with happiness, even in the midst of such a dire situation.

Food is the centerpiece of all of our family gatherings, even the informal ones. Before quarantine, my in-laws would drop by regularly, and always with enough food for an army. In the almost twenty years I have known my mother in law, I have never seen her without being given food - even if it’s a fresh bao she pulls out of her purse (true story - this happened at my kids’ student of first trimester awards last year (pre-Covid). I saw her for a total of 20 minutes, just enough time to watch my son and daughter get their awards and dash back to work, and that saint of a woman gave me three warm bao she had picked up on the way from a local bakery. “Pretty good” she said, which is her seal of approval.) It is hard to admit as I type this that I have not physically seen my in-laws beyond waving through the front window when they drop off homemade jook (rice porridge) since March. We Facetime with them and text, but it is not the same. That is a long time to be away from people that have a house less than five miles from ours. My in-laws are over 70 and a huge part of our lives, to lose this year with them hurts in ways I can’t describe. And culturally, food is their “I love you” - they don’t say the words, they show it through sharing food. And we haven’t had a meal together in almost a year. My husband still cooks Chinese dishes. On Monday, we had 蔥 油 餅 (green onion pancake), dumplings, Hong Kong waffle, shrimp with peas and lumpia (yes, I know, that’s really Filipino, but it’s sort of a staple in our family), and it was delicious. But there is this odd shadow that sort of hangs over our meal, knowing how much his parents would have loved to share it with us. And yes, we Facetimed them so the kids could show them how well the waffle turned and my mother-in-law said she couldn’t wait to come over and try it. The feeling is very, very mutual.

This image practically sums up my entire experience in this unprecedented pandemic. Being confined to my room, I was mandated to attend online school through zoom. I now had to spend hours fixated on a screen, forced to learn in a distracting environment. With my phone by my side and countless thoughts running through my head, I found the learning process quite straining to both my mind and eyes. The only escape from school I had was spending time with my friends. However, with the ongoing pandemic and social distancing protocol, we were unable to see each other in person. Although we do see each other virtually, it is difficult to do fun activities as a group and momentarily release our stress. The digital realm has seemingly taken over my life, with untold hours spent through screens, I frequently felt isolated and disconnected from the outside world. I long to soon escape my bubble, to once again see my friends, family, teachers, classmates, and even strangers. For the time being, I will take advantage of this leisure time, hoping and dreaming for a normal society once again.

One of our family’s favorite treats is boba and in our area, boba shops are as ubiquitous as Starbucks. Even though transmission of COVID through food is seen as a minimal risk, the process of going into a tiny boba shop to order and wait doesn’t seem worth the risk for an item that is not really essential. After years of vowing to never make boba at home (too much stirring), my husband caved in and ordered instant boba online. We were skeptical - would it really taste as good as the boba shops? Would the texture be right? Making it is a little time consuming, but we were surprised that the taste and texture are exactly right, even at home. My husband, who has always liked brewing different loose leaf teas, has gotten much more into perfecting the “perfect tea.” He has had a fun time experimenting with different teas and sweetness levels, and although I miss the different jellies and other flavors that you can get at a boba shop, I have to admit I am impressed at how easily we were able to conquer making something we never would have attempted without COVID. Added bonus - over the past two plus decades, I have grown increasingly uncomfortable with the amount of plastic that is wasted with a boba drink (the plastic cups, lids, and giant plastic straws). Even with straws technically outlawed and the growing popularity of reusable boba straws, loopholes and lack of enforcement allowed most people to still use disposable plastic straws and the plastic cups and lids. When we make boba at home, there is no plastic involved, nothing is thrown away, and we use our reusable straws. An upside of COVID will be that it hopefully helps us to make small changes (like making our own boba and tea) to our lives to lessen our carbon footprints.

It was a late September night, the sky dark as coal. I was eating a delicious dinner of spaghetti al carbonara with my family when my father told us some scary news. The son of my grandfather's friend had fallen ill and died at the hands of COVID. I did not know this friend or his son at all, however, the fact that it could kill a perfectly healthy, young man really struck me hard, ad I'm beginning to see why my mother won't let me go to school. My father and grandfather attended the funeral, and I was left to think about how serious this pandemic really was.

Throughout 2020 there has been many different symptoms of Coronavirus. The main ones are fever, sore throat, coughing. I had a personal experience with one of my family members getting the virus. It was my great grandma. My great grandma was my biggest hero. She went through many obstacles in her life including; World War 2, she was a model for Norway, and she even beat a pandemic. On November 4 2020 my family and i found out my great grandma was diagnosed with Coronavirus. Now she had many health issues and we all knew the virus would not help that. On November 8th she tested negative. We were all very happy she made it through. The next day she was not doing well and she passed away. She was surrounded by family on zoom to talk to her and I will never forget how amazing she was.

The object that I have presented is my Akaashi plushie from one of my favorite anime shows called Haikyu. During quarantine, I have retaken an interest back into anime. I used to watch anime when I was in middle school, but my obsession ended because I was prioritizing school more. Until my friend convinced me to watch a show called Haikyu, which was about high school volleyball and made me get hooked back into watching anime again. Although my Akasshi plushie is just a stuffed animal, it has helped me through my journey as a junior in high school because it reminds me to continue working hard. In the show, Haikyu, the team Karasuno's goal is to get to nationals and become the top school in Japan. Although they struggle to achieve their goal to reaching nationals in their first attempt, that does not stop them from continuing. They all persevere through their downfalls and eventually, they finally achieve their dream. This show has given me a shed of inspiration, reminding me to continue working hard because eventually, I too, can achieve my ambitions with the efforts I put in. It also represents the difficulties that our country is currently struggling in right now because the number of COVID cases continues to rise and the vaccine for COVID is still in preparation. However, we continue to persevere trying to find a vaccine to cure this sickness and for our country to finally be at peace once again. To sum up my 2020 experience, I would have to say it was quite a crazy, adventurous, yet boring time. It was crazy because I have never expected I would experience a pandemic in my life time. To think I have read about all sorts of plagues in history class, only to discover I would actually experience it myself and one day, be able to retell my journey through this difficult time to future generations. Despite it being crazy, I thought it was also quite an adventure going through this pandemic. I have taken interests in hobbies that I never thought I would such as baking, painting, and embroidering. I even began taking an interest back into anime, which I never thought I would because I always believed it was silly, only to find out I was completely wrong. These animated shows have helped me become the person I am today and I am really grateful for that. Sure, discovering new hobbies was an adventure, there were some moments during quarantine that were boring. I could not go outside and interact with my friends as much, which made my quarantine experience even more boring. Holidays such as 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, was quite tragic. Normally I would go on vacation with my family, but because flights were cancelled and going around increased the risk of catching COVID, my family and I stayed home trying to make the most of the holidays. We followed all of the stay at home regulations for the holidays by wearing masks and standing 6 feet apart from our family members just in case they ever caught it. The holidays did not feel as special anymore since we could not interact with people as close, making it seem like it was a normal weekday. My quarantine workspace is my white wooden desk with light blue draws and a light blue chair to match the draws. On my desk, there is a white lamp, an essential oil diffuser, a candle, and a tiny Buddha statue. Around my desk, there are a couple of photos of my family, anime characters as well as BTS members too. Three things that I would include in my quarantine survival kit would be my phone, food, and water. I would bring my phone because it would be my only source of entertainment since I have the ability to communicate with my friends, watch shows, online shop, and listen to music. I would also definitely bring food and water because I need it for survival and I love to binge watch shows while eating some food. I wanted to upload a photo of the anime paintings I have painted during quarantine, but unfortunately I can only upload one photo :(. Instead I will describe it :). My first painting that I have painted was a picture of one of my favorite characters named Killua and he is from the show Hunter x Hunter. I painted a close up photo of him smiling and made my background a little blue color. As for my second painting, I painted Hinata and Kageyama from Haikyu because they are known as the best duos when it comes to their play tactics. I painted Hinata and Kageyama who are both smiling from joy because they were able to get a good shot from one of their plays and I painted the background yellow to symbolize the happiness in the painting.

In a time where life went from full speed to a sudden pause, I felt like I was just standing in the middle of chaos and confusion. Prior to Covid, TikTok was seen as just an app for adolescence. However, to me it was bigger than that it was a communicate freely your comments, concerns, escape from reality. In a world full of darkness, this brought laughter to many faces. It is an outlet that felt like you were hanging out with your best friends. TikTok was the light in my life, being able to connect with so many people when that was stripped from us.

In my opinion, quarantine was a difficult event to adjust to. Having to start school online and stay home with no other human interact was very difficult for me. However, I distracted myself by starting to bullet journal of all the shows and movies that I was able to watch, being that we stayed at home 24/7. I felt like these pens captured the pandemic in a light where one can either chose to loath in themselves or learn something new. These pens are all the pens I have used over this quarantine and that have run out of ink due to how much I was using it; I also used it for schoolwork(there was a lot of that too). In the end, I somewhat thank quarantine, because it taught me that in life you could chose two paths and its solely up to you when such a huge obstacle appears in your life.

I have shown dogs for thirty-five years, which is my hobby and passion. Before Covid going to a dog show was a social event for all humans and canines involved. Exhibitors would greet each other with high fives and hugs. Ring stewards handed armbands to exhibitors, and judges would give placement ribbons to exhibitors and shake their hands when leaving the show ring. Both winners and losers were hugged in congratulations and condolences. Dogs could cue off of their exhibitor's facial expressions and were not leary of strangers who approached them. Dog shows were a laid back and social environment. When the pandemic created shutdowns in every aspect of life, dog shows all but disappeared in Arizona from the middle of March until early November. A few kennel clubs have opted to offer hosting dog shows with "Covid Rules" in place. Starting in November, showing a dog became "different." An exhibitor had to sign a "Covid survey and waiver form," have a scan temperature taken when entering the show grounds, wear a mask at all times, pick up armbands set out on tables and verbally declare the armband was received. When entering the show ring, a specific entry point and exit point was utilized, and exhibitors had to be six feet apart while in the show ring. After a judge examined each dog and determined placements, the exhibitors would stand six feet apart by placement placards and then exit the ring taking their placement ribbons off a table by the exit. There was not any physical human contact made between exhibitors, ring stewards, and judges. The physical challenge of running with a dog while wearing a mask restricted breathing, making showing a dog difficult. If a dog won at the show and a picture was taken, the photographer would offer to "photoshop" the judge into the photo with the dog and exhibitor or everyone socially distanced. In addition to no human interaction, dogs were unsettled by people wearing masks. Showing a dog in a Covid environment has become tiring and stressful, and going to a Covid dog show is not fun even when you win.

Scrolling through social media, I have been bombarded with innumerous posts that tell the now familiar tale of the passing of tribal elders due to COVID-19. Angry, sad…crushed – My entire being is blitzed with many emotions as I sit here reflecting on the recent news of the death of yet another elder from my own Nation, the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California. Being made up of just over 1400 enrolled tribal members, the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, like many other Native Nations, has come upon a time of extreme crisis. It has been stated by many that losing a tribal elder is the equivalent of burning down a library. This analogy is sufficient for many Native Nations although when considering the current state of language and culture for “smaller” Nations, this does not suffice. Every Washoe tribal elder that is taken from this world prematurely could be equated to the burning down of an entire country as our language has been designated as an extinct language by linguistic anthropologists because of the low percentage of fluent speakers remaining. This catastrophe has called for champions, for warriors. Warriors are those who sacrifice for the greater good, for the betterment of the collective. Washoe warriors have once again become numerous. Women and men, younger and older have taken up our positions to defend what we have left. This mobilization is reflective of the wide variety of skills and experiences Washoe people maintain. A foundational principle in Washoe culture, yeyelu, demands that we stand together. Seeing many Washoe upholding our traditions of protection offers me hope. Scrolling has become a task, one wrought with trauma and heart ache but more importantly of hope. HOPE. In prayer, Patrick DéɁileligi Burtt (Red Burtt from Wa She Shu St)

With long school days and extracurriculars occupying my weekends, I spent the little time I had at home doing school work. I never truly felt I was at home enjoying time with myself or with my family because the rush of high school was not stopping anytime soon. Then, a virus wave put all our lives on pause. Some thought of quarantine as a jail cell, but I took it as a breather. Before, I was unable to see my family often or enjoy proper meals and during these past 10 months in quarantine, I have been able to make up for that lost time. I have been filled with delicious, home-cooked meals nearly 3 times a day made my mom, a passionate cook. It made me realize that providing us with whole-hearted meals was my parents' love language. Throughout quarantine, I have been living, eating, and spending time with my family in the comfort of my home. I often feel that I'm taking this precious time for granted because when things go back to normal, I won't be able to escape the rush of life. Even though my days seem static and monotonous right now, I think I will truly miss the this feeling of comfort in the future.

One day I was out for a walk with my dad and when we came home my mom told us that our neighbors, who we had hung out with the week before, tested positive for COVID! This was a bit of a surprise for our family because we had been really careful so that we didn't get our grandparents sick. Our neighbors ended up being perfectly fine, and so did we. We never ended up getting COVID. the week before they had gotten it we had played football with them at the park near our house.

The beginning of 2020 was actually going really well for me. February was Lunar New Years, and it was one of the best years I’ve had lion dancing. Later that month it was Vietnamese culture night, and me and some school friends decided to form an impromptu team to perform for the event, and eventually it led me to starting an actual lion dance team for my school. A little context to this is that I’m a very young, but passionate lion dancer, and I’ve been lion dancing since I was in 7th grade. Growing up I always wanted to be a lion dancer, and never in a million years would I have imagined that I'd end up starting and running one. So when I did it was one of the most exciting things that happened to me, and life for me was starting to look good; I was doing well in school, I finally asked out this girl I had a crush on, and I somehow recruited members for this school lion dance team. I will always rember that day, March 13th, 2020. I remember it was a wet and rainy day, but the rain had stopped for a bit. So we decided to have practice. I remember in the middle of our practice, we had received an email from the school saying that we would shut down. (Ironically, I remember being in 5th period, joking about how I’d take one for the team and get COVID so school would get shut down) I remember everything was just quiet in that moment, then suddenly everyone started to freak out. They worried about their AP exams and their stuff from sports and yearbook, etc. On the inside I was freaking out too, but I tried to keep my composure and tried to get back to practice. But eventually we all decided to end practice early. I remember going with my brother after that to get sushi with our Vietnamese teacher and we just thought it was going to be a short term thing. In the beginning I thought it would be a fun and breezy 3 weeks. But 3 weeks became 3 months. And 3 months became 9 months. I remember just sitting at home and feelin devastated about the current situation. I didn’t think that it would ever be so bad and it’d be such a low point in my life. I remember waking up everyday during summer feeling more and more worthless, with no goal or idea of what to do next. And this thought basically continued into the new school year, but it suddenly got worse. It was the middle of November and I remember jogging and i felt like i was choking, I rember i got home and fell down and just started gasping for air. Later my family got tested and turns out I had COVID. And what I thought was isolation became even more isolated. I was all alone, both emotionally and physically. There comes a time where you become tired of everything and you just lay in bed and stare at the ceiling and wonder, “Why the hell is this happening? Is everything I do a failure? Why do I even have these hopes and aspirations when it seems like the world doesn’t approve of it anyways?” But there was one thing that really comforted me, and that was anime and manga. I remember re-reading one of my favorite series, and a certain line always stuck out to me, especially during my quarantine. It was a simple line said by the protagonist(?), Eren Yeager from Attack on Titan. “We need to keep moving forward, even if we die, even after we die.” I think this line really stuck out to me because it gave me a simple yet unclear solution to this unprecedented situation. I just need to keep moving forward; because there’s really nothing I can do except dwell on all that I've lost. But if I just sit and dwell then I would never know if there’s hope moving forward. Even now as I’m writing this, it is approaching Lunar New Years, but almost everything is cancelled. Sure it hurts to see lion dance teams around the globe take off while mine is stagnant, or see people finding new romance while I’m here getting rejected and ghosted, but what more can I do except continue walking. If I had to sum up my whole lockdown situation with one word, it would be hibernation. I don’t know if lions hibernate, but mine is, and so am I. We’re not resting per se, but waiting for this tough time to pass so that when we come out of hibernation, we come out better and stronger than before.

This is probably the aspect of COVID that has impacted me the most. No one in my family got COVID, and everyone I know that got it recovered very quickly. The first rule that impacted me was the shutting down of schools. I started online school, and it was a blessing and a curse. I loved some aspects of online school, but I still kind of missed in-person school. The second rule that impacted me was the social distancing. Every time I did have social interaction, I needed to stay 6 feet apart from everyone. I would also need to wear a mask every time I was around people. This made going to stores like Vons and Gelsons much more inconvienient. My least favorite rule was the mandatory lock-down. All of my favorite stores and restaurants closed. I wouldn't be able to go anywhere expect for a few places (grocery stores like Vons and Gelsons). Throughout the last year, the new rules and procedures of COVID have impacted me far greater than the virus itself, and hopefully it will stay that way.

Living in a pandemic, navigating through the ins and outs of being (almost) 17, and self-reflecting on who I am during quarantine has shaped me into an entirely different person than who I was at the start of 2020. I remember sitting through a speaker presentation for a club I’m in during Transgender Awareness Week; In part because of LGBTQ+ education being moved into virtual spaces and in part because I feel the term now deeply resonates with me, I quickly took this screenshot of the slide defining the term non-binary. Before the pandemic, gender and how I viewed it was never a thought in my head because I often had no time to even reflect on what it meant to be a girl, to be a boy, or to simply exist beyond the binary. But I feel like if this prolonged period of isolation has taught me anything, it’s that gender and my relation to it will always remain an agglomeration of everything and nothing at all, and sometimes that’s perfectly normal.