During quarantine, I spent quite some time walking trails and exploring the great outdoors. The first trail I started out on was located on the Red Mountain campus of Mesa Community College. It was here that I noticed the large amount of trash scattered along the dirt trails. While on these quiet walks, I would have a lot of time to look inwards to heal myself, and yet look outwards at the trash building up. I then decided that I wanted to try and clean up as much trash as I could during my quarantine walks. I thus spent large amounts of my quarantine time cleaning up the desert alongside my loving fiance. We even turned cleaning up trash into a game; the person who collected the least amount would have to cook dinner when we got home. We had wonders spending time outside cleaning up miscellaneous trash scattered everywhere. This made me realize that we depend heavily on the earth, however, we sometimes forget to take care of our planet. My REL101 class helped me see that we can use our resources to help out, no matter how small the contribution. So please, spread the love and have fun while cleaning up our earth!

This story tells my experience of having Covid-19 along with being the mother of a brown child during the pandemic and BLM movement. I also share how this year drew the line in the sand for our family's faith and how my partner and I finally found the courage to come out.

Although the meme is meant to be comedic, I feel that it reflects the reality of the stressors many people faced during the pandemic. To begin, the anxiety that the coronavirus disease brought into the public severely affected the mental health of many individuals across the globe. During the mandated lockdowns, I , like many others around me, began experiencing a decline in my happy hormones. At the time the pandemic restrictions were being put into place, I was living on campus with three other roommates. With the fear of spreading the disease unintentionally, the three moved out of the dorm right away and I was left to be on my own due to personal housing issues taking place at the time. The lack of interaction with anyone took a toll on my mental health. I missed my friends and my mom, I just wanted to be around someone, but we could only have visitors if they were helping us move out. On top of personal mental health struggles, events taking place across the country were also scarring. Protests in response to racial injustice under an administration that made it hard to feel safe unless you were a white male in America only added to the helpless state of being. Watching cases upon cases of unjustifiable abuse made the environment only more threatening than it initially seemed when the pandemic was first reported. The election of November 2020 was suspenseful in terms of who would be elected could potentially determine vital living situations for people all across the United States, whether it be immigrant status, being a person of color, or not being able to afford paying for housing in general. Financial troubles took over the country and the stimulus checks were not enough to cover housing, food, home essentials, especially when some dependents and entire families were not able to receive help because of their citizenship or dependent status. Many tried to turn towards their faith, the keyword being “tried.” Although not all religions focus on gatherings or physical objects, many people were unable to get access to these common preferred forms of practice and felt that virtual gatherings seemed ingenuine or illegitimate. Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic had many more severe effects on a global scale in all aspects of life. From concerns of the health of others, oneself, finances, practice of faith, and fear of safety in your own home, the negative effects are consistent as it seems that everything continues to pose a threat to daily living. I hope that everything eventually falls back into place and that justice is put in place so that people do not have to fear their own existence.

Religious Expression vs. Freedom My faith had been deconstructed long before COVID-19 hit United States soil and the first (of many) lockdowns began. Where as many decided to lean heavily on their beliefs during a time of fear, confusion, and loneliness, I had ample time to reflect upon my own moral code, belief system, and lofty open-ended ideas regarding human origins, the afterlife, and my mortality. And while I am certain many of these concepts will never be answered, the pandemic has certainly shed a light onto the beliefs, values, and behavior of the religious USA. Certainly not all, but a large portion of Evangelical Americans and the non-religious have collided on freedom as a concept as well as how to exercise it. The arguments were especially heated in terms of gathering, which was banned in most areas for months in order to protect general wellbeing. As someone who found comfort and solace in my Sunday morning worship sessions, I understand the importance of such community gatherings. When faced with an unknown time without the habit and release of worship, there is bound to be friction. While friction was certainly there, most Americans followed CDC regulations and recommendations at the start. However it took very little time for discourse, blatant disregard, and conspiracy to settle into communities across not only the USA, but the world. Was the government really able to tell people how to exercise their freedom of religion, even if it meant health was at risk? It seems many Americans value their freedom over health choices. While I found it difficult to wrap my mind around, as I have followed CDC guidelines from the start and since received the Pfizer vaccine, I also understand the individualistic spirit of America as a whole. Patriotism seems to be synonymous with the religious right of America- and our country’s political polarization is nothing new under the sun. Most churches I am aware of meet weekly or more, masks are scoffed at, and doctors are seen as agents of the state keen on stripping freedoms away from every man, woman, and child. Freedom is clearly more important than both individual health and the health of others around them. I have heard that god will protect those who he chooses to (not the millions who have died, just those he sees fit to protect), that COVID is simply a conspiracy, and that I am a sheep for listening to recommendations of specialists. As COVID regulations and vaccine rollouts continue, there are more questions that will occur. For example, what is the legality of vaccine regulations to enter places of business? There are already areas in which vaccines are nearly mandated (save for certain religious stated opt-outs) such as schools and universities. I feel only more questions regarding freedom and government-orientated safety will continue to occur as this discussion regarding covid gathering has just scratched the surface.

This picture was taken in my hometown of Elko, Nevada. My girlfriend and I decided to take some days off and go visit as her parents live in this small mining town. This small town had some pretty lenient restrictions, or they were being poorly enforced. One specific place or I guess monument when looking at the context of the town, the catholic church, was keen on maintaining social distancing protocols and doing what they could to protect those who decided to attend mass. I myself am not much of a religious individual and to be fair my girlfriend isn’t either, but her parents are. Due to this we decided to attend a bright and early 8 am mass. This is a selfie that she took as we are walking into the sermon, masks on of course as we were both wanting to follow the recommendations for our safety as well as the safety of others. This picture only shows half of the changes that were made to the normal sermons, every other pew was closed off and they made sure that people kept the masks on and made sure that each family was at the appropriate distance. This picture means a lot to me because it is the last time, I saw her family and it is mostly due to COVID reasons. Travel is harder and more expensive it seems, and this makes it all the more difficult to plan a trip. The past year has been difficult on every individual and everyone has gone through their own battles and experiences with COVID. This is a memory that brings a little bit of light to an otherwise very dark situation. Personally, speaking this may be one of my favorite memories of the past year and although I am not a religious person I would relive this moment again because of how much it meant to me.

My story is very similar to all my fellow military members.

My personal experience with COVID-19, My active involvement in my religious community and my public life reflection during times of a pandemic and political/ social unrest.

This story is a personal one. i hope it encourages others to love their loved ones and hold them close.

In March 2020, I learned about a graduate fellowship for a project called The Journal of the Plague Year. I was intrigued because of my undergraduate work with collecting oral histories of Vietnamese refugees. I really missed doing research in my life as a classroom teacher. This Fellowship seemed to be a way of fulfilling that undefinable project I’d been looking for. When I received an invitation after applying to join the project, it was like a public history baptism by fire. I knew nothing about public history, and I learned a great deal during those five months. However, with so much uncertainty with how my school district was going to respond to COVID, and the eleventh hour decision that we would not be starting the school year in person and all the changes that went along with that, I made the difficult decision to step away from JOTPY when the summer ended. During the fall, I greatly missed the collaborative community, the curating, the debates about metadata, and the entire building of this rapid response, digital archive. This led me to join the Spring 2021 internship. I am so incredibly thankful to have been part of this internship because I learned so much additional information about public history. One of the aspects that I didn’t learn over the summer was the humanities portion of public history. The archive was so new that we really specialized in different areas, mine was building the teaching site. We did have weekly meetings that I greatly enjoyed, but they were more logistical as we tried to figure out how to best build the archive. Many of our meetings dealt with curation and the best process for that. I absolutely loved my summer team, but it was difficult for me to articulate exactly what I did when the summer was over. Going through the internship step by step, I feel far more equipped now to explain exactly what JOTPY is and the process behind it. I also was able to experience many different aspects of the archive, including curating and collecting oral histories, building a collection, writing a call for submissions, and writing public history. The two parts of this internship, aside from curation which I genuinely love doing, that I feel were most beneficial were oral histories and writing the blog post. These are both areas I would like to continue to pursue in some way, even if it not related to this particular project. I did not begin the MA program with any inkling of being part of an internship team or being part of any sort of public history project. However, JOTPY has been the single best part of my graduate program. My work with JOTPY has been a perfect marriage of my two passions, teaching and history. I love being part of a project that is accessible to the students I teach. Not only does it demonstrate to them that history transcends the walls of the classroom, it was a space they were able to be part of by sharing their own stories. I also was able to fulfill a personal desire to be part of project outside my teaching world. I love history. I am incredibly passionate about it, and I am grateful every day of my life that I get to spend my days sharing that passion with teenagers. Yet, I have been wistful for some sort of research to be part of. I love writing, and as a teacher, my writing isn’t really seen beyond the realm of the classroom. I didn’t know public history is where I could fulfill this sort of void. Overall, I am incredibly grateful to have had this experience.

During this first year of Covid-19 has taken place, I can sum it up in a single word "wearisome". When this pandemic started in the year 2020, the southern part of Texas seemed to be unyielding in the hustle and bustle of everyday life down here. The attitude and lack of being a courteous person continued until about the middle of July. This was the starting point of the pandemic begging to affect people enough to begin to take notice of this "uncertain time" as if a miracle the everyday average Joe wasn't hassling me for being wearing a mask. This tale of endless misery starts at the beginning of Covid-19 and stretches until the middle of June 2020. Some background information about the antagonist of this tale is a religious youth group of about twenty would come to every Thursday and order an obnoxious amount of items all very rudely. This instance in particular struck a chord with me. This one religious group of younger children (probably about eleven to fourteen) and an older gentleman named Moshi. This group I loathed, just for the sole reason that these children would run about with no mask and caring not for social distancing, and this gentleman was pushing these children to not follow CDC protocol. Well about after a good eight months these children and a new gentleman came in all wearing masks and seemingly decent and well-mannered. This new individual had replaced Moshi and lectured this devil-children about the importance of wearing a mask and being just at least a decent human. This religious youth group had come in and sat on our patio every Thursday and seemingly never once did these children follow protocol until Joel the new instructor stressed the importance of being not a walking health hazard. I and all of my co-workers appreciate that man greatly.

On November 11, 2020, my middle child and I went for an art walk in midtown Sacramento to celebrate her birthday. Amongst the murals, many of which were put up during Wide Open Walls events of the past few years, we came across a new collection on the WEAVE building. The mural collection commemorates 100 years of the 19th amendment. WEAVE (Women Escaping a Violent Environment) is "the primary provider of crisis intervention services for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in Sacramento County." The artist of these murals is Maren Conrad, a Sacramento artist. She put these up during the pandemic, in October 2020.

Numerous times in the past couple of months, we’ve been wondering if CA colleges would require the vaccine. Today it’s official - the answer is yes. To be transparent, this Californian who has friends and family employed by the UC system is extremely happy. I realize there is vaccine hesitation but I am relieved for the safety of students and staff that the universities are taking this step. And it’s not just the UC system, the Cal State system and Stanford are also instituting the same requirement (actually Stanford announced first). The UC system is often a trend setter - if it does something, other universities follow. I’m hoping this will begin a trend, not only in higher education but at the K-12 level. I know, super controversial, but schools already require other immunizations, why not this one? Public health, people!

I am submitting this for my Rel 101: Religion, Culture, and Public Life course.

The pandemic has showed me the importance of religion in many people's lives including my family's.

When the coronavirus pandemic caused severe lock downs to be put in place in March and April of 2020 throughout Queensland, local councils and other entities were quick to put up signs of warning about the virus and what actions had been banned as a consequence of it. These photos were taken between the 1st and the 11th of April 2020, generally while participating in the allowed activity of exercising outdoors, once per day. In those early days, the prevailing advice that was shared, and reflected in these photographs, was that the virus could be easily spread through touching shared surfaces (as opposed to airborne transmission). Therefore there was a focus on warning people not to touch or use certain objects in public places, and many previously bustling public spaces such as dog off leash parks were closed to the public. Now, as of April 2021, the advice is quite different, and the "don't push the button: pedestrian crossing now automated" stickers have been removed from many crossings. I took these photos at the time because I felt it was important to document some of the things I saw during the pandemic (that were a direct consequence of the pandemic). This is because it is easy to forget things that occurred or to have flawed memories of events that decay further over time. At the time I found (and still find) the photos to be eerie and unsettling, the familiar world around me changed in a way that I had not experienced before.

My name is Erica Ruhland and I was a senior online during the Covid-19 Pandemic. I live with my two grandparents. Both are in their late 70’s, and because of them, I have been taking the pandemic extremely seriously. This year has been a constant battle of inner turmoil. My moral compass has been spinning for over a year now. The following has been some of the struggles and sacrifices I have made over the course of the year: Quarantining from my grandparents for 12 days in my room, multiple times Cutting my work hours to limit possible exposure Quarantining from my boyfriend for 4 months. I had several close calls where I had worked with someone who then tested positive for Covid-19. Each time it would send me into an emotional spiral of guilt. Guilt for working in a customer service job. But it was this job that was paying for my school and gave me health insurance. I couldn’t be without health insurance during a pandemic. But I felt a great deal of shame and guilt over my minimum wage job. I had already cut my hours down, but I was stuck between making a living and staying alive. The constant battles with customers, begging with them to put on a mask, or just simply having to nod when they denied Covid’s existence began to take its toll on my soul. This pandemic has turned me bitter. I have seen too many cruel humans refuse to help their fellow neighbors. A simple mask has the potential to destroy or save my grandpa’s life. HandsOn Greater Phoenix is a volunteer program that helps find volunteers for several campaigns across the state. They were in charge of organizing the volunteer program for the “Vaccinate State 48” initiative. This is how I got the vaccine. The rule was, you had to volunteer at the State Farm Arena vaccination site for 8 hours and then you could receive the vaccine shot afterwards. After battling out for a volunteer spot online, I had secured a spot for me to help out on March 9th, 2021. From 6am to 2pm, I stood outside and directed traffic. I was one of the last volunteers people would see. After they received their shot, I would direct their cars out of the massive parking lot. I saw so many older citizens that day. Each time I couldn’t help but think of my own grandparents. As I waited in line, sitting in my car after volunteering, I felt a huge wave of emotion. It was a mixture of exhaustion, relief, fear, and joy. I started talking to the nurse and I told her that I was nervous for the shot but also really happy. This is when I began to tear up and cry. After the shot, I felt a huge weight lifted from me. All the sacrifices I had made to keep myself and my family safe, they were worth it. I had done my part to help not just myself or my loved ones, but my community, strangers that I may never meet again. My moral compass aligned North once more. I felt validated. I used the small power I have to effect a big change in my community. My bitterness began to fade. Even now, a month later, I still think about the other volunteers, they all believed we were helping effect great change and saving people. It was like a religion. I had been baptized with the vaccine. On that day I felt like I belonged to a church, preaching to the community. Our sermons were us showing the elders where to drive, and how to schedule their next dose. Our gospel was Phfizer and we sent missionaries out to spread the good news. My sign of piety was the sunburn on my neck where I had forgotten sunscreen and my vaccine papers. This sense of purpose and passion is I’m sure the driving force behind every religion. This pandemic has shown me the worst of people. I will not forget it. This pandemic has shown me the great lengths I and others will go to, to protect their community. I will never forget that. There is strength in a common goal. Vaccinate Sate 48.

The rise in Asian hate crimes has gone hand in hand with COVID. This certainly was not helped by the previous administration continually referring to COVID as “China Flu” or “Kung Flu.” One of the more horrifying things is how close to home these incidents are happening. Just this month, there were two attacks at a local park on Asian Americans. One was on a Japanese-American Olympian, who was in training. The other was on an elderly Korean-American couple. I live in Southern CA, which has the third highest proportion of the population identifying as Asian, yet even here, racism and racially motivated violent crimes are happening. If there is any positive that is coming out of this, it is the honest conversations we’re having with our children about race. In light of George Floyd and similar situations, the immigrant population at the border, and anti-Asian crimes, our kids are engaged in an active dialogue about equity, prejudice, racism and our response to it. My children are proud to be Asian-American and seeing that pride and them use their voices, even in a small way, makes me hopeful for positive change. Like their signs say, they are proud to be Asian AND American, and to love them like people love Asian food! Oh yeah, and in this pandemic year, a reminder that they are not a virus.

I submitted a story of my life during the pandemic and the positives that I have decided to focus on when looking back on this past year.

I foolishly thought that it would be easy to write this post. I didn’t anticipate struggling so much with finding the right words to explain the impact the last year of pandemic life has had on me, but I’ve deleted about a hundred paragraphs of rambling, existential stream of consciousness nonsense about cherishing the small moments and growing in the face of adversity because it is surprisingly hard to be concise about your feelings on an event you’re still living through. I’m starting to think that maybe doing so is impossible, so instead of falling into cliche and flowery prose, I want to just be blunt. I haven’t seen my family in two years. My grandmother has dementia and in that time it has worsened exponentially. On a weekly basis, I have a call with my mom that starts with a debrief on whatever the newest updates in her condition are and ends with a plea to visit as soon as I feel comfortable traveling. Every day, I go into my retail job and tell them no, I don’t have symptoms or live with anyone with symptoms while waiting for the beep of a thermometer meant to ensure I don’t have a fever. I breathe through two layers of fabric, disinfect my work area between transactions, and field rants about restrictive mask mandates for six hours a day, then come home and begin the process of undressing, banishing my clothes to the washer, and trying to relax before I have to do it all again. Everything in that paragraph is, to put it nicely, so bleak it hurts. It’s easy to get caught in the feelings of overwhelm that came along with this pandemic and it would be a farce to say that there aren’t days where everything feels like way too much for one person to handle. Surprisingly, though, the thing that has blissfully not survived the most turbulent year of my life is the apathetic, empty cynicism I used to feel. Instead, I feel weirdly hopeful that this is the beginning of massive change both in myself and on a global level. Maybe it’s naive to think that way and maybe it’s just a coping mechanism to help me through the pandemic, but there’s a part of me that thinks that may not even matter because the changes are coming regardless. In the last year, I’ve moved out of Nevada and into a pink house in California with the love of my life. Despite a fraught, stressful prior experience in college, I’ve finally come back to higher education in a way that feels both healthy and exciting. The field of religious studies has reawakened my passion for learning and my ability to grow in academia. I’ve abandoned my skeptical, agnostic views and traded them out for a brand of religiosity that combines self-improvement, magic, and trust in something bigger than myself. I know how that all sounds and if the last sentence has you rolling your eyes reading this, I get it. The last year has been weird, don’t get me wrong. If I told a 20-year-old version of myself that one day we’d be living through the plague of a lifetime, studying religion with hopes of examining cultism, and practicing a version of witchcraft grounded in our ex-Catholic roots, I doubt she would believe me. It admittedly sounds pretty wacky all laid out in plain English like that. Part of what I’ve learned throughout the pandemic, though, is that suspending cynicism, skepticism, and disbelief can sometimes lead you to unexpectedly lovely places. Whether I saw it coming or not, Covid has changed my life in countless ways, just as I’m sure it’s changed the lives of everyone reading these entries. Some changes have been for the worse, certainly, but the things that have changed for the better are what I’m choosing to focus on. I’ve read articles about a reemergence of spirituality amongst young people that make me think others have been having similar ideas and something about that feels good. We’ve spent a lot of time isolated, lonely, and missing a sense of belonging we took for granted before, but there’s reassurance for me in knowing that my experiences aren’t all that different from anyone else’s. That type of community, however it manifests, is (and I hope you’ll forgive this admitted slip into flowery prose) something that the pandemic has taught us we must cherish above everything else because it’s what makes our little human lives worth living. More than anything, whenever this pandemic reaches the time where we split our lives into not just before, but after, I hope we don’t forget that.

This story just tells what the world looked like during the Covid pandemic through my eyes.

Throughout the pandemic I have found myself with a lot more time for introspection than usual. I had thought at the start of this pandemic I had felt rather self-assured. I thought I knew what I wanted as a career, for my future, and mostly what kind of person I wanted to become. However, the more time I spent alone the more I realized how much of myself had been a performance for others. For once, the pandemic encouraged me to slow down enough to evaluate what my own personal wants and needs are. I also grew spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually. I was especially surprised to find myself changing my opinions on religion. For years, I have subscribed to rather devout atheism, to the point it nears becoming a religion in my attempts to cut it out. However now I have found myself accepting the mystic much more, and allowing myself to stop explaining everything. Though all these added experiences I was able not to find something new in my queerness per say, but a new way to relate to my world. I was able to find peace with myself as a queer person in the world, not in spite of it. I think the time alone allowed me a lot of space to appreciate the community and its place. To finally start feeling like the bonds and friendships and joy of myself and other queer people is worth even more than just surviving. I think one of the most important things that happened was coming to terms with myself as a nonbinary person. For years I was confident I was a binary trans man due to my physical transition goals and personal fears of being delegitimized in public. I finally realized and accepted that myself is no one else’s business. I have found a new peace with living authentically, even when other people react poorly. Finally, I honestly love being queer.

Staying inside all day has given me the want to greatly improve my entertainment center. This includes getting a nicer TV that was on sale and dusting off old video game consoles from long ago.

The unpredictable horrors of pandemic “Corona Virus” the most lethal being on the earth that swept a mass population since its spread in December 2019. The Corona Virus had already started its attack and only a few cases had been reported in Wuhan, China until 2020, where it spread like a wildfire taking down millions of people. I belong to Nepal which is a neighboring country to China, so it surely was at higher risk which led to a countrywide lockdown in March 2020. It was then, people started to realize the seriousness of the situation. I would like to share my part of the pandemic experience in the first person “We” because I believe in this time I was with my family and we went through this experience- some bitter and some sweet but we were always together as a single unit. When the lockdown was imposed in Nepal, people were not aware of why it was being done. Why a mere viral disease was threatening nations? People took it as an excuse to vacation from work and school. We were told to stay inside the house, wear a mask and avoid gatherings by the national authorities. We could only go out for buying essentials (food, medicine) in the evening between 6-7 PM. Other times we were enjoying with our family because it is very rare to have this much free time in this busy life. We would cook new dishes, we also started gardening, growing vegetables in our backyard, and sometimes there was even “Movie Time” with the family. So, for the first few weeks, this lockdown was a perfect family time. Then the economy slowly started to tremble. People were left jobless, savings started to dry out. We were getting conscious and calculative on the grocery shopping. We own a garment factory (textiles and embroidery) so with no shops open during the time, we were also struggling with the money. My sister was currently stuck in Bangladesh because she had gone there for her educational studies and was stuck since both the countries were on lockdown. She finally arrived back home in June 2020 in an evacuation flight. She was then on self-isolation for 14 days. In these days of self-isolation, she showed no signs of COVID. Finally, on her last day of isolation, she went for a test and the horrors began. The reports came POSITIVE. This came as a shock to all of us because she had followed all the health protocols both in Bangladesh, during the flight, and after arriving in Nepal. We all were in disbelief and were taken aback. Unfortunately, the same day when the reports came out, there a news report regarding the lab where the reports were tested had cross-contamination, leading to inaccurate results in the hospital that day (the same day as my sister was tested). All of the samples were tested positive. Health authorities had to investigate that matter. But since she had no symptoms whatsoever, we wanted to re-check. Before we could even go to the other hospital, the members from the localities hurdled outside our house. They had been informed that an infected person was there in the area. My mom and dad went out to calm the crowd, trying to convince us that the results were doubtful and we were going for a re-check. The crowd was more like an angry mob and was dismissing all our claims, maybe also because this was the first case in our locality. They didn’t want to hear what we had to say. They forcefully started sealing the gates and the areas of our house, ordering all our neighbors to stay away from the area. They were told not to cross the gate and come in contact with us. Since the coronavirus is truly a big deal, though we had some doubts, we accepted that all our family members should go into isolation. But this was easier said than done. For those 14 days, we had no one around us to help. We couldn’t go out to get groceries or even other essentials. Our neighbors were threatened by the local authorities to not help us. They couldn’t send us the groceries or anything else. We were cast away from the whole society around that time. Luckily, we had an aunt living nearby. She used to leave us grocery items in our backdoors before the sunrise…. before anyone could even see. And we would run outside abiding by proper protocols, get those items and be back inside, panting, hoping no one saw us. At that time we had no money, limited food supply, and many mouths to feed. It was like we were living in an apocalyptic world. Baseless rumors had started to spread around the society stating we were seen partying and having gatherings a few days back. People would ring us up just to blame us as if we were the rotten ones. The most heartbreaking incident was when we were called by the local authority asking us to not come out on the balcony because according to them, somehow, we were exposing the virus in our area. Those 2 weeks became hell for our family. Finally, on the 14th day, all the members of our family members took a PCR test, and luckily, we were all tested negative. So in simple terms, we had recovered BUT society still didn’t accept us. Whenever we used to go to the shop, we were stared at and could hear whispers behind our back. People used to stay away from us and we were regarded (sort of) untouchables even after we had medical reports to prove them otherwise. Then a month later, even my maternal grandmother was infected with the virus. We could not go visit her as the hospital didn’t permit and she was under strict surveillance. She soon developed pneumonia as a complication of the COVID attack. Almost half of her lungs had been severely damaged and on 29th November 2020 she passed away. This pandemic left a great impact on us. We suffered great loss both emotionally and financially. From sneaking in groceries like smugglers to bidding goodbye to someone who loved us the most, it will always be an inerasable memory for us. Even as I write my experience, my words are not enough to emphasize the pain this pandemic has caused. But all I can say is we fought this as a FAMILY. One for All and All for One.

It tells of a time of a senior in college who is unable to live his final year of college because of the restrictions associated with COVID-19. Life experiences associated with being a senior at ASU have been lost in this lost year of COVID-19.

I want to share a beautiful story about hope, healing and creativity during the pandemic that originated here in Charleston, South Carolina. It is about how 20 artists from 8 different states got together from afar while physically separated to spread joy and happiness through a large art collaboration. There was no other goal than simply wanting to heal our world.   The Together While Apart Art Project grew from a desire to combat the sadness and isolation that was prevalent during the pandemic. Twenty artists from over 8 states got together from afar to use their creative gifts to collaborate on one large work of art. What is significant about this group project is that each artist channeled the emotions they were experiencing during the height of the global pandemic in hopes of healing themselves as well as providing comfort to a broader audience.   The 20 artists were from many diverse backgrounds and from 8 different states. I was able to locate them through an open call on social media, as well as using contacts generated by a wide range of friends and family. At the onset of this project, the only art supplies I had to send each participant were an abundant supply of recycled shipping boxes. Because much of my art is built from repurposed items, keeping this theme of repurposing for the Together While Apart Art Project was very fitting.  I sent each artist several 6” x 6” square pieces of cut cardboard from these recycled boxes with one simple instruction: think outside of the box! My goal was that through the creative process, each artist would find an outlet for his or her feelings and eventually these emotions would transform into joy. Ultimately, our collective joys would be multiplied and shared with many others through our artwork.  I knew the world needed this dynamic group’s creative gifts. I also knew these amazing participants needed to share their gifts in order to process the current situation the world was in. I can say with certainty, that I am amazed at the outcome. This collaborative piece tells an inspirational story of resiliency, connections and hope during a pandemic that none of us could have imagined a few years ago.  And now, it is time to find this amazing piece a home. If you have a suggestion for an appropriate place that we might donate and/or exhibit this piece, please let me know. I would consider doing a rotation cycle so that several organizations may each enjoy this amazing artwork. Wherever this piece is displayed, I hope it inspires love, warmth, optimism, strength and happiness-the emotions we all felt while creating our individual squares. When people view this beautiful collaboration, they will be reassured that our collective strength grows when we come together by showing love and support for one another. When we connect with one another, we can use our strengths to work towards a greater good. Together, even while apart, we can do great things. And despite the utter chaos and sadness in the world, there are always kind hearted people working to find ways to bring hope and healing to others. Here is a very short video celebrating this project. https://youtu.be/9eGsOCIqESY Fondly,  Deane Bowers  Charleston, SC  804-874-2929

Racism is a virus, a sickness we need to fight and eradicate together! ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻 I will never understand, but I stand with you. This portrait is based on a powerful photo by @futurehackney taken during the Black Lives Matter protests in London. This mural will definitely stay for a while – a reminder that inequalities and injustices happen every day, tearing countless lives and families apart, and that the fight against racism and discriminations can never stop.⁣ ⁣⁣

As I’m writing this, it is March 2021 and it’s been a year since I’ve updated this blog. Although I don’t only write about travel here, it’s been depressing to look back on my past trips and have to wonder when I could be in the world again. But I’ve been far from silent during this time. You can read many of my reflections on the pandemic and other topics over at The Mighty, where I have been an editor for the past five years. One year ago, when the pandemic was just beginning in the United States, one of my good friends posted a social media message about supporting each other during what most people thought would be a strange, scary, but ultimately short period of our lives. Part of it went something like this: My mask protects you. Your mask protects me. It’s a nice sentiment. Wearing a few layers of cloth over your face may not help you much, but it helps to prevent other people from getting sick. It’s a kind, visible act we can all do to show we care during a difficult time, to protect others who are at risk even if we may think we would not become seriously ill. It seems so simple, right? How could people not do this? But we all know what happened. “My mask protects you. Your mask protects me,” only works if the other person values your life enough to consider it worth protecting. I’ve been horrified by the number of government officials and online commenters who have viewed the deaths of elderly and disabled people as “acceptable losses” in exchange for keeping non-essential gathering spaces open. My life, and the lives of people with high-risk conditions, are more important than your trip to Disneyland. Don’t you think we want to go to Disneyland too? I’ve also noticed that able-bodied people often assume disabled people will be provided for in emergencies, and in general. They believe there are a lot of government programs and charities to help us, and that such programs are run well and meet our needs. This widespread — but utterly false — belief in a functioning safety net for “the vulnerable” gives people an excuse to behave selfishly while convincing themselves they’re not doing anything wrong. “Of course, there will be a plan to protect nursing home residents, and immune-suppressed people can stay home, so we can throw parties and go without masks if we don’t like them.” In reality, the needs of people with disabilities are often disregarded, misunderstood, ignored, and even actively opposed. We have to fight for access to everything, and sometimes end up on multi-year waiting lists for housing assistance, in-home care, and other essential programs and services. We must battle with government and private insurance to get the mobility equipment we need. We are GPS tracked like criminals if we need personal care assistants, with “fraud prevention” used as an excuse. We often depend on programs with ridiculously complicated requirements, and one missed deadline, one paperwork error, one month where we made “too much money” can cost us everything.

Posted in a Banksy fan page on Facebook. Not a Banksy but artist unknown at this point. The OP titled their post "Reality".

After 400 days to the day, my daughter walked back into her gym. A competitive gymnast who has been training with the same gym since the week before she turned 3, this has been a long year. We are privileged in the sense that the hardest decision we had to make during the pandemic was not related to jobs security, hunger, or even health (beyond keeping ourselves from COVID). Our hardest choice was not allowing our daughter to return to her gym to train when they reopened in June. My husband and I knew COVID was just beginning. We knew the spike would come and the health of our family wasn’t something we were willing to risk, especially because our jobs allowed us the luxury to work from home and distance. At first, we made case rates dropping our marker of when she’d go back. Then, with the announcement of the vaccine, we decided to wait until our household was vaccinated. By the end of March, the adults of our household were vaccinated and our local case count had dropped considerably, to an infection rate percentage of 1.4%. Still, we wondered “should we just wait until she’s vaccinated?” But she’s 10, there is no vaccine being publicized for her age. How long can we keep her from her life? It’s not just the training. It’s about mental health. We’ve kept her physically safe, but she’s 10 years old and hasn’t seen a single friend in person for almost 14 months. She hasn’t shown any signs of a mental health crisis, but even if she isn’t showing anything, this has to have taken a toll on her. It was a difficult and scary choice, but my husband and I decided her mental health and emotional health are worth the risk. She is so happy. She’s had two one on one sessions with her coach and we are all shocked (and relieved) that her daily solo workouts EVERY SINGLE DAY for 400+ days now paid off. She not only kept all her skills but learned enough her skills to advance to the next level. I know her coach is shocked. I don’t think she really believed that a kid would work hard enough on her own to keep in shape. I know my daughter is very proud and very relieved to know she can compete again. And the timing is perfect - the new season starts in May, so she’ll begin in a new level with other girls she knows who also leveled up. She never acted unhappy during quarantine, but since going back, she’s seemed lighter and happier. Still, the two times she went were one on one. The beginning of May will see her going back full time, three practices a week for ten hours a week of practice. I’m happy they’re letting her keep her mask on and that the coaches are wearing masks but I’m still nervous. It’s so hard to send your kid into a situation that may lead them to contract a deadly illness. But it’s also so hard to keep your kid in a bubble. I never in a million years imagined I’d have kept my child home for 400 days. I’m a public school teacher, I’m the first person to tell you the importance of socialization. But in a pandemic, I guess my mothering deep instinct to my child overpowered anything else. I hope and pray with everything in me that we don’t regret allowing her to go back. I hope we are turning a corner in CA and that a vaccine for kids arrives soon so I can feel slightly more relaxed.

As of yesterday, my two weeks was up and I am now "fully vaccinated" per the CDC guidelines. My wife got there Friday, and my mother has been fully vaccinated since February. Per the CDC, since we are all fully vaccinated, we can visit each other and not have to wear masks. We had Mom over for dinner for the first time since before the pandemic. After dinner we played a few rounds of hearts. I had to reacquaint myself with something that used to be "normal" before COVID-19. I was a bit rusty at playing cards, but I soon got back into it. It does not seem like that big a deal, but it was good for Mom to get out of her house for a while. It was good for all of us, and I am looking forward to more such evenings.

The time to defend trans kids is NOW. If we don't, HB 1570 will set a dangerous precedent nationwide. Tell Arkansas Governor Hutchinson to veto this bill: 501-682-2345

I have an incredibly imaginative six year old son. Since he was three, he has told us each day which identity he is choosing for the day: duck, bird, duckbird, squirrel, bunny, or chipmunk. (This list has grown over time). He doesn’t actually act like that type of animal, or really alter his behavior or personality at all, but will refer to himself as “Duckbird” or “Baby Bird” and expects you to refer to him as such. And every once in a while will respond with a “quack,” or whatever noise is appropriate for that animal identity. For Squirrel (who is now our “house president” - apparently he won an election none of us were privy to), there is an ongoing theme of a Squirrel Parade that shows up and disrupts everything going on. This is not something that came out of COVID, the Squirrel Parade predates it (we live next to Disneyland and in a pre-COVID life went to the park at least once a week - the kid has seen a lot of parades). However, the Squirrel Parade has definitely evolved with the pandemic. It is remarkable how COVID has seamlessly become part of a kid’s imagination. The Squirrel Parade, which always included King Squirrel, the Throwing Nuts Squirrels, and the Trumpet Squirrels among others now includes the “COVID Safety Squirrels.” When we asked my son who they are, he said they’re the squirrels that hand out masks and hand sanitizer and make sure everyone social distances. It wasn’t strange to him, just another part of the parade. I guess for little kids this isn’t strange to them. I mean, it is. But it’s also not. Just another thing to learn along with multiplication tables. Put on a mask and keep your distance, and the parade marches on.

--Reflections on the Pandemic Archive-- Looking back over my experience with the “Journal of the Plague Year” COVID-19 archive, my prevailing emotion is gratitude. This opportunity granted me experience that few historians earn, and the remote, asynchronous work schedule allowed me to collaborate with my colleagues in ways that maximized our respective contributions. The breadth and depth of our individual experiences and perspectives tremendously improved our collective process and products. I spent enough time in the Arizona State Archives last year to recognize such collections as historical treasure chests, but I have now participated in processing an archive’s content and navigating the ethical dilemmas those submissions sometimes create. Archivists and curators are the history profession’s truly unsung heroes, and their work facilitates society’s perception of itself. My background in police work and public safety drew me to the archive’s existing Law Enforcement collection. In taking on that subset, I succeeded in reshaping the collection’s parameters to now include stories about police and law enforcement. I wanted to diversify the collection to encompass perspective of both the police and the public with whom they interact and serve. While some overlap exists between the Law Enforcement and Social Justice collections, each remains distinct. Through my contacts and writing, I promoted a Call for Submissions to an international audience of law enforcement professionals to reduce their relative silence within the archive. Within the archive’s content, I recognized that one’s location might shape their pandemic experience, and I created and designed an Arizona-based exhibit to explore that. Further research and discussion with my mentors and colleagues ensured the exhibit illustrated these differences without excluding visitors whose diverse experiences could further enrich the archived and exhibited content. I am proud of my “Arizona’s COVID-19 Pandemics” exhibit, particularly because of its compressed, one-month incubation period. Beyond displaying images, data, and stories representative of the diverse pandemic experiences within the state, the ACP exhibit offers visitors numerous levels of interaction and engagement to became active participants and create their own exhibit experience. Visitors can complete opinion surveys, add a story to the archive, explore additional content related to the displayed pieces, view ever-changing results from pre-defined archival content searches, conduct their own archival search, view collective visitor survey results, and apply to join the staff. The exhibit’s searches will include the archive’s future submissions, which reshapes both the exhibit and the experience visitors may have with it. A more detailed explanation of my ACP exhibit may be reviewed here: https://covid-19archive.org/s/archive/item/43037 Because of Dr. Kathleen Kole de Peralta and Dr. Mark Tebeau, I stand prepared to join research, curation, and exhibition teams and immediately contribute to their work products. Despite my gratitude for this experience and the opportunities it presented, I look forward to the day COVID-19 is no longer part of humanity’s daily vernacular. James Rayroux 22 April 2021

(NEXSTAR) – In a grim reminder of the death toll from COVID-19, a new study published by the American Medical Association found that nearly 40,000 U.S. children have lost one of their parents to the virus. It’s a heartbreaking new angle to the number of U.S. deaths since the pandemic began – 555,273 as of Monday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. “This may come as a surprise, since 81% of lives lost in the US have been adults 65+,” study author Rachel Margolis, an associate professor at the University of Western Ontario, tweeted. “However, we are also seeing high mortality among younger adults, many of whom have children under 18.”

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan and the nation’s top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci got into a heated exchange over the country’s Covid-19 mitigation measures, which ended with Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters telling Jordan to “shut your mouth"

Protests continued Friday night in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright last week. While protesters were dispersed, Minnesota State Troopers corralled media members and photographed their faces and identification.

I am here to clarify the situation with Covid-19 and mask. I received many comments sharing their concerns about not wearing mask in the coronavirus pandemic. I kindly want to let you know all videos I released have been filmed before coronavirus. Those videos are new, yet I didn't get a chance to edit or release any video a while back. Why? I took a long break from Seek the World. The last time I filmed was more than a year. Thus, Sabrina and I didn't film or travel anywhere. From now on, you all will see new videos that were filmed before coronavirus. I applaud you all for showing care and making sure that I follow the safety etc. I fully agree with you all everyone needs to wear mask! Thanks!

HANDS OF LOVE: Nurses fill latex gloves with warm water in a technique called "little hands of love" to help COVID-19 patients in intensive care beat isolation and stimulate blood flow.

The Submission that I uploaded is a reflection on how the pandemic affected my life. What I shared in this story is personal, and might seem choppy because I do not do well when expressing personal stories and feelings to others. I hope this helps someone to know that they are not alone.

Our policing institutions were designed to exert control over Black people. We need to limit the role, responsibilities, power, and funding of police so interactions that lead to the death of Black people don't happen in the first place.

Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., discusses an exchange at Tuesday's House Judiciary Committee hearing on a hate crimes bill with Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.

Hugs, tears and screams -- watch the moment George Floyd's family got justice for their loved one. Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all counts and could be sent to prison for decades.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris speak after a jury found Derek Chauvin guilty of all charges in the murder of George Floyd. "A Measure of Justice is not the same as Equal Justice" President Biden and Madam Vice President Harris talk about social justice, racism, history, and plans moving forward.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus gathered to watch the reading of the verdict in Derek Chauvin’s trial.

I started graduate school in August 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic. Since that point, I have only met one of my classmates in person, when I purchased some girl scout cookies from her daughter. I do all of my coursework from my computer, something I am not personally bothered by but it certainly changes the dynamics of school. My opportunities for socialization and networking have been limited, which may define my future job prospects. These are all things I never really thought about until I had a discussion with my mother recently, after I exclaimed to her that very little about my life has changed because of Covid. In fact, while my daily schedule may be broadly similar to pre-pandemic and I enjoy the isolation, the ways in which it will affect my future career seem manifold as I think about them.

On the twenty first of April, a new free DLC for the video game Vermintide 2 released called Chaos Wastes. Like a previous video game I posted about in these archive which has occupied my time during the pandemic, Vermintide is set in the Warhammer Fantasy Universe. WHF is essentially Tolkien high fantasy turned up to eleven, more over the top in every way. Vermintide takes place during the End Times, a narrative event from the tabletop game from around 2014. The venerable franchise with 30+ years of writing and stories by that point was destroyed in real life by its replacement Warhammer Age of Sigmar, and in the story the world was finally consumed by the powers of Chaos. In Vermintide, teams of four players team up to fight the horrors that assail the Empire of Mankind right at the beginning of the End Times. This new DLC, focusing on an expedition straight into the heart of the Chaos Wastes, takes the game in a new narrative direction and ties it in more broadly with the End Times narrative itself. The Ubersreik 5, as the protagonist group is referred to after their exploits from the first game, is primarily opposed to two elements of disease and decay: the Skaven, human-sized rats that live in a massive Under-Empire that seek to spread plague and take over the surface, and the Norscans, basically fantasy power-metal viking marauders who worship the chaos god Nurgle, lord of decay and disease. Our protagonists travel to a fortress deep in the reality-warped wasteland near the North Pole in order to contact their respective gods to seek aid to combat the End Times. While they are not fighting fantasy characters straight out of the 1980s, modern scientists and healthcare professionals have been fighting a virus which has threatened us all in a global pandemic. I go to get my second shot of Moderna tomorrow, and while I have been enjoying this new DLC and embarking on heroic quests with my friends online, others have worked to allow people like me to finally protect ourselves from Covid with a vaccine.

I have a lot of photos taken in this spot. Our animals and children are cute and tend to hang out on the sofa. I was scrolling back through my online albums and noticed something the background of my photos from the last year all have in common. The tote bag hanging off the closet door is for used masks as we come in. The little table across the stairs is our home PPE station. It wasn’t there a year ago. The baskets are filled with cloth masks of various sizes and styles (it took a lot of trial and error to find masks that fit both kids) and the drawer has a touchless thermometer, among other things. The top has wipes, hand sanitizer, and a UV phone sanitizer that was on back order for months before it arrived. We will always be able to identify the year these photos were taken thanks to a collection of stuff I couldn’t imagine having eighteen months ago. I wonder how long it will stay?

Los Angeles-based artist Lauren YS, aka squid.licker, is well known world-wide for their mural street art. During the pandemic, they put up a mural at 1700 Naud Street in Los Angeles that reads, "Stop Asian Hate Crimes" and "Protect Our Elders." Also shown are "Stop Asian Hate" posters, with proceeds going to @stopasianhate and @squidtropica.

Last year when things got closed in California I got pulled over because i was past a curfew that they set. It was really dumb since I was on my way home anyway. Closing off the roads for a virus is not the way to do it. He let me go with a warning but the whole situation was not needed. I was not speeding or driving bad either. A huge waste of time but other then that nothing abnormal happened to me during covid. Its been super boring but we all have to do our part and keep people safe. After I went home I told my parents about it and they just told me to not drive so lae. In conclusion I learned to not break covid rules since those are the ones the government actually cares about

Dr. Anthony Fauci, pressed by a Republican lawmaker Thursday over when Americans will "get their liberties back," gave his clearest explanation yet as to when COVID-19 restrictions could be safely lifted, saying the U.S. must get its infection rate under 10,000 new cases a day. When asked by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, at a congressional hearing to give an answer about when Americans can return to their pre-pandemic lives, Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, explained that the nation has a lot of work to do before it reaches that point.