Colorado State University



Life in a PandemicYesenia QuezadaKeep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters up into your brain. Cheap paper is less perishable than gray matter. And lead pencil markings live beyond memory. —Jack London Writing our thoughts in a journal in a crisis like this is beneficial; it keeps our thoughts organized and helps us to remember the goals and desires we once had before the Coronavirus pandemic. Living through this pandemic it can be hard not to overthink, but with writing we have the tool to overpower negative thoughts. I agree with Jack London that “lead pencil markings live beyond memory,” and having a journal can help me improve the meaning to life because I can keep track of my daily reflections, self-awareness, and keep my thoughts organized. Making my voice heard throughout this pandemic by responding to each prompt is important because I am able to capture my voice and represent my story. Soon all this will be history and we will leave a mark on our journal that clearly captures our life. Therefore, even though the Coronavirus outbreak has plenty of restrictions, through writing we feel free and limitless. Together/Apart During this time of social distancing I am trying my best to stay connected through social media. Thanks to Zoom, Facetime, Instagram, and all other platforms I tend to use, I am able to stay connected to family, friends, work updates, and school duties. Social distancing means to simply isolate yourself from public places, buildings and especially people, but still be social virtually. My family and I have practiced social distancing by keeping ourselves busy staying home at all times unless of course we need essential things. Ever since this quarantine started, I have noticed much more bonding within families including mine. At the beginning of all this I was extremely stressed because my job closed down and I am more of a keeping myself busy person so I wasn’t sure how I would handle staying home. So, I turned that challenge upside-down, and now I keep myself busy (at home of course) by cleaning, working-out, banking, binge watching shows, Facetiming my family, etc… Through this petrified virus my family and I still try to mange joy by avoiding the news once in a while and instead watch funny movies together. The joy I have experienced through it all is knowing ALL my family from different cities and states are mentally and physically healthy through this pandemic. The reason I know this is because I try to stay connected with most of my family by simply giving them a phone call or video call once every week. I also try to stay connected with my social groups through Zoom. Sometimes my professors schedule a meeting on a certain day and time, my mangers send work updates through group chats, and with my friends I usually Facetime individually, but sometimes we also use Zoom or Skype to catch up as a group. I have never felt more restricted in my life; it’s scary to known that this pandemic is global. No matter where you go all around the world nothing is safe at the moment, so living in isolation is tough, but I am also surprised how great my family and I have managed it all. Living in isolation, like I mentioned earlier, it was hard and stressful for me, but as I get used to it seems to get easier for me because its turning into a habit. Health to me is my top priority because nothing else is more important. We live in our bodies, without a healthy body there’s no life so everyone should take care of their body especially in times like these that need the most care. “Empty Spaces” What spaces do you wish you could have all to yourself? The typically-crowded place I dream of having all to myself is Disneyland. Disneyland has always been my favorite theme park; I just love the environment and I can never get bored of it. The only thing I dislike about Disneyland is the long lines; I can’t even imagine having an empty park all to myself and not having to wait in line for rides, shows, activities, snacks, or food. Due to COVID-19 every tourist attraction is like a ghost town, but without people those attractions don’t have the same vibe: “They also remind us that beauty requires human interaction.” This quote stated by the New York Times made me realize how Disneyland itself is a beautiful theme park, but what brings it alive are the humans that visit. Disneyland would not be the same without the tourist nor the workers, no matter how amazing it sounds to have Disneyland all to myself; I would much rather prefer crowds then feel lonely because of how empty it would be, although that sounds nice. Looking back at all the images from the New York Times, the world look so peaceful as all humans are no longer rushing everywhere, subways have less commuters, beaches look cleaner, restaurants are all only take out, airports have less passengers, and everything is done at a distance now. It’s sad, but peaceful at the same time for at this time our earth is healing. “Play It Loud” Music has created a sense of belonging during this time of social distancing and isolation due to the Coronavirus pandemic by keeping our communities together. Singing and listening to music keeps the participation going; making music in a crisis like this reminds people that they belong. This pandemic has actually changed the type of music of music I am listening to today, I find myself more gravitated to classic piano music, worship music, more peaceful music that makes me feel stress-free. As of right now I don’t have a specific significant song, but recently I have been doing a bit of yoga around the house and I’ve been listening to Yellow Brick Cinema “Relaxing Music for Quarantine, Medication, Sleep Music, Healing, Relax, Study, Sleep, Spa, Zen.” This video is eleven hours long, I personally haven’t finished it all, but I have been using this video to meditate and it has helped me very much. Music can really impact someone’s mood. As we are all experiencing this pandemic together; I feel like music is the best way to change pain into relaxation. I also think it has to do with what type of music you listen to. For example, the lyrics should be powerful, peaceful, and motivating to feel relaxed. Lyrics to me is what makes a song better because if you don’t understand a song or don’t like what it represents can you truly relate to the lyrics; I don’t think so. I believe one can enjoy a song because of a catchy beat or hook. All the videos posted in the article, “Why do we turn to music in times of crisis?” Reminds us how just because we should be social distancing due to a worldwide pandemic we aren’t truly alone, we are ALL experiencing Coronavirus together. “Infodemic” “The virus itself is not the only danger, so is the inaccurate misinformation about the pandemic.” In the article “Surge of Virus Misinformation Stumps Facebook and Twitter,” by the New York Times states, “First, there were conspiratorial whispers on social media that the coronavirus had been cooked up in a secret government lab in China.” Out of all the misinformation about COVID-19 this one caught my eye the most because it seems more believable, since the Coronavirus started spreading in China. The Chinese government even claimed that COVID-19 started at a Wuhan market where live animals were being sold. There’s just so much misinformation about Coronavirus that its harmful to everyone, especially towards Chinese because people see COVID-19 as the “Chinese Virus” and tend to discriminate them and their companies such as local Chinese restaurants. Chinese take-out is truly suffering the most because people are scared and discriminate against Chinese food. Misinformation does create global panic because all this ‘social spread’ creates people to feel anxiety and can create bad advice about COVID-19 and result in change of human behavior for the worse. The World Health Organization (W.H.O) is doing everything in their power to delete all misinformation on all social platforms. W.H.O workers are visiting the headquarters of most social platforms to discuss and get rid of misinformation, “Over the last two weeks, tech companies working with the W.H.O have been prominently posting links to W.H.O content, making falsehoods harder to find in searches or news streams, sometimes removing content altogether.” The World Health Organization are not only fighting COVID-19, but are also fighting the trolls and conspiracy theories causing more global panic. “Life as We Know It” “Life as we know it.” The very first image is the story of mostly everyone’s life. Showing the virus through the window represents how staying at home is the safest decision and helps decrease COVID-19 cases. The computer screen shows how communication should be via online, that being through any social platform. More specifically, video chat applications such as Zoom and Facetime have been my favorite way of staying connected with my family and friends. Both the dog and the person have things we think we’d be happy with. For example, the dog has toys, yet seems bored and the person has a computer, but also bored as she looks out the window waiting safely to approach the outdoors. I feel like that is my dog and I, tired of being home and waiting life to go back to normal. The person in the picture is wearing comfortable clothing and that has been me most of quarantine- wearing comfortable clothing and hardly getting dressed up. I get so excited to step out of my house, that being the grocery store, the gas station, or even taking out the trash. It’s sad to know that before this pandemic I never really paid much attention to small trips like those and now they get me excited. It’s funny to see in this image the stacks of toilet paper scattered around the room. I feel like in the very beginning of this pandemic people were getting the wrong things to stack up at home. I never understood why people would stack up specifically, why toilet paper instead of canned food or water. Yes, toilet paper is important, but there’s just other different solutions if your paper were to run out. It may be uncomfortable, but it’s better than running out of food or water. Stacking up to me is extremely greedy. I’m glad to know that majority of grocery stores now have a limit on what you can take. This image truly summarizes my life and I’m hoping it resembles everyone’s life as well. I hope everyone is staying home as much as possible to decrease the days of quarantine and go back to a nice safe world faster. “HA HA!” “Though laughter is considered the best medicine, some jokes should be off limits or are “TOO SOON.” Laughter is good for your health because it reduces stress and physical tension, leaving your body relaxed minutes after. I think it’s okay to make jokes during dark times like these, but I also do believe in limits. Jokes become inappropriate when they are based on racism, especially in times like these with COVID-19 memes all over the internet. For example, I found a meme on social media posted by “Latin American Post,” “When you chilling in class and the Chinese kid next to you starts coughing. We’re all gonna die!” To me this is an example of an inappropriate “meme” because people are being racist and blaming the existence of Coronavirus on Chinese people and discriminating them because they might expose you to the virus just because of their race. Some memes based off COVID-19 can be tolerated and appropriate, but I do feel like memes being racist to Chinese people or racism in general should be off limits in humor and comedy. On twitter I read a great response from a Chinese boy based on racism, “On a train in Italy a teenage Chinese boy boards the train. A woman comments loudly: “There you go, we are all going to be infected.” He replies in perfect Italian with a Roman inflection: “Ma’am, in my whole life I’ve seen China only on google maps.” It’s sad to know people are discriminating certain people due to this pandemic but the response the teenage Chinese boy sent out, left people thinking for sure, more powerful memes like these should be distributed all over the internet instead of racism. Some coronavirus memes are actually humorous and appropriate, for example I saw a meme on Instagram, “Tan lines in 2020 be like” and it’s a face mask tan. Another funny meme I found on Instagram, “Coronavirus if you’re gonna cancel everything, cancel my bills then?” Laughter should come out from appropriate memes, not racist memes stating coronavirus as the “Chinese Virus.” “5-7-5”Life goes on A worldwide virus,humanity is on pausebut a NEW day comes.Avoid TravelEarth is on lockdown, avoid travel or stay at a distance; six feet. Summer 2020Summer this year isnow carrying boundaries dueto a pandemic. ................
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