Kathleen Stein
MY COVID EXPERIENCE:
My personal experience during the COVID-19 pandemic has been very frustrating and negative. While I am very grateful that I am healthy and safe with my family, I can't help feeling like I've missed out on so many things I was looking forward to. I feel as though my personal development has halted, and I feel like I am still the same age mentally that I was before the pandemic. I have seen others improve themselves and begin new opportunities despite the limitations of the pandemic. Yet I feel as though I have regressed, in both my mental state and in my professional development. Only in the last 2 months, I have seen some mild improvements in myself, for instance, I have started working on some story outlines that I've had tucked away for a while. Writing is still a new hobby, but I have found that it has helped me feel a bit less upset about my personal situation and that I am expressing myself creatively.
|
|
OBJECT DESCRIPTION AND RELATIONSHIP TO COVID-19: Working from Home: Cat Distracting Study Time I will be very honest and say that I have been very lonely during the pandemic. My classes have moved online, I have been laid off from work twice, and I cannot visit my friends. One of the few benefits of being home so much is the time I have spent with my pet. Since I don't have much company outside of my family, my cat Millie (seen in the image) has been my companion. She often sits on my lap or my desk while I'm in class or working on assignments. While it doesn't replace human contact, it has been nice to have some company during the day, when the rest of my family is out of the house for work. Since she is with me so often, I wanted to add her to my archive.
|
|
|
PRIMARY SOURCE DESCRIPTION: This sign has been up since last summer in a park in my neighbourhood in Guelph, despite how playgrounds are now open in Ontario. While I was not impressed with how long this outdated sign was up for I thought there was a more interesting aspect to this object. I thought it was important to select this image because I worry about the environmental impact of all the additional materials we have used in the pandemic. While garbage and pollution have been a massive problem already before the pandemic, I think with the increased production of personal protective equipment, online orders, and other materials such as temporary signs like in this image, we will see a large influx of garbage in our landfills and our oceans. I think historians would want to see the kinds of items we used in the pandemic, as I imagine garbage will continue to be an issue in the future. Unless there is some sort of new waste disposal method in the future, perhaps this issue will be a thing of the past (though I highly doubt this will happen).
|
|
|
Women are taking their sexual health into their own hands |
PERSONAL REACTION TO THIS HEADLINE I have always been an advocate for improving access to high-quality sex education, and for easier access to sexual health services. Unsurprisingly, access to sexual health resources has been scaled back due to the pandemic. This means that services like STI testing, safe abortions, and contraceptive access have been more difficult to find. Additionally, even without the pandemic putting classes online, sex education is still debated, some advocate for more sex ed, others fight for less. I personally worry that these effects will be devastating. I personally had to access sexual health care a few months ago, but I am lucky that I have a doctor that I was able to see during the pandemic. Other people who rely on walk-in-clinics may not have felt safe to go into a public clinic in case they contract COVID-19 from someone else. As this article title suggests, women have to push for more access to sexual health services, and demand for public discussions about women's sexual health. The article discusses the pressure on women by the beauty industry, which constantly targets womens' self-worth and body image. The article mentions people who are pushing back against this pressure, like educators, researchers, and others. I strongly agree with this, I volunteered with a group at the University of Guelph in February of 2020, before the pandemic. My team and I created a sex education workshop that we presented to high school and elementary school students. So many of these students were so curious about our topics on consent and how the media impacts their view on sexual issues. From my experience, kids, especially girls, do want to learn about their sexual health, and unfortunately, so many of the young girls and boys I spoke to had little knowledge about consent and expressed misguided beliefs about it that they saw in the media. I'm happy that more women (and men) are being outspoken about their sexual health and are fighting for everyone to have access to sexual health care. |
|
|
|
VISUALIZING COVID-19 This visualization is from Visual Capitalist presenting data on quarantine activities relating to media usage among various age groups from Global Web Index. There are four different generations shown here, in order from youngest to oldest are Gen Z, Millenials, Gen X, and Boomers. Also shown are the average rates for all the age groups combined. The data in purple or red colours indicate high use, whereas orange and yellow suggest low use. On the left side of the graph is the types of media-related activities that some people may have done during quarantine. According to this infographic, younger generations like Gen Z and Millenials have consumed more media than other age groups, and Boomers have used the least amount overall.
|
COVID Q&A
Describe the moment you realized how serious COVID-19 was:
Once I was told that the fall 2020 semester of the University of Guelph would be moved online and after I spent my first few weeks of school online, I knew that the pandemic was not going away for a long time. In the spring of 2020, I thought that it would really only delay plans for my summer. I kept thinking that my friends and I would push back our plans, and maybe we can still get together in August. Of course, that didn't happen, then my worries were focused on online school. While I love learning, I was very worried that my work ethic would suffer without the social aspect of school. I normally have a part-time job throughout the year, and I was worried that without having time that I have to set aside for work, it would make me less motivated to focus on school. While I did well in school in the fall and winter, I definitely was less focused, since I had nothing else to look forward to other than getting up from my desk and going to my room after school. Once I saw my school work suffer in just the first few weeks of school, I knew that the pandemic was serious in how it changed my habits very quickly. I saw myself fall behind schedule, and I knew that many other people would feel the same way.
What did you learn about yourself or the people you live with during COVID-19?
During the pandemic, I learned a lot about the relationship I have with my family. I live with my parents, and my older brother. I also have another older brother that was living with us for most of 2020, but he moved out in September. While I've lived with my parents since before the pandemic, I learned a lot more about them during our quarantine. I learned that I need a lot more space to move around than I thought I did. Before COVID-19, I would leave for school in the morning after my parents and brothers left for work, and I would come home anywhere between the early afternoon, or really late at night if I was studying late or had to go to work after my classes. Without school and work as a place to go, I felt so restless and annoyed with the lack of space and freedom that I had once COVID started. This was especially noticeable early in the pandemic when my whole family was working from home. I think I realized that we all needed more space from each other since we were more easily annoyed with each other.
Other than wearing a mask, what was the biggest change you made to your daily life? Do you think this change will remain when all lockdowns are lifted?
For myself, the biggest change has been adjusting to how often I can go places. Before COVID-19, I would go to school every day and go to work multiple times a week in the evenings. Now I spend almost all my time at home, and I have not been able to go to work for most of the year. I work at a movie theatre, which due to the nature of the business and layout of the building, cannot be open in most lockdown stages. Being without an income, and not having a place to go to be productive I felt really uninspired. Whenever I finish my classes I just sit at home, and I can't go out to see friends. When lockdowns are over, I think this state of feeling unproductive will change once I get to go back to work again. Though I will have graduated by the time lockdowns are over, and I won't have school to go to, I hope that work will help make me feel more productive. However, I do think that it will take me a while to get used to being able to go out, since I have gotten so used to being stuck at home, I worry that going out will be stressful.
Have you learned any new skills during the pandemic?
I'm a bit embarrassed to admit this, but I did not improve a lot of skills during the free time I had during the pandemic. On social media in early 2020 I saw so many people posting about their creative accomplishments and how this is the time for other people to start new skills. I felt guilty that I wasn't doing more with my time. Eventually, I saw this pressure decrease, and more people were discussing that the pandemic is a stressful time, and no one should feel pressured to suddenly improve themselves. However this year after the winter semester I began to explore creative writing. I've always had dreams of being a fiction writer, but I never thought that I could write something of substance. I was always comparing myself with professional authors of books that I had read, and I never thought I could write anything as good. Yet I started to explore more amateur writing websites where regular people share their writing, and these communities are so positive. While I haven't posted anything publicly, and I don't know if I ever will, I have started to create story outlines and researching world-building and character development tips for new writers. I hope to finish a story this year, even if it is just for myself, and I'm happy that I'm finally exploring this skill.
How do you feel about university education in the last year?
I have been quite impressed with the professors and teaching assistants I've had in the past year. I really appreciate how accommodating and sympathetic they have been with deadlines and long class times. I appreciate how difficult it must have been especially difficult for professors in the Winter 2020 semester who had to instantly change their class plans from in-person to online. And for Fall 2020, I was impressed with how engaging my classes were, even with interactions being limited to online. It was also a bit easier to connect with professors, even if it is just through a chat function on Zoom. As far as the University as a whole, I wish there was more transparency from the University about plans to reopen and how classes would be conducted. I realize that it has not been easy to make these decisions, but I think it would have been less stressful if students were informed far in advance what the school's plans were for reopening and what the class format would be each upcoming semester.
List one positive thing and one negative thing you'll take away from 2020/2021:
One negative that I will take away from the past year and a half is that I have taken time for granted for too long. I have wasted so much time doing unproductive things and I feel so uninspired. While I can't say for sure that I will be able to, I hope that I will get out of the depressed state I have been in for the past year due to the pandemic. I don't want to waste my early twenties staying in my house all the time. A positive thing that may stay with me is the newfound creativity I have found. While it has taken me a lot longer to figure this out than others have in the pandemic, I feel like I have made a good start to express myself in my writing. I hope that I will continue to practice writing and become more comfortable with sharing my writing with others.
What is the best movie or TV show you've watched, or the best book you've read, in the past 18 months?
The Queen's Gambit on Netflix was my favourite TV show of the last year, and the best book I read was I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara.
How large of an impact do you think COVID-19 has had on your mental health?
The pandemic has severely affected my mental health as nothing else has before. I lost my dog in October of 2020, and my grandfather in June 2021. Those losses have heavily affected me, but I have also struggled with loneliness and a huge lack of motivation. For a while, it seemed like the pandemic would never end, and each time I got my hopes up to lockdowns ending, new ones were put in place shortly after. This constant back and forth of seeing Ontario open and close has been so frustrating, especially since there is nothing I can individually do about it. I think that lack of control over my own life has affected me a lot by limiting my potential. Also, any professional plans I had have gone out the window. Since everything shut down, any employment opportunities I was looking for have closed, and I feel like I've done nothing in the last year to prepare for graduation. I have no idea what I'm going to do, and that makes me so anxious.
How has technology impacted your life during the lockdown?
For me, technology has allowed me to connect with my friends online, though it's not the same as in person. I have also watched a lot more TV and movies, which could be positive and negative since I could be doing more productive things instead. One of the better things about technology has been accessing books online, which I normally wouldn't have much time for. For the last few years, I haven't been able to read for fun very much, so it's been nice to have a lot more time to read, even if it is mostly through Ebooks rather than physical books.
How has the pandemic brought wider acknowledgement to systemic racism in Canada?
I definitely believe the pandemic has brought out more conversations about systemic racism in both Canada and around the world. In the summer of 2020, there were worldwide black lives matter protests after the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other black people in the US. Where I live in Guelph, there was a march as well, which I attended with a friend (socially distanced of course). I think the pandemic has allowed for a unique opportunity for a lot more people to dedicate time and attention to systemic racism, since so many people were stuck at home and consuming so much more news and internet content than before. Specifically in Canada, there has been a lot of discussion about the treatment of Indigenous people. Very recently, there have been multiple mass graves found around former residential schools. While these developments are still very new, and more sites will likely be examined soon, I firmly believe this is the start of major recognition and government reform around the current (and past) treatment of Indigenous people in Canada.
In what ways do you envision society changing due to the pandemic?
I think the pandemic could change the way our society remembers Canadian history. With the developments I mentioned above, more history about the treatment of Indigenous people is coming to light. More attention is being placed on survivors, gravesites, and the responsibility of the government and various church groups, for their part in the residential school system. I think elementary and high school history classes could reflect this knowledge, which has been known in Indigenous circles for decades but has received very little mainstream media attention. Perhaps with the international attention that we are seeing on this horrible part of our country's history, the public will push for more assistance for Indigenous communities. This means improving the public's knowledge of Indigenous issues and improving the lives of residential school survivors and their communities, which still feel the intergenerational effects of residential schools and the sixties scoop.
Now that you are done with both the course and your additions to the archive, is there anything you'd like to reflect on?
I'm not a history student, I'm a psychology student, so I have not had the opportunity to create a historical archive before at university. But I'm very happy that I took this course, I really enjoyed the conversations I had with classmates and guest lecturers. It's been nice to talk with others about issues that I'm interested in like politics, news, and history that I don't get to discuss often in my psychology courses. It's also been nice to reflect on my pandemic experience, even if it is not often a positive reflection. I wouldn't be surprised if I look back on this archive to see how much I've changed since its point and to remember how I felt during this time.
Gallery
Other archival items connected to my experience of COVID-19. Click on any image to enlarge.
| |
|
|