Matthew Gilchrist

MY COVID EXPERIENCE: My Covid Experince was one of obscurity. there where parts that i rembered vividly and parts where i could honselty tell you that i rembered nothing. Most of my time in the beginng of Covid so from March to about May of 2020 the main thing i felt was bordem most things were closed and my parrents would not let me leave the house so i just sat around all day trying to keep myself occupied by doing mundane things to keep my sanity during that time. but it was mostly time to relax in a sense of i have nothing to do.


Assortment of Masks

OBJECT DESCRIPTION AND RELATIONSHIP TO COVID-19: :

 this is an assortment of masks. they where used to go into anywhere that was in public during Covid. as you can see they come in many forms that differ in material and color. I decided to included it because it was a daily part of mine and billions of other people lives during covid so thats why i included it.

 

PRIMARY SOURCE DESCRIPTION:

The Primary Soucre that i. added was a Covid screening sheet for customers outside a convince store near my house. i added it because it will be easy for historians and people to understand in the future. it dose this by having alot of images which describe symptoms so people of all languages can under stand what is on it. i think for contextual information they could maybe add sheets from other places in Canada or around the world.

 

PRIMARY SOURCE: Screening Sheet

NEWSPAPER HEADLINE

PERSONAL REACTION TO THIS HEADLINE

this headline gives off a sense of hope and optimism towards the future. due to how far we have come a few months ago we were averageing a few thousnad new cases a day and the headline says without directly saying it we are not out of the woods but we are clsoe to it.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/06/24/coronavirus-covid-19-upda...

 

VISUALIZING COVID-19 

The Image shows how long of a line it would be if you where to fill busses full of the people who died of Covid In the United States. it paints a stark image of what 500,000 deaths looks like. Granted its out of date if you were to look at an updated on at the end of the pandemic it will be much larger.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2021/500000-covid-deat...

COVID Q&A

Describe the moment you realized how serious COVID-19 was:

i relized covid was serouis when it apeared that that we were not going back to school. i was in grade 12 at the time and around march 11th or 12th we got an email saying we were getting an extra 2 weeks off and then going back, then it was another 2 weeks and at that momment i relized i wasnt going back. i wanted to belive when all the sports leages where postpoining/cancling games that it was just an overreaction but boy was i wrong.

What did you learn about yourself or the people you live with during COVID-19?

i leraned that i am amazing at working by myself on things and less relying on other people. I also learned that when i put my mind and my undivided attention to something that i can get alot of stuff done in a short amount of time. 

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?

id say the biggest change ive made is switichng to cards instead of using cash. i find it more convient when i can pay for things with my apple watch and not have to haul around a wallet. i still do but its just incase of emerginces or i want to pay for small for something thats is really cheap.

Have you learned any new skills during the pandemic?

Yes i have, early on in the pandemic i bought a cook book just to learn how to make stuff. which ive been slowly making my way through. also ive been learning how to speak dutch because i feel like learning a new language is cool and i have alot of free time to do what i want to do.

How do you feel about university education in the last year?

With regards to university education in the last year at first i found it rough but that was more trasitoning from a few months of doing nothing into a more riggerous level of schooling after a few months i got the hang of it and it became less hard due to managing my time better.

List one positive thing and one negative thing you'll take away from 2020:

One positve of 2020 would be me getting accepted into universitys and deciding where i was gonna spend the next 4 years of my life because in the end the hard work payed off. one negitive is that i missed out on alot esspically with highschool and my first year of university. I left alot of things unfinished with respect to having closure with people and ending things on a high note. But also starting a new journery and meeting new people.

What is the best movie or TV show you've watched, or the best book you've read, in the past 18 months?

There was alot of good shows and moives that i watched some of my favourites where Ozark,Mad Men,Suits and Peaky Blinders. Some of my favourite moives that i watched where Superbad, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, Stepbrothers and The Gentlemen.

How large of an impact do you think COVID-19 has had on your mental health?

i feel like it had large impact on my mental health because im a very social person i like to go out and meet people. But covid striped me of that and it was hard at first but you got to adapt to the times i guess.

How has technology impacted your life during lockdown?

Technology has impacted my life vastly. i rely on my laptop for everything now from school to banking to entertianment. i feel covid has furthered our relince on technology to a point where we are going to be over relinat on it.

How has the pandemic brought wider acknowledgement to systemic racism in Canada?

i feel like whenever any system gets under extreme amounts of pressure cracks start to apper showing that hey maybe things arent what they seem for certian people. an example of this would be in health care where people living in certian areas had accses to better healthcare when dealing with covid then others.

In what ways do you envision society changing due to the pandemic?

i am a reltivly optemisitc person but im also realistic. i want society to come toghter like how we did in the beginning of Covid. but i also belive that we have become more divided and we still will be divided wether its based on race, income or gender. i truly hope that society will become a better place in the next few years after covid but i would not be suprised if we come out of this even more diveded.

Now that you are done with both the course and your additions to the archive, is there anything you'd like to reflect on?

Id like to reflect on the journey of it. just looking back on my memories of Covid and other peoples because we all have diffrent experinces with Covid and it just feels good to know that people are going through the same thing that you are.