Carly Zylak
My life during COVID was quite different than my life pre-pandemic to say the least. With no other choice due to lockdown, my life consisted of sitting in bed watching netflix, doing at home workouts, and playing card games with my family during the first lockdown. Life got a little more interesting when I moved into my student house with my friends in September and created a more fun dynamic, as I was going a little bit crazy being crammed in my house with my parents and brothers. It was nice to be surrounded by friends who were in the same situation as I was, completing our university classes remotely. This definitely motivated me to get my work done moreso than if I was living with my family as we were all in the same boat and were able to work together, if we happened to be in similar classes. I found that I had a lot more free time to do what I wanted to do and put effort into bettering myself by working out, learning new skills, and focusing on my studies.
|
OBJECT IMAGE At Home Workout Bands |
OBJECT DESCRIPTION AND RELATIONSHIP TO COVID-19: : Pictured is my father using a workout band program in my backyard which is designed to go till failure in a safe way, which differentiates it from typical weights used in a gym. Each band equals a certain amount of weight, which can be altered depending on if it is double-folded or not. Weights are also very expensive and hard to come by with gyms being closed due to the COVID-19 lockdown, so equipment such as this is a good alternative in order to stay in shape and make progress with your fitness goals. You can hit a variety of muscle groups with these bands which makes them extremely versatile. This likely envokes nastalgic memories of being able to freely workout in a gym or in any other ways that one would desire, but luckily equipment such as this helps us to adapt to these circumstances. |
|
PRIMARY SOURCE DESCRIPTION: The SaniCube is a secure enclosure that uses UV-C Light to disinfect the surfaces of the contents within. The UV-C Light produced within the SaniCube enclosure breaks up the genetic material of the pathogens sticking to surfaces or floating in the surrounding air, leaving them unable to function and reproduce. This method of decontamination is a proven, reliable method of disinfection of bacteria and viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. This was created by my boyfriend for an engineering project at the University of Guelph, and is marketed towards places such as classrooms and daycares that have a lot of objects that are touched and used often to kill viruses such as COVID-19 and reduce the spread. This helps to understand what our society is going through as new inventions such as this are being created in order to adapt to these new circumstances and the increased need for sufficient sanitization and cleaning tools. |
PRIMARY SOURCE: Sanicube UV-C Disinfectant Product |
|
NEWSPAPER HEADLINE: Trumpet player still honouring front-line workers with weekly tribute amid the COVID-19 pandemic |
PERSONAL REACTION TO THIS HEADLINE This headline is a ray of positivity in the midst of the majority of negative news headlines that relate to COVID-19. This story is of a trumpet player who dedicates each and every Sunday night since the start of the pandemic to honour front-line workers with a trumpet performance, rain or shine. This performance provides hope the the crowd that comes to watch (at a safe distance) and shows appreciation to all of the people that risk their lives to do essential and highly-exposing work during this pandemic. Front-line workers recieved a lot of praise at the beginning of COVID-19 and many people made efforts to recognize their important contributions. As time has gone on, however, most people have forgotten about these brave people, or simply do not care enough anymore to honour them and the praise has died down immensely. This trumpet player continues to pay tribute to front-line workers which in my opinion is very admirable. |
|
Coronavirus Riskiest Activites Infographic |
|
VISUALIZING COVID-19
|
COVID Q&A
Describe the moment you realized how serious COVID-19 was:
I realized how serious COVID-19 was when all universities closed and everyone was sent home early. I originally thought it was just something that you only hear about in other countries, similar to the ebola phenomenon, and that it would never actually have an impact on my life until I was packing up my residence room in March. It was then that cases started to arise where I live and in the surrounding areas and we were put under lock-down by the government, which made it a lot more real for me.
What did you learn about yourself or the people you live with during COVID-19?
Something that I learned about myself during COVID-19 is that I value alone time a lot more than I previously thought. I have always been a very social person and always had many plans lined up for the week pre-pandemic. Being forced to chill out more made me learn to appreciate that alone time where I could do things for myself such as exercise, read more, get into journalling, and play the piano more. Even though it will be very exciting when everything opens back up again, I will continue to make time for only myself and not force an abundance of social plans. I also learned the importance of being a good room mate in my student house and how to compromise so that everyone feels happy and comfortable. Many of the room mates had different views on COVID-19 in terms of what we should be doing and what was safe versus unsafe. This required us to find that balance so that everyone was able to live there during the pandemic and not feel that others were putting them at risk.
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?
A large component of my pre-pandemic routine was going to the gym. This aspect of my life was heavily impacted by lockdowns as all the gyms were closed for the majority of the year. As a result, I had to adapt and begin exercising from my home. This required learning at home workouts and getting creative with equptment/things around the house. Over the past year, I have grown to enjoy these home workouts. I am able to do them whenever I'd like and do not have to drive anywhere or wait for anyone. However, sometimes going to the gym in person was a nice outing and enforced better routine habits. Once lockdowns are lifted, I think I will gradually go back to the gym. However, I did enjoy my new at home workouts and still plan on doing them every once and awhile, possibly half at home and half back at the gym. I would be curious to know how busy the gyms will be once they are opened. On one hand they may be busier as people are eager to return, and on the other hand people may still be hesistant to return for safety reasons. Either way, I am excited to have the option of exercising at a gym if I would like.
Have you learned any new skills during the pandemic?
One skill I believe I have further developed is my culinary abbilities. I always enjoyed cooking but wasn't always able to cook because of time constraints. During the initial lockdowns in 2020, I took it upon myself to take the extra free time I had to learn and perfect some new dishes and recipes. I found it very therapuetic and enjoyable to do, and it made me very popular around the house. I also was able to devote more time to playing the piano and became much more skilled which is exciting for me as music has always been a very important part of my life.
How do you feel about university education in the last year?
Initially, remote learning was very attractive to me and seemed to be a relaxing way to finish off my first year. However, I only ever imagined that it would be for one month and that we would be back on campus for fall 2020. I quickly began to miss having in-person classes and learned to appreciate the value of that aspect of the university experience. I feel that university education has been delivered quite successfully in the past year given the circumstances, and that professors have generally been very accommodating. I am thankful that due to the technology we have today we were able to continue with our education and that the pandemic did not force us to hault our learning progress.
List one positive thing and one negative thing you'll take away from 2020:
One positive thing that I will take away from 2020 is that I got to have a lot more quality time with my family than ever before as the five of us were locked down in a house together. I will always remember this time and I feel that even though there were moments that we drove eachother crazy, it definitely brought us closer. One negative thing I will take away is feeling like my freedom was taken away from me during this time. I am a very independent person in general and do not take well to being forced to do anything, so having to stay home and not do what I wanted to do was a negative experience for me, but obviously I was willing to do so for the greater good.
What is the best movie or TV show you've watched, or the best book you've read, in the past 18 months?
The best TV show that I have watched in the past 18 months is "Prison Break". I do not think that I ever would have watched this show if I was not stuck at home but it was exremely interesting and I am glad that I did.
How large of an impact do you think COVID-19 has had on your mental health?
I do not think that COVID-19 has had much of an impact on my mental health. This is because I've always known that many other people have had to deal with much worse circumstances during this pandemic than I have and I am thankful for that. I never really felt that my mental health was deteriorating and simply made the best of these unforunate circumstances by using them to better myself. Seeing other people endure struggles with mental health sparked my passion for helping others through this and helped me to gain confidence that psychology is the right career path for me, as mental health is only growing more and more relevant due to this pandemic. I can now strongly see myself in this field and I have been there for many of my friends that were struggling with mental health during the pandemic.
How has technology impacted your life during lockdown?
Technology has been a huge component of my life during lockdown and it would have been entirely different without it. Technology's greatest impact for me has been it's provided ability to stay connected with my friends even though I was not able to physically see them. I remember especially during the first lockdown that there were constant zoom calls and iMessage games in order to stay entertained. It was comforting to be able to talk to others as it brought a sense of community in that we are all in this together and brought excitement for when we could finally safely be together again. Technology has also given everyone the opportunity to continue with our education which would not have been possible if this happened 20 years ago.
How has the pandemic brought wider acknowledgement to systemic racism in Canada?
This pandemic has brought wider acknowledgement to systemic racism in Canada because we have been forced to recognize it more with normal life being put on hold. Such racism has always taken place but people did not acknlowledge it because of everything that was going on in their own lives. When everyone was in lockdown the media magnitized things that have been going on in our society for a long time. This forced people to really look at what was going on and look within themselves to make a change and end racism. Instances such as the controversy around George Flloyd, for example, have been occurring for many years but it is only because there was so much media attention on it that society was so angered and called to do something about it.
In what ways do you envision society changing due to the pandemic?
I envision that society will be much more aware about how interdependent we are as a human race, and how what one person does can have ripple effects in completely different countries. This could cause people to be accountable for their actions and put the greater good over their own wants. I also believe that society will be more aware of systematic racism and continue to work towards putting that to an end more than we did pre-pandemic. I further envision that society will put a greater importance on mental health than ever before and be able to better recognize when someone is struggling and how you can help them. Finally, I believe that society has changed in gaining a deeper appreciation for social gatherings with friends and family and that we took this for granted until we were forced to be apart. This will likely result in an abundance of joyful reunions and people making more efforts to see their loved ones than they previously did.
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 enjoyed this course so much more than I originally thought I would and found the content extremely interesting and valuable. I have learned a newfound importance of looking back on the history of pandemics and plagues and taking lessons learned from the past to use for the future. I never before considered how necessary it is to document hard times such as COVID-19 so that historians in the future can look at the experiences of those who lived through it. The two lectures that stuck with me the most were Doctor. Andrew Bailey's and Meg Pillow's. Dr. Baileys discussion of vaccine passports was very interesting, with Dr. Carstairs article about the ethics of vaccine passports as a great addition to this. Even though we got a little off topic, Meg Pillow's lecture really caught my attention and the class discussion that it brought about was extremely engaging. I also enjoyed the class discussions that compared the religious and scientific relevance of various pandemics. I found it very interesting how western societies have historically heavily relied on supernatural powers such as God for hope and guidance through hard times in comparison to Asian and Middle Eastern societies. A topic that I will continue to think about from this class is the Spanish flu. I really enjoyed learning about its contents and it was shocking that I did not know much about it before given that it was such a deadly pandemic. COVID-19 is the first pandemic that has taken place since the rise of social media which makes for such easy communication and visualizations to everyone about what is going on in the world. Unlike other pandemics that we learned about in this class, this makes COVID-19 much more difficult to forget about and sweep under the rug for future generations.
Gallery
Other archival items connected to my experience of COVID-19. Click on any image to enlarge.
| |
|
|
|