Covid Chronicles from Messiah University

Covid Chronicles @ Messiah

Share your COVID-19 story! Members of the Messiah community are invited to submit an anecdote, poem, reflection, photo, video, or blog post to Covid Chronicles @ Messiah. These will be preserved and presented in Mosaic. Click to submit

Printing is not supported at the primary Gallery Thumbnail page. Please first navigate to a specific Image before printing.

When this is over

Doose Ahua
Text
A poem about priorities

When this is over

Will we still wash our hands as often as we do now or can we go back to playing with dirt all day without panicking?...
Cassidy’s COVID Story

Cassidy Barlock
Text
After almost nine months of avoiding COVID-19 and continually testing negative, I was finally exposed to the virus after my boyfriend came home from college for Thanksgiving and Christmas break....

Originally published on The Pulse website.
Farewell from Music Seniors

Department of Music, Messiah University
Video
A reflective compilation of videos from senior music students (recorded from their homes during quarantine)
- What is your favorite memory from Messiah? (00:20)
- What is your favorite musical memory from Messiah? (01:28)
- What is your funniest Messiah Memory? (02:57)
- What will you miss most about Messiah? (04:05)
- What will you miss the least? (04:44)
- Any professors you'd like to thank? (05:32)
- Any advice for an incoming student? (07:48)
COVID-19 is Baking me crazy!

Abigail Fontana
Image
COVID-19 is Baking me crazy!

(See facemask cake design)
Reflection on COVID-19 on my blog

Ambreen Imran
Text
Covid-19 I hate you!

I hate you for the havoc you have created, and I hate you more for the terror you have spread.

Recently my daughter had a fever and vomiting. The moment she fell sick we all were in a panic, first of all for her recovery, and secondly for my old parents who live with us...
Learning Technology Services

Cindi Kerns
Text
Colleagues,

I write you today from the heart. I've been reading a lot of articles about how hard this semester's transition has been for both faculty and students. I've seen it first hand in Zoom meetings from your homes and in Zoom student presentations from basements and kitchen tables, often with life happening in the background. Without the public face of our offices we are more vulnerable, less able to hide the reality of our lives. I can't imagine how you are finding time to care for your own families in addition to your students. This physical separation has been so hard for all of you. And heaven only knows how you are finding time to care for yourself.
A Lack of Community

Connor A. Kime
Text
To be completely honest having school online has not been the most difficult part of this pandemic. Academically I am actually performing better than I did before, but socially I am struggling. I miss the community that Messiah College is so full of. I miss walking down to Melly Apartments and seeing my guys Garrett Showalter, Caleb Jones, Matt Glogowski and Will Young. I miss the boys!!!!
Equilibrium: Reflections from a College Counselor during Covid-19

Aubrey Kleinfeld
Text
Equilibrium...The word emerged almost 30 years later on the Friday before spring break when I sat in my office in Hoffman at 4pm with a client who was processing the receipt of the email suggesting due to Covid-19 we may not return back to school after spring break as planned. We sat in the vertigo of unknowing, security being upended, with only the equilibrium of each other’s presence in the here and now....
Hindsight Is 2020: VOTE

Halima Krugh
Video
Produced by Halima (She/Her), ©️October 2020 Song: Ego (Human Album), Rag’n’Bone Man Written by Rory Charles Graham, Ben Ash, Ina Christine Wroldsen Artwork: David Macomber #Vote2020 https://www.whenweallvote.org
Disaster Reflection

Irene Lee
Text
It’s quite a time right now, isn’t it? We, as a collective society, have not dealt with this kind of pandemic, so we’re feeling all kinds of emotions – fear, anxiety, helplessness. The COVID-19 crisis has affected me physiologically, mentally, socially, and spiritually. I am hyper aware of where I put my body in public. I have less contact with public objects like park benches and shopping carts. I wash my hands a lot more. It’s been quite the adjustment living back at home with my family and doing school work around them. I feel like I don’t have as much personal space, but I have gradually overcome that frustrated feeling as I bonded more with my loved ones. Because of the way I look, I have been a victim to multiple racist comments at my school and in the public. My family has also dealt with outright racist remarks in public either while we’re walking around the lake or shopping around in the grocery stores. This pandemic has exacerbated racism and its fear-mongering tactics of hatred against Asian-Americans and Asians all over the world. Also, it has disproportionally affected communities of color in this country in ways that some people don’t care to recognize. Our country needs to come together and do our part in flattening this curve – by staying home, social distancing, washing hands crazily – not by protesting for the freedom to get a haircut. I believe that the proclaimed idea of our individualism has been hurting the common good.
Being a Nursing Student During Covid-19

Amber MacKay
Text
Suck it up, get it together

A B is not good enough

Why are you a mess?

Do better, be more organized

You're slipping

You used to be good at school

And only I say these things to myself

Covid, huh

No, it hasn't touched me

Not like other people

I don't have hours of time sitting around

I haven't lost my schedule or my work
Graduating class of Marriage, Couple and Family Counseling Graduate students during Covid 19

Kristi Mouttet
Combination
This was the group of graduate counseling Marriage, Couple and Family students who have adapted to Telemental health in their final semester of field experience at their sites.
First week of teaching hybrid zoom/in-person classes

Matthew Roth
Video
Originally posted on the Facebook page for Messiah University English Department. We checked in with Professor Roth to see how his first week of hybrid zoom/ in-person classes went, and listen to his response!
- How did your first week of classes go?
- What has been your favorite class thus far?
My Quarantine at Messiah University

Nathan Rowe
Video
This film documents my experiences in on-campus quarantine at Messiah University.
The Performing Arts

Damian Savarino
Video
Dr. Savarino briefly discusses the effect the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the performing arts. (4:37)
Covid at Messiah

Holly Schall
Combination
I have really had my dreams crushed this year from Covid. For one, I am so excited that my sister is a freshman this year so we can be on campus together. However, with Covid, nothing has gone our way from no visitation to no going off campus to explore. I wanted to take her to all my favorite places and do fun things with her but I am not able to do what we had planned due to Covid....

A photo is part of the submission
A Masked Minute with Samuel Smith

Samuel Smith
Video
Originally posted on the Facebook page for Messiah University English Department.

"We got to chat a bit with Professor Smith about the English classes he’s teaching this semester!"
Travel Equals Empathy

Beth Transue
Text
One benefit that most of us experience as a result of our travels is increased empathy. That feels no truer than during this COVID-19 pandemic. Knowing the people and places that are affected brings this tragedy home in a way that no newscast can. I feel that two of the hardest hit areas of this pandemic, outside of the US, has affected me more deeply because of my past and personal connections with both hard-hit areas.
A Messiah Student’s Response to the Pandemic

Christian Valen
Text
Navigating through all the uncertainties and apprehension caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has been an epic journey for me. The constant changes, the upheavals, and lack of clarity all seem to exacerbate the angst. In the midst of all this though, I discovered something about myself. A lot of my discovery has to do with my last three years spent as a student at Messiah College....
Concentrating On Victory In Disaster

Joseph Wolf
Text
Masks on, doors closed

Restless energy, with life indisposed

I read my bible, I do my school

I want to go out, but I am no fool

I talk to my mother, my brother and dad

I play my Nintendo to make me glad

I know my God will hold my hand
April 8, 2020 Email to Colleagues

Doug Wood
Text
Subject: Small insights into classroom Covid operations

Friends,

When asking my zooming CCC students the biggest impact of the campus shut down, to a person they agreed it was the loss of daily interactions with their friends. Like us, they grieve the loss of proximity in relationships...