Prompt 4: Pandemic risks for a globalized world

 Two effects of globalization seen in the COVID-19 pandemic is the overpopulation of cities and economic inequalities.  Major cities like New York were hit the hardest, experiencing large cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Because we live in a global world, these large cities have millions of people interacting every day. Public transportation, restaurants, nightlife, daycares, and jobs are opportunities for a virus to spread among larger populations. For the first time in 100 years, the NYC subway system shut down for a deep clean.  In communities that are less globally-connected, covid-19 had less of a dramatic effect.  Economic inequalities are also larger; the rich are richer, and the poor are poorer. People who have money are less affected by COVID-19. The rich have the opportunity to leave large cities, have food delivered to them, have their children continue their education online, etc.  People who live in poverty cannot afford to not go to their job. Often, their children do not have the technology to stay connected to online school. Also, jobs that typically pay less, like waiters and waitresses, shut down during the pandemic, whereas salary jobs were moved online. Once again, affluent individuals were not drastically affected by COVID-19. 

Prompt 3: My health and COVID-19

 In the first couple of months of the pandemic, I experienced depression. I had little to no desire to leave my house, exercise, or eat food. I averaged one meal a day and primarily was sedentary. At some point, I think my parents began to notice my mood and decided there was a need for change. They had me take the dogs for an hour-long walk every day, rain or shine. Walking every day was not something I had done consistently before covid as I did not have much free time in high school. I noticed my mood began to improve as the weather became warmer, and I continued to exercise. My appetite also started to come back.  In the first month of COVID, my family stockpiled can food and frozen meat to limit the number of times spent at the grocery store. This changed our diets slightly because the food was no longer as fresh as it used to be.

For example, instead of going to the market to get fresh bread, fruits, and vegetables, we ate processed bread that could be frozen and canned fruits and veggies.  Later, we had the financial means to try out meal delivery kits. This allowed us to get high-quality meals delivered to our house without the fear of getting COVID. COVID exposures were a bit of a worry at the beginning of the pandemic. My mom has Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), an autoimmune disease that caused her to need her spleen removed. My little brother had cancer and is now missing a kidney, and both of us kids have struggled with asthma. If one of us had COVID, these non-communicable diseases might have made it more difficult for us to fight it off. 

Luckily, everyone in my family received their vaccine very quickly. By late April, my immediate family and extended family were all protected against COVID-19. 

Prompt 2: Pop culture and Covid

 This is an animated music video from Vietnam that was published February 28, 2020.  This video is for educational purposes. The video teaches the audience what corona is, where it is from, and how people should respond all through a catchy song. Music videos and bands (for example K-Pop) is very popular in Asian culture, and this video is an example of that. Introducing, Jealous Corona!

Prompt 1: No single pandemic

     On March 13, 2020, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic began to pick up in the United States. My grandmother (who typically lives in Houston) was staying with us kids in Minnesota. My parents were out of town, and possibly out of the country, when school was canceled for “two weeks.” My parents weren’t apprehensive and decided to stay there, leaving my siblings and me at home. It wasn’t until the NBA cancelled the season that my father became worried and decided to come home. 

See, the Persful family usually is always on the move. It was a common occurrence for me to call my dad to see what he wanted for dinner, and his response would be something like, “oh, I’m in Paris for a meeting.” Since we were little, my brother and I have been flying by ourselves, and I left the country 4 times unaccompanied while in high school; the Persful family was always on the move. 

Since the pandemic, 2020 has been the only time I can remember that we all were together for a long time. My father and I painted in our studio every day, I walked the dogs, we learned to cook, and we had way more intentionality in being with each other. My father was considered a front-line worker since he provided important manufacturing pieces for the COVID isolation sites and emergency camps.  His work typically happened on the computer instead of in-person meetings. My school was fortunate enough to already have the technological resources available to continue online instruction, so my day-to-day life only really changed in the social sense. This part of the pandemic was peaceful. 

On the other hand, the beginning of covid was one of the more stressful times in my life. My mother went to work every day at the hospital, caring for her cancer patients. She experienced severe anxiety early in the pandemic. I remember her crying in the supermarket vegetable aisle because she was worried about who had touched the food and if it could have been contaminated with COVID.  My mother would change her clothes in the garage every day and leave her shoes outside, run upstairs as fast as she could, and take a boiling hot shower. She was afraid of getting us sick, and the heaviness of her worry was sensed by our household. 

Reflecting, COVID was a complexity of blessing and curses. While I am grateful for the change in pace provided for my family, it was also a time of deep anxiety and isolation. As a child of two front-line workers, it was a thought in my head that my parents would be the first ones to get sick. With the uncertainty of the severity of COVID, this was a terrifying thought.