When I first awaken, my body is everything but. I push an urge of energy into my body to get the gears moving. I first grab my iPad and log into math class. I see my teacher and my other classmates. Continue reading →

During the week, I typically wake up between 7:45 and 8:45a.m. I got to the bathroom and brush my teeth. After retrieving my laptop from the desk in my room, I go downstairs to feed and let out my two dogs. I grab a cup of ice water and go to my first class of the day. Then, I will eat breakfast. I try to get as much work done as I can in between classes, occasionally playing with the dogs or talking to my sister. I usually finish my classes between 1:20 and 2:15p.m. Then I eat lunch and hangout with my family. I try to go outside, especially when the weather is nice. I might go for a run at the track or food shopping, masked and socially distanced. Later, I eat dinner and finish homework. I might watch a movie or something on Netflix before I shower and go to bed around 11:30p.m. I spend a decent amount of time on my classwork and avoid going out as much as I did pre-pandemic. I am thankful I get to spend time with my family or the people in my “bubble.” I love my time with the dogs and runs at the track. This is what I do most weeks – repeating.

I choose to put this map on New Jersey before Covid; my family and I loved to take road trips around New Jersey. We would go to different malls, movie theaters, shops, restaurants, etc., to explore new things around the state we all grew up in. Since Covid, we have stopped doing all those cool things, and now we mostly spend our time inside the house. To reminisce on the times before Covid, I wanted to place my map New jersey to show our new road trip while quarantining.

To see the full map, this is the link: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1036R5UZOLPT26HDZE93R7TNiO8BwfuQ6&ll=40.328223483946545%2C-74.5603883&z=9

Note: this site will not open using your PSU Google account.

My Morning Routine:

I wake up at 6:30 am to the sound of my iPhone’s standard alarm. I instantly turn it off and look over to see my roommate sound asleep in his bed only about 6 feet from mine. I open my phone and go through social media for about 30 minutes every morning. I do this as a change to allow myself to wake up and to catch up on any important news that happened the day before. I get out of bed and check my weather app to see today’s forecast. That will determine which clothes I pick out for myself. Once I have my clothes in hand, I make my way to the bathroom. I can’t change in my room due to my roommate being in there. I wouldn’t want him waking up and seeing me naked. While in the bathroom I get dressed, use the bathroom, and also brush my teeth. Now that I am dressed, I can put my shoes on, grab my wallet, mask, keys, and backpack and make my way to the front of the building where I wait for the 7:30 bus. Usually, there are only 2 other people on the bus at the same time I am on it. This bus will take us all to Penn State Abington. Once on campus, I walk from the bus drop off/pick up area all the way to the woodland building in order to get to my Chem 212 lecture. This lecture begins at 7:45 and ends at around 9 every Tuesday and Thursday. Once lecture is over, I head back to the bus circle where I get on the bus to bring me back to Lions Gate. I am always the only one on this bus and we have to wait on the bus for about 10 minutes because the bus leaves campus at around 9:15.

Looking at my free write, I notice that I am alone or mostly alone for a majority of my day. I also notice in a more obvious sense that about half of my day I am in a mask. For me, I see this as how the pandemic is both bringing people closer together but also driving people apart. For people who were lucky enough to be in lockdown/quarantine with loved ones or family are able to experience that love and connection every day. For myself and for lots of other college students, we are by ourselves or just with our roommates for months at a time. It’s hard to see friends we’ve made when we’re not allowed to go out anywhere or have more than a certain number of people in a room at a time. It can get very lonely so I believe that it is important for not only myself but anybody else in a similar situation to myself to have a strong support system and keep in touch with family or loved ones as often as possible even though it’s not face to face.

The mapping project I created illustrates how the world and spaces around me had changed during the pandemic. The places that I had planned on traveling to could no longer be visited and the events that I had originally wanted to attend were either canceled, postponed, or presented through a virtual platform. Due to lockdown, I primarily stayed at home, and when I did leave it was only to nearby places in Abington. The spaces I would visit were oftentimes in or around my neighborhood or on campus which are both within a short distance of each other.

This is a representational map of my routine during covid. Going to college and having to stay on lock down means that a lot of my daily interactions revolve around school, my technology, and just being in my house. Except for those few changes in my schedule when I’m able to go out with friends, family or to campus (in a covid safe way of course). On the left side of my brian My day starts with a morning fog, aka the groginess of waking up and generally getting ready for the day. Then I promptly go in the hills of study halls, loging into my classes and hitting the books for most of the day. After that I spend some time in Beverly Hills, i.e. the world of Instagram, tik tok, Netflix, my hobbies, etc. Which can sometimes lead onto a road that goes nowhere. Then eventually I recharge all my devices and cross the cassum of my mind into the right hemisphere of my brian which is the nightly portion of my routine. I spend sometime in the hills of solitude where I plan out my week, reflect on life and school. Floating down my river of consciousness I pass through the Cliffs of Notes where I do late night homework. On most nights my last stop is the Land of billowing pillows, which overall includes me getting ready for bed. Other nights I visit the land of landlines before ending my day, often calling friends to catch up and for company before I fall asleep and start the process again.