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https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/25fe20afb99a203d1c025c4d85962bc0.pdf
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April 11, 2020
I am currently on Day 30 of quarantining at home and there are still at least 19 days to go. I
think it is likely Governor Whitmer’s “Stay Home Stay Safe” shelter in place order will get
extended. The order was originally signed on March 23 and was meant to last through April 13,
and is now lasting through April 30. Nearly every day over the last month has been an
emotional rollercoaster, fluctuating sometimes hourly between feelings of helplessness,
depression, gratitude, peace, and hopefulness. Some days have been harder than others, and I
truly have to take everything day by day. As of April 3, the CDC recommends that everyone
wear masks in public now, not just those that are ill, and it’s unsettling to walk around grocery
stores seeing everyone’s face covered. I miss being around people and feeling connected.
Taking daily walks and connecting with friends over FaceTime has been helpful. I’m staying in
Grand Rapids away from my family for the shelter in place. Originally, I’m from Wayne County
which is currently experiencing one of the worst outbreaks of Covid-19 in the United States. My
mom works in a hospital and my dad works with prisoners, so we decided it would be safer for
me to stay in Grand Rapids to limit exposure. It’s been hard to be away from my family, and I
can’t help but worry about them, but we are all being cautious and staying safe as best we can.
I am an occupational therapy student in my second semester of graduate school, and just
finished up my fourth week of online classes. It’s taken me a lot of time to process my thoughts
and feelings amid everything that’s going on, but I feel like I can articulate it better now. The
first two weeks of this were just surreal and felt like I was living in a dystopian fever dream, but
I’m finally settling in to a new “normal.” First and foremost, my faculty have gone above and
beyond to make the transition to online learning as easy as it can be, and their unwavering
dedication to students remains truer than ever. They check in often with emails and video
messages, and they have all made themselves available to talk over a myriad of platforms. They
are keeping us on track with our content by posting presentations and online modules though I
haven’t had any synchronous lectures yet. They are also doing “wellness checks” and making
sure we are all hanging in there mentally. It is so evident they love and care for us as people
first and students second, and I am so grateful to go to a school with such dedicated faculty.
The other students in my cohort and I compiled a video to say hi, share our thanks, and just let
our faculty see our faces. It was a fun project to put together and reminded me that while we
are all physically apart, the sense of family and community remains. My cohort and my faculty
truly feel like family to me, and I miss seeing them in class every day. I am a huge extrovert, so
it’s been really tough emotionally and mentally to be away from everyone. However, on March
31, five other girls from my program and I chalked messages of encouragement (while
maintaining social distancing and staying 6 feet apart) on the Medical Mile for our healthcare
workers and it was very moving to see them smiling waving at us from within the hospital and
know that our little act of kindness mattered. I am constantly being reminded that there is still
good coming from this, and you don’t have to know how to sew face masks or make face
shields in order to do your part. Here are some photos of the messages we shared:
��Without invalidating the bright spots that give me bursts of hope, the transition to online
learning has been uncomfortable and disorienting. It’s so hard to be pulled out of our normal
class routine when so much of our learning is clinical and hands on through lab and fieldwork
experiences. I was in a fieldwork placement working with children aged 0-3 that was canceled.
My second rotation that was set to take place in the summer has already been canceled and
will be replaced with online simulations. Our professors have adapted labs to be done online at
home, but it does not have the same effect as being in class. Additionally, with spring semester
being online and summer semester still up in the air, I calculated that up to 33% of my master’s
degree might be completed online. Not exactly the educational experience I had envisioned,
but I have no choice but to go with it and trust that my incredible faculty will ensure I receive
the high-quality education characteristic of Grand Valley. As sad as I am to be out of school for
2-3 months, at the end of March GVSU closed the CHS building to accommodate potential
patient overflow from Spectrum Health, our lab departments donated 90,000 gloves to local
hospitals, and our engineering college is currently producing face masks to help the PPE
shortage. As always, I am still proud to be a Laker.
Unsurprisingly, there have been some technical difficulties and blunders during this transition
that have been a test of flexibility and adaptability. On April 6, my research team (myself and 3
other students) defended the proposal for our master’s project to our committee members via
Zoom meeting. For attire, this meant a blazer on top and my pajama pants on the bottom!
When we finished defending our presentation, the committee instructed us to leave the
meeting so they could discuss our proposal and log back on in 10 minutes. I logged back onto
the meeting as they were mid-deliberation and I couldn’t help but start laughing! We were all
laughing, and it was definitely some comedic relief. The joys of relying on technology for
everything these days. In case anyone is wondering, we passed the defense and get to proceed
with our research! Additionally, I have been very fortunate in that I have been able to keep
working during this shutdown. I work for the University Libraries as a Research Consultant, and
our peer learning services have gone entirely online. It’s been a trial and error process, but I
think it’s going well, and I feel grateful to still have a source of income. I used to sit at a table
and work side by side with students to help them find research or talk about sources, and now I
do it over Google Meet! A student shares their screen with me over the meeting, and I talk
them through using Library Databases, developing search terms, etc. It’s been an interesting
learning curve, but a very valuable experience and I’m glad we are able to continue supporting
students as we wrap up the semester. Plus, it is nice to be able to stay connected with my boss
and coworkers!
Personally, I have struggled to find a structured routine at home that allows me to get things
done at home, and it’s been very challenging to stay focused. It has been mostly challenging to
compartmentalize and complete assignments knowing that thousands of people are dying and
that our healthcare workers on the frontlines don’t have adequate protective equipment. I
frequently get distracted when I’m working as I think about what the world will be like after this
and worry about all the things in the future that will be permanently altered, both in my
personal life and on a broader scale (national and global). I read an article about how we’re all
�essentially going through the grieving process and it is so true. We’re grieving the loss of our
routines, events being cancelled, the people we are losing to the virus, the economy, the state
of the world in general. I try not to think about how I am being affected personally when it’s so
much worse for so many people, but it’s hard not to be upset and anxious and distracted when
the long-term prognosis for this is grim and sobering. It is all very overwhelming to think about
while also trying to finish the semester.
To wrap this up on a more positive note, over the last month I have seen some of the best of
humanity. Yes, some people are hoarding toilet paper and being incredibly selfish, but that is all
being outweighed by more people stepping up to be there for each other. Local restaurants
have been ensuring children still get fed while school is cancelled for the year, automotive
factories have halted production to make ventilators, people are sewing facemasks at home to
donate to healthcare workers, and so much more. In order to help any way I can, I donated
blood this last Tuesday (April 7) and the nurses said they’ve had to turn people away because
all their appointments were full. These are wild, unprecedented times, but I am seeing that
when the whole world has stopped, all that’s left is the people. We are all alone together, and
we will get through it together. This is a quote I came across a few weeks ago as everything
began shutting down that I’ve found helpful and comforting:
“Conversations will not be cancelled. Relationships will not be cancelled. Love will not
be cancelled. Songs will not be cancelled. Reading will not be cancelled. Self-care will
not be cancelled. Hope will not be cancelled.”
It is an important reminder that we will get to the other side of this together, and I am hopeful
that we will be better for it.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
COVID-19 Journals
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Description
An account of the resource
This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled.
The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project
Subject
The topic of the resource
Epidemics
Grand Valley State University
College students
Personal narratives
COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The First 30 Days
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lowengruber, Natalie
Description
An account of the resource
Journal of GVSU student Natalie Lowengruber's experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-04-11
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Epidemics
Grand Valley State University
College students
Personal narratives
COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
COVID-19_2020-04-11_LoewengruberNatalie
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
eng