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The Stories

C.P., a teen in Gisborne, New Zealand

“My mother works in the hospital and my father worked within the grocery store so we were always cautious about the way we did things. We talked at dinner about covid and all the crazy things it had people doing. We laughed about people wearing plastic bags or Stormtrooper masks (Starwars) when they went grocery shopping…The thought of covid was constantly on my mind, a stressor that was inescapable.”

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F.J., 19, a student in San Jose, CA

“It’s hard to believe I’m only 19 and this has only been 5 months into quarantine. If I was as old as I feel, I’d be a dry, bony fossil.
I don’t mean to discourage you, dear reader, because there have been silver linings in this shitty cloud.”

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A. A., 23, a student in Tracy, CA

“I hope that my father, an older man who has been transferred from a cooking shift at Stanford University to janitorial duties, comes home safe and healthy every day. I hope that my mother, who works at my high school with underserved, often non-English speaking, communities finds reprieve from the anxiety expressed by all of the students and their families about what awaits them. I hope that my partner, who lives in an entirely different country in one of the busiest cities in Latin America, can continue to work from home…”

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E.A., 19, a student in Sun City, CA

“…This pandemic has ripped apart the façade of what seemed to be a good economy; in reality, this “good economy” was built upon the people who are now disproportionately dying and with no healthcare. I beg my fellow Americans to look at this inequality sternly; why do we have such contempt when we call it out when in reality we’ve pretending like it didn’t exist at all. I have grown so increasingly frustrated to see people think about themselves when I see people that remind me of my father and sisters die on the news for having to work…”

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L.F., 56, a manager in Rockville, MD

“I enjoyed so many operas, ballets I had no time or opportunity to watch. […] I feel we had to co-exist with the coronavirus. I am preparing the new normal for the coming days.”

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Y., 21, a student in Nanjing, China

“抑郁症复发了,因为在家隔离不与人接触。[…] 还得保持学习,却没办法集中精力,压力很大。[…] 但昨天开始吃药调整了,希望一切都好起来。”

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T.P., 23, a product manager in Menlo Park, CA

“疫情在家约了小伙伴每天锻炼,做超累的HIIT,梦想着能暴瘦15斤,然而现实总是残酷的,可能是太能吃了,到现在还没有完成梦想的1/5 […] 种花算是我少有的户外“运动”,可以放空大脑,好好放松,不过令人崩溃的是,我种的花一个都没发芽,希望房东不要打我。隔离期间的生活就和流水账一样,其实我有点喜欢这样的生活,但还是希望疫情早点结束啦。”

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Life in Quarantine: Witnessing Global Pandemic is an initiative sponsored by the Poetic Media Lab and the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis at Stanford University.

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