The Positive Side Effects of a Pandemic

Three SCAD students share their perspectives on what made the past year a blessing in disguise.

Written by Julia Gralki, Photo Direction by Niina Amanuma

Valentina Garcia Ruiz

“I was supposed to go to Lacoste in March,” said Valentina Garcia Ruiz, a third-year student pursuing a B.F.A. in industrial design. But instead of catching a flight to France, she boarded a plane to Bogota, Colombia — her hometown. “And when I was back home, we got quarantined for about five months.” Although being stuck at home with her family was the flip-side situation of what she had planned, quarantine was also a good time to rediscover herself. “I was thinking more about what I was doing and how I was approaching life, like the impact I have and what my career goals are.”

The pandemic has shown that we can’t continue like we did before. We can’t go back to the normal we used to know. “Normal has to change,” Valentina said. “It’s been a great damage to our planet and in some ways also to ourselves.”

During lockdown, when the world came to a halt, she started educating herself about how she can have a more positive impact on the environment. While listening to podcasts about the climate crisis, veganism and sustainable design, said she realized that our personal choices shape the world around us.

“Sometimes we think that what we do is not relevant but when people ask you why you are doing this and you know what you’re doing, then it has a greater impact,” she said. That’s why she started replacing animal products with plant-based alternatives and includes more sustainability in her designs now.

When quarantine lifted, she decided to go to the United States to stay with her uncle, an industrial designer. “I thought it would be more convenient for my career because I have more resources here than at home,” she said.

For her, 2020 ended with an outlook towards an industrial design internship at a car company in Shanghai. “I’ve never been to Asia but I’m excited to get to know another part of the world,” she said.

Talia Sullivan

“In March, schools shut down and A-Levels got canceled,” said Talia Sullivan, an incoming first-year student from England. She was supposed to run for SCAD’s crosscountry team in fall 2020, but now she’s starting her studies during winter quarter 2021. “So, I couldn’t do my A-Levels. I worked quite hard from September to January and I was putting in a lot of work for these exams. When they said they were canceled, I almost felt a bit cheated.”

During the lockdown, I kind of got into cycling. It really was helpful, and it made me happy.

When school suddenly ended and studying didn’t take up all her time anymore, she said she found herself a little hopeless. “I didn’t really know what to do with myself,” she said. As she was also injured from running for a while, she had to find another way to keep herself active. “Then, during the lockdown, I kind of got into cycling,” Talia said. She didn’t have a good bike, so she started using her friend’s bike. And she discovered that she really likes cycling. “It really was helpful, and it made me happy.”

But cycling was not the only thing Talia discovered during quarantine. “I started my art career,” she said. The extra time in lockdown gave her a chance to work more on her paintings.

When other people started seeing her work on Instagram, she started doing commissions. “I had never really sold many commissions before lockdown, but I got really, really into it over quarantine.”

In summer, when the lockdown was lifted, she also got both of her two jobs back. Juggling work and her commissions, she has only been working and painting since July. The restrictions imposed by the government were loosened throughout the summer, but with the second wave going through Europe, the United Kingdom went back into lockdown. “Where we are in England, in the middle of nowhere, the whole thing hasn’t really been affecting us. So, the second wave doesn’t feel as bad,” she said.

The year 2020 also taught her a lot about friendship. At the end of high school, when you’re not surrounded by the same people every day, true friendship is revealed. “I’ve learned who my real friends are, and it sounds quite bad, but I know who I’m gonna stay friends with for a lot of my life,” Talia said. She said the lockdown also made her realize that she wants to be more independent from her family, so she is glad to be starting college now.

Mason Sauikie

“This year I came out as trans,” said Mason Sauikie, a second-year student earning a B.F.A. in sequential art. “For the longest time, I was really, really scared to come out as transgender. For years, I identified as something else.”

It made me realize that I shouldn’t really care about what anybody thinks as long as I’m happy.

He said it was the pandemic that inspired him to finally be who he really is. While friends were losing family members and the pandemic changed the world so quickly, Mason also changed. “I just realized that life is too short to not live as myself. If [the pandemic] didn’t happen, I probably would never have come out.”

In New Jersey, where Mason is from, the lockdown at the beginning of 2020 was especially tough. Masks, curfew and long lines for groceries and gas were only some of the changes that COVID-19 brought into daily life.

“To be honest, I did downplay this virus in the beginning,” Mason said. “Until I saw how many people were passing away in my town.”

The pandemic makes us aware of how short life can be. And in realizing our mortality, we realize that life is precious and there is no time to live as someone else. “It made me realize that I shouldn’t really care about what anybody thinks as long as I’m happy,” Mason said.

The process from deciding to come out to changing his name and starting gender therapy was not a short one. But with his best friend by his side, he said he gathered enough confidence to come out to the rest of his friends, his family and the SCAD Cross Country team that Mason is a part of.

Competing in cross country for SCAD is also the reason Mason can’t do any physical transitioning until after college. “Right now, I’m just getting everyone to call me Mason, wearing a binder, wearing trans tape and going to groups that help me with the voice change. That’s small things but they’re big steps in retrospect,” Mason said.

Due to the pandemic, the team’s spring and fall season were canceled. Later in the year, the team’s coach resigned, and both fall and winter quarter didn’t resume on-ground. But despite all this unfortunate news, there were also positives to the situation.

Without a strict training schedule, there was more time to focus on work and doing well in school. “I was finding new ways to express myself in my work,” Mason said. As a sequential art student, he’s dedicated to bringing more diversity into the world of comics. “We’re so hooked up on the Golden ages of comics where it’s predominantly white, male superheroes. I want to get away from that and I want to have more people from the LGBT community in comics and more diversity in race,” he said.

For Mason, being back in Savannah in the fall was one of the best things that happened in 2020 because he was surrounded by people he could relate to. “But other than that,” he said, “the best thing that happened was probably coming out and bettering my art.”