Worcester Quaranzine - Vol 1

This started with a history assignment.

Not one of mine, one that was given to one of the s tudents I work with. It was par t of the “enrichment” activities sent home so that s tudents had something to work on while schools, after closing due to the COVID-19 situation, scrambled to get online/ dis tance learning in place.

The rationale for this journaling assignment went as follows: “This may be the mos t significant his torical event of your lifetime which may have implications beyond public health.

At some point, there will be books written and documentaries made about this event and the authors and writers will have need of primary sources in order to piece together the events of this pandemic.

You have the oppor tunity to give those future his torians the documents and in formation they need by chronicling what you observe in your home, community, the country and the world by applying the tools and thinking skills of a his torian.”

At firs t my s tudent wasn’t all that keen on the prospect of logging his life. “It’s kind of boring. I jus t sit in my house and do s tuff with my family- or do school s tuff. We don’t go anywhere because… well, we can’t.”

“That, my friend,” I said, “is exactly the point. You have a cer tain perspective, or narrative of your life during this quarantine. That narrative is INCREDIBLY different than that of folks living in other places and in other circums tances. Jus t think- if people took the time to chronicle their lives during this time, imagine the primary source in fo that would be available to future versions of you.”

The more we talked about it and dug into it, the more I realized that it wasn’t jus t high school s tudents that have the

oppor tunity/responsibility to document the day-to-day thoughts and happenings of folks affected by this pandemic.

I couldn’t let go of the idea that so many of us share our thoughts and ideas on various social medias, conversations, messages, etc., but not many of these will be accessible to future s tudents, his torians, descendents, and so on.

I tossed those thoughts and the idea of preserving thoughts, ideas, ar t, and writing during the time of Corona to Travis Duda (graphic designer, ar tis t, co-hos t of the SeltzerTime podcas t, and my co-teacher for the Worces ter Youth Press Project,), and we decided to team up to bring about the “Quaranzine: Worces ter 2020” collection.

Sooooo…. here it is. The firs t issue. Please consider contributing to the nex t one.

With much love and handwashingJess Cu r tin

“Tr y to remember this. W h a tever you m ight be feelin g abou t a l l of this r ight now is va lid . Do not let a nyone m ake you feel like it isn’t. For mos t of us it is absolu tely u npre cedented wh a t we a re goin g th rou gh . You h ave ever y r ight to feel the my r ia d of emotion s you a re feelin g abou t ou r s itu a tion .”

- Gabe Rol lin s

by Mia Sa n g u inet ti

Playing Covid 19 Dodge Ball

by Tra cey W hitney My name is Tracey. Life before Covid -19 Quarantine was very busy: working a full-time job in the insu rance indus try, a fter work volunteering in ou r community (a great sou rce of joy), Dress for Success Worces ter, Advisory Commit tee on the Status of Women, and POW! WOW! Worces ter. This pas t winter I got involved in Hockey for the firs t time with the Railers Boos ter Club, which helped me shake the winter blues.

Hones tly, things were so busy in Febr uary and March, I was living on a s tream of coffee and keeping my Day Plan ner at the ready. I remember thinking about how I jus t needed a break. A long weekend away was more of what I had in mind .

Every thing came to a sketching halt on March 13th.

We were sent home to work remotely, and as I packed up my desk my mind was heavy. In hones ty, I was scared! I’m immune suppressed . I know this vir us could possibly end my life - it jus t didn’t feel real. It’s been one roller coas ter ride of anx iety, laughter, kindness, sadness, gratitude, and waking up sobbing uncontrollably not knowing why. I even adopted a pet rock named Bullwinkle to cheer me up. Never in my lifetime did I think I’d ever ex perience this. I find myself feeling homesick for my old life.

I’ve watched ou r community come out for each other- social dis tancing 6ft apar t, yet remaining close always in the hear t.

My life now du ring Quarantine is a lot less hectic.

I am grateful to s till be working. Usually my day will s tar t out like any other around 630 am . I like to ease myself into the day by lis tening to 80s Brit pop with a side of riot girl punk. I keep the news at the s tay in formed level ins tead of at the overwhelmed level. When I do go outside, I put on my

mask and gloves then lis ten for noises of other tenants in my building. Ensu ring the hallway is clear of people, I make the r un out the door. It feels like playing Covid-19 dodge ball, r un ning from the invisible enemy jus t to take a brisk power walk around my neighborhood . When I come home, I remove my mask, gloves, change shoes, and wash my hands. This is somehow becoming normal.

Even groceries are interes ting to say the leas t. I’ve been ordering groceries from Ins tacar t, and when I receive them it’s a new production . The Ins tacar t person leaves them at my front door. I wave to her out the window wearing masks and gloves. Then I get to work bringing the packa ges ups tairs and begin sor ting them . Never thought I’d wash cans of green beans with a Clorox wipe.

Zoom has been a godsend to con nect with people. My hear t s till aches for a hug, to be hones t. Check in on you r friends.

Even the lit tles t ges tu re means every thing. I’ve fought th rough some very scary things in my life, and I will say this: you are s tronger than you think. You’ll find the s treng th to fight this bat tle. I mou rn those who have passed, and pray for those on the frontlines every day. We will all be together a gain, s tanding side by side. I’m already shopping for the brightes t, mos t cheer ful lips tick to celebrate ou r liberation from these masks.

by Gra ce Sa r s field

by Mia Sa n g u inet ti

I think one of the things that can help right now is to remember kindness. What keeps coming into my head is the old ada ge, if you don’t have something nice to say, say nothing at all. Try not to impose and let people live their lives.

I s aw a n a r ticle abou t mora l exh aus tion re cently. How r ight now wh a t used to be the s imples t of de cis ion s feel like li fe a nd de a th de cis ion s. Ca n we a s a p eople a fford to think like th a t? I work in tra n s p or ta tion .

It is a com mon thou ght in tra n s p or ta tion th a t you go the le a s t amou nt of m i les a s you p oss ibly ca n . Less m i les me a n s less time th a t you ca n p oss ibly h ave a n a ccident. Less opp or tu n ity to be in the w ron g pla ce a t the w ron g time. Is this how we a re liv in g ou r lives now? As lit tle intera ction a s p oss ible?

I wa s in the g ro cer y s tore yes terd ay a nd mu ltiple times I picked up the w ron g thin g a nd pu t it ba ck a nd I jus t im med ia tely s ta r ted be a tin g mysel f up abou t it.

So this br in gs me ba ck to my or ig in a l p oint.

Try to be as kind as possible and try not to impose.

What I mean is try not to impose you r will. Try not to give any un reques ted advice. A mantra of mine has become “we are all doing the bes t we can,� and I think we tr uly are. Many of us are having a hard enough time trying to sor t th rough what daily life means right now without having to sor t out the will of others and their in f luence. Try to think about those few angry keys trokes and what kind of good is being sent out into the world from them . Be kind and do not impose.

Be kind a nd do not imp ose.

Be kind a nd do not imp ose.

Gabe Rol lin s Apr i l 12, 2020

CORONA CONFINEMENT DIARY WEEK ONE

by Kel ly Momber ger So I completed one full week of working at home and social isolation. Work was about as disastrous as I had expected.

Everybody seemed to buy into the governor’s original pronouncement that everything was fine, or at least believed we would have more time. So when the announcement came last weekend that offices were closing, very few people were prepared.

As a newly-minted supervisor I got pulled into countless meetings discussing what we were going to do, which would immediately change as soon as we hung up. Calls that kept coming through Saturday and even this morning (slept through that one, sorry/not sorry).

My coworkers were rockstars and we all pitched in to develop collaborative work tools out of thin air, learning new software and teaching it to each other without ever being in the same room. I can only hope that this week we will settle into some semblance of normalcy where we can actually do our work instead of dealing with how we were going to do our work.

Being home hasn’t been too bad. I am very lucky that I live with people that I like and love. I try and imagine what it would be like if I were still living alone and it must be so hard. Check in on your people. I love my house and neighborhood. We aren’t crowded. We have plenty of food and toilet paper. It has been very weird, though, having us all in the house all day. That never happened before except maybe on Sundays. Occasionally we all get a little testy and I’m sure will want to murder each other more than once as the weeks progress, but we are very fortunate.

It’s very hard to wrap my head around the entirety of the situation.

I have been watching this for months, and initially I had just hoped it would go the way of SARS and not be deadly here. But that was wishful thinking. The lack of testing is the most horrible part of this situation. We have no idea of the true magnitude of the spread right now, we just know it’s bad and about to get so much worse.

And yet so many people seem so oblivious, or willfully refuse to take precautions. My health is a problem. I recently found out I have an impaired immune system plus I have a diagnosed heart condition and mild asthma. I could be one of those people who get left to die when there aren’t enough ventilators. I am taking social distancing VERY seriously. I also have a horrible rash on my hands from all the washing that I fear will never go away (this is not an indication of compulsive overwashing, I just have very sensitive skin). Otherwise, whatever weird illness that I had been suffering from last week seems to have worked its way out and I’m feeling fine now Could it have been mild Covid? Possibly. But I had no cough or fever and no chance in hell of getting tested so I stayed home and I’m taking the conservitive route of assuming it wasn’t and therefore I will continue to take all necessary precautions.

The only times I left the house since my last day of work were to work at the brewery and to do what I hope was our last grocery trip. I was OK with working at the brewery initially being that it’s impossible to be crowded and since it’s only open once a week no contagion could carry over (I’m not OK with the grocery at all and don’t plan to return) But now I’m not even really OK with the brewery. We implemented curbside pickup this week and that seemed to work well. I actually would like to keep pre-ordering as an option even when this is all over. I liked not having to take money but I miss talking to the customers. But we need to keep making money however we can being that more than half of the brewery’s wholesale customers are currently closed. Knowing so many people in the service industry, it’s heartbreaking to see how they’re struggling. At least our customers are diversified enough that the few grocery stores we have for clients will stay open, and right now the liquor stores are still doing well.

I predict that these updates will get more depressing from here, but keep plugging along everyone. Make social distance your number one priority to the absolute extent possible. Check in with your friends and family. Try to maintain a positive attitude even while you’re yelling at your relatives to stay the f*ck home. And as always, wash your damn hands.