1 20 1 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/51391/archive/files/ffbb6cb124d86612cdfe63ddc963e44e.pdf?Expires=1774483200&Signature=uLk8%7E4PCFjSiSimZTM9C2PgSbADvG-dwk4OOBXQbolr0qvuO3CqaBiE3O2WS%7ErJec%7E6N4-%7Epmwr5ui3xKnUu861gZ4-PafRbC1oI-UhHy6d4XSMikaEeC0SpWteycCcxYYaY3J7XN2FBrRrTust2A6drgTgwTwJoqh40qSlWMgMDd5LACgLBGOTSqBAuVUyA98N1a4y%7EcKvIQajyMght5sMgsV8zkM0UDb%7EMqeGYylj5egeGOjgAv%7EBbIs5tXJ8ateeW81g77%7Ejy9AhiRLOo%7EZH3l2yvPGX8uhdsAoejNEQ6RdUwkf66yhFMcLykifXL1kkrhSKCd3kB1dReoej05Q__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM ffac20940e417eb56fff20b02f3efbf9 PDF Text Text “Stay Home, Stay Safe” Molly Coates HNRS 192 May 2021 “Save a life, wear a seatbelt”, “A text can wait”, “Lane Closed →”, “Testing, Testing”. Often in our lives, we drive past electric road signs. Driving down the highway can often be seemingly mindless, yet a shining bright sign has the ability to entertain us, even if it is for a fleeting moment. Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, I found myself driving down I-91 South to my dad’s house. The sign that I passed that day said: “Stay Home, Stay Safe”. March of 2020 found me blissfully ignorant halfway around the world. Fresh off my landing at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand it was only a matter of time before everything flipped upside down yet again. As emails warning of a spreading infectious disease filled my Springfield College email, the Kiwi lifestyle remained “normal”. Numbers abroad �grew, and it was not long after that we heard of the evacuation of Springfield College students being evacuated from European nations such as Italy and Spain. Next came the seizure of various study-abroad programs and friends and flatmates would vanish within a day's time. Eventually, the national 48-hour Emergency Effect solidified the need for action. The seemingly simple road sign of “Stay Home, Stay Safe” tore my conscious in two directions over nine thousand miles of distance. I would end up leaving New Zealand to return home. I would be accompanied by my brother who had been evacuated from his position in the Peace Corps to return home to Norwich, Vermont. Gradually, we both settled into the “new normal” of the COVID-19 pandemic. Days of nothingness would fly by. The same activities, wake up, walk the dog, breakfast, and clean your room for the fourth time that week. Occasionally, I may have picked up a book or completed a puzzle. Yet it was not the abrupt stop of daily life and the consequential monotony that characterized the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the moment of shock and absurdity could occur at the simplest of moments. While enjoying your brainless TV or movie programming you may ask yourself, for just an instant: “Why aren’t they wearing masks?” In the Fall of 2020, I decided not to stay home. Going against the advice of the shining road sign I packed up my belongings and traveled back to Springfield College. As the year progressed I signed up for the course HNRS 192-26 World Diseases. Gradually the brain fog of the past year began to lift. Time allowed a logical sequence of events to explain what happened to the world. Yet, as a human race, we cannot simply wait for the recap of events if we hope to survive. While I enjoy the study of the past, I must acknowledge that there will be no future unless we look forward. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted innumerable divisions and disparities in our national and global society. If further collaboration and communication are not demanded, this will not be the only pandemic in my lifetime. Let us all hope that we never “return to normalcy” because if we do, we are merely doomed to fail yet again. Now is the time to act. We may not know what tomorrow will bring, but repeating history is no longer an option. *The photo was taken by Chris Evans at the Springfield College Testing Center, May 2021. � 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 HNRS 192: Infectious Disease in the 21st Century Subject The topic of the resource Infectious disease and Health Description An account of the resource An honors colloquium class that focused on infectious disease in general and COVID-19 specifically. Sections of the class were held in both the Fall of 2020 and Spring of 2021. 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 "Stay Home, Stay Safe" Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Molly Coates Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource May 11, 2021 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant I submitted this story for numerous reasons. Firstly, it was my final for my World Disease course. Secondly, as a History major, I believe in the importance of records. For any future scholars looking to understand the world as it was in 2020, I hope this was somewhat beneficial! Lastly, I submitted this story because through understanding others' experiences, we as a society can grow. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Molly Coates Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Image/PDF Text/PDF Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context hrns192-class-005