cw/tw: I will be talking about the elephant in the room, you know, the thing that has ruined our lives, caused panic and cancelled our schools. . . . c*vid-19.
Needless to say, we have all been affected in an incredibly wide variety of ways from this random, pesky, and nefarious virus- some of us have gotten it, some of us haven't; some of us have lost family and friends, some haven't; some have been careful, some have not. You could go on all day, but I have come to realize that people are handling it on a multi-level spectrum. There's absolutely no getting around it. You can have virtually zero human contact and never leave your house and find a way to contract it, and some can go to bars every day and never get it.
I lived in Italy from January through March of 2020 - in the heat of it all , I was in Milan for fashion week which ended up being one of the biggest hubs of the early virus, I traveled around during march and took a full flight back to Chicago, guess I got lucky. Did I mention I was with my diabetic and big time marijuana-loving father? In Amsterdam? That may be too much for one post..
Personally, I feel as though I have been largely stripped of my education in these times- losing access to my studios and taking studio art classes online where the TA says "hmm I don't know, maybe go to the trash rooms of your dorms/apartments and look for cardboard and make something out of that?"
I feel like my hundreds of thousands of dollars spent towards a visual arts degree is being thrown down the toilet and really turning my college experience into a marathon to get a sheet of paper rather then a time spent learning about the craft that I hope to pursue in life.
I can't predict the future, but I am no longer optimistic. I don't care how "close" we are, I will only believe it when I see it. One more semester, lets hope for the love of god that it's a good one.