Oral History One

Oral history of a 21 year old student at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Oral history of a 21 year old student at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Stephanie Czeslowski

12/1/2020

English

Stehphanie Czeslowski

21 year old student at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Zoom

Could you just say a little bit about yourself, like where you went to school and what your major was.

So I went to school at Temple University in Philadelphia and I had a double major in advertising with a concentration in art direction and visual studies.

Coronavirus was declared a pandemic March 11th so do you remember much about the days around that?

Yeah I do because on Monday [March 9th] I told my night class, “Say goodbye now because in two days we won't be in school.” And they called me crazy and then class was canceled for the indefinite future.

So with classes being canceled and moved on line did you stay in philadelphia or did you go home?

Yeah I had an apartment there so I stayed. An off campus apartment.

So what was it like adjusting to online classes?

I had taken online classes before and one of them was actually already on line. So I was pretty used to that and because of my majors a lot of the work I did was digital anyways. So the submission process is pretty much the same. But I did see a lot of other art students struggling because they didn't have access to the studios anymore.

What were you feeling towards going online? How did that make you feel?

I was pretty excited. I had an 8am twice a week that I was just not going to make it to anymore. Like I just knew that, that wasn’t going to last. But then it was much easier to just open my laptop and get online from my bed.

So obviously not missing class itself what did you miss about suddenly having to go to school online and having to stay at home?

Definitely like the socialization part. Like not seeing anybody a lot of people went home after it hit. That's probably it, the social part.

During the early days of the pandemic were you afraid of the Coronavirus? Did you think that it was gonna be a big thing?

Well, two years ago I had this class and they asked everybody what your biggest fear was. What are you afraid of? Weirdly like everyone said like school shootings when we were in college and I was like, “What you really should be afraid of is a pandemic. Because that's the inevitable in our lifetime.” So I wasn’t scared. Also as you probably know my mom raised me as a little germaphobe so I was already wiping down and hand sanitizing and doing all of those things and not touching things in public.

When school finished and you moved back home what was that like?

Definitely feels weird. It feels like I’m back in high school except now I have a job and no high school. But I have dreams that I have to go to school and like I don't have any dreams about college but I have a ton about high school. But like if I had to go to highschool now like I go to school in the dream and they're like everybody wear your mask. But obviously that didn't happen when we were in school. So it feels like regression.

What was it like kind of transiting from being in college, not even finishing your senior year in person, to then going out into the “real world” and getting a job?

So I found a job listing in April online and we just did all the interviews and stuff over the phone. And a lot of people on their design team was already remote so they were already pretty used to that sort of work flow. It does feel a little weird not to have been working there now pretty much six months and not having met them is a little odd. But I like working from home so it's working for me.

I watched pretty much from beginning to end 90 day fiance and all the spin offs during the first few months of the pandemic.

So would you say tv was your coping mechanism/ your destresser during this whole thing?

Yeah. That and smoking a ton of weed. Like aton. Like a stupid amount. Like awake to asleep. Right before the Coronavirus I went to my dealer and he had a deal on shake, just the leftover, and I bought a quarter pound for like half price. So for like the enrite pandemic I had it made. I didn't even have to go see him. It lasted for four months. Actually really for five, until I moved out.

So living in an apartment did you have roommates?

I had one roommate and she didn't come out of her room until 7pm every single night.

That answers that question.

To watch 90 day fiance. Which she had already watched most of. But she wanted to watch it with somebody else. We definitely watched a lot of other tv too. We watched that whole Tiger King thing when it first came out. I said, “Listen this is gonna be in all the memes so we better watch it now.”

Would you say that your relationship with your roommate changed at all through the pandemic?

It definitely got better because last year she didn't invite me to her birthday party so I hadn't spoken to her from May of last year, and that entire summer, and then I went to study abroad so I wasn't even living with either. And when I came back I wasn't really talking to her so we got pretty close again after that because we were forced to I guess. Otherwise I would have held out to the end of the year.

Being the semi-germaphobe that you are, did you find it difficult to go to the store and get what you needed during the pandemic?

I haven't been to a grocery store since that Monday when I said everyone it's gonna close. Because I wanted to make tacos and then I had only been to CVS from then on since March.

So did you do all your grocery shopping at CVS?

I got this thing called Hungryroot that delivered food once a week and cooked from that. But I had started that like right before the pandemic. Then also Ubereats, alot. Especially in Philly cause it's like a city it's not like being here where it's like three things onUbereats it's like a whole ton of stuff.

So was your boyfriend still at Temple when this happened?

No he had moved to, he had gotten a job in December and moved to Jersey City and got an apartment.

Were you able to see him at all during the Pandemic?

Yeah I would just get picked up from Temple. And now my home is in [New] Jersey so I would just drive up to Jersey City and just stay longer like a weekend or something. And just do class from there.

One of my classes turned into a therapy session because every single day it was how's the pandemic making you feel? And then I had to listen to like five people sob stories about how depressed they were. It's like we're all depressed Karen. Like it was like can we talk about something else? I'm thinking about it every waking moment anyways can we just do something else?

I sphere anything else you wanted to talk about?

The thing that pisses me off most about this whole thing is that everyone goes Fauci said not to wear a mask in the beginning and that's only half the statement. He said, “Please don't buy the masks. Don't panic buy the masks because the t healthcare workers need them.” Okay. he never said it wasn't effective or it wouldn't be helpful but the entire country was looked down upon nobody needed the damn mask. We were out of toilet paper. If he had said go buy a mask please the hospitals would have been in ruins.

A few days before campus closed I did see a girl wearing a mask though and I was like that seems like a little bit much. And I was like but maybe she's onto something here.

12 minutes