Dublin Core
Title
Anthony Plaag’s Covid-19 First Days
Subject
Interview about the first days of the pandemic with Anthony Plaag
Description
Interview about the first days of the pandemic with Anthony Plaag
Creator
Stephanie Czeslowski
Date
March 10-12, 2020
Contributor
Anthony Plaag
Language
English
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
I interviewed Anthony Plaag via zoom on September 29th. Anthony was 21 at the time that Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic. He was in his final semester of his undergrad at Stevenson University in the Public History program. He is a native of New Jersey though at the time he was living at school in Maryland.
Antony Plaag was a senior at Stevenson University when Coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. On March 10th 2020, Stevenson University in Owings Mills, Maryland joined a growing list of at least 135 Universities to close due to growing Coronavirus concerns. The first known Coronavirus related death in the United States came on the same day. Plaag remembers that at the time he had no real concern about the Coronavirus. He thought it would be a situation like the Ebola outbreak of 2014. It was something that was predicted to be a huge ongoing epidemic that was nowhere near as bad as predicted in the United States. He thought that we would return to school after Spring Break in two weeks. Stevenson had not told students before cancelling class for the week that they would not be returning to school after Spring Break. Everyone left assuming that they would be back on campus in two weeks. This left many students without access to their dorm rooms until June.
When it was decided on March 20th 2020 that classes would resume online instead of in person, the reality of Coronavirus seemed to set in for me. Millions of students across the United States were facing the same reality that the rest of the 2019-2020 was going to be finished through remote education. Like Plaag, other students struggled to move out of dorms, say goodbye to friends, and come to terms with what a global pandemic could mean. Plaag who was a senior at the time was not ready to be done with college. He was previously a resident advisor and involved in many on campus clubs and activities. The spring 2020 semester was the first semester that Plaag had all to himself after quitting those activities. He was spending time with friends and just enjoying his last semester of college.
Plaag talked about the struggles of moving back home with his parents, three younger siblings and his grandmother. He had lived at school in Maryland for almost four years, and it was an adjustment to have to pick up so suddenly. He went from living with his best friend to living at home unable to see his friends or have much of a social life. Like most students it was difficult for Plaag to go from spending time with friends on such a regular basis to quarantining at home with only his family. He talked about the adjustment of moving back in with his family after not spending much time with them in previous years. It wasn’t that it was a change he was angry with it was just an unexpected one.
He talked about his ability to quarantine with his parents when New Jersey ordered shelter in place on March 21st. Both his parents were able to keep their jobs something Plaag was grateful for. With both his parents working, he was able to stay quarantined and not worry about having to find a job. As things started to tumble into a full scale outbreak in New Jersey he was able to do his part by staying inside, wearing a mask, and social distancing to slow the spread. Since March, Plaag has continued to quarantine and play his part in helping slow the spread of Coronavirus as well as continuing to come to terms with the new world we find ourselves in.
Antony Plaag was a senior at Stevenson University when Coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. On March 10th 2020, Stevenson University in Owings Mills, Maryland joined a growing list of at least 135 Universities to close due to growing Coronavirus concerns. The first known Coronavirus related death in the United States came on the same day. Plaag remembers that at the time he had no real concern about the Coronavirus. He thought it would be a situation like the Ebola outbreak of 2014. It was something that was predicted to be a huge ongoing epidemic that was nowhere near as bad as predicted in the United States. He thought that we would return to school after Spring Break in two weeks. Stevenson had not told students before cancelling class for the week that they would not be returning to school after Spring Break. Everyone left assuming that they would be back on campus in two weeks. This left many students without access to their dorm rooms until June.
When it was decided on March 20th 2020 that classes would resume online instead of in person, the reality of Coronavirus seemed to set in for me. Millions of students across the United States were facing the same reality that the rest of the 2019-2020 was going to be finished through remote education. Like Plaag, other students struggled to move out of dorms, say goodbye to friends, and come to terms with what a global pandemic could mean. Plaag who was a senior at the time was not ready to be done with college. He was previously a resident advisor and involved in many on campus clubs and activities. The spring 2020 semester was the first semester that Plaag had all to himself after quitting those activities. He was spending time with friends and just enjoying his last semester of college.
Plaag talked about the struggles of moving back home with his parents, three younger siblings and his grandmother. He had lived at school in Maryland for almost four years, and it was an adjustment to have to pick up so suddenly. He went from living with his best friend to living at home unable to see his friends or have much of a social life. Like most students it was difficult for Plaag to go from spending time with friends on such a regular basis to quarantining at home with only his family. He talked about the adjustment of moving back in with his family after not spending much time with them in previous years. It wasn’t that it was a change he was angry with it was just an unexpected one.
He talked about his ability to quarantine with his parents when New Jersey ordered shelter in place on March 21st. Both his parents were able to keep their jobs something Plaag was grateful for. With both his parents working, he was able to stay quarantined and not worry about having to find a job. As things started to tumble into a full scale outbreak in New Jersey he was able to do his part by staying inside, wearing a mask, and social distancing to slow the spread. Since March, Plaag has continued to quarantine and play his part in helping slow the spread of Coronavirus as well as continuing to come to terms with the new world we find ourselves in.
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