From toddlers and teens to Ph.D.s and parenthood, an intimate look into how the most life-changing event of our generation will continue to transform our daily routines and the future.
Monica Ganas
Ph.D., Department of Theater Arts Professor at Azusa Pacific, Actor, Writer, Director.
69 years old.
Kaitlyn: What elements of the world do you think will be forever-changed by COVID-19? After the Spanish Influenza, we eventually went back to ‘normal’ but things definitely shifted.
Ganas: Well, a great deal permanently shifted. I mean that’s another interesting story I heard about the ongoing effects of that [Spanish Influenza] pandemic. When people like Woodrow Wilson got sick, he had been fighting for the League of Nations and gave up. He capitulated to France, who wanted revenge on Germany, and that’s how we got the Treaty of Versailles. Many think that was how we got World War II; you see what I’m saying?
Kaitlyn: Wow, that’s insane.
Ganas: Yeah, these huge global movements resulted indirectly from that pandemic. The everyday world is going to be very interesting. Some days I think it’s going to make us more social, and some days I think it’s going to make us less social. I just hope on the other side there will be levels of resilience, kindness and appreciation that maybe we lack.
Kaitlyn: Do you have any advice for children or young adults going through this right now?
Professor Ganas: You know, I don’t have advice. Right now, all I have are compliments. I think my greatest concern is because you guys have shown so much resilience and so much tenacity, I’m just thinking how do you lean in when you’re so tempted to lean out, for lack of a better word? This is a scriptural mandate and I’m still trying to figure it out. So much of my class is just sitting way back, and again my compliments you showed up. But I think it’s been important to make peace with what’s happening emotionally and to realize that maybe that’s not something you have to apologize for. Maybe that’s a gift that you’re giving to somebody because I think that’s a big reason people are leaning all the way back.
Starla Anderson
M.A., J.D., LL.M., Department of Communication Studies Associate Professor, APU.
51 years old.
Kaitlyn: Are there any scenarios in your life so far that you lived through that mirror the uncertainty we see in 2020?
Anderson: Wow, there was a moment in college, when I was around your age, of uncertainty where I didn’t know if I’d have enough money to finish my college degree. That was a very poignant moment in my memory of ‘I don’t know if I can make this work.’ I remember sitting with a professor just laying it all out and going, ‘I don’t have what it takes to get to the end,’ and God showing up in a huge way and supplying my needs. As far as uncertainty, that’s probably the moment I was most shaken. But I would say 2020, as far as the gravity of everybody’s health, people losing loved ones, people losing their jobs, it’s just pain on so many different levels. It’s much more uncertain and earthshaking than my own personal journey because you just see it goes beyond me.
Kaitlyn: If you have any advice for children or college students going through this pandemic, what would it be?
Anderson: Allow yourself to be sad. I think a lot of people are not okay to just be in that moment. I had an eighteen-year-old who lost the end of her senior year and had to grieve that. She was at a performing arts school, so it was a bunch of final performances. It was her opportunity to do solo acts, her opportunity to do all these things that she was looking forward to and that got taken away, but I also think the loss sparked creativity. The way that we celebrated her graduation ended up being far more special than what she would have gotten had she stayed in school.
Rebecca Baumann
MFA, Department of Communication Studies Adjunct Professor at APU, Writer, Editor.
31 years old.
Kaitlyn: What elements of our world do you think will be forever changed because of COVID-19?
Baumann: I’ve been reading a lot about that. I’m a big history nerd, and I’ve also been watching a series on the plague. It’s a big series on how, economically, Europe changed in light of so many deaths and I like to hope that this is positive. I know that there have been a lot of horrific things to this, but I think the best thing I see in this is; I think our nation has stagnated in a lot of ways, especially with the way that we are treating our Black brothers and sisters. I think that this is a wake-up call. Honestly, I am not sure the protests would’ve happened if people weren’t also pushed to the brink on lockdown, and I want to hope that this level of stress breaks what we considered to be normal.
Kaitlyn: Do you have any advice for children or college students going through the pandemic right now?
Baumann: I think the weight of this mentally can seem insurmountable, and I know this might be cheesy, but I feel like it isn’t. I think that just because we’re in this now doesn’t mean we need to stop what we’re doing. It’s so difficult to be thankful for the time that we have right now because it’s so steeped in stress, sleepless nights, confusion and uncertainty. When we step out of this, if we have nothing to jump onto next, it’s going to weigh us down even more. So, I would say if you want to prep for something, if you have big dreams, now’s the time—work on them.”
Beth Magee
Senior allied health major at APU, acrobatics & tumbling team captain.
21 years old.
Kaitlyn: What has been the most life-altering part of the pandemic for you, either in your personal life, or academic or athletic career?
Magee: How do I pick one? Definitely, the realization that you can’t plan for anything. I spent 18 years of my life training to be a college athlete, and I saw my junior season get taken away. My senior season may be taken away and everything I thought would happen hasn’t. I don’t know where I’m going to be after college, but at least I knew the last year of college I’d be here doing this. Then, I couldn’t even predict where the next year was going to go, and I think that was the first time in my life that’s ever happened.”
Kaitlyn: Do you have any advice for children or college students going through the pandemic right now?
Magee: For younger people, upper high schoolers or those who are just entering college, I always think about the freshman on our team, and I can’t imagine this being my first impression of college. I don’t know. This isn’t normal, and that’s okay. We’re all trying to figure it out but lean into that. Don’t let the unique circumstances make you feel isolated because we are all going through this together. If anything, you can use that as a way to make more connections in a time where it seems like it’d be even harder to make connections.
Harmonie Williams
Freshman at Churchill Fulshear High School, Cheerleader.
14 years old.
Kaitlyn: Was there ever a moment, or a headline you saw, where you first realized wow, this is going to be one of the craziest times of my life?
Williams: When spring break was about to end, the schools said that we’d stay home for another week because of the virus. I didn’t really think much about it until they kept pushing it back and back until they finally said we weren’t going back for the rest of the year. So, I think that’s when it really hit me that this is much bigger than I thought.
Kaitlyn: It’s weird because this is a first for everyone so it’s hard to pass down words of wisdom, but do you have any advice for children going through this pandemic?
Williams: I don’t really have any words of wisdom, but I will tell my future children what I went through during this whole experience when they complain about getting their corona vaccination!
Audrey, Elsie, & Quincy Scully
Toy Connoisseurs, Triplets.
3 years old.
Note: As these subjects are only three, Kaitlyn did not directly interview them. However, she did send in questions for them to answer.
Question: How old are you girls?
Quincy: Uh, three…
Question: Are you all three?
Elsie: Uh-huh! We are three.
Question: How do you feel about wearing the masks? Is it uncomfortable?
Quincy: It’s comfortable.
Question: Why do you wear the mask?
Quincy: I have to wear it because I’ll be sick if I don’t have to wear it!
Question: What’s the best way to stay healthy?
Quincy: Umm, eat food!
Elsie: Eat cookies!
Audrey: And a muffin!