This themed series titled “Time Capsule Letters” is a special series created to highlight submissions for the Community-Driven Archives (CDA) team and community members regarding their lives during COVID-19 and the hopes for our lives after COVID-19. We hope to continue this series with contributions from community members by having you submit your own time capsule letter to yourself or others regarding life during COVID-19. This week we highlight a letter from Denise Mosso Ruiz, a student worker with the CDA team who is currently a senior at Arizona State University (ASU) studying Sustainability with a minor in Urban Planning and Environmental Education. We thank Denise for her contribution to this series.
Please contact me, Jessica Salow, if you are interested in submitting a letter to be featured on our blog. And please also contact me with feedback or other community archiving questions at Jessica.Salow@asu.edu, as I would love to hear from you regarding your thoughts of the work we here at ASU are doing in community archiving around Arizona. See you next week!
Boston Time Capsule
Dear my post-pandemic self:
Hello, I think like everyone else, we have been thinking about how things are going to be after the pandemic. In this letter, I think I want to address one statement a lot of people have been saying, “I cannot wait until we go back to normal”. I think this is a very insensitive statement because not everyone was taking social distancing seriously or are upset by not being able to go out and do what they usually did. Now that all the businesses are reopening, I am uncertain how this is going to turn out.
As school is over, I still plan to keep myself quarantined for my safety and others. School just ended and I am trying to figure out what to do. I have a lot of projects in mind but most importantly focusing on my health. Before the quarantine, I was letting a lot of things affect me or doing more than I could. I have to make sure I find joy again. These past few days I have just been relaxing, my stomach problems have gotten better since school is over, I feel like I can breathe now. I am trying to read more though I never really been into literature but I understand the importance of it. The literature on my list is The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon and Ix Hmen U Tzaco Ah Maya by Aurora Garcia Saqui. I want to become a new person, someone who does not care what other people think. I have seen the harm academia has done to me and I wish I had the strength to fake it and make it but I cannot. This is another thought that has been going around in my head. I feel like academia has allowed me to express my creativity or connect more with nature. I have been able to paint and do a flower pressed. I have also gone on a walk once in a while, during quarantine but it should become a daily thing. One funny moment was that I took Ramona on a walk and as many cat owners know, it did not go as planned lol.
After this pandemic, I hope to become a more independent individual. I have gone through a lot of changes these past three years and I have a lot of healing to do. Once I am able to control my anxiety I know I will be unafraid of a lot of things. I am also definitely not going to take for granted the relationships I have made, which are more important to me because we are taught to work harder for school and work in order to be “successful”. I hope that many people have used this time to reflect on how this pandemic has affected them and what privileges they are willing to give up for the livelihood of others. Take care, everyone!
Mucho amor,
Denise