I believe history is remembered in the eyes of the experiencer, so everyone’s take may share similar headlines but the actual experiences are unique. I remember the Great Recession and being unemployed long term, while others can remember ultra cheap airfare to Ibiza. Neither is an inaccurate way to interpret or live history, but how you remember it and the feeling of it, vividly or not, will fade over time.
This COVID-19 Pandemic is no different as it affected nearly everyone on the planet, yet the experiences are so diverse. As someone working in senior living, what I remember fondly was I loved buying personal protective equipment (PPE) for the hundreds of workers that were on the frontline. I felt like an orchestra conductor sending PPE to different parts of the country. Yet, I took it a step further and bought thousands of happy face stickers to stick on the PPE at the beginning of the pandemic when wearing PPE on your face was so foreign, so that a little semblance of humanity could carry on – making things a little less scary even for the grown-ups.
On the personal front, my wife and kids were affected. Cindy, who ran a women’s clothing store since 2008 (started just before the Great Recession), so 12 years, had to close her physical store due to the Shut Down in September 2020. I would be remiss to say that her store in the virtual realm is doing fine, but she misses her customers and remembers fondly of being an amateur therapist and friend for many of her customers. Then, there is our daughter Kylie who is in the first grade, and the whole world of virtual learning, which we are grateful for the teachers for their great efforts. And our three year old son, Christopher who consumed way too much YouTube over the past year, but we think he will be fine and has grown an affinity to the Terrible B’s Blippi and BTS (ok, they are not terrible – they are prolific).
We were fortunate to not have COVID, the virus, affect our family directly health wise, and our hearts go out to those who experienced loss. We hope you can take a few minutes to write down, video, how you felt and how you coped while the memories are still fresh. For the rest of our lives, this moment will be talked about no less than three times at every party for at least the next 10 years. And I’m sure the next generation like our Kylie and Christopher, will appreciate viewing a recanting of this period when they are older and ready.
At MemoryVideo.com, we can help you do that, with a Reflection Interview Story on Zoom/Team/Meet, which comes with the support of our friendly, trained interviewers, creative video editors, and storytelling producers to have a memory video and journal transcript for you to share, now or for later.
Note from the MemoryVideo.com Team: adding context creates richness to memories, and the best time to do this is when memories are fresh. Writing, journaling, video, etc are great ways to do this. And you don’t have to be an older person to want to start conditioning yourself to being a good historian.