Blog 3: The Environment and Me

 

Blog 3: The Environment and Me

     When considering the topic for this blog I thought back to the past three years, the year before the COVID epidemic was thrust upon us and the two years since and, I asked myself did my environment change, was my world thrown into chaos, did I become rudderless? After a complete and honest assessment, I would state that my life and environment which I define loosely as my day to day living conditions and interaction with others was not upended rather, I was more resilient. When I examine the COVID epidemic on my life/environment I examine it through three lenses first academics, social, and overall, my mental health which I will go into more detail to describe my experience.

     When the epidemic emerged and started it’s spread across the country, I was attending Fayetteville Technical Community College (FTCC) studying in their Horticulture Program, and like most students we had to transition to online (distance) learning which was an adjustment for myself. Especially since I did not have a home computer and I was at the time enrolled in Landscape Design II, which required a computer program called AutoCAD and the institution only had two computers at the time with the program. Equipped with the ability to adapt and overcome to obstacles from my military background that is how I tackled this obstacle by rearranging my schedule (being the first one in the morning when the library opened to complete me assignments) and making detailed notes from the recorded lectures and expectations of each Design assignment to maximize my time I had at the on-campus computer lab. By adapting these practices, I was able to complete my assignments on time and assist my peers if they had difficulty with assignments.

     Secondly, my social habits were unaffected by the onset of the COVID epidemic because I lived alone with little to no interaction with others (besides school mates). Since I was in my apartment alone and my activities such as cycling, and running are individual outdoor activities my daily routine required little to no adjustment. I joked with my sister that social distancing, which was a new concept to many individuals, I had been social distancing since 2014. Since I was already a person who was enrolled in a grocery delivery service my transition to receive goods and necessities was unaffected by the pandemic. At times due to the supply chain deficiency, I would be unable to receive certain items, I once again adapted by substituting it with a similar item or just not receiving the item and adapting.

     Finally, my mental health and the effects the COVID epidemic had on that aspect of my life/environment. As I stated before I consider myself to be a resilient person and able to adapt to situations. I believe that the only negative (if I had to call it negative) aspect was the weekly/monthly inconsistency of school and local political leaders in establishing standards which became frustrating at times. Once again like other aspects of my environment I adapted to wearing the mask or next week not wearing the mask then wearing again should the powers that be decided to institute the mask wearing rule that week. I will state that the most frustrating aspect was the way professors would make it obvious in classroom environments that if you were not wearing a mask (which became an optional policy) and they were wearing a mask the instructor was not as helpful and willing to assist with issues that arose in class or in relation to assignments.

     Overall, I know that my experience is probably in the minority of the experience of others and by no means am I stating that my life was unblemished by the COVID epidemic, for example I prefer the in person classroom experience rather than the online class get lost in translation through email rather going to the instructor face to face and asking (like posting of these blogs which I still believe I am posting incorrectly), but when examining my environment and the effects of the COVID epidemic from both a macro and micro analysis it was manageable and reinforce my resiliency.