WEBVTT 00:00:01.859 --> 00:00:04.592 Alright hello, this is Ian Frazier. 00:00:04.592 --> 00:00:09.694 I am with the history Department here at UCF or at least in the major Department 00:00:09.694 --> 00:00:12.364 here at UCF. I'm here today with… 00:00:13.104 --> 00:00:15.564 My name is Eileen Zelaya. 00:00:16.251 --> 00:00:19.071 I'm a junior studying studio art at UCF. 00:00:19.972 --> 00:00:20.723 Interesting. 00:00:20.723 --> 00:00:22.393 Well welcome, Eileen. 00:00:22.739 --> 00:00:27.579 So, as you know we've been kind of dealing with a pandemic recently you know 00:00:27.579 --> 00:00:33.419 the last year or so I just thought of today maybe gathering you here to ask you 00:00:33.691 --> 00:00:39.181 some relatively term-based questions about the whole pandemic and you know you're 00:00:39.495 --> 00:00:44.155 basically like in your point of view about it if that makes sense for you? 00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:46.650 Yeah, yeah, so 00:00:48.571 --> 00:00:54.031 being at school with a pandemic is really tough because last year 00:00:55.272 --> 00:01:00.602 last year I had to go home to Miami where I live with my family and 00:01:01.916 --> 00:01:08.506 basically just rearrange my entire plans of college and living situations. 00:01:10.102 --> 00:01:12.362 For me, living at home is a bit difficult. 00:01:12.520 --> 00:01:16.842 I don't I don't prefer it, but I really had no other option because 00:01:16.842 --> 00:01:18.682 I was displaced from work. 00:01:18.918 --> 00:01:24.877 So, I had to just rearrange everything much like everyone did and sort of 00:01:24.877 --> 00:01:30.174 changed my school schedule around that you know everything revolves you 00:01:30.174 --> 00:01:36.881 know me going on the computer and I had to have reliable Internet and work with 00:01:36.881 --> 00:01:41.791 my parents to ensure that they would give me the time for school. 00:01:43.329 --> 00:01:47.779 Meanwhile it's a bit different if I'm in Orlando you know going to going to class 00:01:48.477 --> 00:01:52.537 and like being physically there you know I have my own space here and 00:01:52.537 --> 00:01:58.937 there's reliable Internet on campus and like the physicality of going to school 00:01:58.937 --> 00:02:03.577 on campus it it's a whole different like, like energy. 00:02:04.285 --> 00:02:08.546 So, you're basically saying is that what you're basically saying is you know 00:02:08.546 --> 00:02:12.621 the pandemic like for most of us has really altered you know our lives at least 00:02:12.621 --> 00:02:16.499 for the last year or so you know I think everyone remembers that 2020 was 00:02:16.499 --> 00:02:20.089 absolutely hectic in terms of the pandemic and then anything on top of that 00:02:20.089 --> 00:02:21.379 was just gravy. 00:02:22.171 --> 00:02:22.881 So, 00:02:23.379 --> 00:02:29.467 I want to dive in basically today and just specific narrow questions for the 00:02:29.467 --> 00:02:34.897 pandemic that maybe you or your family basically experience during this 00:02:35.506 --> 00:02:39.436 this different but also awful time if that makes any sense to you. 00:02:40.518 --> 00:02:42.358 Alright,- Yeah, yeah. 00:02:42.703 --> 00:02:48.173 Alright, so the first question you basically already answered like you know 00:02:48.173 --> 00:02:52.553 the first my first question was you know how is your life been altered 00:02:52.553 --> 00:02:53.883 during this pandemic. 00:02:53.883 --> 00:02:56.813 So, you maybe have anything more you want to add on to that? 00:02:58.208 --> 00:03:04.041 So yeah, beyond those like immediate like situations that I had to you know go 00:03:04.041 --> 00:03:05.674 through that most people did too. 00:03:05.674 --> 00:03:11.717 Most students at UCF had leave their house or leave their apartments or just go back 00:03:11.717 --> 00:03:18.980 home or try to just find a way to you know to see how they can like rearrange their, 00:03:18.980 --> 00:03:20.470 their living style to this. 00:03:20.869 --> 00:03:26.526 There's also like those long term you know effects which for me was having 00:03:26.526 --> 00:03:27.996 to take out loans. 00:03:28.853 --> 00:03:30.523 I also, I also 00:03:32.331 --> 00:03:35.021 had to leave my apartment… 00:03:39.833 --> 00:03:41.533 my, what's it called, 00:03:42.941 --> 00:03:45.901 my lease I had to break my lease for my apartment 00:03:46.149 --> 00:03:53.299 and that's something that affected my credit you know, and those things are 00:03:53.507 --> 00:03:59.991 like those things will continue to affect me along the way of like my school career 00:03:59.991 --> 00:04:02.221 and then later on even after I graduate. 00:04:03.499 --> 00:04:07.722 Yeah, so it does sound like you know your life has been you know different ever 00:04:07.722 --> 00:04:10.224 since this started, you know, same as mine. 00:04:10.224 --> 00:04:12.132 So, I think we can both relate there 00:04:12.982 --> 00:04:15.652 but you know now that we're in 2021 and 00:04:15.652 --> 00:04:17.742 there seems to be a little bit of a future, 00:04:18.634 --> 00:04:22.634 future fix on the horizon you know this would 00:04:22.634 --> 00:04:29.101 be a great time to really start to think about exactly you know reflecting how this 00:04:29.101 --> 00:04:33.625 has gone for everybody and so that leads into my next question, 00:04:33.625 --> 00:04:37.271 you know, I think this virus has 00:04:37.302 --> 00:04:40.932 really brought out a lot of different hygiene habits whether it's like 00:04:40.932 --> 00:04:45.502 sanitizing your hands or maybe putting on gloves or wearing a mask everywhere 00:04:46.341 --> 00:04:47.161 so 00:04:48.052 --> 00:04:54.602 in your experience like how have your, you know, personal hygiene habits really 00:04:54.602 --> 00:04:58.122 changed since the start of the pandemic and 00:04:59.274 --> 00:05:03.134 could you elaborate like what you are doing now 00:05:03.321 --> 00:05:06.941 that maybe you can think about you were doing maybe before the pandemic and 00:05:07.561 --> 00:05:08.621 vice versa? 00:05:08.768 --> 00:05:12.768 Yeah, yeah, that's, that's something I notice now. 00:05:13.408 --> 00:05:18.564 I was at work today and we have so many measures to ensure that there's like good 00:05:18.564 --> 00:05:25.470 hygiene and it's clean and every time we change shifts with my new coworkers for 00:05:25.470 --> 00:05:30.524 the for the for the different hours we have to go through so many set of 00:05:31.096 --> 00:05:36.105 like tasks like wiping down counters everything is 6 feet apart it just makes 00:05:36.105 --> 00:05:37.125 me think that 00:05:37.818 --> 00:05:44.258 before we never really realized how much people were in a space 00:05:44.258 --> 00:05:49.598 and how you know how careless we really were with that 00:05:49.788 --> 00:05:50.518 with, 00:05:51.124 --> 00:05:53.694 with like cleanliness of like a location 00:05:53.694 --> 00:05:57.194 especially at a place you know where a lot of students are coming in and 00:05:57.194 --> 00:06:05.311 out and personally at home I've noticed that like you know we just like we just go 00:06:05.311 --> 00:06:10.109 to the extreme with cleaning you know taking a shower after getting out of work 00:06:11.532 --> 00:06:14.682 instead of like you know soaking in and staying in. 00:06:15.410 --> 00:06:22.924 We take our shoes off before entering the house and like publicly I feel like these 00:06:22.924 --> 00:06:26.887 habits are just going to like we're just going to like keep them you know even 00:06:26.887 --> 00:06:28.367 after the pandemic. 00:06:29.499 --> 00:06:34.599 And to follow up on that where exactly do you where do you exactly work? 00:06:35.209 --> 00:06:38.029 Yeah, I work at the student union at UCF. 00:06:38.958 --> 00:06:42.909 Ok yeah, so you know when you're on campus there's extra safety measures involved 00:06:42.909 --> 00:06:45.638 being that UCF is an international campus. 00:06:45.638 --> 00:06:50.047 You know we take people from all over the world and we're doing our best to make 00:06:50.047 --> 00:06:54.817 sure everyone is safe, and everyone is healthy so that you know we don't 00:06:55.388 --> 00:06:59.968 so basically that everyone can live you know their basic lives while in safety. 00:07:00.234 --> 00:07:01.394 Yeah, yeah. 00:07:01.698 --> 00:07:02.438 So, 00:07:03.694 --> 00:07:08.450 so, it's funny because I also want to ask I'm kind of going off of that you 00:07:08.450 --> 00:07:12.190 know you said that you're starting to take your shoes off when you enter the 00:07:12.190 --> 00:07:16.222 house quicker, you're starting to sanitize everywhere and you're starting to be 00:07:16.222 --> 00:07:20.972 more health aware of what's going on around you in your little personal bubble, 00:07:22.020 --> 00:07:27.835 so, my next question today is are you doing anything currently that maybe you 00:07:27.835 --> 00:07:32.602 never thought of doing approximately 5 years ago that could be anything from 00:07:32.602 --> 00:07:36.890 hygiene to different routines in the morning you know what would 00:07:36.890 --> 00:07:38.165 you say about that? 00:07:38.616 --> 00:07:44.588 Yeah, yeah I'm definitely being more careful with where I'm going out you know 00:07:44.588 --> 00:07:47.568 I have to I have to really think about you know 00:07:48.198 --> 00:07:50.528 I have to think about what is needed so 00:07:50.708 --> 00:07:56.351 I you know I need to go to the grocery store and maybe the convenience store and 00:07:56.351 --> 00:08:02.733 on campus if I need to for work, but other than that I'm not you know I'm not going 00:08:02.733 --> 00:08:10.126 to places where, you know, I don't I don't find it necessary to go to, so in that 00:08:10.126 --> 00:08:15.645 case it's like it's like a really big shift in how I'm like interacting with 00:08:15.645 --> 00:08:24.787 people and you know and being careful not to not to be careless with 00:08:24.787 --> 00:08:26.327 going out so much. 00:08:28.532 --> 00:08:30.242 Interesting, interesting stuff. 00:08:30.857 --> 00:08:35.293 So, yeah so, you're basically really kind of living the life that a lot of college 00:08:35.293 --> 00:08:40.073 students these days are across the world you know this was just kind of just threw 00:08:40.073 --> 00:08:44.969 off a lot of what we had plans in during our last couple semesters here at UCF and 00:08:44.969 --> 00:08:49.828 I'm sure other students all over the globe as well. It has really changed 00:08:49.828 --> 00:08:50.749 a lot of habits. 00:08:50.749 --> 00:08:54.298 I think people are starting to be more health conscious now specially when 00:08:54.298 --> 00:08:58.708 it comes to washing your hands or sanitizing your hands or wearing a mask 00:08:58.708 --> 00:09:03.628 in public or even things like you know maybe stepping back a few feet from people 00:09:03.628 --> 00:09:07.478 when greeting them and not shaking their hands on interviews and, you know, 00:09:07.478 --> 00:09:09.030 basic, you know, everyday 00:09:09.030 --> 00:09:13.596 stuff we thought about five years ago that you know has changed and you know 00:09:13.596 --> 00:09:18.445 maybe this leads to a whole new revolution of the way we as humans talk about and 00:09:18.445 --> 00:09:22.605 exchange information with each other so thank you for sharing that. 00:09:23.185 --> 00:09:27.875 That was actually really that's a really good observation from you. 00:09:29.086 --> 00:09:32.246 So, then the next question it might be a little personal, 00:09:33.147 --> 00:09:34.155 but I think a lot of 00:09:34.155 --> 00:09:36.355 people maybe in the future may want to know, 00:09:37.232 --> 00:09:39.072 have you or your family 00:09:39.072 --> 00:09:46.322 member contracted covid and if so, what has the overall feeling been in your 00:09:46.322 --> 00:09:49.282 family maybe between you or siblings or whatnot? 00:09:50.044 --> 00:09:50.964 Yeah so, 00:09:51.973 --> 00:09:54.683 luckily none of my family has gotten COVID 00:09:55.216 --> 00:09:59.506 but I do have some distant relatives that have, and it changes 00:09:59.553 --> 00:10:03.121 it really does change you know how you feel about it when you know 00:10:03.121 --> 00:10:05.121 someone personally who has gotten it. 00:10:05.570 --> 00:10:09.464 It makes you feel more scared it makes you it makes you, it makes you, 00:10:09.837 --> 00:10:13.387 kind of like bring this down to earth you know what I mean it like makes 00:10:13.387 --> 00:10:16.687 you really realize that it's right there and it's not just something 00:10:16.687 --> 00:10:21.708 people are talking about and you know you always you always like worry a little 00:10:21.708 --> 00:10:23.488 bit cause you know 00:10:24.028 --> 00:10:28.488 my parents are also, they're high risk, 00:10:30.057 --> 00:10:31.687 but because we're so careful with 00:10:32.803 --> 00:10:36.127 with like taking care of them they haven't gotten it. 00:10:36.127 --> 00:10:41.593 It's still you know it's still scary even though a year has passed and 00:10:42.074 --> 00:10:47.658 you know we have vaccines now but it's still like it's still something that is 00:10:47.658 --> 00:10:51.328 happening right in front of your face especially when you hear it you know 00:10:51.328 --> 00:10:55.298 happening to people that you know and hearing their symptoms and 00:10:55.298 --> 00:11:01.638 experiences and possibly you know like talking about how they even got it and 00:11:02.101 --> 00:11:06.671 if they even know how they got it which is a difficult thing to trace. 00:11:06.952 --> 00:11:11.422 So now elaborating on that you know you said it's also affected your family. 00:11:11.654 --> 00:11:15.294 When you maybe want like when maybe you sit down at night or in the morning 00:11:15.294 --> 00:11:19.034 before you go to school and or your work and you watch the news and you think 00:11:19.034 --> 00:11:22.564 about, you know reports everyday coming out about you know maybe another 00:11:22.564 --> 00:11:26.658 couple 100 people dying or you know maybe a couple of kids losing their 00:11:26.658 --> 00:11:32.934 grandparents or their parents over this virus, how does that make you like or how 00:11:32.934 --> 00:11:37.774 does that get you to think about, what, how, 00:11:38.626 --> 00:11:42.236 how does that make you rethink about maybe 00:11:42.236 --> 00:11:46.046 some of the actions you taken during the pandemic like maybe you actually shook 00:11:46.046 --> 00:11:50.418 someone’s hand or you know maybe you accidentally forgot to cough 00:11:50.418 --> 00:11:51.287 into your elbow? 00:11:52.167 --> 00:11:52.896 Yeah, 00:11:53.317 --> 00:11:59.147 yeah, it's like it's like at this point we're getting news about it every day. 00:11:59.147 --> 00:12:02.545 You know, there's always that there's always something like you know 00:12:02.545 --> 00:12:08.541 new cases have arrived, new variants of the COVID, and it's so overwhelming 00:12:08.541 --> 00:12:14.471 that I feel like at this point I'm like I'm like just desensitized to this. 00:12:14.471 --> 00:12:19.450 You know, like it's something that's become so like so ingrained in my life 00:12:19.450 --> 00:12:23.450 you know having to leave the house with a mask making sure you know making 00:12:23.450 --> 00:12:28.107 sure that I have my hand sanitizer in my bag every time I leave and washing 00:12:28.107 --> 00:12:29.337 my hands constantly. 00:12:29.337 --> 00:12:35.058 You know, these things these things are just so like habitual to me now that 00:12:35.058 --> 00:12:37.068 that, that, that it's, that 00:12:37.068 --> 00:12:42.146 it's going to stick it in and that's a scary thought right because people 00:12:42.146 --> 00:12:49.527 are dying you know every day and I don't think that, that, that, you know it should 00:12:49.527 --> 00:12:57.047 be, you know, it should be taken more seriously you know and like you know 00:12:57.047 --> 00:13:02.887 reading about it and hearing news it's just it's just overwhelming. 00:13:03.225 --> 00:13:04.795 Yeah, it's a lot. 00:13:05.560 --> 00:13:06.940 Yeah, no I agree with you. 00:13:07.352 --> 00:13:13.952 I think everyone has a different opinion on you know what this virus is and 00:13:13.952 --> 00:13:17.312 you know exactly how deadly it is but you know science has shown that 00:13:17.312 --> 00:13:23.662 this virus is deadly I mean we are now over half a million Americans are dead 00:13:24.077 --> 00:13:28.528 and something that you know and something that we never really seen since 00:13:28.528 --> 00:13:34.099 World War II and you know that would and you know 9/11 we had a lot of deaths but 00:13:34.099 --> 00:13:38.989 I mean this is probably the biggest events for deaths in America since World War II 00:13:39.922 --> 00:13:45.626 and it's really makes you think about exactly how big this is and how big this 00:13:45.626 --> 00:13:49.056 is going to be maybe for the future generations and how they deal with 00:13:49.056 --> 00:13:53.324 healthcare and how they deal with vaccines and how they deal with medicine and 00:13:53.324 --> 00:14:00.454 I would like to expand on that thought for you with my final question for today is 00:14:01.476 --> 00:14:05.316 you said people were not taking this seriously and I totally agree with you, 00:14:05.850 --> 00:14:11.016 but I would like to hear you know in your opinion, why do you think people are not 00:14:11.016 --> 00:14:17.076 taking the virus seriously and do you have any message or do you have any thoughts 00:14:17.295 --> 00:14:21.015 for these people that you maybe you that can help them change their minds? 00:14:21.710 --> 00:14:28.380 Yeah I think I think it has to do a lot with the news and social media 00:14:30.510 --> 00:14:34.840 because , because of this fact that we're receiving news on it daily, 00:14:35.203 --> 00:14:39.129 it seems as though it's, it's like the 00:14:39.129 --> 00:14:43.659 only thing that we can talk about and that's a good thing right because you're 00:14:43.659 --> 00:14:47.319 reminding people that you know we're living through a pandemic and that you 00:14:47.319 --> 00:14:51.119 should follow all these like guidelines and to ensure safety for yourself and 00:14:51.119 --> 00:14:51.897 others 00:14:52.772 --> 00:14:59.062 but at the same time it's it also makes me think that this like over sen- 00:14:59.062 --> 00:15:04.882 like it's like sensory overload you know and at that point it just for a lot of 00:15:04.882 --> 00:15:11.322 people that I know they and myself too I don't exactly know how the virus really 00:15:11.322 --> 00:15:16.787 works you know like medically you know I don't understand like the terms and, 00:15:16.787 --> 00:15:18.487 and, and, and, 00:15:18.487 --> 00:15:24.275 how it like affects your body I just know that it's a virus you know and that's 00:15:24.275 --> 00:15:29.974 another issue too is that maybe we just don't talk about like or we just don't 00:15:29.974 --> 00:15:34.031 have enough like education you know about it maybe we talk about the deaths 00:15:34.031 --> 00:15:40.231 and like the statistics about the virus but not enough, not enough like teaching 00:15:40.231 --> 00:15:40.971 you know. 00:15:41.978 --> 00:15:47.113 We just learned we just learn that we have to follow all these guidelines rather 00:15:47.113 --> 00:15:50.203 than you know the actual virus itself. 00:15:50.203 --> 00:15:53.813 I think that could that could really change the way people see it because 00:15:53.813 --> 00:15:57.363 once you truly understand you know something then you know what to do 00:15:59.700 --> 00:16:06.850 and I wish like I also like I also you know I wish that you know there was there 00:16:06.850 --> 00:16:17.640 was, there was a lot more resources for students and people like myself too to 00:16:17.640 --> 00:16:22.615 just like fall back into because these resources are growing as the virus is 00:16:22.615 --> 00:16:27.591 growing it's not like they were there before you know for me it was like just 00:16:27.591 --> 00:16:32.044 finding financial help you know that my parents couldn't help me with and 00:16:32.667 --> 00:16:38.407 that was tough you know looking for places to go to is tough and even after a year 00:16:38.407 --> 00:16:39.567 has passed 00:16:40.583 --> 00:16:44.773 the burdens of it is still so present and 00:16:45.920 --> 00:16:50.697 my message to anyone would 00:16:50.697 --> 00:16:59.743 just be that it's even though maybe you haven't like experienced it personally or 00:16:59.743 --> 00:17:07.569 you don't know anyone who has gotten COVID I just wish that there was there was a way 00:17:07.569 --> 00:17:15.566 that you know to find you know find yourself you know bring yourself to look 00:17:15.566 --> 00:17:22.656 more into it to learn more about it you know without looking at social media or 00:17:22.656 --> 00:17:30.036 very opinionated articles you know try to go on the CDC website from trusted 00:17:30.036 --> 00:17:37.266 websites and really just like read more about it you know learn more about it 00:17:37.686 --> 00:17:44.506 instead of taking in you know information that isn't useful. 00:17:46.338 --> 00:17:49.978 Well, that's actually a really great response and I liked how you were very 00:17:49.978 --> 00:17:53.838 thorough about it and I'm sure that you know since we're getting very close to a 00:17:53.838 --> 00:17:57.688 vaccine here you know things will start to start things will start going back to 00:17:57.688 --> 00:18:02.074 normal and you know maybe some of those resources continue for the students 00:18:02.074 --> 00:18:05.887 here at UCF and maybe for students at other universities and institutions around 00:18:05.887 --> 00:18:07.287 the country and the world. 00:18:07.864 --> 00:18:11.763 So that is actually all I had for you today Eileen you know I really want to 00:18:11.763 --> 00:18:17.424 thank you personally for taking this opportunity I think that this would be a 00:18:17.424 --> 00:18:21.962 great whoever looks at this in the future is going to have great information at 00:18:21.962 --> 00:18:26.507 least about you know what this was this historic event was all about and hopefully 00:18:26.507 --> 00:18:32.867 that your insight personally with it is going to help them and is going to really 00:18:32.867 --> 00:18:38.127 get them a starting point you know so the research community may be doing. 00:18:39.104 --> 00:18:41.294 Is there any final thoughts you want to say? 00:18:44.782 --> 00:18:50.409 No, stay safe I hope that in the future I hope that in the future there's a lot 00:18:50.409 --> 00:18:55.339 more a lot more resources that were staying safe and remembering and 00:18:55.339 --> 00:19:00.229 remembering the true impacts of this historical, historical event. 00:19:01.347 --> 00:19:06.307 Alright, with that being said, thank you for coming out and you know stay safe and 00:19:06.307 --> 00:19:07.557 hope you have a great day. 00:19:08.030 --> 00:19:09.520 Thank you, Ian. Bye. 00:19:09.730 --> 00:19:10.440 Bye.