Sandy's Pandemic Diaries

full of friends and family. But being a college student in twenty twenty meant that a lot of these long awaited milestones didn't go according to plan. In collaboration with Philly Audiodiaries, an organization that trains young people in Philadelphia to tell their own stories, Sandy takes a look back on the things the pandemic took away from her in such a pivotal year, but also the things that she learned about herself, leading her to forge her own path

in a moment of a lot of uncertainty. Here's Sandy Plurimond.

to Philadelphia to study at Temple University. Definitely, the first night and my dorm was really eye opening. I remember just staying up for almost three hours, just crying and feeling really overwhelmed with just like the emotion that I was in a new place and I would never live at home with my parents again. But I was really excited too. Although I was by myself, my mom still called me every single morning for the four years of my undergrad him, Mamma, Hi, sorry I missed your call. Mama,

I'm good, I'm good. They were never long conversations, usually no more than five minutes, and they were always about the same thing. Had I eaten yet? What did I eat last night? When's the next time I'm coming home? Every day those three questions in some sort of rotation. My mom's worked in the kitchen at an Italian restaurant for the past twenty nine years, so eating has always

been one of the most important things for her. On the phone, we talk about a childhood memory or something funny that happened to either of us the day before, or maybe even some drama going on at her job, but nothing more than that. My love life, my anxieties, everything else outside of those things didn't exist in those conversations with my mom. Something that I didn't mention in these phone calls with my mom was that I had decided to switch my major from journalism to media studies

in the spring of freshman year. I think, honestly, it wasn't ever a sit down conversation where my parents were like, you're going to college and this is what you're going to study. But it was a lot of conversations and passing that were like sharing with me that someone in their family, their kids that were around my age, decided to go to law school or decided to go to med school, and so it was just like very much understood that that is what they would have wanted me

to do. So I was always under the impression and that like, if I wasn't going to do that, I had to do something that I really really enjoyed doing, and so that's definitely why I went with media studies. The first hands on media class I ever took was radio and podcast production. I interviewed my mom for one of the projects, talking to her about the stigmatization of menstruation that both she and I had grown up with.

Philly Audio Diaries. It was a program that taught young people from alternative high schools how to tell their stories for broadcast, and asking me to work for her help me realize that this was something much bigger than a class. Declaring a media studies major was one of the first big decisions I took for myself, and in the fall of twenty nineteen, when I was a junior in college, I was ready to take another big decision.

like a leap into like a much bigger pool. Studying abroad had always just been a tiny dream in the back of my mind, something I couldn't imagine myself doing because it seemed like something reserved for people who had a lot more money than I can fathom. It was something that I often felt about a lot of other things too, like going on family vacations or going out

for family dinners. It was something I was never surrounded by growing up, so I put it all in a box that I felt like I didn't have a place in. One day, I let myself have the thought, what if I did study abroad. I decided to read brochures about it and visit the Study Abroad office. Once I did my research, I discovered it was actually something that I could do, and so I submitted an application for a

program in London. In London, it's kind of hard to describe, but I just always felt a connection to It also seemed like the perfect amount of different to New York, and I think my whole life, I've been trying to find something like that because New York is a really big piece of me. It's my favorite city ever, It's where I grew up. But I just wanted to find something that gave me the same feeling that New York did,

but in a completely different way. And especially once I talked to the Study of Broad program and read the info packets, it just in my body felt like, Yeah, I think this is the place that I really really need to go to. In January of twenty twenty, I was accepted into the Study of Broad program and I paid the deposit. I had also gotten an internship through the Study of Broad program that was going to involve

me writing and posting about different restaurants in London. Even though my mom's a chef growing up, we never went out to restaurants, and I discovered in my adulthood. It's one of my greatest pleasures. I'd gone through the whole process of applying all by myself without telling anybody, not even my parents. When I got my passport in the mail is when I told my parents because I had never had a passport and I was so excited about it.

I'm pretty sure I like jumped for joy once I got my passport because it was this like physical embodiment of these dreams that I had and it felt like it was coming true. So the day I got my passport is the day that I called my mom and my dad to let them know that I was pretty certain that I was going to be going abroad. My mom was like why, and my dad was also just like, where is this coming from.

it for everyone in the world changed COVID nineteen. It was March nineteen, twenty twenty, and my girlfriend Aliana, who had also planned on setting abroad in Italy that summer, got lunch with me on campus. Things weren't necessarily normal. The hallways were filled with people talking about different theories of what was to come, but it was the last

normal day we would experience. One moment, we were laughing about stealing each other's food, and the next we both received emails getting the crushing news that our summer plans were no more. I went through probably the stages of grief all within like five minutes. For the first time, I had a bit of fear in my heart, like if they were canceling London, Like what was COVID? What did this really mean? I remember that night was just

a sad, sad night. We took the long way to walk home and we just talked about it, and honestly, it was really nice to have each other, I would say in that moment, because we both were mourning these things. But we both felt really scared, I think, and really confused as COVID became worse, and it raged across the world.

My girlfriend and I watched from our tiny apartment in North Philadelphia, disinfecting groceries and taking turns talking the other down from believing that a doorknob we grazed earlier that day may have given us the virus. As everything around me seemed to be drastically changing, I held onto the little bits of normalcy, like the daily calls with my mom.

she works a lot. So while I was worried about her, and she was worried about me because I am away from her and she doesn't really know what I'm doing every day, we sort of put those worries to the side and didn't confront each other about them to give each other that bit of peace because we were having these phone calls and being like, yeah, I'm doing good, and I made this really yummy thing last night, and

I thought of you. In between the nagging fear of the pandemic and the anxiety of the uncertainty of the future, all I had were my journal and my voice.

really confused, and I'm really scared. How was it that eleven days ago we were all walking around and now the thought of leaving our houses seems so scary beyond belief. At that point, I was living in the smallest apartment I had ever lived in, and so I had really built a routine of not spending time in that apartment, just doing things outside and doing things that I liked to do, and just like really utilizing that as a

place to eat and sleep. So the first couple days of lockdown quarantine were so difficult because I was spending so much time in this enclosed space that I hadn't even really considered home. It was only a couple of weeks before we packed up all our stuff and headed to my girlfriend's rural hometown, Williamsport, for ten weeks. May twenty six, twenty twenty. I'm writing this in the middle

of the woods in suburban Pennsylvania. How ridiculous is it that that's actually the least ridiculous thing to have happened this summer. I've been in Williamsport for five weeks now. Cases are still rising everywhere, and it feels like this may be life forever. That thought feels too bleak, though, so I'm writing it down and letting it go so I don't think of it too much. I was supposed to be in London. Now I can't help but wonder what it would have been like. Would I be happy? Sad?

I've regretted it. All I know is that I'm healthy and my family's healthy, and that's all that really matters in the end. I guess I was used to the chaos of the city, but more than ever, the sounds of nature provided a much needed escape. For the first time in my life, I was able to go on these long walks in nature and just breathe. Whenever I felt overwhelmed, angry, tired, sad, I could just have a

little escape. When the time came to finally leave, I knew that coming back to Philadelphia in June of twenty twenty meant confronting the reality of COVID again. In August of twenty twenty, I was going into my last year of college and it didn't feel like it at all. I had just spent the last couple of months doing online classes, and the days seemed to blur together more often than not. For the first time, I wasn't working

in the service industry. I was doing online classes every day, and the few times I was working was with Anne and the Philly Diaries team remotely. I had always been someone who worked better outside of the house, so when COVID came, I didn't even have a desk to sit at in my apartment. This led to me taking every Zoom class from my bed and having more accidental naps than ever before. It wasn't until COVID happened that I realized how much I valued being in the actual classroom.

Life felt like it had become one big screen. I remember my last final ever. I just submitted it online on like a random Tuesday, and then it was just it. Then I was just done with undergrad I'm about to go pick up my down this morning. I can't believe it, right, I graduate in a week. That is so ridiculous, but I'm so excited. For months, everyone in my class waited to know whether or not graduation would be happening online

or in person. When the news finally broke that I was going to be in person, I felt a mix of emotions. I was grateful and excited that I was getting to have this shot at normalcy, but I was quickly brought back to reality when I found out my parents had to work that day and my visitors wouldn't be allowed inside the ceremony. They would be able to watch me on a livestream from home instead. These were just moments that I had held in my heart for

a long time. Getting to hug them right after I got my diploma, or getting to hear that they were proud of me in person, or getting to see them in the crowd. And so while I'm happy that they saw me in this like hybrid kind of way there is. It's just there's still a bit of sadness there that they didn't get to do it in the way that I had hoped for so long that they would.

How my parents said I was going this time, I wasn't asking them. May fifteenth, twenty twenty one. I'm going to London. It's official. I bought the tickets and booked my airbnb. It's all set, and I leave in less than ten days. I don't know what it is, but I just decided that the only thing that's stopping myself was me. My dad is loading up a car right now, and I'm in my childhood bedroom about to leave for

the airport. My flight is not for another five hours, but I've never been anywhere before, so better safe than sorry.

he waved goodbye. As I walked to security. I felt a jolt of energy walking onto the plane and hearing that the flight crew was speaking in British accents. Video of seatbelt securely fastened until the packs of seat belt signed the beat place stop. I was like grinning in my seat way before takeoff even happened, because I was like, I'm sitting on a plane at JFK with a full British flight crew going to London, Like, who am I?

I had a nine pm flight, so I knew I wasn't going to see much for like the first couple hours. This is so dramatic in the best way, but I really wanted to experience lifting up the window and seeing the ocean, and so I remember I woke up, and I had no idea what time it is, but I could see in different pockets of the plane that light was starting to shine in where people had their windows open. So I knew that it was light outside, and so I lifted.

Julia Caruso. Our marketing manager is Luis Luna. Our theme music was composed by Zen I'm your host and executive producer marieo Posa. Join us on our next episode. In the meantime, look for us on social media. I'll see you there, Remember yes by E.