Blog 4/8

This current time in everyone's lives is one that most of us probably never imagined we would experience in our lifetime. At the beginning of my time spent in quarantine, I had yet to allow the reality of the situation to truly sinks in. However, once about a week went by and the news on the television began to worsen, I felt the stress and anxiety rush over me, all at once. When we talked about The Fourth Sense of Matter by Jo Ann Beard, in class, some points from the discussion and Dr. Ellis truly resonated with me and our current circumstances. The story written by Jo Ann Beard reflects upon the devastating shooting that occurred at the University of Iowa in 1991. Beard was a colleague of the victims in the shooting, as well as good friends with a few of them. This a significant and traumatic event in her life that led her to reflect and address everything she knows. At first, when she hears of the shooting, she is in denial and shock. The end of the story shows her initial processing of grief and pain. In our discussion, we concluded that her main purpose for writing this piece was so that she could show others that you do not know what you have until it is gone. She wants her readers to know that you need to appreciate what you have and find a way to be grateful for that, every single day. Although this situation she writes about is different than what the world is currently facing, the same message is valid. We are all in a position where it feels like life has stopped. We are missing what we had before everything was frozen in time. For myself and my friends, we lost our first year of college. So many people are out of work. Many people are completely alone and isolated. We know want things that, before, we found irritating or not worthy of our time. Not only that, but the reason that we must lose all of these things is that the outside world, right now, is dangerous. It is all very scary and uncertain. So, it is important that we remember the good things in our lives and not take them for granted anymore when this is all over.