There’s no denying that we will remember the past year forever. But what would help symbolize this unprecedented event we’re living through? We asked you what we should put into a capsule that would represent the times and trials of this extraordinary experience and here’s what you told us:
The most popular items?
- Face Masks (including “my sparkly sequined masks,” “a CU mask,” and “a Spartan mask”)
- Several pairs of sweatpants (“I now own twice as many as I used to” Author note: You’re not alone!)
- A recording or sign saying “You’re muted”
- A recording or a screenshot of a Zoom class
- Hand sanitizer
There were a handful of other COVID care items suggested:
- A COVID testing q-tip
- Rescue Remedy
- Advil
- Digital Temperature thermometers
As well as some additional signs of the impact COVID has had on our work :
- The fall 2020 plan for re-opening our campus.Pens and temperature logs all soaked in hand sanitizer!
- A keyboard
- My headphones
- My ring light
- Recorded student feedback on their year (Author Note: Perhaps we include a copy of The COVID Chronicles?)
- My GIS students’ maps showing the evolution of the pandemic…done in real-time in 2020 (yikes!) and then again this year looking at the same data a year out.
- My heartfelt understanding that remote teaching is NOT why I got into higher education.
And then there were the really creative ideas:
- I have been collecting my quarantine anthems and I have been asking students to do the same. The prompt is, as Italians did early on in the pandemic, what would you have sung to your neighbors from your virtual balcony? What song is your pandemic anthem? I would put a list of those titles or the actual recordings in the time capsule. A pair of running/hiking shoes for all of those physically distanced outdoor activities.
- I learned to crochet during the pandemic, so I would probably put a fun crocheted item in, like a koozie or a hat for a cat.
- Spiro’s Hawaiian shirt speech from Convocation! (Author Note: A recording of the speech? Or just the Hawaiian shirt?)
