Final Project 2.0

Here's a story of how the world went to (link-reveal: "shit. ")[Well, not //really// to shit. (link-reveal:"I mean, ")[it hasn't gone alllll the way to (link-reveal:"shit. ")[Not yet anyway(link-reveal:"...") [ But of course, there's still time for [[something to happen.]]]]]]

<h3>A Story of COVID-19</h1> <img src="https://www.furman.edu/covid-19/wp-content/uploads/sites/177/2020/03/CoronaVirusHeader-Final-2.jpg" width= "50%" height = "50%" alt="An image of Coronavirus (COVID-19)"> Told by Andrea Robinson [[>>->Intro]]

Ok back to the story at hand. So, we're all just going about our (link: "boring ")[-I mean //very fulfilling//-] lives. We wake up. Go to class. Then class. And another class. Eat [[lunch]]. Then do homework or whatever else makes us happy. Happy, what a [[concept->Happy]]. (click-goto: "class","class")

(if: visits is 1)[Have you ever taken a physics course? Lots and lots of studying. ] (elseif: visits is 2)[And don't forget about the humanities.] (elseif: visits is 3)[Aren't you tired of this yet?] (elseif: visits >3)[Okay we get it. You like class. We can talk about classes later.] Anyway, back to the [[story->something to happen.]]

Lunch is always a toss up. Commons has some good variety, but it tends to be hit or miss. (click: "hit or miss")[Union, on the other hand... You can never go wrong with that cripsy chicken caeser wrap, //even if you had it 4 times last week//.] When in doubt, I tend to go to (cyclinglink: bind $lunch, "Commons","Union"). But my dining preferences aren't [[the focus->something to happen.]] right now.

For the most part, that was the vibe of life. Yes, a new illness [[came out of nowhere->China]]. But that was something very far away from the bubble of [[Davidson]]. (if: visit is 2)[(replace:"But that was something very far away from")[But that shouldn't reach]]

[(textstyle:"bold")[December 2019:] A pneumonia of unknown cause appears in Wuhan. <div style="text-indent: 2em;">(text-style:"italic")[But that's ok. They'll recover.(event: when time > 4s)[ Right?]](response1|</div> [(textstyle:"bold")[January 9th:] First reported <red-link>death</red-link> from the virus occurs.](item2| [(textstyle:"bold")[January 23rd:] Wuhan goes into (text-style: "bold")+(textstyle:"expand")[lockdown.]](item3| <div style="text-indent: 2em;">(textstyle:"italic")[It should be contained now. Nothing to worry about.](response2|</div> (click: "Right?")[(show: ?item2)] (event: when time > 2s)[(show: ?response1)] (click:"death")[(show:?item3)] (click:"lockdown.")[(show:?response2)]](firstTime| (textstyle:"bold")[Wuhan ends its lockdown](secondTime| (if: visit is 1)[(show: ?firstTime)] (if: visit is 2)[(show: ?secondTime)] (clickgoto:"about.",(history:)'s last)

Here's some things to know about Davidson College: * Davidson is serious about its Honor Code. * Students work hard. (click: "work hard.")[They dont take breaks.] (click:"breaks.")[(show:?labor)]|labor)[* (linkreveal:"Labor Day?")[ A day to do more labor.]](click:"Labor Day?")[(show:?breaks)]|breaks)[* (linkreveal:"Fall and Easter breaks?")[ The time to study for midterms.]] * Cats are very wild. (click: "wild.")[So wild that not even pieces of metal falling off of Chambers, a foot of snow, or an active tornado warning keep us from going to [[class->closing]]. ](click:"Fall and Easter breaks?")[(show:?wild)]

[Maybe that's what took Davidson so long to close. (click-append: "close.")[ Even as the virus went international and cases [[spread all over the U.S.->US]]]](item1| [Mind you, scientist still didn't know much about (cyclinglink: bind $virus, "the virus", "the symptoms", "how it spreads", "how to test for it", "what the future would look like"). (event: when $virus is "what the future would look like")[But, a virus doesn't care what people know. It cares about its (textstyle:"underline")[survival].] [[So,-> future]]](item2| (if: visit is 1)[(show: ?item1)] (if: visit is 2)[(show: ?item2)]

[(textstyle:"bold")[January 20th:] First confirmed case in United States. (textstyle:"bold")[January 31th:] United States declares a Public Health Emergency. And that was just the beginning. (clickgoto:"beginning.",(history:)'s last)](item1| (if: visit is 1)[(show:?item1)]

What did the future look like? (click: "like?")[Well, during February it looked much the same. In the US, cases grew from 8 to 68,](click: "68,")[ a small number compared to what was to come.] (click:"what was to come.")[Other countries weren't so fortunate. Italy saw their [[cases]] surpass a thousand in the same time span.]

It's a good time to let you know what is //actually// meant by "cases". (click: "meant by \u0022cases\u0022.")[ These numbers only refer to (t8n:"pulse")[ confirmed cases].] (click: "confirmed cases.")[Given the state of our testing capabilities, the true numbers are much [[higher]].] (clickappend:"capabilities")[, if our lack of testing is even considered "capable"]

Which brings us to March. Cases were in the hundreds, (click:"hundreds")[which was //probably// more like the thousands if you ask me.] (click:"ask me")[And to be honest, this is the point I started to (linkreveal:"worry.")[ After all, the college had changed nothing about its plans.]] (click:"plans")[While my peers were fulfilling their Spring Break plans, I was travelling to the A-10 tournament. With the growing threat of COVID-19, the Athletic Deparment asked me to get my doctor's [[approval]] for the trip.]

By the way, the NBA season was terminated on March 11th. Boo hoo. No more sports. (linkreveal:"It's funny,")[ people seemed to care more about that than the fact that people were dying.] (click:"dying")[But that's a rant for [[another day]].]

NBA is gone, schools are closing, and (link-reveal:"I'm...")[ I'm for some reason still going to class.] (click:"going to class")[Yes, I know. It's wild.] (click:"wild")[But, cats are wild. [[Right?]]]

THE END Thank you for reading this story!

Now that I think about it, if someone was concerned about me traveling, (click:"concerned")[ did they ever stop to wonder what it meant for the student body to return to campus from (textrotate: -15)[who] (mouseout:"who")[(textrotate: 15)[knows]] (mouseout:"knows")[(t8n:"shudder")[where?](set:$done to true)]] (live: 6s)[(if: $done is true)[(goto:"I guess not")]]

I guess not. (live: 3s)[(goto:"not")]

People came back. Happy to see everyone. Less happy to start classes again. But (link-replace:"some people were")[//I// was] nervous. (click:"nervous")[Fortunately, we had "Our Shared Obligations" to wash our hands and cover our mouths in an effort to combat COVID-19.] (click:"combat")[Because that's worked so well to prevent (cyclinglink: bind $illness, "the common cold","pink eye","the flu", "hand foot mouth","noravirus","strep").] (event: when $illness is "strep")[College is a big germfest. But yes yes, "Our Shared Obligations" would [[protect]] us.]

Davidson's decision to not stop classes left me with a choice to make. (click: "choice to make")[ [[Go to class]] [[Don't go to class]]]

I took matters into my own hands and made the decision not to go to class. (click: "not to go")[Instead, I laid in my bed and checked [[Twitter]] for world updates.]

I went to class because I didn't want to fall behind. (click: "fall behind")[I //especially// couldn't miss lab.] (click:"miss")[So, I risked my health for a few hours of class just to please the institution.] (click: "a few hours")[Which was ok I guess.] (click:"I guess")[Until COVID-19 became a (textstyle:"shadow")[[GLOBAL PANDEMIC]].]

A lot of people were talking about in person classes being postponed. Some were told not to come back from spring break. Others told to pack up and leave. (click:"leave")[Classic Davidson telling its students to go to class in the midsts of a (text-style:"shadow")[ [[GLOBAL PANDEMIC]] ].]

<h4>(align:"=><=")[ "Important Campus Message Regarding COVID-19" ]<announcement|</h4> (click:?announcement)[ Davidson was [[going remote]].]

Tragic. (event: when time > 2s)[That's the only way I could think to describe the situation. (click:"describe the situation")[(linkreplace:"I wanted it")[It //needed//] to happen, but when it did happen I wanted it to [[be a lie]].]]

But it wasn't. It only took a few days for most students to clear out. (click:"clear out")[And then I was alone.] (click:"alone")[Ok that was a bit dramatic. I wasn't //alone// but I basically could've been. All of my friends were gone.] (click:"gone")[And I had to [[stay]] since my doctors were in Charlotte.]

Some of the people who complained about having to leave campus completely missed the point. [(align:"==>")+(css: "font-size: 150px")[.]](point| (click:"point")[Like seriously, here was the point (show: ?point)] (click: ?point)[and here were those people: (link-reveal:"(^_^)")[ (link-reveal:"(^_^)")[ [[(^_^)]]]]]

It's not like they were missing out on anything anyways. To throw in my E-lit vocab, it was a bit ~eerie~ walking around an [[empty campus]].

(if: $lunch is "Union")[Going to get a meal from Union was no longer possible since it closed, so Commons was the only option.] [The process for getting a Commons meal was altered. We stood on our designated spots 6 (align:"=><=")[feet](align:"==>")[apart] ] (click:"apart")[We took our food, which was now served to us, and left.] (click:"left")[We couldn't even sit at the outdoor picnic tables together. It was lonely, sad, and far from what I wanted.] (click:"wanted")+(css: "font-size: 15px")[Especially the weekend of [[April 18th...->empty]]]

But it was the new norm. (click:"new norm")[Life came to a [[halt]].]

(event: when time>3s)[(link-reveal:" Life")[(link-reveal:" is still")[ halted.]]] <img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/COVID-19_Outbreak_World_Map.svg/1200px-COVID-19_Outbreak_World_Map.svg.png" width="100%" height="100%" alt="Map of COVID-19 Spread"> (event: when time > 12s)[(goto:"END")]

Thank you for reading my project! I hope you enjoyed the story.