Life in Lockdown – July 2020

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve written a life update. Given that I’m still in quarantine, you have to wonder what the heck I have to update you on. Well, there are plenty of things that have changed.

School

I finished Zoom University online for the spring semester, getting the best grades I’ve seen since I started at UVA. I have since had about a month to relax and work on my own side projects. As of now, I have started summer online classes, taking Media Ethics, Podcrash, Writing for Television, and Multimedia Production. I’m only taking two classes at once and I am also doing an internship, learning about dialogue and how to navigate difficult conversations with people who are in conflict with one another.

Media Ethics requires A LOT of reading but it’s been interesting to see its roots in philosophy and discussing the monetization of social media based on selling user information. Seriously, as long as I can, I will never use Facebook again and I am never downloading Tik Tok.

Podcrash has been nice in that we can interview people and edit our work. I love intervewing friends and getting to craft stories out of what they say, and then adding music to their words ~*chef’s kiss*~ It’s such a cool thing to do.

So far, so good.

UVA decided to have students return to school for Fall 2020. We are still months away from returning to school, so who knows what will happen until then.

 

Family + Friends

I’m feeling so tired of being home. As lovely as it has been baking and watching Netflix and finding new books and podcasts, I think a lack of a sense of agency is really getting to me. The lack of activity coupled with being with inside all the time is why I’m already super excited to go back to school.

I was chatting to a friend today, and that was much needed. I so needed to laugh and get angry and learn and listen and talk to someone other than family to process this time and all that’s been going on.

 

Lessons

I’ve been listening to Beautiful Anonymous and the episode “Black Woman in America” is very powerful and has a perspective that I resonate with SO MUCH. To be black in America is such an experience, made even more anxiety-inducing given all that’s going on in the world. It’s good that people feel the desire to express their humanity and cry out for justice to be done. It sucks that there are people who are marginalized by something they cannot control and unspeakable atrocities have been done in the name of race.

On another topic, you all should look up the information Google, Facebook, and Twitter have on you. Since I don’t use Facebook, it didn’t collect that much data on me, but Twitter has old phone numbers of people I knew in middle school! That’s wild! I was watching a documentary for my Media Ethics class called Shoshana Zuboff on surveillance capitalism. Check it out!

Google found out that a woman was pregnant and told her dad before she did! It is so disturbing to think about how much information Google and Facebook had on you and how they’ve sold that information to third parties with no accountability of what will be done with that information. Our information is being sold for the highest bidder. That’s one reason why I stopped using Facebook and got a new browser. That said, we all use Gmail and Google Docs. Google has so much information that I’ll never be able to retrieve completely.

Fall 2020

Like I was saying before, I’m excited to go back to school. I will ~finally~ have my own room with an incredible view. Classes will start in late August and go until Thanksgiving, but honestly, I’m glad it’s happening at all. College can be a solace with home being rough sometimes and gives agency to students like myself whose parents are so strict.

 

Blog News

I have finally decided to invest in my blog! After a year and a half of having my blog hosted by WordPress, I self-hosted it! You can now visit my blog at studyinglifewithgigi.com. I figured that since I spent a year and a half updating this blog, getting more consistent as I went along that I needed to take the next step. There will be a blog post announcing this! I am excited to announce this next step once I work on the kinks I have on the site! But please check the website out!

Resolutions

Friends = learning how to be a better texter, but I love the FaceTimes and the Zoom calls!

Finances = quarantine got me doing A LOT of online shopping + my computer charger broke but for the month of July, I will not be buying anything! Woo! ~shopping ban~

Faith = I’ve been reading so much of my Bible. In quarantine, I’ve read 2 Chronicles, Jeremiah, Isaiah, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Daniel, and now I’m reading Ezekiel. Finally got a grind with my Bible. The Bible is such a cool book!!

Music

• Crystal Clear by Hayley Williams
• Already Done by Free Worship
• Hurry Up and Wait by MercyMe
• Fall by Neck Deep
• Crying Out Loud by State Champs
• Deep End by Lecrae

Crystal Clear is such an album closer. It evokes an emotion of hope and promise.

Already Done is just a beautiful reminder of the work of the cross. Enough said.

Hurry Up and Wait is a song MADE FOR 2020. Watch both the lyric video and music video. Both will make you happy and they both make sense together. Just dance to this jam.

Fall is a display of Ben Barlow’s vocals and I am in love. I am so excited for a new pop punk album!

Crying Out Loud is all the reasons why I think State Champs really does slow songs well. There’s emotions, the guitar is clear, it’s just well done.

Deep End is a fun song to listen to but it’s on a serious topic. Our world is in serious chaos and pain, and we have to be willing to do the work to be better.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post. I’m never sure what you take away from life updates. Maybe it’s nice to hear from someone and stay updated on their life. Maybe you learned something new and it will change your view on how you use social media. (Like how the model of monetization of social media is our information.) Maybe you found a new song that you love. If you do, please let me know! Maybe you found a new favorite podcast. In that case, please blog about it. I’d love to read it. I hope that you are well and I hope that you know you are loved.

Signing off,

Gigi

Comment down below any life updates or what has changed in your life!