Because of the outbreak of COVID-19, the vast majority of Mercer students have left campus. All students, regardless of location, have transitioned to online learning. Five Studio Production students, are keeping a weekly video diary of their time at home.

Hello! My name is Emily Harvey. I’m a senior at Mercer University and for the past two weeks everyone knows we’ve been under quarantine. So I have actually left Mercer and I’ve traveled up to my home in North Carolina. It’s really beautiful here, but I wish I could finish my university out at Mercer. The past week or so I’ve been doing a lot of different things, trying to pass the time and forget we’re in the middle of a pandemic. So I’ve done a lot of reading, a lot of watching Netflix, a lot of spending time with my family, going on walks, different things like that. Um, I’m here with my mom and my twin brother. My other siblings are kind of spread out. My brother and my dad are actually quarantining in a different part of North Carolina right now because my brother was coming from Louisiana and my dad works in a military base where there was some exposure so everyone’s kind of spread out. But here at home we’re doing a lot of different things together. My mom and I are cooking, playing some board games. I’ve started online classes this week, so I’ve been doing a lot of prep and a lot of schoolwork, and then my twin brother goes to Berry, so he’s been doing a lot of the same. But, I think everyone is holding up really well, trying to make the most of the situation and hopefully things improve and I’ll be back in Macon soon, but if not, we’re doing everything we can here to make everything better.

Hello everyone. So, uh…this is me, KJ. Throughout my time in quarantine, I’ve been, y’know just chillin out here, although my room–I used to be upstairs on the top floor–has been getting worked on a bit, so I decided to show y’all around. This, of course, is my bed. It’s kinda big and beautiful. It looks nice, probably gonna get a new bedspread to make it look a little more, y’know, manly and what-not. This is my…I call it the bookshelf, but I mean it’s entertainment, basically, it’s kinda the entertainment chamber, because look. What you got here is books, you can tell I have a good number of books. You can tell I have a good number of books. I guess you can say I am a bit of a reader in my time. But, here I’ve got, y’know, TV–a new TV I got for Christmas that’s incredible, and yes, I know my reflection is in it…whatever, I’m just doing this for funsies. And then my PS4 which I play on every day. So, yeah, that’s cool. And all these magazines and high school yearbooks I just like to look through. So, yeah. Here is the bathroom. Work needs to be done on it. So, yeah. It’s just kinda, you know, a bit of…, I think the bar over there needs to be lifted a little bit and then you know, you’ve got the toilet and that kinda needs to be set up. So yeah, it needs to just…, there’s a little work in it, but I’m sure it will get done. Well, thank you, everybody, for coming on the brief tour of my room. I really enjoyed having y’all with me. And don’t worry, we’ll be out of quarantine soon.

It’s been a week since I went out. My father says that there has been quite a change in the grocery store. I interviewed him about it just to see. And because I think that it’s important to record and,you know, this is history. So here is what my dad John Kirk, who is retired and 65 had to say about it. So grocery shopping. Publix just announced that they’re open for seniors 65 and over Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning from seven to eight. So today was the first time I tried it out. Normally, I used to go after the gym, you know, so between 12 and one and I would go two or three times a week. So now I just go once a week, and I go, I plan to go from seven to eight because that was very successful this morning. So I had been at Publix at seven One o’clock the week before, and there was only five or six people waiting to get in. This morning when I went there, there was 40 to 50 people all lined up some wearing gloves and one or two wearing masks. I actually put on a pair of latex gloves before I went into the store and while I was in the store, I tried to maintain six feet from people. And when I was finished, I disposed of my gloves. brought the groceries into the house, and then wash my hands with hand sanitizer.

Hey everyone, I’m Yasmeen Hill with the WMUB newsroom.(pause) Life is looking very differentnow that everyone is hopefully practicing social distancing/ or isolating as needed. I know we’re all adjusting differently, I’m personally on day 9 of my social distancing/ pseudo self-isolating experience. I’m still here on Mercer’s campus,(I’m literally filming this in my dorm right now). I chose to stay on campus partly because of my position here as an RA, but more importantly because of my family. They are currently self-isolating in Atlanta. So I stayed in Macon in the interest of not exposing myself or any of them. The fact that we are in the midst of a global pandemic is a pretty anxiety inducing fact, and a lack of human contact can impact the psyche. I like to take the extra time to meditate. Just a second to breathe.I turn on my diffuser (which I filled with peppermint essential oil today) and try
to escape. An unfortunate convenience now that a lot of students have left campus is the ABUNDANCE of vacant washers and dryers. So I had to take advantage and wash my entire wardrobe. Yes, I took up five machines, what about it? A big adjustment has been the transition to online classes, it’s overwhelming but it’s nice to see familiar faces to remind me that we’re all in this together.
That’s all that I’ve been up to recently, hopefully I can share some more updates along the way. Stay safe and healthy! With the WMUB Newsroom I’m Yasmeen Hill.

Today is my first day of quarantine diaries, it is Tuesday, March 24. It is my first day of online classes, so I need to go ahead and do some last minute homework that I did not do. Class one is done and now I have a little time for a lunch break before my second class starts in 10 minutes. Last but not least, class number 3. Last one meeting for the day. I enjoy going out and doing things, so yesterday I went to High Falls, today I am at Ocmulgee Indian mounds, you can see the mound in the back, and I’m just connecting with nature. And to be honest, this is the most I’ve done nature-wise in a year, so, it’s pretty fun. At least I’m getting out and doing things, so there’s that.