Luke's COVID-19 Photo Essay
Image 1: Weather Meme
As a means of introduction, I would like to state through this essay I will be looking back and sharing my past six to seven months through this crazy time of Covid 19 lockdown, by using funny memes and images I’ve taken myself along the way.
Image 1
This meme for me sums up the first lockdown very easily in a funny fashion. The one time we don’t want the weather to be beautiful because we would be better off not going outside, the sun was splitting the stones nearly every day. This for me personally made lockdown very hard in the way of not going out to see my friends. The weather would have been perfect to go play soccer, golf or even go for a swim at the beach. But none of this was possible due to Covid 19 unfortunately.
Having said that, the lovely weather did let me attempt to grow my first vegetable garden out of my back garden with my younger brother which with no surprise failed miserably.
Image 2: Bless you Meme
Image 2
This image captures perfectly in a humorous sense how the world has changed so much during Covid 19 in just the way we treat certain things that used to be a normal daily occurrence. Simply using manners and saying bless you has been completely thrown out the window when somebody sneezes and has been replaced with the death stare.
I would like to think many people around the world have been in the same situation as me when you’re in a shop or travelling on public transport and you get the feeling that you need to sneeze or cough and you hold it in with everything you got so the people around you won’t look at you strange and judge you over a simple sneeze.
Image 3: Holiday Meme
Image 3
Since the beginning of Covid-19 I have seen many memes and jokes surrounding the whole experience of lockdown. However, this certainly made me laugh the most for a number of different reasons. Firstly, the pure creativity show by this man is nothing but less than amazing. To use a toilet seat as an aeroplane window and the image to look so lifelike is extradentary. Secondly, it’s the fact that this man makes a connection with a lot of people around the world in such a humorous way with just one simple image.
For example, it connects with me because I was meant to go on holidays with my family and my friends this summer but unfortunately had to cancel because it wouldn’t have been the reasonable thing to do at the time with everything going on.
Image 4: Covid Sign
Image 4
In today’s world, these Covid-19 safety signs are seen more commonly around all aspects of life from sport, school, shops and many more places.
This sign in particular was taken by me in my local GAA club. This is only one of many ways in which we tried our best to stop the spread of Covid-19 during the short time we were allowed to play this summer.
We took many precautions during the summer such as training in small groups at different times and sanitized the sliotars and our hands before and after every training just to be extra safe.
Image 5: Walking Dog
Image 5
This image was taken on one of my daily Covid walks to pass some time with my dog Zeus. Before lockdown I would say Zeus was getting one to possibly two walks a day. However, as soon as we got put into lockdown that escalated dramatically as I would drag him along for long walks that could last up to four hours some days just so I could get out of the house for a while and to relax on my own to clear my head. At stages of our walk the way he looked at me was as if he was asking me to go home funnily enough.
Another reason why I would bring my dog out for these long walks was for my own personal benefit. I was unhappy with where I was weight wise and I decided at the start of lockdown I was going to change my diet and try to be more active as much as possible, even if it drove my dog, Zeus, to get annoyed at me.
Image 6: Nature
Image 6
If I have learned anything on my Covid walks is that true this hard time for us humans, nature is taking advantage and flourishing in all its glory. As I took this picture, I was amazed how beautiful the view was and how I had never seen it before even though it’s only a short walk from my house. After this day I have visited this exact spot nearly every day to clear my head from all the confusion and struggles that have come up against me throughout the duration of Covid-19, most particularly in the first lockdown when I was trying to study for my leaving cert at home. This exact image has also inspired me personally to go on more walks and new adventures to try to find more stunning areas of nature that I can revisit in the future with friends when restrictions are lifted.
Image 7: Masks
Image 7
This image was taken from my workplace not so long after the new laws came in stating that people had to wear masks while entering shops and other facilities such as schools for example. Unfortunately, this is the new era we are living in today but as you can imagine day after day, I hear a number of different excuses from the customers coming in as why they aren’t wearing their mask. A few of the most common excuses are ‘I forgot it in the car’ or ‘i'll only be a few minutes’, and funnily enough, the people who do come in wearing the masks are wearing them wrong around fifty per cent of the time.
Along with customers having to wear masks we also ask them to sanitize their hands upon entry to the shop. They comply well enough now as they have gotten used to it but when we first brought the system into operation the reactions we got were shocking to say the least. One man even left the store because he refused to sanitize his hands! In reflection, I understand why people were getting frustrated as it was a new experience for us all during the first lockdown.
Image 8: Speech
Image 8
I took this image on the night of the big speech on the 19th of October. As I imagine nearly the whole country was sitting at home dreading the news that was about to come that we were about to be put back into lockdown for the second time. I found this to be a regular occurrence over lockdown. The whole family gathered around the television late at night awaiting the news on the daily total of cases and deaths hoping that both would be significantly lower than the day before. But funnily enough before lockdown or even before Covid-19 came around I would never watch the news or even pay attention to it. I suppose it’s just another change in my life that has come around true the effects of Covid-19.
Image 9: College
Image 9
This image sums up life for me and I’m sure many other students around the globe during these very strange times. In my experience of doing school or college work at home has been the most frustrating and stressful part of lockdown by far. For instance, everybody is trying to adapt to the new teaching ways of online learning even teachers themselves. It isn’t easy on anybody but the hardest part for me personally is the fact that I know I’m missing out on the person to person interaction that happens in class between students and teachers which makes learning way more fun and easier to comprehend. Overall, I really can’t wait to have lectures on campus and properly start college.
Image 10: Pub
Image 10
I took this image of the local pub in my village on the first Friday night of the second lockdown. If it was any other year by this time this pub would be full to the rafters with men and women enjoying a pint after a hard week’s work. However, the poor pub owners up and down the country have been getting an awfully hard time during Covid 19. In my opinion, after the first lockdown I would have thought many pubs were lucky to be still able to open their doors but after Ireland going into a second lockdown I really see this as the last nail in the coffin for many pub and business owners up and down the country which is awfully sad as there the hart and soul of the nation.
To conclude, I hope I have given a good discerption about my life’s, whereabouts, struggles and joys over the past six to seven months as we all fight true this strange and crazy time which will never be forgotten as 2020 the year of Covid-19.