Welcome!
Hello friends, family, neighbors, teachers, distant acquaintances, strangers, and everyone in between,
My name is Cristiana Hawthorne, and in case you don't know me, as of this moment in time, I am a 22-year-old senior at St. Olaf College, a sister, a daughter, a girlfriend, a friend, a photographer, an avid reader, a budding marketing and media professional, a French speaker, and Danophile. I love to travel, watch the sunset, and take long walks on the beach. And if you have any context for the year 2020, we are smack in the middle (at least I hope it's the middle!) of the COVID19 global pandemic.
In this blog, I hope to just take a second each week (or maybe every few days, we'll see how inspired I am!) to record some of the craziness and beauty of everyday life during this pandemic. Each post will be a written post, a video (with some first-person narration, and clips of everyday moments), photos, digital art, or some combination thereof. Heck, maybe I'll try a podcast one of these days.
Here my first little video diary entry, going over some of the why and what and how. If that's more your speed, take a watch. Or read on. Or do both, up to you.
Why am I doing this? For a few reasons. First and foremost, because I want to be able to look back on this pivotal moment in my life and remember pieces of what it was like. Pieces of life in quarantine have already become normalized: Zoom happy hours, days spent with the family, online classes, online choir, not shopping, or going to the movies. I want to be able to remember and capture the shock and absurdity of these moments and experiences, as they happen.
Because this feels so pivotal. Because this feels like a big moment. Not just for me, not just for my school, not just for Minnesota, not just for the US, but for the entire world. Maybe we'll look back in two years and realize it wasn't. It was just a blip. But then, all the more reason to document now. To preserve this weird limbo space between comfort, family, home, time "off", creativity... And fear, uncertainty, anxiety, stress, grief, loss, and separation.
It's in part an excise in living each day and recognizing it for what it is. To give credit to the little things that are making life keep moving, and to remember the outside world. It is so easy right now to forget that anything exists outside your walls in more than an abstract way. I remember that there are grocery stores almost the same way as I know that the Kardashians actually do live and exist somewhere in California. So this is a second for me to pause and reflect and take note. To be an active participant in my own story, at a time when it is starting to feel like it is being written for me by a force so large its brought the earth to a pause.
So in a lot of ways, this is for me. This is for future me. This is for the people who aren't even born yet or won't remember this time. But looking at it through a personal narrative lens. And all that is very serious and lofty for a personal blog. There are so many folks right now documenting this time, and writing journals, and taking photos, and posting videos. I'll be the first to say it. But it's important for me to join those folks, and do what I can. Again, a little lofty. To bring it down to earth a little bit, I am so hoping that I can sprinkle some humor and perspective in here as well.
And I know that there might be some of you following along in the present, as I write this. (Shout out to Grandma Terri, Grandpa Jack, Tisha, and Jerry, who I know will be some of the first to read this!) If you have any fun little stories, or photos, or videos you'd like to share with me to post here, I would be honored! I love the idea of a guest blogger. So if anyone would like to take a crack at writing a post on here or being featured in a post, send me an email at cristianaph@gmail.com. I'd be more than happy to accommodate! The more the merrier! (As long as we're 6-feet-apart! Ba-dum-chh)
So expect a post here in the next couple of days. And I hope, hope, hope this doesn't become a long-standing blog, but that it just has a few posts!
Peace to you all, and wishing everyone good health,
Cristiana
P.S. I haven't had time to work on this blog ~aesthetic~ yet, but we'll get there. I'm gonna take off the stock photo of the desert (as beautiful as it is!) and replace it as soon as I get the chance. But now, I'm a little late to online class... Thank God it's asynchronous!
My name is Cristiana Hawthorne, and in case you don't know me, as of this moment in time, I am a 22-year-old senior at St. Olaf College, a sister, a daughter, a girlfriend, a friend, a photographer, an avid reader, a budding marketing and media professional, a French speaker, and Danophile. I love to travel, watch the sunset, and take long walks on the beach. And if you have any context for the year 2020, we are smack in the middle (at least I hope it's the middle!) of the COVID19 global pandemic.
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| Quarantine Selfie! ft. Oliver |
In this blog, I hope to just take a second each week (or maybe every few days, we'll see how inspired I am!) to record some of the craziness and beauty of everyday life during this pandemic. Each post will be a written post, a video (with some first-person narration, and clips of everyday moments), photos, digital art, or some combination thereof. Heck, maybe I'll try a podcast one of these days.
Here my first little video diary entry, going over some of the why and what and how. If that's more your speed, take a watch. Or read on. Or do both, up to you.
Why am I doing this? For a few reasons. First and foremost, because I want to be able to look back on this pivotal moment in my life and remember pieces of what it was like. Pieces of life in quarantine have already become normalized: Zoom happy hours, days spent with the family, online classes, online choir, not shopping, or going to the movies. I want to be able to remember and capture the shock and absurdity of these moments and experiences, as they happen.
Because this feels so pivotal. Because this feels like a big moment. Not just for me, not just for my school, not just for Minnesota, not just for the US, but for the entire world. Maybe we'll look back in two years and realize it wasn't. It was just a blip. But then, all the more reason to document now. To preserve this weird limbo space between comfort, family, home, time "off", creativity... And fear, uncertainty, anxiety, stress, grief, loss, and separation.
It's in part an excise in living each day and recognizing it for what it is. To give credit to the little things that are making life keep moving, and to remember the outside world. It is so easy right now to forget that anything exists outside your walls in more than an abstract way. I remember that there are grocery stores almost the same way as I know that the Kardashians actually do live and exist somewhere in California. So this is a second for me to pause and reflect and take note. To be an active participant in my own story, at a time when it is starting to feel like it is being written for me by a force so large its brought the earth to a pause.
So in a lot of ways, this is for me. This is for future me. This is for the people who aren't even born yet or won't remember this time. But looking at it through a personal narrative lens. And all that is very serious and lofty for a personal blog. There are so many folks right now documenting this time, and writing journals, and taking photos, and posting videos. I'll be the first to say it. But it's important for me to join those folks, and do what I can. Again, a little lofty. To bring it down to earth a little bit, I am so hoping that I can sprinkle some humor and perspective in here as well.
And I know that there might be some of you following along in the present, as I write this. (Shout out to Grandma Terri, Grandpa Jack, Tisha, and Jerry, who I know will be some of the first to read this!) If you have any fun little stories, or photos, or videos you'd like to share with me to post here, I would be honored! I love the idea of a guest blogger. So if anyone would like to take a crack at writing a post on here or being featured in a post, send me an email at cristianaph@gmail.com. I'd be more than happy to accommodate! The more the merrier! (As long as we're 6-feet-apart! Ba-dum-chh)
So expect a post here in the next couple of days. And I hope, hope, hope this doesn't become a long-standing blog, but that it just has a few posts!
Peace to you all, and wishing everyone good health,
Cristiana
P.S. I haven't had time to work on this blog ~aesthetic~ yet, but we'll get there. I'm gonna take off the stock photo of the desert (as beautiful as it is!) and replace it as soon as I get the chance. But now, I'm a little late to online class... Thank God it's asynchronous!
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