Collected Item: “Letters to Family and Friend during Pandemic”
What type of object are you contributing?
Document/File
Provide a brief title for the object you are contributing.
Letters to Family and Friend during Pandemic
Provide us with a brief description of this object and, if it is not obvious, how it connects with the Chippewa Valley. For example, if this object is an image describe for us what the image displays and why it is significant.
While being at college with a new address, I had some family members and friends send me letters to communicate with me, and it soon became an ongoing stream of communication of letters back and forth. My grandparents, whom I exchanged letters with frequently, keep scrapbooks and I knew they would like to include a handwritten letter (or multiple letters) from one of their granddaughters documenting the beginning of my college education at UW-Eau Claire and being in the middle of a pandemic. My friend Kamryn, who is a year younger than me and a senior at the high school I graduated from, mentioned casually over social media she wanted a pen pal to write to, so I began to write to her as well. These letters contain mostly surface level small talk; discussing what college is like to my family and friends, asking how they're doing--things that you would normally find in a letter to relatives. However, these letters also contain firsthand experiences and opinions relating to COVID-19 from my point of view, a college student adjusting to living away from home from the first time and dealing with a pandemic simultaneously.
When was this item created? Please use a "month day, year" format, for example, "April 10, 2020."
December 8, 2020
Share with us the geographic location where this item was created. Please include, if possible, a ZIP code and an address or cross streets to help us map this location. For example, "Rice Lake, Wis., 54868, intersection of Main and Knapp."
Merrill, WI 54452
Who created this object?
Anna Rydeski
Tell us who is contributing this object to the Covid-19 archive. For example, "John Smith."
Anna Rydeski
Help us identify a category for this item by selecting one option from this list that best fits the item you are contributing.
Education
(Optional) If there is another category that this item also fits please select it from the list.
Home and family
Is there anything else you would like to tell us about this object? Feel free to add relevant hashtags or a course hashtag if applicable.
#UWECHIST125
Your name.
[private]
I have read and agree to the terms and conditions associated with contributing objects to this project.
Yes