[This text is machine generated and may contain errors.]

Mailyn Nelson
Interviewer

Javon Wells
Interviewee

April 18, 2022
Greenville, North Carolina

MN: (00:01)
Hello, my name is Mailyn Nelson. And this is going to be my interview for the oral history assignment for the American folklore class this spring semester with Miss Kitta. And here, the oral history assignment is just asking a friend or loved or family member, what we feel about certain topics that we have talked about throughout the semester. So I'm going to be asking my friend Javon Wells.

JW: (00:31)
Hello,

MN: (00:32)
I'm going to be asking you a few questions. I'm going to ask you some of the sample questions Ms. Kitta listed on the oral history assignment So let's start off with I know you mentioned your name but what is your affiliation with the university?

JW: (00:54)
I'm currently a junior at East Carolina University. I'm studying Business and Marketing.

MN: (01:00)
How are you liking that? So far?

JW: (01:01)
It's pretty cool. No, the math side of things gets kind of tough, but pretty cool. Overall, I'm just ready to get started on my major courses.

MN: (01:13)
What business do you have to take economics classes and micro macro economics?

JW: (01:18)
Yes, you do. Already took those classes. My freshman and sophomore year.

MN: (01:23)
Yeah, I had to take those two and I passed with a C wasn't too bad, but they were hard. So I understand. If don't like that, or you don't like your major. Alright, so how was the pandemic discussed or handled and classes and extracurricular work? So did your professors bring up the pandemic? Or how COVID has affected your classwork? Did they talk about it at all? Or no, they didn't. They just adjusted pass through

JW: (01:51)
For sure, Most professors talked about it. Me Yeah, like I said before, most of my professors talked about it. Some classes, we got an in depth with it, and then some we just talked about it for a little bit and just continue to go along with the years some professors incorporated it with their lessons and everything like that. So I'll say it's a bit 5050.

MN: (02:18)
So COVID, I believe they announced it our spring break two years ago, or was it was a junior year, sophomore year, sophomore year, I believe, sophomore year, during spring break. So how did you learn about it? Did you? Yeah, did you just get the email from the school? Or? Like, how did you know they were gonna close the campus? Did you have a friend tell you, did you learn from the school first?

JW: (02:47)
a couple of my friends told me it was kind of quite obvious that the more and more things kept shutting down, the more likely it came idea that we might have the same possible outcome. So I mean, I wasn't surprised, but at the same time, I was disappointed that we weren't able to return back to school.

MN: (03:10)
Yeah, I remember, um, I think the whole COVID thing came out January, our spring break was around March. So I feel like at the time, people knew about COVID. But they didn't know about the severity of it. They didn't know that we were going to be at the school and online. Well, we did kind of, but it was last minute. Like it was just so sudden. So next question. Um, so what was your experience of actually leaving the campus? Did you have the will you have an apartment here? So did you stay here at your apartment? Did you go home?

JW: (03:45)
Um, dang, it's been so long since that happened. But I think I stayed at my apartment for a low part of it. And then I just went back home just because the fact of like, I'm just wasting money, staying out here by myself. And I could just go home and like work, and just have a, I guess, some sort of free living, even though I still have my apartment here. But um, yeah, I just went back home to like, work back in my old job.

MN: (04:19)
Where was that?

JW: (04:21)
At the time, I was a valet driver. And

MN: (04:25)
I thought that you worked at the moving company.

JW: (04:27)
I think I did. At the same time. I had multiple jobs during that time. But I know for sure I was working out my valet job for the most part. And I remember, they shut they shut down the whole job because of COVID, due to COVID. And everything. So

MN: (04:42)
same with the moving or

JW: (04:44)
the moving company. I believe we did, we were still moving. Because to be honest, I'm sorry. I'm the COVID thing with the moving company. I know everybody has to move regardless, no matter what Under what conditions it is and everything. So that played a big role. So we were just were told to wear masks

MN: (05:07)
and everything was just, you don't have to wear masks when moving people

JW: (05:11)
wear masks the whole entire time. Um, it wasn't really that big of a difference. I mean, I think I was kind of, what's a call? Would you say? Um, dang, I lost the word in my head. But I was adjusted to the mask policy. So it really didn't bother me that much. Working wearing a mask.

MN: (05:36)
So did you have any thoughts or emotions as you were leaving? Like, did you think that this was going to last a long time? Do you have water?

JW: (05:47)
Not really.

MN: (05:51)
Alright, back to the question. So what were your thoughts as you were leaving? Like, did you think this was gonna last long?

JW: (05:59)
The campus ECU

MN: (06:00)
Yeah, just leaving ECU due to COVID. Did you think that this was going to be happening throughout graduation? Like how long did you think this was gonna happen? The whole COVID Mask wearing thing was going to happen at the time.

JW: (06:14)
Um, at the time, I was actually delusional to the fact of COVID I believe that we were going to return back same semester, next semester, or even like a couple of weeks later. Um, but as time and time kept going by, we was just stuck in the house for a really long time. Apparently, I mean, now we can even go back so

MN: (06:40)
you have any water? So the next question on here is, where are you living now? I kind of already touched upon that, that you have your apartment. But what is the name of if you don't mind disclosing that information?

JW: (06:55)
Other than copper beach townhomes.

MN: (06:58)
And have you stayed there all throughout COVID? Or did you move apartments?

JW: (07:04)
I mean, I stayed here throughout COVID. I mean, I already said before, I went back home, for a little part of it. But also, I was traveling back and forth here there was a time a point in time where I was just living here. But so

JW: (07:20)
just because I didn't want to make my apartment go to waste, because I'm paying for it. I wasn't living in it at the time. So

MN: (07:29)
you want to get your money's worth for them or at least come back. So what does a day in the life of Javon look like for you? What do you do from Wake up until you go to sleep?

JW: (07:47)
When I wake up, yes, usually when I first wake up is around like before I had to go to class, depending on the day. Mondays, I usually don't have to go to class until two o'clock. So I usually sleeping for majority of the day, after I go to class. Or if I do wake up early, I try to do some homework throughout my my homework before the week. Then I go to class. And then after I get out of class, I come back. And then I go to the gym. I'm usually in the gym for majority of my day, and it's probably like two hours of my day down in the gym. Then after the gym, I come back home, but if don't have any more homework to do. I'll just chill hang out with my friends, or I mean definitely cook, clean up my room, shower, then sometimes play the game, watch a movie or so. Now just regular

JW: (08:45)
college stuff that you would do. Yeah, I don't really do that much throughout the day. I feel like my day is complete when I go to the gym.

MN: (08:54)
So so I know now COVID they've eased up on the whole COVID situation. We don't have to wear masking class. You don't have to wear mask in most public places. But this next question is how is it affected by your current restrictions? Are there still any restrictions that you have to COVID? Or? I know this would have been a better question to ask during COVID or so let's let's let's rearrange that question. How was your daily life affected during the whole COVID time so let's think back to a year or even a few months ago, where the mass mandate was was not lifted? It has not been lifted? How did it affect your daily life during the whole COVID time? Prior to this semester?

JW: (09:38)
I was I wouldn't say it really affected my daily life. I mean, some parts I guess just the whole wearing a mask everywhere was the big like key thing that was affecting me but other than that I still was able to do I needed to do I was working. I found all, some types of way to work like DoorDash

MN: (10:02)
DoorDash, were you doing DoorDash before?

JW: (10:06)
Yeah, DoorDash or even working with my moving company as well. Um another thing that affected COVID effective my day to day life was my job, lost my job

MN: (10:23)
Which one?

JW: (10:24)
it was the valet job just because we weren't allowed to work because all the restaurants have closed down that we're working at. So we couldn't even we weren't able to valet anybody.

MN: (10:37)
Okay, so it was it just you that they let off? Or was it just

JW: (10:41)
the whole the whole company itself was let go. At least we were just closed for a certain period of time until restaurants open back up because our main restaurants shut down due to COVID.

JW: (10:41)
What restaurants did you valet for?

JW: (10:55)
Oh, my Ruth Chris. PF Changs 42 seasons, very high end restaurants. Or like malls. The valet The Stern, Capital Grille.

MN: (11:17)
So how did that work? Did you get a schedule letting you know which restaurant you should report to for that day? Or?

JW: (11:24)
It's more as just like, I mean, yeah, it's based on your time and availability you have to work on they usually depending on where you are in the company, how much the manager likes you enough, because he needs certain people running certain restaurants because certain restaurants have their own expectations where they're vitally drivers and everything. And it just really depends on the how what type of work you were where you are, for the job, or at the job.

MN: (11:56)
And what city were these restaurants in?

JW: (11:59)
It was majority in Raleigh, downtown Raleigh, or yeah, just anywhere in Raleigh, sometimes Durham. Yeah, those are the only Raleigh was just the main city of everything.

MN: (12:11)
Was business Good? Did you get tips years good

JW: (12:13)
depending on like, if you go to the high end restaurants like we've Chris or Capital Grille, or even just like, there'll be like spots we will have where it'd be like a whole plaza where it's full of restaurants. And we were just like a big source for like parking valet. I we had our main parking deck. And then we have like, this is where Capital Grille was it was like right around the corner and they had their own valets for the same company as well. But yeah that's how it worked. kind of forgot what you asked.

MN: (12:49)
No, you answered it. So the next question is asking how has technology played a role in your life during the pandemic. So that's either in class, a way to get in share information or for your entertainment,

JW: (13:01)
technology technologies, just everybody has a chance for it to work like virtual everything. It wasn't really a big change, it will kind of was for like school wise. Because I'm, I'm not really like a online type of student, I need to be in class to what to call learn my material and be able to ask my professors questions on topics and everything like that, versus like being online site, you just basically going off your gut, in what you know. And like, it's just required to you that you need to learn the information for yourself. And I mean, yeah, you can ask your professors but like, it'd be kind of hard and you won't really get a good understanding like you would when you're in person.

MN: (13:47)
So you just told me how it played a role in your life for class. So how did it? How did technology play a role for entertainment? Were you on your phone more? Were you on Netflix, more Hulu? Were you on the game more?

JW: (13:59)
I mean, I feel like it was I don't think there was no change. I was stuff I was already doing beforehand. So it didn't really change on me, I guess. I did have more time to play the game or use my phone. But it wasn't really a big change. Like, it was just, I guess more, it just became a norm for for me.

MN: (14:21)
So you kind of just adjust it to the online class. didn't really mind it. How are your classes going now?

JW: (14:30)
Since we're back in-person a lot better versus being online because I'm not really good at like self teaching myself things. So being back in classes are helpful.

MN: (14:41)
I can can kind of relate 5050 I like being in person with some classes. It just depends on the class that um, I like to actually hear and see the professor more so for my harder classes, or like your labs, because it's hard to do a lab online. I tried to do a physics lab online. And we had to buy a physics physics lab kit before the semester started, they had it sent to us or we had to go pick it up somewhere I don't really remember. But we got assigned groups on to WebEx. And you had your normal lecture with your TA. And then we broke off into our group classes on the WebEx still, virtually everybody was in their own homes, it was funny seeing the different backgrounds. And when we broke off into our groups on the WebEx, we just perform the experiments that we would do in person through the computer. So it was nice having somebody to talk to you while we were doing it. But it was also kind of weird, felt like robots. But

JW: (15:41)
yeah, and another thing with that whole online thing was kind of like, I didn't really like it, because like, at the same time, I was also working. And like, I will have like, meetings with my classmates and everything and like that will interfere with my work schedule. Or sometimes, like I'll just get confused, like, get my dates mixed up and everything. So I wasn't be able, I wasn't able to participate in all my class, work and everything.

MN: (16:07)
So did your academic routine change during COVID or throughout COVID or still pretty the same?

JW: (16:14)
kind of changed. I definitely had to get ahead of more of my classes, due to the fact that I had to work majority throughout the time with me. I mean, I've been in COVID and everything. So

MN: (16:28)
are you involved in any student organizations on campus sports or clubs?

JW: (16:32)
I'm in one organization. it's diamond productions haven't really been a part of it that long. I mean, I haven't been really participating in the past couple, I guess, weeks or whatever. Just due to like, personal stuff that I had to handle. But uh, yeah.

MN: (16:52)
What about any sports?

JW: (16:55)
No sports or clubs or anything. I played intramural football for a little bit and soccer. Yeah, that's all I did.

MN: (17:04)
Did the pandemic affect any of those? As far as your student work at the time, because I know what the sports I played soccer with you. But that's after the mass mandate have lifted, so everything was pretty relaxed and chill. We just went out there to the soccer field to what is it? What is the name of the field that we went to you remember? Yeah, we went out to Blount field. They had the intramural people working out there it was, it was pretty relaxed. It was pretty normal, you wouldn't even think that we were going through COVID at the time. But besides that, how did COVID affect your student organization at the time, or even now,

JW: (17:41)
It's really just put everything on pause,

JW: (17:43)
to be honest. We weren't able to like, send everybody throughout the org or from different places around like the, I guess the world or even just the United States, or even just North Carolina itself, to be honest. Since we were all located in different cities and stuff like that, it was just everything just went to a pause until we came back. And that's when when we finally came back, that's when stuffs officially started, like rolling back into the norm of things and

MN: (18:16)
how are your friends or family doing? Or even partner if you have one? just in general.

JW: (18:24)
They're doing fine. Um, my family of course, like they're scared. I mean, they weren't they were scared. My family's fully vaccinated. I was kind of opposed to getting vaccinated. And my parents tried to, like emphasize the fact that I need to get vaccinated due to the fact that like, since I'm the youngest, and like, majority of my family, or like my immediate family, or like, they're more prone to like, get the virus or whatever, that's the word virus. Like I should keep them safe at all times.

MN: (19:03)
Do you have the vaccine?

JW: (19:04)
No, I do not, disclose that at the beginning. But yeah, I do not have a vaccine.

MN: (19:09)
How do you feel about the vaccine?

JW: (19:11)
To be honest, I mean, I heard a lot of different things about the vaccine and everything. I honestly just chose not to get it just because I did catch COVID Only once throughout the whole entire, I guess pandemic, whatever. I didn't catch it till Actually, I didn't catch it until like a week, the week after we came back to school for like full full in-session.

MN: (19:42)
Was this this semester? Well, not this semester, semester before. So fall semester this year?

JW: (19:47)
Yes. Yes, it was this year will fall semester but out of the, I guess what, three years of COVID being not only caught it once, during during the whole pandemic,

MN: (19:57)
how was COVID Having COVID like for you? Are you really sick because I know affected differently.

JW: (20:02)
I had the worst, the worst of the worst of the symptoms, I probably experienced everything besides losing my taste. Yeah, I was stuck in my bed for a whole week, or two weeks or whatever. On the first couple of days like was the worst, like, body aches, like the body aches were completely, like, I've never experienced any type of body aches like that. And then it's very sick.

MN: (20:30)
So how did you know you had COVID? Were you? Were you starting to feel a bit under the weather? And you decided to get tested? Or did you just get tested for school? Because you know, we had to do a weekly update if you didn't have the vaccine or weekly check in if we didn't have the vaccine. So how did you figure out you had really sick already?

JW: (20:48)
Yeah, I was actually sick. Um, I went out with some friends. We just did like a little event like a field day event.

JW: (20:56)
I came back home. I actually got wet that day, like it was we were

JW: (21:03)
at the pool or whatever. And I came back home. And I was like, feeling like really kind of out of it. Like I was just really tired. I thought I was just really tired at the end of the day, just because it was a long day. And I've like been drinking or whatever. So I just like ended up taking a nap at home. And then I woke up and that's when they felt it really hit me. Like my throat was sore. I couldn't really breathe that much. Like body was hurt and everything.

MN: (21:33)
Do you see yourself getting the vaccine at all?

JW: (21:38)
Probably not, to be honest, just because like, if I made it this far without really catching COVID? Because, yeah, if I made this fall without catching COVID Like, there's no point me receiving it again. I mean, getting the vaccine, the only way I'll probably get the vaccine is just because, like, traveling through this, like going out the country or or even just, I don't know, just like, you know, how it is everybody, like some places require you to have,

MN: (22:10)
do you think professors have to get vaccinated?

JW: (22:13)
I mean, I feel like the vaccine is just a choice. At the end of the day, it depends on how you feel about everything going on. Yeah, I wouldn't be like mad if my professors didn't like I totally understand. And I understand why they got into because a lot of our professors are kinda like old and everything. And they're, they can get exposed to it a lot worse than we can, as younger students

MN: (22:38)
especially in person being around students who party. So for their safety, I understand, especially if they have to go back to their kids to go home to their kids, their husbands their wives. I'm kind of neutral about the vaccine. The only reason why I got it is because I have plans throughout the summer that required me to get the vaccine. But I actually haven't gotten COVID throughout this whole pandemic that I know of at least. So that's my reasoning for not getting the vaccine. And I was just kind of skeptical, because after all of what was happening with COVID. The first year I believe it came out, I believe we knew about it in December, December of 2019. And then January of 2020 is when it started to come up more and then we went throughout spring break of 2020 Where am I going with this? Oh yeah, we went through our spring break of 2020. I still didn't get the vac, I still didn't get COVID at least what I know. But the vaccine came out a year after they came out with COVID. And in my mind, I thought it would take a bit longer to make a vaccine because I know they have a flu vaccine that they come out with, with different strains. But I don't know it was just kind of skeptical. I just wanted to see how well I would do without getting the vaccine or if I really, really needed it. At first I know my dad, he and my stepmom and my mom too. They pushed me to get the vaccine. They really wanted me to get it. But even after they got the vaccine, I know my mom. She got the vaccine, she got fully Vax. And then she had a monthly checkup. I don't know if it's a monthly but she had a regular routine checkup with the mammogram is as you should for an older woman. And they found lumps in her breast, which is actually crazy. And the doctor actually said that it was normal in women who got the vaccine, which shouldn't be normal for women who get the vaccine because it's a whole lump in your breast, which was kind of weird. So I'll just move on to the next question. What are your impressions of the media coverage of the pandemic, both currently and before it arrived in the United States?

JW: (24:52)
To be honest, I wasn't really paying that much attention to the press or whatever going on. And during the whole pandemic, because it's honestly, I just believe, like, news sometimes can just be fake news and everything. And it's just like what the government wants you to believe. And everything on. But I I'm sorry, I'm what's it called? blanking out right now. Can you repeat the question again?

MN: (25:22)
Yes. It says, What are your impressions of the media coverage of the pandemic, both currently and before it arrived to the United States?

JW: (25:31)
Okay. But yeah, yeah, I really like the news is fake news. So like, they just want you to believe what they want you to believe. I felt like before, before they lifted the mandate, whatever, like, they were pressing the issue, like, all these people are dying, like COVID is a serious thing. But it's just like after it went away, or the mass mandate happens, just like you don't really see that much anymore. In more like real just now now you're focusing more on like the war going on? Yeah, everything is just like COVID doesn't even exist. And maybe it's

MN: (26:07)
a distraction. To get people away from COVID, or how COVID has been affecting us for the past three years. It is kind of weird, though. Because before, I remember seeing the media, and I was actually scared of COVID I was scared, I was gonna get COVID I was scared, my family was gonna die from COVID. But it's actually crazy. Because during throughout the whole time, I only spoke with maybe two or three people who actually had a loved one die from COVID. Do you know anyone who died from COVID?

JW: (26:32)
I actually lost a couple of family members

MN: (26:34)
really?

JW: (26:35)
from COVID. Not super close, but pretty close family members. But yeah, so I experienced that side of things, too. So I guess that's also why my parents and my family were more like, I guess, pressing issue, the fact that need to get the vaccine and everything just because like, family members dying, but at the same time where they were just like their older family members, too. So like they're just more exposed to COVID in I guess, through like immune systems and everything wasn't as strong as mine.

MN: (27:11)
Did they have any underlying diseases that you know of, like, asthma? Cancer?

JW: (27:18)
I wouldn't know like, personally for sure. But maybe some of those did play parts to it.

MN: (27:28)
So what seems well, what seemed normal before COVID happened That seems strange to you now? If you

MN: (27:39)
don't? Okay, so I'm going to rephrase that question a little bit, because it seemed kinda all over the place. The question was, what seemed normal, before the pandemic, that seems strange to you now.

JW: (27:57)
Shaking hands in public. Because I know now like, a lot of people are like this. Or don't even shake hands at all anymore. Due to that is like wiping your face, public, or like handling cash. Just because like, I know, cash money, like cash is the number one source of or it's like, most dirtiest thing in this world. There's so many people touch it. Or

MN: (28:37)
I know one of the things that seemed normal to me before was holding the bars on the subway or the train because I know. We don't have we really don't have trains and subways here. But you know, some people travel or there may be buses that people get on but holding it with your actual hands, because what I do now is I kind of wrap my arm around the bar now. So where the bar is, what is this part of my arm call? is like in the middle, right on top of the elbow. That means you know the weakness is the bottom part. I'm talking about like the crack on the surface. On the on your forehead, between your arms. Yeah, on the forearm in your, the bend between your forearm and your muscle,

JW: (29:25)
your bicep

MN: (29:26)
bicep. This is the bicep? I thought the bicep was on your chest. Yeah, so that's, I guess what? He thought to be normal

JW: (29:34)
Chest is your pectorals

MN: (29:37)
Hey, I'm sorry. So another question. Did you miss out on anything during COVID?

JW: (29:46)
A lot of family vacations we had planned during COVID didn't get to go on those. I used to go into like a yearly on cruise with my grandma every year.

JW: (29:57)
So we were wearing allowed to do that. Yeah, just a whole bunch of vacations. A lot of birthdays missed, you know, but yeah, that's about it.

MN: (30:09)
How do you feel about wearing a mask or the mask mandate?

JW: (30:14)
icon, it wasn't known to wear a mask everywhere because like you just forget to like not wearing masks. But then we switch back to when the mandate was lifted, and we run a lot of merit. I mean, we didn't have to wear masks anymore. I kind of felt weird a little bit. Just because there was a point of time I started walking around with no mask. And then like, people were looking at you crazy, right? Even die. I was like, I'm starting to see more people without masks, too. So after we got lifted up, yeah, it just felt a little weird, just because it's like, dang, like, everybody really didn't want to wear a mask anymore. So like, nobody's doing it.

MN: (30:48)
I know, it was kind of weird for me, because we begin, we run the school year off with wearing masks. So you have these kinda, you picture with somebody in your class looks like without their mask just by seeing half of their face. So being that they released it or lifted the mask mandate halfway through the semester. It's kind of weird seeing what people would look like now. I don't know.

JW: (31:08)
And it's just like, now it kind of is kind of weird seeing people wear masks versus not wearing masks and

MN: (31:12)
like still wearing masks. Yeah, like,

JW: (31:16)
like I sometimes I see people in the club or something where it's like, you really just defeating the purpose of everything. Because it's like, why would you wear a mask to a club, even though you know, you go into a place where there's gonna be a lot of people. And they're probably not wearing a mask either. So what's the point of going if you just couldn't wear masks?

MN: (31:33)
You know, how Coachella was this past weekend? Yeah, I seen somebody, well, a video of somebody wearing a mask at Coachella. And I was like, what out of all places? And you pretty much answered all of the questions that I had for like we talked about. Nice little. We talked about a good bit of information. But is there anything else that you would like people to know? Doesn't have to be about COVID Just in general, or said would you like to say?

JW: (32:03)
So what I'd say is, this is a nice little interview. Talk about reflect on the whole COVID pandemic and everything. I don't think people really have talked about it. I mean, some people might have, but probably not a lot of people. But I guess you can say it was like refreshing.

MN: (32:23)
Just a room and reflect back, think back? Well, I do appreciate you for helping me out with this assignment for taking 30 minutes out of your day. With 32 Technically, to answer a few questions really means that I'm pretty sure Miss Kitta if she's listening to this will also appreciate you. And right after this, I'll just need to get your signature for this consent form. Just so she knows that you signed a consent form for me to ask you all these questions and to upload it onto the COVID archives. All right.

[End of Recording]