Photo credit: Kennedy Wright
I’m a graduating Journalism – Mass Media student at Durham College (DC). My path to storytelling and journalism has been a long one. Before attending DC, I was a History and Intermediate Education major at Lakehead University. However, I found myself spending more time writing a sports blog and less time doing homework. I decided to pursue writing and storytelling because of the joy it brought me while I was so far away from home. I was born and raised in Oshawa, Ont., so the move to Thunder Bay for school was a big one. Writing made it easier.
I’m not an athlete by any means but sports play a big role in my day-to-day life. Before this year, I had been a season ticket holder for the Ontario Hockey League’s (OHL) Oshawa Generals since 2006. This year, I landed a social media and communications internship with the team. My number one task is to operate the team’s Twitter account during home and away game days. This internship has been a dream come true. I have been able to get my foot in the door of the industry I want to be in, doing something I love for my favourite team.
This is where COVID-19 comes in.
Since the pandemic started, like many others, I have been impacted in a lot of ways. The final weeks of my college diploma have been moved online, original placement plans have been cancelled and a lot of what I have been looking forward to being a part of is no longer there. For one, the OHL season was cancelled. This impacted me as a fan of the team but also as a team employee. Secondly, I had applied and gotten the job to be a member of the social media team for the IIHF Men’s World Hockey Championships in May. The tournament was also cancelled. The hockey woes continued when the Canadian Hockey League cancelled all of its playoffs, including the Memorial Cup. It was supposed to take place in Kelowna, B.C., and I was supposed to be there.
With most of the things I usually do to pass time being cancelled, I have been finding new ways to keep busy. While in lockdown, I am Skyping my friends pretty frequently. We stay connected, play online games, listen to music, and even watch movies together. At home, I have discovered a new definition of binge-watching Netflix.
Now, alongside my colleagues and friends, we are bringing you the stories of other people who have been impacted by these unprecedented times.
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