Audrey Carver: Okay. Audrey Carver: Okay, um, before we start, do you consent to this interview being recorded and donated to the Tufts Digital Collections Archives in order to be made openly available online in the Tufts Digital Library? Henry Baer-Benson: Yes. Audrey Carver: Great, thank you. Audrey Carver: And would you mind introducing yourself and saying your affiliation to Tufts? Henry Baer-Benson: I'm Henry Baer-Benson, and I'm a Tufts sophomore. Audrey Carver: What's your major? Henry Baer-Benson: Community Health. Audrey Carver: Cool, cool. Alright. Audrey Carver: Um, so pretty much, like I said, I'm just going to be asking questions about the Corona closure and what your life is like now to get a better understanding for the Tufts University responsibility and future pandemics. Audrey Carver: Um so, why don't we start with where you are now? Henry Baer-Benson: I'm at home in Minnesota. Henry Baer-Benson: Um yep. Audrey Carver: Okay, how's the online classes and finals going for you? Henry Baer-Benson: It really depends on the class. Um, there was not really any structure for how that was going to happen. So some of my classes actually improved when they went online because it Henry Baer-Benson: forced teachers to be more concise and communicate more. Henry Baer-Benson: But uh. Henry Baer-Benson: Most of them did not improve... um. Henry Baer-Benson: It's okay. It's just extremely disorganized. Audrey Carver: Yeah. Um, how is it for you to be working at home? Is that more challenging? Henry Baer-Benson: Yeah, I mean more challenging in the sense of like... Henry Baer-Benson: It's not... Henry Baer-Benson: I don't know, like, it definitely doesn't feel like being at school. And I think that is Henry Baer-Benson: goes with the fact that it's just way less organized and wasn't designed to be like, it was a lot of the classes were trying to just do Henry Baer-Benson: the in-person stuff but online and that doesn't really work. And so ends up feeling and like people are more forgiving and stuff and lenient but that makes it seem like uh. Henry Baer-Benson: Instead of okay, let's let's teach people online, it's like okay, let's just like make do with what we have. Which, so yeah, it definitely wasn't as good. Audrey Carver: Yeah. Um, and besides schoolwork, what is your daily life like now? What's a day in the life of Henry Baer-Benson? In quarantine? Henry Baer-Benson: Um. Henry Baer-Benson: I wake up, I eat breakfast, I do schoolwork, I eat lunch. I do more schoolwork, and then I go outside and play basketball. And then I come play Minecraft and then I maybe read or listen to a book or think about Dungeon and Dragons. And then I go to sleep and eat dinner at some point. Hope that made sense. Audrey Carver: Okay. Audrey Carver: And how are the members of your, your family, holding up as well? Henry Baer-Benson: We're actually fine but it's, yeah, I have all those siblings so they're all going to school like high school and middle school and Henry Baer-Benson: we're doing fine. Audrey Carver: Great, thank you. So if you could take me through back in March a little bit, the whole process of Tufts' closure due to Corona, kind of how you found out about it and what the move-out process was like. Henry Baer-Benson: Uhh, I actually found out about it while I was taking a test in my room Henry Baer-Benson: because my chemistry class had made it a virtual test or an online test because they didn't- they wanted to limit exposures. Henry Baer-Benson: But that meant that I essentially was just in my room taking it, and my roommate came in and like was like, oh yeah, they're closing school while I was taking the test. So I was like what the heck, and had to just like compartmentalize that until I finished and I was terrible. Um, but Henry Baer-Benson: other than that, I mean, I definitely think it's better that they told us sooner rather than later. Like they definitely shouldn't have waited, I think... Henry Baer-Benson: that... Henry Baer-Benson: move-out, there was honestly a lot of support. Henry Baer-Benson: I don't think there was much because like everything was, it was all just focus on like, okay get everyone out. Henry Baer-Benson: Let's put all our resources into that. And I guess I just wasn't Henry Baer-Benson: that much organization after that. Henry Baer-Benson: So I think there was good... Henry Baer-Benson: A lot of good help came from that. And actually, I think that they did a good job of listening to what people needed. Um. Henry Baer-Benson: I guess. Henry Baer-Benson: Yeah. Henry Baer-Benson: I'm trying to think, I feel like it would have been harder to make that decision earlier. Audrey Carver: Yeah. Henry Baer-Benson: Maybe like a few days, but not much more than that. Audrey Carver: Mhm. Do you wish anything had been done differently? Henry Baer-Benson: Uhh, not strongly. Henry Baer-Benson: I mean, more time would have already been great but since we were leaving for spring break, and um Henry Baer-Benson: it would have been hard to make that choice earlier that makes sense. Audrey Carver: Mhm. Okay. Audrey Carver: So something that I've kind of been asking a lot of people just because we are in... you know, kind of a strange and unexpected time is, what is something that you're doing right now that seems normal or is normalizing that would have seemed strange a couple months ago? Audrey Carver: Just in terms of daily life. Henry Baer-Benson: I mean, it's more Henry Baer-Benson: things that I'm not doing. Audrey Carver: Hm. Henry Baer-Benson: If we're looking at the good side, I mean, I've really tried to take advantage of the space that I have in at Henry Baer-Benson: my house because uh Henry Baer-Benson: before it was easy to just ignore that. Henry Baer-Benson: And do things Henry Baer-Benson: like build rituals online with people. Um. Henry Baer-Benson: And I guess I've had a lot of things like starting in Dungeons and Dragons campaign, like a lot of things that I wanted to do before, but was always like, ah that's- I'd rather do these other things. like I'd rather spend time going climbing or Henry Baer-Benson: running and biking with my friends or just hanging out. And now, like oh, I might as well devote my time to doing that thing. So that's kind of cool. And I feel like I am lucky in some sense that I can just do that. Audrey Carver: Yeah. You mentioned um, online rituals. What do those look like? Henry Baer-Benson: What do you mean? Audrey Carver: Oh, with your friends- you were saying like, having online kind of spaces that you share with other people. Henry Baer-Benson: Yeah, so Dungeons and Dragons is one of those. I'm trying to start just doing something where I see my friends every... we get together, we can just like play pretend online, which is Henry Baer-Benson: to take very few resources and then uhh. Henry Baer-Benson: Uh, we're doing something where we all like watch a show with my friends once a week, with my school friends. And I'll read bedtime stories every night. Henry Baer-Benson: And... Henry Baer-Benson: I don't know, just like. Henry Baer-Benson: I can't think of any other- I'll keep in touch. I'm someone who isn't good at keeping in touch. Henry Baer-Benson: And so it's more like when I build in things that Henry Baer-Benson: are a ritual. Um, it feels less like because I'm someone who- I'm just like, I'll see you when I see ya. But then if we are doing something together, such as like, watching a show or reading or playing a game, then it's, I'm able to see my friends. So, yeah. Henry Baer-Benson: For me, those rituals look like Henry Baer-Benson: having a purpose for me- not just like talking but having a purpose- like playing games, too, is another thing that we did a little bit more at the beginning. Henry Baer-Benson: Like Jack Box instead. Audrey Carver: Okay, um, like when you were talking about the kind of like, I'll see you when I see you mindset Audrey Carver: of staying in touch with people- has that changed now that we are not sure exactly when we're going to see people again? Like, are you putting more effort into building those rituals, do you think, or... Audrey Carver: approaching it, staying in touch, differently? Henry Baer-Benson: I don't think I'm approaching it differently. I definitely still have the alright, I'll see you when I see you mindset. But I think I'm more likely to want to reach out to someone... Henry Baer-Benson: every once in a while. Just cause' um... Henry Baer-Benson: I'm more likely to be lonely. Henry Baer-Benson: Because there's not Henry Baer-Benson: like I can't go and hang out with friends here. So it's just as, yeah I guess, that's that's the difference is that Henry Baer-Benson: it's just about as easy to... I need to talk to someone, you know, and it's just about as easy to reach out to my friends from school while I'm here as it is to reach out for my friends from home while I'm at home. Henry Baer-Benson: Because we're all spatially isolated. So it's just, everyone is a phone call away so I end up treating them a lot more similarly. Whereas normally I would just hang out with my friends Henry Baer-Benson: here and that would scratch my social itch. And then, whenever my friends from Henry Baer-Benson: school would message me or call me or whatever, I'd be like yeah, of course. But I just wouldn't think of it as much. Audrey Carver: Okay, yeah, that makes sense. I've been feeling that a lot too in in trying to stay in contact with people and I think 'cause so many of my friends are in this same position where they're like, they have to talk to somebody. Audrey Carver: So it's actually been pretty easy to find Audrey Carver: people to talk to. Um, has this changed your family dynamic at all, like strained being in quarantine or Audrey Carver: um, something that I was thinking about when you were talking was just like that, I'm Zooming with my grandparents a lot. Just 'cause I don't know when I'll be able to see them again. So, you know, is there any kind of new family rituals that are coming out of this? Henry Baer-Benson: Um, so... we... Henry Baer-Benson: I mean, so it's definitely straining in some ways, I think less than I expected. We all are able to create our own personal space pretty easily, but it definitely... Henry Baer-Benson: has caused us to... there's more Henry Baer-Benson: friction sometimes over things that seem like small and just, especially with younger people in my family. Henry Baer-Benson: And so I mean, in some ways, it's helped us like learning how to like, express, express our emotions better to each other. But in terms of rituals, we spend every weekend in our cabin together and that's a lot of like forced family fun time. Henry Baer-Benson: And we had been, yeah also talking to our grandparents more. My parents do Zoom calls with their friends who are far away, which they could have done anyways, but now they're starting to do it like very often. Henry Baer-Benson: Um, just because I guess they're lonely too, probably similar reason that I'm doing that. Henry Baer-Benson: Other than that... other than that, do we have any other rituals? My siblings and I play a lot of Minecraft together Henry Baer-Benson: which we wouldn't have done otherwise. Audrey Carver: Nice. So, I'm going to kind of switch back to the logistical questions a little bit. I know Tufts has been doing a lot of outreach and trying to figure out where students are at with internships and jobs Audrey Carver: since so many things were changed this summer. So, kinda wondering what your summer is looking like, if you're able to do remote work? Audrey Carver: You know, if you could just tell me kind of what's looking ahead from here. Henry Baer-Benson: Yeah. Um, I got super lucky and was all set up with an internship before Henry Baer-Benson: this happened and that internship is able to do remote, I'm able to do it remotely. And then I applied for the Tufts grant, the summer grant, and so I was able- I was awarded that. So I was able to basically have... Henry Baer-Benson: my internship the way that I would have wanted it, except for, I guess it's online now. But I wasn't affected too much compared to what could have happened. So I... Henry Baer-Benson: am not super worried, but I think that if I hadn't already had it lined up, I would have been very concerned, I think, it would have been a lot harder. Henry Baer-Benson: Yeah. Audrey Carver: Okay, thank you so much. Um, I only really have one question left that I've been asking all of my interviewees Audrey Carver: And if you don't have an answer, it's okay. But if you could see any kind of change come out of the situation, you know, whether it's like just for you personally or on a large social scale- you know, something to move forward with differently- is there anything you would want to see? Henry Baer-Benson: Wait, can you repeat that? Audrey Carver: Yeah, pretty much is there any change you would like to see come out of this situation? Henry Baer-Benson: Um... Henry Baer-Benson: I mean, yes... Henry Baer-Benson: And I mean, it depends on what level you're asking. Henry Baer-Benson: You talk a lot about how it will make, hopefully make us have to do healthcare better. Henry Baer-Benson: But on like a... Henry Baer-Benson: more personal level Henry Baer-Benson: Or more Tufts-related level, I guess uh... Henry Baer-Benson: I don't know, because I don't- I wouldn't, I would hope that we don't have to plan for there being online classes in the future, like Tufts shouldn't... Henry Baer-Benson: Uh, I would hope that this isn't how we have to continue. But definitely, if Henry Baer-Benson: we do, I would hope that they... I don't know, just become a lot more organized in their classes and specifically design classes for... Henry Baer-Benson: going online Henry Baer-Benson: which would mean like Henry Baer-Benson: which would mean like engaging beyond just, like read this thing, watch this thing, write a little thing on the board and then deliver your essay to me. Um, which Henry Baer-Benson: honestly was kind of a nice break in the middle of all this Henry Baer-Benson: but I think going forward, should not happen. Um... Henry Baer-Benson: Other than that Henry Baer-Benson: that was a very broad question. Audrey Carver: Yeah, I know it's broad. I mean, everyone has a different answer so I just thought I'd throw it out there. But, um. Audrey Carver: That is all that I have prepared and need to ask. So if there's nothing else you want to add, I will end the recording. Henry Baer-Benson: Yeah. Audrey Carver: Okay, thank you so much.