So much has been written about keeping a journal during this pandemic that #coviddiary is a popular hashtag on social media.
What we are living through now will one day be our history; the kind of history that’s taught in schools, the kind of history that’s chronicled in museums.
But first and foremost it is our personal history. We are living through this time of coronavirus, of social distancing and mask-wearing, of home-schooling and job loss.
There are plenty of reasons to keep a Covid diary, of course, but if you’re not convinced, here are the top reasons, in my opinion, to create a keepsake of your life during the pandemic:
1 - You will be helping educate future generations.
“Scholars rely on diaries like these and other primary sources—newspapers, documents, and artifacts that provide firsthand accounts of an event—to construct historical narratives,” Morgan Ome writes in The Atlantic. Indeed, I have written before about how you can contribute directly to local museums for this purpose.
2 - Your voice is yours alone.
No one else can record their experience of this time quite the way you can. Whether you begin a Covid diary for your eyes only or with the intent to share it with your kids’ kids one day, take heart that your story matters—and it’s up to you to express it.
3 - You just might take comfort in such preservation.
Studies show that journaling can have a positive effect on mental health. It can give you some semblance of control during a time when it seems like we have none. No, we can’t control the virus outbreak or our neighbors’ reactions to it (or the election)—and that can be not only frustrating, but debilitating. By allowing ourselves to be creative and proactive in capturing these memories for our families and for future generations, we are asserting control over something—something that matters, in fact.
3 Easy Ways to Capture Your Covid-19 Memories
If, like me, you are not inclined to write something every day, or even once a week (self-discipline is not my strong suit, either!), I’ve come up with three ways to ensure that your memories of this historic time are preserved as part of your family archive—without the pressure of regularly scheduled writing.
KEEP A PHOTO DIARY. This is probably the easiest option, as our smart phones are always on hand. By snapping pictures of your experiences during the pandemic, you are capturing visual evidence of living through a historic time.
Not sure what to shoot? Consider:
• signs (I snapped a photo of a lawn sign thanking our medical professionals and calling them “heroes,” for example)
• evidence of our new normal (my photos in this category include one of the plexiglass dividers in my son’s classroom as well as the ginormous containers of hand sanitizer at my local Target)
• your cooking adventures (you made sourdough from scratch, didn’t you?!)
• boredom (think your partner napping in the middle of the day, your kid under a blanket with headphones and a tablet)
• mask selfies (I’ve taken these everywhere from the ice-cream shop on Main Street to the overcrowded hiking trail nearby)
• headlines (unfortunately, there have been too many inauspicious milestones captured by news outlets already, but screen-grabbing a few from online newspapers or videos will help tell the story of the pandemic visually)RECORD VOICE NOTES FOR YOURSELF. Simply put: Hit record on your phone’s voice recorder app and begin talking.
Record impressions while on your daily walk, or—especially if you are a frontline worker—on your way to work (or as you walk in the door after a long day). Talking at such moments of repose or transition allows us to tap into our feelings, and to record just how this time is impacting us, for better or for worse.
The accessibility of a voice recorder makes this an especially easy approach. (Blessedly) alone in your car for a few minutes? Record how you’re feeling, where you’ve come from. (Anxiously) awaiting your coronavirus test results? Talk for a few minutes into the mic. Sick of wearing your mask? Vent about it with your companionable phone.
There is a unique quality to capturing our voices this way; one can detect the emotions under the surface, hear the ambivalence or urgency with which we talk. It’s real. It’s personal. And it’s easy to keep up with regularly.WRITE A RUNNING INVENTORY OF IMPRESSIONS. In other words: Make a list. Jot down phrases and observations that represent what you are experiencing right now, from your early frustration with the panicked run on toilet paper to your lack of ideas for keeping your tween interested in anything other than his xBox.
Think about it: Don’t all those TP memes already seem like they happened in another lifetime? As things are occurring, we inherently believe that we’ll remember them, but the reality is that they often fade fast, replaced by other worries or daily tasks.
Keeping such a list has been my approach since early March—and while I haven’t been diligent about adding to it often, I have done so often enough. Often enough that the list itself will be representative of my experiences during this time, a fun addition to my own family history. Often enough that it will be a reliable and detailed resource for me to reference when I decide to write about this all…one day. (Bonus: keeping it in list form will also help with chronology: Add a date here and there, as it’s way easier to glance at your phone to type the date now than to start Googling later to recreate a past timeline—trust me!)
Whether you decide to embark on one or all three of these memory-keeping paths, know this: You are preserving important history—your own.
If you would like to consolidate your Covid diary (or jottings) into something more permanent—a memory book, for instance, or an edited collection of audio recollections from your voice memos—consider hiring a personal historian.
Dawn Roode, a personal historian based in northern New Jersey, helps families and family-run businesses preserve their legacies in bespoke coffee table books.
Related Reading
If you would like to write about your experiences, sign up for daily journal prompts specific to the pandemic; your entries will be part of a storytelling research project conducted by a Cornell professor.
New York City museums want your stories for their collections—see how to contribute.