Article 3 – How COVID-19 Changed my Life

Lanze Chevillard

In February 2020, I was one of the many people who believed that the COVID-19 virus would run its course by the summer of 2020, and life, as we knew it, would return to what it used to be. Sadly, I had to admit that my belief was unfounded. COVID-19 has proven itself as a formidable force by disrupting all my plans for the year. All my hopes of traveling within and outside Canada in 2020 vanished without a trace, no thanks to the impact of the COVID virus. However, as surprising as this will sound, not everything caused by this pandemic was negative.

For the past two years, my life has consisted of working as a dishwasher at the Kikiwak Inn and going on vacation abroad once or twice a year. Once the pandemic started, other staff at the Kikiwak, including myself, were given the option to take a leave during this crisis. I decided to continue to work because I knew there would be little chance of me contracting the virus if I took the correct precautions and limited my movements to work and home. I also wanted the chance to save money for school and for when international travel was allowed again.

Although those of us who continued working had their hours cut, we received a temporary raise. In that sense, my life was not impacted very much as I continued to commute between work and home.
The biggest thing that has affected and continues to affect me during these times is the travel bans put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. I have made it a habit to travel abroad at least once a year on vacation. I had planned to visit a friend in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in July 2020, but seeing that Brazil has become one of the hotspots for COVID-19, and with Canada starting to close its borders, I realized that the possibility of this pandemic ending by July was nearly zero. This year is the first year since 2011 that I have been unable to go anywhere outside of Canada. After cancelling my trip to Brazil, I made plans to travel to Taipei, Taiwan, and to study the Mandarin Chinese language for six weeks in January 2021. As time went by, the chances that I will be able to go to Taiwan seemed to be slim as well. So, travelling overseas, in general, has inevitably been put on the backburner. Even travel within Manitoba has been restricted, which makes it hard to see my family. I was born and raised in The Pas, but my mother is from Pine Creek First Nation, which is South of the 53rd Parallel, latitude wise. Before the travel ban, restricting all non-essential travel between Northern and Southern Manitoba, my mother and I travelled to visit my grandmother at least once a month. However, since the break out of the pandemic, we have only managed to see them once or twice. Of course, it felt a little lonely because it was not only my grandmother that lives in Pine Creek, but all of my mother’s side of the family. I also worried for her because she lives on a reservation that does not have a hospital, and she often sees people who do not properly social distance and often visit other communities.

Many things have not gone according to plan this year due to the pandemic. This, however, does not mean that everything that has happened so far is bad. I had initially planned to continue working and travelling until August 2021, and enrolling in university for that same September, but seeing how COVID-19 has stopped most overseas travels for the foreseeable future, I figured that now would be the best time to start university. While attending university from the comfort of my own home, I will be able to save my money for when the travel restrictions are lifted, and I can travel abroad once more. Another good thing that came as a result of the pandemic outbreak, in my opinion, is the use of masks. In the past, I lived in Japan, where masks have always been worn in public regularly, whether to protect oneself and others from illnesses or by women who simply want to cover their faces when they are not wearing make-up. Pre-pandemic, wearing a mask in public here in the west would draw many peoples’ stares, but now they have become widely accepted and even mandated. While some people find them inconvenient and resist wearing them, I believe facemasks are helpful, and they are indispensable if we are to curb the spread of the virus and overcome this pandemic.

The year 2020 has been a year of change and adaptation. While there have been many drawbacks, such as not being able to see family members as much as I used to, there have also been advances when it comes to peoples’ views on cleanliness and awareness on the spread of germs. I believe that as long as people continue to socially distance and wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19, by the end of this pandemic, we will be better equipped to handle something of this nature without having to shut everything down completely, should we ever witness another onslaught of a deadly virus again.

Author’s Bio: Lanze Chevillard is a first-year student in the bachelor of arts program at UCN and a member of Pine Creek First Nation. Lanze was born and raised in The Pas, Manitoba, but often travels to Pine Creek to visit family. Travel has been a big part of Lanze’s life for the past decade, and she has travelled internationally annually since 2011. She went on a year-long Rotary exchange from 2016-17 and since then knew she wanted to live and work in Japan as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT), teaching English to school children. As soon as she graduates from UCN, Lanze plans on moving to Japan to pursue that goal. Lanze’s love of Japan began long before she experienced living there, but after experiencing life there, she can’t imagine living anywhere else. Lanze made many life-long friends while in Japan and enjoyed sharing their cultures with each other. Lanze believes being an ALT can help teach her students about Canada and Canadian culture as well as the English language. Travelling abroad is what opened up her perspective. Lanze learned that the world is bigger than Canada and that there are languages other than English. It’s something so simple, but she didn’t completely understand that concept until she travelled to a place that didn’t speak English. That’s why, once the covid-19 pandemic has subsided, Lanze highly recommends travelling abroad at least once.

Instructor’s Remarks: Lanze Chevillard is a promising writer, and she was one of my students in the Composition and Creativity class in fall of 2020. Her reflective essay “How COVID-19 Changed My Life” gives the reader an up-close brief account of how the pandemic disrupted a student’s travel plans for 2020. Lanze, who was once an exchange student to Japan, was already looking forward to traveling to South America in 2020, but the dream came crashing down, no thanks to the onslaught of the COVID-19 virus. However, it was truly great to have had the privilege of working with Lanze this academic year – Dr. Joseph Atoyebi