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(09/15/22 10:02am)
My name is Gennie Herron, and I am the General Manager for WRMC Middlebury College Radio. I have been involved with the station since my first semester, when I started a radio show called “Songs I Play for My Dad in the Car.” Each week I picked a different road trip destination and made a playlist for me and my dad. I loved the experience so much that I ran for, and was elected to, the position of Concert Manager on the executive board in the spring of 2020. The next year, I was named Programming Director in the spring. Now, I am the General Manager, which is radio-lingo for the president of the organization. And for those of you who don’t know what college radio entails, I would love to enlighten you.
(04/28/20 7:56pm)
Genevieve Herron '23
Westford, New York
Submitted April 3, 2020
I am a resident of Brooklyn, New York, so instead of living where I normally reside, I am at my family's second home in Westford, N.Y. While I understand that I am very lucky to be out of the city, which is chaotic and where there is a lot of suffering, living upstate has its downsides. My house is very rural. You cannot see any other homes from where I live. We are not connected to the electrical grid and receive all of our power from our solar panels or a small gas-powered generator. Until about three weeks ago, we did not have internet access. We installed satellite internet in preparation for being here for a prolonged period of time since my sister and I need internet access for school work.
There is barely cell reception. Our house has no heat and only uses wood stoves. My regular routine of working at a desk or at the library has been disrupted significantly. I have been able to make an extra bedroom into a sort of study which is fortunate, but I have been very distracted by my sister’s work. She is studying classical flute and will practice for as many as four hours a day — which can be very loud and distracting. I have to have my Zoom classes in my kitchen because I cannot get good enough reception in my "study" and I often feel guilty for making my parents cease all activity during my classes.
My parents definitely have higher stress levels right now, as do I and many others. My aunt and uncle are both doctors in NYC. My aunt is a pediatrician and has not had much contact with coronavirus patients, but my uncle has been working in ERs and hospitals all over Brooklyn. When we FaceTime him, he recounts horror stories of what he sees at work. We are all worried for them.
Furthermore, both of my parents are concerned for my grandparents. They are all in their 80s and 90s and live alone (both couples are divorced — two remarried and one is a widow, my family tree is complicated). My dad's mom lives alone on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. She has been shopping at grocery stores she finds mostly empty and walking her dog in Central Park when she can. My dad's dad and stepmom also live on the Upper East Side, but my step-grandmother has glioblastoma and needs 24-hour care. She is irritable and not herself. So, on top of worrying about his elderly father navigating Manhattan in the time of coronavirus, my dad has to worry about his father's wife dying. To my grandfather, it's already as if she's gone.
What has been your greatest worry or day-to-day concern as coronavirus has spread?
I am worried about my relatives and friends becoming ill, mostly my grandparents and aunt and uncle. I am worried about my friends not missing me and about not being as close as we were when we return to campus. I am worried about my dad becoming so anxious and stressed, and possibly becoming sick (he is 60 and the most at risk in my immediate family).
What has made you happy over the past few weeks?
I have enjoyed watercoloring, which is a hobby I just got into over spring break. I enjoy writing letters to my friends. I have been having lots of fun goofing off with my 21-year-old sister who I do not see that often. I have been practicing my stick shift driving. Baking bread.
Anything else you'd like us to know?
I have also been sick for the past two-to-three weeks and had to go to a mobile hospital in a nearby town. That was a very humbling experience because I saw what the healthcare workers were doing to care for those with illness that are not coronavirus.
(03/24/20 9:55pm)
The minute I found out we were leaving campus, I knew what I would miss the most: my friends. I felt a sympathetic pang for the seniors who I knew would be missing one of the final steps in their college careers. Then, I took a moment to feel for myself. My fellow first-years and I were also in a crucial developmental stage. I was just starting to get into the rhythm of the second semester. Feeling secure in my classes, I was excited for spring, and I wanted to dig deep into friendships that I felt were just beginning to grow stronger.
But all of that was cut short.
I see myself mostly as an introvert. I like to spend time alone to recharge before I can engage in lots of social activity. That’s not to say that I don’t like to spend time with my friends (I do!), it’s just that I need more time than others to prevent myself from becoming overwhelmed. This particular trait has made college slightly difficult, as Midd often feels like a place where extroverts thrive from constant contact. And, as a first-year, coping with loneliness is a big part of learning how to navigate the college social scene.
But being back home now, my biggest concern for my social life is: How do I build deeper connections with people I find special when I already find reaching out in-person difficult?
As my good friends know, I’m an analog person. I listen to music from the ’70s, I prefer calling over texting and my average daily screen time is rarely above 30 minutes. I try to stay off social media and prefer to live in the present and focus on those around me. This was easy when I was on campus, where many of my friends lived in my dorm or right nearby — but now, it is considerably more difficult without that physical connection. I have found myself using Snapchat and Instagram more often and being anxious to call people. I don’t want others to feel like I’m intruding, but I also crave a connection with the people I spent so much time with this year. It’s hard to find a balance; I don’t want to be seen as over-eager, yet I want to speak to my friends (even though my biggest update is that I finished re-reading another “Harry Potter” book). It’s during these times that I try to remind myself that if I got a FaceTime or phone call from one of my friends out of the blue, I would be excited to hear from them.
In the midst of all this chaos, I have found myself trying to reevaluate which aspects of the interweb and social media I actually value, and which ones get in the way of connecting with others. In order to have the most authentic, nitty-gritty and tangible mode of communication and friendship building I’ve been searching for, I have turned to snail mail. There’s nothing quite like sitting down and writing a letter to make you feel like you are actually connecting and communicating with a person. Letters can act as snapshots of what life is like in that moment. They can be saved and put in a box to be found years later, forever preserving that exchange. A letter is not a message that disappears after 10 seconds and it’s not a post sent en masse. Like conversations held over Atwater breakfasts, or during the long walk from Allen to the AC, or even waiting for Proc paninis to be ready, letter writing is personal and intentional. In this way, it reminds me of friendships at Midd; you know that you’re special when someone has taken the time to write a letter, address an envelope and run all over the house trying to find a stamp. So, give someone you care about that nice feeling and write a letter.
Genevieve Herron is a member of the class of 2023.