Hello everyone! Long time no see. I hope everyone reading this is doing okay and is staying indoors. Speaking of staying indoors, I am writing my upcoming auto-ethnography on COVID-19, and more specifically how its affected my life and the lives of those around me. This time has been tough on everyone, and I’d really like to be able to write about my thoughts and feelings over quarantine. Although COVID-19 is a pandemic that is obviously affecting the entire world, I’m going to focus my project on a smaller scale. My primary research is going to consist of interviewing my family members, including my father who’s been dismissed from work for the past two months, my sister who won’t be able to walk at her college graduation, and my oldest sister who is expecting her first child. My secondary research is going to consist of some overviewing facts about COVID-19 as a whole, but mainly research on how COVID-19 is affecting Oregonian students, workers, and expectant mothers.
I found a great website from one of my local news stations, KEZI 9, that has a timeline of every major event that has gone down in Oregon so far with COVID-19. One fact that surprised me about the facts shown on this website was how close to home the first few cases were, which then rapidly spread to areas all around the state. The first case of Coronavirus was found on February 28th. Someone who worked in the Lake Oswego School District was the first person to contract COVID-19. Lake Oswego is fifteen minutes away from my house. By the time I had to leave from Chapman, there had already been 36 cases of COVID-19 (KEZI 9), which was more cases than Orange County had by the time I left (LA Times). It seemed to me that I was moving back home to where COVID-19 was more dangerous than on campus. As we can see now, COVID-19 is prominent nearly everywhere us Chapman students relocated to.
From the first case of COVID-19 that occurred in my county, to today, we’ve seen a rapid increase of cases in Oregon. As of today, Oregon has had 2,177 cases and 86 deaths, and this graph shows how rapid of an increase we’ve faced over the past two months (New York Times).
This map shows how prominent COVID-19 is in the county that I live in. I live in Beaverton, which is about 15 minutes away from Downtown Portland. As you can see, there are cases spread out all around the state, yet the biggest circles are found in Portland (New York Times).
While I continue to search for more secondary articles and statistics to help strengthen my project, I hope to look deeper into not only general facts but also how COVID-19 is affecting prospecting mothers like my oldest sister. For now, I think the websites I’ve been using have been leading me in the right direction for this project.
pono's blog 
It’s crazy to think about how all of our lives have changed drastically so quickly. It’s sad how seniors won’t be able to walk after all the hard work they’ve put in. Hearing about your pregnant sister is interesting and I wonder what might be going through her head right now. It’s interesting how you’re researching about COVID-19 throughout your area, nice work so far!
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Hey Pono, I really like how you are focusing on Oregon specifically as it is where you are from and affecting you and your family members. I am really interested to see what your sister has to say about her thoughts and fears of having a child at this time. I imagine she is quite fearful among other expecting parents. Looking forward to seeing your final paper!
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The variety of people you are interviewing in your family will show different perspectives on the COVID-19 pandemic. Your primary research will provide a lot of information for individuals and families living through this. Your secondary research looks very strong as well. The charts you provided really helped sum up the information about the Coronavirus in your state. Your project seems to be going well so far, good job!
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