UPEI students find healing through sharing personal pandemic stories

A UPEI instructor and his students have found a way to cope with the isolation of the pandemicby sharing personal stories of the impact of COVID-19 on their lives.

They're calling them their stories of self through the pandemic.

"Stories of self is something that I've been experimenting with, giving students their voice in the classroom," said David Varis, who teaches in the department of sociology and anthropology.

"Really what surfaced, and it related nicely to the course, was that these stories were powerful stories."

Varis has taught the Indigenous health and wellness class for several years, but he said the challenge of teaching remotely pushed him to try sharing personal stories virtually.

"There were stories of grief, there were stories of fear," Varis said.

"But therewere stories of resilience, hope and faith, and therewere also stories about relationships."

'Powerful medicine'

Varis and his 29 students have never met in person, but he said they found a closeness that has beenlargely missing over the last year of the pandemic.

"We were building community, we were getting a sense that we were in what we would call a traditional sharing circle," Varis said.

"Even though this course was online, and we weren't necessarily in a circle, we were in a virtual sort of platform. But it worked really, really well."

Varis said sharing the story of self is what he calls "a powerful medicine" among Indigenous Peoples worldwide.

"There was sort of that honesty, and that's one of the teachings in Indigenous cultures that we have to be honest and truthful," Varis said.

"I did see that honesty just sort of surface almost instantaneously through their writings, and that's what made it so powerful."

Sense of closeness

For Lily Levesque, a third-year anthropology student, the class was the only one that she attended in real time.

"It's been like this little beacon of hope for me, because for so long it was very monotonous every day, just sitting down by myself, watching a prerecorded video by myself, taking the notes by myself," Levesque said.

"Having the opportunity to speak about something other than just the next due date or the next test, it gave me a sense of closeness."

Levesque said her story of self through the pandemic reflected theisolation that she has been feeling.

"The story that I told talked about my emotional health going into the pandemic. I was feeling very secure after a long time of feeling not so great," Levesque said.

"Then once the pandemic hit, it sort of swept me right back to a kind of dark place."

Levesque said the pandemic reminded herhow quickly things can change.

"My story of self is really my journey going through that process of feeling really scared, and trying to accept it, and trying to understand it, and get back on track to more stability emotionally," Levesque said.

Levesque said it was powerful to hear the stories of self from her classmates.

"It was touching, hearing everyone's story, but it was also really powerful knowing that we trusted each other, and we could be honest with each other," Levesque said.

"Knowing I wasn't alone in all of the problems, and all of the difficulties that the pandemic brought."

Permission to be honest

Catherine Hamel, a third-year psychology student, said it was initially nerve-racking to share her story.

"But David really set the tone with his story, and because he was so honest in his story, it gave me and I think the other classmates permission tobe honest," Hamel said.

"My story is,similar to Lily, where I was doing really well mentally, and then the pandemic hit and I was brought back a bit."

Hamel shared how her family in Africa was affected by the pandemic, and the helplessness she felt being thousands of kilometres away from them.

"There's nothing I can do to help them," she said. "And I'm a bit of a fixer kind of person."

Shared experience

There are plans to put together the stories in an anthology for the students, as a memory of their experience inthe class.

Varis said he's excited by how well sharing thestories of self went, even in a virtual setting.

"I think that's the message that we all need to take away, is that it's important that we tell our story, because we can all gain strength through that collective story, especially in this pandemic," Varis said.

"Ultimately, we've all experienced something together as a community, and I am so happy and proud of my students."

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