Quarantine Dispatch #6: Connection and interaction as a resource

How are you feeling? What are you thinking? What’s happening? Bored, stressed, inspired, uninspired, calm, restless, frustrated, anxious? There’s no “right” way to cope with a pandemic. Reading through these submissions, despite the practical differences of each situation, we felt a reassuring sense of familiarity and gratitude. Maybe you can too.

Petra Fagerstrom, BFA fashion design student, Parsons Paris

I’ve been in Paris under full lockdown since March 17th. I’ve turned my small room into a fashion studio and I’ve been using my bedsheets and old clothes for fabric. What I’ve realized now is that what is limiting me about this situation isn’t simply the lack of resources, but the stagnant energy and lack of interaction. I feel as if I can’t create anything valuable that just stays in this room or on a screen, my inspiration disappears. The lack of resources has made me become more creative, I realized how much you can do with scraps that are already there. I will take this sustainable approach with me when this is over. However, I now feel so much gratitude towards my school and the people who are usually there encouraging me, or sometimes, the opposite. Because nothing is worse than this lonely stagnant energy. It turns out, the biggest resource my school offers me is connection and interaction.