Jo asked her family and friends if her idea was a stupid one; no one said it was, and so her decision was made. In 2013, she moved from Sydney, Australia, to New York City, to temporarily live on the couch of an ex of both of her best friends. After a few weeks, she got a job that, while specifically created for her, required her to wait a couple of months to begin. She liked the idea of spending some of that time elsewhere, and so Jo secured an AirBnB in Maine. Never having seen snow, she was excited to see it in a more natural way than that offered by the city. The day she checked in; Maine was hit by a polar vortex.
Jo has remained at the same job for nearly a decade, and in that time has come to consider herself a New Yorker. In early 2020, though, she knew she had to get out. COVID did not concern her on a personal level, in fact, she thinks she got the virus in February while on a business trip. While she experienced uncomfortable symptoms unlike anything she ever had before, including a sensation as if ear swabs were being rolled under her skin, a rare one she read about months later, she was moreso concerned with the possibility of social upheaval. How would the city respond to the pandemic? She felt New York was the last place she wanted to be, and so, she left. Additionally, all of her family lived in Australia. The idea of spending a pandemic locked inside her apartment, all alone, was daunting.
In the above clip, Jo discusses deciding to leave New York in the early days of the pandemic, and her trip to, and experience in, the airport.
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The decision to leave New York had two major implications for Jo: maintaining her apartment within the building, and her cat, Ygritte. She couldn’t bring Ygritte with her, and so Kathy volunteered to take her in while she was away. While incredibly helpful for Jo, she also thinks that Ygritte left a positive impact on her interim caretaker. In this clip, Jo discusses her thoughts on Kathy’s volunteering to take care of Ygritte, and the way that pets, by virtue of simply being there, helped their owners during the pandemic.
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While in Austin, Jo was able to work remotely. Her decision to leave New York is one that she thinks not only freed her from the anxiety of living in an epicenter, but also allowed a certain degree of freedom that city life simply could not. Having access to a car, being able to see friends, and most pressingly, securing a vaccine appointment, were important benefits. Her friends in New York had told her how difficult it was to get an appointment. While on phone calls with co-workers, she often heard the sirens of ambulances in the background. The memory of the sirens haunts her. Life began to feel like a movie; she cites a moment where, driving down the I-35 highway, she realized the sheer emptiness of the roads mimicked the famous scene in The Walking Dead where Rick Grimes rode horseback into Atlanta.
Jo and her partner broke up, and she returned to a New York that, in early 2021, no longer worried her in the same way. Now close to the office, working remote was no longer the default option. She had to choose between going into the office, or remaining home.
In this clip, Jo explains her decision to work hybrid, and her experience on the subway since returning from Austin.
TranscriptThe change in attitude towards taking the subway, and a lessened sense of safety while on it, have both been evoked by the events caused by, or that happened during, the COVID-19 pandemic. The city, during B. C. times, propelled an extroverted Jo to take in varying aspects of its culture at rapid pace. Not a homebody, she made an effort to spend her time off-work taking in new experiences, and indulging in ones she now knows to be more deserving than a one-off. In this clip, Jo analyzes her time in the city Before Covid, and how it convinced her to maintain her lease.
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Jo hopes for a future in which hybrid work is more widely accepted, and yearns for a return to the times where she felt safe amidst the crowd. The same people who told her to act on her whim now ask if she’ll ever return home to stay; she cannot give them a definitive answer. Now, she considers New York her home. She misses her family dearly, and is eager to visit them after four years apart.