Michael Guzman

SOPHIA: Can you tell me your name, age, and your grade?

MICHAEL: I’m Michael Guzman, I’m seventeen and I’m a senior [in high school] now.

SOPHIA: So why don’t we start at the beginning of this still ongoing story. When did you first hear about the coronavirus?

MICHAEL: I first heard about the coronavirus in the lacrosse locker room. [Teammates] were talking about how the virus was spreading and that the first case was in Massachusetts.

SOPHIA: Okay, so this was closer to probably like March? Not like December or January?

MICHAEL: Yeah yeah

SOPHIA: You already heard that the first case was in Massachusetts so you were nervous or were you like “Oh it’s just going to pass”?

MICHAEL: I was more on the like “Oh it’s not that serious from what I had been hearing. It’s a respiratory illness that most people recover from and there was only one case and that person had already been quarantined”. For the most part, I wasn’t worried. 

SOPHIA: What did you think when Revere High shut down?

MICHAEL: I thought that was to be expected. I didn’t think it was anything of a shock, for most parts of the world they already started doing that. So it really wasn’t a shock at all it was something that was going to happen.

SOPHIA: So you expected it, but did you expect for us to go back to school in like two weeks?

MICHAEL: Oh no, never. I knew we were shut down for the rest of the year.

SOPHIA: Really?

MICHAEL: Yeah

SOPHIA: So did you - so you didn’t think it was that big of an issue because it was just a respiratory virus you. But you also thought that no, we were done for the rest of the school year?

MICHAEL: The issue wasn’t that it was a deadly disease to me, at the time. At that time it was ‘oh the infection rate is so high. We can’t risk it going to all the students and then back home to them’.

SOPHIA: Okay. No, that makes sense thank you. Do you miss school?

MICHAEL: For the most part, I miss school but in the aspect of I miss being able to interact with people like we were before.

SOPHIA: Would you want to go to school in the fall?

MICHAEL: Yeah I feel like I would want to go to school in the fall but I feel like different people would have different views on it based on your grade. Because I feel like every senior wants to have their senior year.

SOPHIA: Yeah that makes sense. Let’s say we were going to go back to school in the fall like would you genuinely feel safe?

MICHAEL: I wouldn’t feel - its. That’s a tough question. I wouldn’t feel safe, I would always know that there’s a risk of it but it’s like a risk I’m willing to take.

SOPHIA: Okay since you’re willing to take that risk would you open with kids who aren’t willing to take that risk to just stay home?

MICHAEL: Yeah 100%. It’s heir choice. Like I believe they should be given the choice to go to school or to stay at home and do homeschooling.

SOPHIA: That works. What if they did remote learning. Would you like “No you can’t do remote learning” or are you okay with that?

MICHAEL: Repeat question, I couldn’t hear you.

SOPHIA: Okay, would you be okay with them still being at Revere High but they’re just doing remote learning instead of just like homeschooling?

MICHAEL: So they’re still attending Revere High but they’re being like - okay. So they’re taking the classes though.

SOPHIA: Is that fine with you? That’s just all I’m asking 

MICHAEL: Yeah. Yeah. That would be fine with me completely, it’s just that I feel like learning at home is so much different from having space where you go and work there. Like I wouldn’t be able to - at home, I wouldn’t even be able to do the work. What we were doing so far I didn’t do anything.

SOPHIA: Did you pass?

MICHAEL: I passed

SOPHIA: No, yeah. I know that it was a struggle for a lot of students to really be able to do online schooling. ‘Cause it’s hard, ‘cause you have to have a space that’s quiet and stuff like that. Why don’t we talk about work a little bit? So how many jobs do you work?

MICHAEL: I work one but I applied to another place so I’m going to be working morning shifts [at the job I just applied to] and night shifts at my other place.

SOPHIA: Okay, the job that you work at now it's Kelly’s right?

MICHAEL: Yup

SOPHIA: You worked at Kelly’s before the pandemic, right?

MICHAEL: Yeah I did.

SOPHIA: Okay so what procedures are they having you do now that are different than before because of the pandemic?

MICHAEL: Can you repeat the question? I had a timer that went off

[ laughter ]

SOPHIA: It’s okay. So, what are they making you do now at Kelly’s that is different from last year just because of the pandemic?

MICHAEL: Honestly I feel like the main difference is that we have to wear masks. That’s an obvious one. Sanitation. We have to clean counter tops like every four/five people. For the most part that’s the main difference. Oh and we’re also handing out food. That way we are reducing the amount of contact [customers] have with the workers. 

SOPHIA: Okay, when Kelly’s was first hiring I heard that the pay was $14.75 and then-

MICHAEL: That was because of, it’s something in Massachusetts. I’m not sure it if was like just Kellys but I know that multiple places increased the wage by two dollars during the pandemic. So I’m not sure if that was a state thing or that was just something that certain jobs did that.

SOPHIA: I think it was certain jobs, but did your pay ever go back to minimum wage?

MICHAEL: Yeah. I think it was - I believe it was June 28th. Or July 28th. One of the two.

SOPHIA: So from like - when did you start working at Kelly’s?

MICHAEL: This year? Or last year?

SOPHIA: This year.

MICHAEL: This year it was - I started back in March but my parents saw that COVID was getting worse and they didn’t want me to [work] and then I started back again in late June/July. 

SOPHIA: Okay, so you had like a couple, like give or take a couple months of $14.75 and then it went back down to $12.75?

MICHAEL: Yeah

SOPHIA: That’s interesting.

MICHAEL: I got a raise

[ laughter ]

SOPHIA: So at Kelly's do they have the rule that like customers need to wear masks and socially distance? Or is it just the workers?

MICHAEL: Yeah they do. On the outside, we set up these cones indicating where the customer should go to actually order, we have stickers that are 6 feet apart so the customers don’t go at each other, we have waiting spots pre-made for them and they're required to wear masks to order or we’re not allowed to serve them.

SOPHIA: Have you encountered customers who won’t wear a mask or won’t socially distance?

MICHAEL: This dude came up in a jeep, he was blasting music. And he came I knew what, I knew exactly what he was going to do. He was going to say Governor Charlie was in - you know if you have a medical condition you are not allowed to wear a mask. But this dude, I asked him to wear a mask and he said "I have a medical condition" and I asked “Oh what is it?” He’s like “oh I'm not required to tell you that” and so in my head, I knew like that he was being difficult for no reason I was just gonna get my manager. I grab my manager said "all right we'll take your order outside but you're not allowed to order at the window" and he was still being difficult. We were doing the most we could for him. We went out to his car to take his order and he was saying “You're not allowed to do” this while we were just trying to make it easy for him.

SOPHIA: Have you encountered other customers like that or is that the one incident?

MICHAEL:  It was that one incident, but there are some customers who just refuse to wear masks. Alright, alright, alright, alright. This man, he comes up to the window and we were only taking card at the beginning of the pandemic - because cash [was] more Hands-On. And so he comes up to the window I asked him to wear a mask and he's like “No I'm not going to wear one, I forgot it at home” whatever. My manager was like “Alright just cover your shirt”. And then we told him he only has to - we can only accept card and he was like “Come on, just give me the food. I came all the way from Brockton to come here. I love Kelly's” and he kept changing story he kept saying “Oh I came from New York to try your food” and then my manager was like “No I'm sorry” and then he just started cussing out my manager he was like “F you, I don't understand why you're not doing this”. And my manager slammed the window on his face because he's was getting annoyed. [ The customer ] opened the window back up, he punched the cash register on the floor and then he started grabbing stuff from the restaurant and throwing it at us. He threw a spatula at one of my co-workers foreheads and she started bleeding. He tried grabbing a knife but my manager grabbed it before he could and then he started running away and then we had to call the cops in close down for an hour.

SOPHIA: That’s um, that’s eventful.

MICHAEL: Yeah

SOPHIA:  So obviously we all remember when America was in shambles and everyone was buying toilet paper and fighting over that. Do you think you - as like a worker who's back during the pandemic - you're still facing people like freaking out as like an effect of this pandemic and how it's really scary?

MICHAEL: Definitely not freaking out, but I can definitely see a shift in attitude towards everyone. At the beginning of it, people were like “Thank you for your service. [We] really appreciate you doing this” and now people for the most part just annoyed.

SOPHIA: I get that. Do you find that younger people are more like “Okay I’ll wear a mask like I won't bother you too much”? Or is it older people who are like that?

MICHAEL: I feel like - I feel like young people are more willing to to do it but if tell them like “no you can't” they’re more likely to cause a scene. But with older people they're more likely not to wear it but if you tell them “no” they’ll just walk away.

SOPHIA: That’s interesting. So we all know that weeks ago there were people protesting wearing masks and wanted states to reopen. Was it even weeks ago? Actually it feels like months ago

 MICHAEL: Yeah 

SOPHIA: Anyways, so they wanted space to reopen extremely quickly and then a couple weeks after that the Black Lives Matter protests happened - started happening all across the country and they’re still happening. We aren’t going to talk about your views on the Black Lives Matter Protests. I want to focus on the cleanliness at these two protests. Obviously we can only infer but I’m quite confident you've seen pictures of at least the anti-mask protests. Let’s start off with, you attended a Black Lives Matter Protest in Boston, right?

MICHAEL: Yeah

SOPHIA: Were people wearing masks?

MICHAEL: Almost everyone was wearing masks there. Looking out at the crowds, everyone had a mask on even if you couldn't afford a mask or didn't have one they at least tried to create one. I remember I saw a girl she just put duct tape across her face so she wouldn't spread anything 

SOPHIA: That’s um that’s determined. I appreciate that. So I've seen videos of Black Lives Matter protests where if you need  like hand sanitizer, masks or literally anything else medically they give that out to you. Have you seen - like did you see anything like that while you were at the protests?

MICHAEL: Yeah they were different people like that. A  lot of people were giving out water, a lot of people were giving out masks. I'm not sure about the hand sanitizer I didn't see much of that but there was probably definitely people there. Everyone was just trying to stick out for each other for the most part.

SOPHIA: That's real dope. Did you feel like you were in danger to contract the virus while you were at the protest?

MICHAEL: I mean definitely but that's just because it's a large crowd of people. I feel that everywhere even while working I’ll still be like there's a potential I could catch the virus.

SOPHIA: Are you ever scared to go to work?

MICHAEL: No not really. That's because we take precautions everyone wears a mask, I'm not really around people anymore - I work the grill by myself.

SOPHIA: Good for you. Were mostly younger people at the protest in Boston?

MICHAEL: Around College-age - High Schoolers. I didn't see that many adults. I saw a couple of adults the later we went onto the night. For the most part just College like high schoolers.

SOPHIA: Do you think younger people are more likely to take the virus serious? or older people?

MICHAEL: I feel like - that's a tough one because older people have a lot more of a mortality rate like they're more likely to die than younger people. I feel like younger people are more “Oh I can still go out. I can still be with my friends hang out with them with all of them” and just they'll go out. They’ll take the precautions but they won't actually see the severity of it.

SOPHIA: No yeah, for sure. I think that's an interesting take. In terms of like people being like “Oh but the recovery rate is really nice” I've read a couple of articles where its that the coronavirus it's causing like blood clots I'm pretty sure and doctors aren't looking out for that. So someone is “cured” from the coronavirus and they “recover” [and doctors are] like “Yeah, yeah, yeah no no you can go home” and then the person drops dead. Like they find out later it was a blood clot. Or other people who have recovered - they're still facing symptoms they still can't breathe the same and like every day is just like a different battle. Do you feel like if people knew more about what recovery really was like and how a lot of people genuinely don't really recover that people would be more likely to stay home?

MICHAEL: To be honest? No just because I feel like people, they’re just selfish in a way where they care about their like experience more. As we see people are starting to go out even though we know that numbers are increasing people still tend to go out. And even the more symptoms we see people are just more likely to go out still. The longer time we’re in - you know? You know what I'm saying 

SOPHIA: I know what you mean. So I wanna keep talking about politics just for a little bit longer if that’s okay with you. So when you look at other countries like Australia that have completely reopen - they don’t have any restrictions at all because they don’t have any people - any cases of coronavirus. Or Asian countries who have it in their culture to wear masks especially when one is sick how do you feel?

MICHAEL: Did you say stuff at the end?

SOPHIA: How do you feel?

MICHAEL: I feel like every country handled it so much better than America I feel like the reason for that. I’m not sure if this is about to sound stupid, but I feel like every state has their own individual mindset. The more eastern states, the North shore states we’re more like...oh more progressive. We’re willing to do this and actually make the corona rate better but then the southern you go: Texas, Florida people are just more likely to go out without masks, go party at beaches, all of that. And I feel like in a lot of the countries - apart from the U.S. they’re taking it more seriously. Italy, they stayed inside for the whole time, their rate dropped down drastically. Everyone was wearing masks. Same with Asian countries. And they just wore masks, they knew what to do, they kept sanitizing. But in America it's a dispute between I don’t wanna wear a mask [and] wear a mask to protect us.

SOPHIA: So you mentioned that each state has a different of method of dealing the virus. Do you think that speaks to how America really isn’t a unified country?

MICHAEL: No. We’re definitely not unified, in the sense that every state has their own idealistic - like we're a two party system we're not that unified at all. I feel like the most unified we were was at the beginning of the pandemic when every state actually agreed to close down. But then after that people just kept dividing more and more as they saw the rates go down.

SOPHIA: You think the US handled the virus?

MICHAEL: At first, they handled it really really poorly. The president didn't do anything to actually try to prevent it from happening. He didn’t create any law or anything to wear masks he didn't make it mandatory and after rates kept increasing he kept ignoring the situation. It took to the point where it got really bad and that’s when he finally took effort. But at that point, it was already too late. Too much of the country had already contracted it. We could’ve stopped it from rising significantly. I just feel as if we handled it really poorly at the beginning but now that we’re in this state right now it’s so hard to do anything without harming another part of the country.

SOPHIA: If you were president what would you have done differently?

MICHAEL: I feel at the beginning I would shut down the airports because obviously that's where we were contracting the virus from. As I said the first case in Massachusetts came back from somebody who I believe went to China or Italy. It came back to the college, Bunk- UMass. Yeah, It came back to UMass, and then from there the doctors contracted, it kept traveling to everyone else. Also very early on make it mandatory to wear a mask and yeah

SOPHIA: What do you think the US has to do from here on out to get rid of the virus as quickly as possible? 

MICHAEL: I feel as if states can’t reopen up except for essential businesses. ‘Cause I’m seeing people go out right now, go out to parties, bowling, all of that stuff. That’s really not helping anyone. It’s helping people’s mental states but I feel like we should be more concerned about actually trying to cure - not cure the virus but prevent it from spreading.

S; So you want all states to shut down again and all essential businesses be open?

MICHAEL: Yeah.

SOPHIA: Okay, do you think Massachusetts reopened too early?

MICHAEL: I feel like, like I said, I feel like we shouldn’t really reopen. But, based on the results the corona rates actually lowering. I feel as though we did a good job at closing it down for the time we did. And now people are taking a good job to actually wear masks and lower the spread of it.

SOPHIA: I get that, I get that. When do you think this pandemic will be over for in the US? You don’t have to have a perfect number or whatever but, generally.

MICHAEL: Probably around a year or two.

SOPHIA: That, yup. I’ve heard that one before. Thank you, I know not a lot of people like to talk about politics. So thanks for doing that. Let’s talk about you now, just for a little bit. So who are you quaratining with at home?

MICHAEL: Pretty much my family. My father, my mom, my sister, my brother. 

SOPHIA: Your brother is an infant?

MICHAEL: Yeah

SOPHIA: When do we - this is not related to the pandemic but when do we classify an infant? I don’t know. Or like a toddler? What’s the difference?

MICHAEL:  I feel like a toddler’s like when they’re like fat. When they got meat on them and they can start moving like crawl. I feel like that’s a toddler.

SOPHIA: So is your little brother a toddler?

MICHAEL: Yeah he’s a toddler now

SOPHIA: Okay, has he had to go to doctor’s appointments and stuff like that? Because he’s so young? Or is he like just okay at home?

MICHAEL: He was actually premature so there was a lot wrong with him. He had to go to the hospital almost every other day. When we see problems now we want to take him to the hospital just in case anything is happening with him. We get scared.

SOPHIA: Is it scary to have to take him to the doctors in a time like this?

MICHAEL: Oh yeah definitely. My mom is actually really scared of the hospital because of so many people go in to get checked for corona or stuff like that. She’s terrified of bringing him because shes scared he might catch it.

SOPHIA: No yeah it’s definitely a tricky situation especially since he's so young. So how's it been staying at home with your family for months?

MICHAEL: Honestly I didn't really see a difference. It was just a lot of boredom. I feel like just being at home with each other people just tend to be angrier at each other, they get more mad. They start showing their true colors.

SOPHIA: Is that something you experienced or was that just like before you quarantine that-

MICHAEL: Yeah I experienced that. My parents got into an argument a lot, they kept arguing many times .

SOPHIA: Sorry about that. What have you been doing to stay occupied? Other than work obviously.

MICHAEL:  I bought a pool table 

SOPHIA: Oh my gosh yeah you did. Do you play often or is it just there?

MICHAEL: Yeah I play [inaudible]  you know, I'm sick [meaning at the game not in actuality]. Besides-

SOPHIA: Oh you’re so good [at pool]. Have you gone out - 

MICHAEL: Besides - 

SOPHIA: Oh sorry

MICHAEL: Besides that, for the most part I've just been like chilling at home. I stopped playing games - the just started getting boring to me, I've been trying to get as many hours as I can to work, I worked out for a little bit., got bored. And now I'm trying to learn Japanese.

SOPHIA: How's that going? Is it - like are you keeping at it?

MICHAEL: I don't know 

[ begins counting in Japanese ]

MICHAEL: Yeah I just counted

SOPHIA: There you go I mean that’s definitely something. Have you gone out to like stores or like the beach recently?

MICHAEL: I work at the beach

SOPHIA: Okay but have you gone there to like hangout?

MICHAEL: Not at the beach but when I go out with my friends we tend to just hangout tin the car. We go in and out restaurants, we never just stay there.

SOPHIA: Yeah. How have things hanged since before quarantine? Like these stores and restaurants and stuff?

MICHAEL: You’re’ not allowed to chill inside them, everywhere is like closed down for the most part. You just go get your order. You’re not even allowed to wait inside some stores. Yeah, that’s pretty much it for the most part.

SOPHIA: Do you think that after this pandemic is gone businesses will still keep that model of like having things such as a max capacity or like really cleaning procedures that they have now?

MICHAEL: No, no way. 'Cause I feel like they all focus around money. Like if you’re gonna have a limited amount of people in you’re obviously losing money by that and by having your employees clean you’re making time away from their jobs and they really don’t care about the health of the customers. Although that may sound bad but they would have taken those precautions before the endemic and so they're just gonna revert back to how we were in order for - to increase their profits.

SOPHIA: Do you think America, in general, focused more or focuses more on like the economy instead of the well being of Americans?

MICHAEL: Oh yeah 100%, I saw it in an article that his doctor, or he was something like a doctor. He was like a drive-up doctor or something like that. He faked that patients were having corona so that he could receive loans. The loans were to help treat the patients, all that. Pay your staff and instead of using the money to actually do that he bought a Lamborgini I think he got $2.2 million from it?

SOPHIA: Jeez. That’s terrible.

MICHAEL: Yeah

SOPHIA: That’s actually terrible. People are really greedy. I actually don’t have any more questions.