For most of us our lives have been turned upside down since March. From converting our living rooms into makeshift offices to school lessons in our bedrooms and everything in between, the coronavirus has completely redefined our idea of what ‘normal’ is and will be in future. 

 

Someone whose life changed drastically was Emily Price, a 31 year old journalism student from Merthyr Tydfil, and mother of a six year old. As the pandemic hit, Emily was used to being in university four days a week as her daughter, Belle, was in school and husband was in work, this soon changed as universities and schools closed by 20 March. Emily had to resort to online learning for herself to make sure she kept up with work towards her degree while also taking care of Belle and her school work. Despite everything else, Emily managed to write a book during lockdown and fulfill one of her lifelong dreams.

 

“I can do this forever, I can just stay at home forever. I can write from home, I can do uni from home.”

 

At the beginning of the pandemic, Emily said working from home

felt more like a novelty as she no longer had to get the train into the

city and back home four days a week and could connect with lecturers

online. During the first week of lockdown her husband, who had lost

his job because of the pandemic, asked if she was panicking, her

response was “I can do this forever, I can just stay at home forever. I

can write from home, I can do uni from home.” Her mindset quickly

changed as the initial two weeks of working from home turned into

six weeks and she realised that things wouldn't be back to normal as

soon as she first thought. Emily was used to her routine of travelling

into the city and finding stories there so having to turn to social media

and not being able to attend events as usual affected her ability to

find stories.

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“This is dragging me down because for me to write, for me to chase stories I need to leave the house...”

 

While keeping up with university work Emily said she found it difficult to find stories that didn't involve Covid-19 as the subject was dominating the news, she said: “Every story that I was coming across was a coronavirus story, which I find very difficult because when that’s dragging down your life and your husband’s lost his job because of it and your child can't go to school because of it, it's just all enveloping and you can't escape it and it can become really depressing.” 

 

                                                                                          Most of us had to learn to adapt extremely quickly to keep up with                                                                                               the pace of the pandemic which became more serious overnight,                                                                                                 from losing jobs to creating a business and parents becoming                                                                                                       teachers (or at least trying their best), everyone has had to respond                                                                                               to the pandemic differently. 

 

                                                                                          Covid-19 became one of the main factors of Emily’s life as it did to                                                                                               the majority of the world. As well as focusing on her own education                                                                                               she now also had to factor in her daughter’s education. The first                                                                                                   lockdown meant that school children got sent home quickly and                                                                                                   without much warning for parents or teachers, most children were                                                                                                 sent work booklets to keep them busy for the initial two weeks out of                                                                                          school, but as the weeks went by students started losing key                                                                                                          education time, especially children and students working towards external exams. Emily said: “My biggest worry is that she is not getting the education she needs, I can't give her what she needs.” With her daughter being only six years old, she found explaining the world situation difficult as she wanted to keep her at a slight distance from the news and her journalistic work. Emily said: “When you’re writing stories about coronavirus or you're reading about it sometimes it’s difficult to keep her away from that.” Emily and her husband were taking Belle on nature walks to watch the seasons change to distract her from the fact she could go swimming or to a soft play area since lockdown restrictions were introduced. While looking after her daughter and also working towards her degree over the course of the pandemic, she wrote a book titled ‘Viva Porthcawl!’ about the annual Elvis Presley Festival in Porthcawl.

 

“I think that originally the book was going to be about all the people who has won competitions, how much money it brings in, but i just really didn't want to do that with the story, I think the journalist in me wanted to make it about the people”

 

Emily was approached by the festival director to write a book on the Elvis Presely festival

in Porthcawl and was excited by the opportunity as she’d be able to spend her time on

content that wasn't about coronavirus, to then find out she’d have only 30 days to finish

the book. Although the book wasn’t at all about coronavirus, the virus still controlled the

way in which she had to write it, from not being able to immerse herself in it by going to

the festival and doing interviews face to face. Emily said: “I would never have done it that

way before, being stuck in the house, not being able to go and get involved in it properly

and immerse myself in it really changed the way that I wrote it.” Emily conducted around

30 interviews for the book within her 30 day deadline, speaking to people all over the

world but not being allowed to visit the Elvis Festival because of restrictions.