Pandemic Stories Steve Phan
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[00:00:00] Carrie: The Pandemic Stories Project collects stories about individual experiences in Jessamine County during the COVID 19 pandemic to create a communal record of this history making happening. Today is August 23rd, 2022. This is Carrie Green, User Education Librarian at the Jessamine County Public Library. And I'm here with Steve Phan, who will be telling his Pandemic Story.

Hi Steve. 

[00:00:27] Steve: Hi Carrie. It's good to see you. And I know we've been talking about doing this interview for quite some time and here I am. So I look forward to chatting about my, I believe fairly unique pandemic story. 

[00:00:40] Carrie: Yes. I, I think you do have a unique experience. So for our listeners, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do here in Jessamine County?

[00:00:49] Steve: I'm a new Kentuckian, I guess I would say, recently moved to Kentucky in September 2021. And I currently serve as the Chief of Interpretation at Camp Nelson National Monument in Jessamine County in Nicholasville. It's one of the newest National Park Service Units that we have in this country. So it's exciting to be here.

We're building a brand new National Park Site. So I was here on a detail last year from January until May of 2021. And, you know, there was still a lot of masking going on. There was a lot of different variants out and things like that. So look forward to chatting about that as well. 

[00:01:28] Carrie: Before that, I think you mentioned to me that you, you were living in DC.

Do you wanna talk a little bit about what the pandemic was like for you when things first started to shut down? 

[00:01:38] Steve: Yes. So I was working for the National Park Service in Washington, DC, and I had been living there for about a total, actually, before I moved out here, for about five years and, you know, DC's an expensive city to live in.

So I was living in a row house with six or seven roommates. It was quite chaotic. But it was a little bit of it was fun as well, but, well, you know, when the pandemic, you know, when you started hearing news about it I had roommates that were really up to date on the news current events and they were sharing, Hey, we, we might have a, a major, you know,

outbreak of something. And I think a lot of us had no idea what was coming of course. What exactly does this mean? I think the majority of us have never lived through something like this before. And I remember giving a park ranger-led program at one of our sites in Washington, DC, like the second week of March.

And then by the third week, everything started changing and that's when I knew, wow, this is a really, really big deal. And, you know, it obviously affected everyone in the federal government, outside of the federal government, families, individuals. And I was fortunate, in my belief, that when everyone was furloughed, federal employees were sent home just like everyone else.

There was a quarantine in place. There was a shutdown in place. I got to perform essential duties and I volunteered to do that for a number of different reasons. I didn't wanna stay at home and be kind of cooped up in a house with so many other people, but I also wanted to be on my feet as well. I wanted to be active, whatever that meant.

And the thing was, the parks were still open. You know, the visitor centers and contact stations were closed, but the parks were still open. So I never took a day off. I never missed a day. I was never quarantined. I never was never sent home. I came in, signed my paperwork and I was, I started working and that continued. It's continued ever since. I've in a way, you know, kind of everything around me was impacted by COVID, but I guess my work continued 

[00:03:41] Carrie: MM-hmm.

And did you feel like that helped you get through this kind of stressful time? 

[00:03:48] Steve: Absolutely. Cause I know mental health, physical health was a major issue for a lot of people and I was excited to go to work every day and be active. I'm one of those people, I'm, I'm a lot more productive at work than I am at home.

And so, you know, each morning, and I I'll actually share with you my first day driving to work when the quarantine and the shutdowns were in place, you know, living in Washington, DC, which is a very transient, busy city. There's people coming in and out of the city all the time, all hours of the day. And I remember driving to work from my house, which is like less than a 10 minute drive.

Cause I actually did live in the city. There was literally no one on the road. And I could not believe that I'd never experienced something like that before, especially in DC. It felt postapocalyptic. And it was like that for several days. And then, you know, you saw more and more people have to go out, drive and get groceries and things like that.

And you know, I think everyone from epidemiologists on down was just trying to figure out what to do next. Right. Responding and trying to figure out how to best protect people. So I would be out and about. And at first, you know, we had to wear a mask and everyone wore mask outside. Right. And then I remember gonna the grocery store and then people were required to wear a mask.

I remember this transition. Right. And so that was kind of like my first couple weeks of going back to work or going still going into work actually. But I remember seeing my roommates each morning, I would go upstairs and they'd be in the living room on their laptops, ready to remote work and all that, of course, telework.

And you know, it, it became much harder for them in the weeks and months to follow. Cause they felt stuck. They, they didn't know what to do. Right. All the restaurants and everything were closed in Washington DC, other than take out. And I, I saw them start to have a, it, it took a toll on them. And I remember one of my roommates.

He was like, I don't even know if I brushed my teeth this morning. You know, he was like, everything is just confusing now and everything's blending together and yeah, I think I was fortunate to be outside to, you know, carefully interact with visitors, which I did. So my duties was literally go to different park sites and report on the conditions.

As I mentioned, there was so many more people out in the parks that there was resource damage and, and things like that. And, you know, activities when a lot of people come together. So that's what I was doing. I'd go to 17 or 18 sites during the week, and I would walk the trails and make reports about damage, resource damage, trash, you know, stuff like that.

If I saw anything perhaps illegal going on, but that kept me active. Right. They kept me outside, which was kind of invigorating in a way. And it was a good way to kinda maintain a physical and kind of mental mindset throughout this experience. But I really feel for the people that were inside or isolated by themselves. You know, I would get home, my roommates would be done with work and we'd just go out and hang out on the porch for several hours.

Right. And we did that for several months and, you know, we've all moved away now and we all reflect on that experience and we missed that. Right. We, we got closer because of that experience. But you know, it was, it was, it was, it was also a very trying experience as well. 

[00:07:09] Carrie: Mm-hmm. So you said you moved to, or you came down to Kentucky in, was it January, you said? 

[00:07:19] Steve: Yeah, January 2021, I was here for a 120 day detail and it was interesting. Yeah, you're going to a new state. I've never really spent that much time in Kentucky. I've driven through Kentucky, and I was gonna be here for four months and we're in the process of literally building a brand new National Park site.

I think some visitors or people listening will know, you know, Camp Nelson was a county site for about 20 years. It was declared a National Monument in late 2018, and it'd been a process to, you know, turn this over to the National Park Service. And when I got there, there were four of us for the National Park Service there, that's it.

And two of us were on detail, myself and the facility manager, the only permanent people we had was the superintendent and the administrative assistant at that point. And, you know, we were, had to figure out how to build a new National Park while maintaining, you know, social distancing, wearing masks inside, not opening the visitor center.

And I think a lot of people believed that the visitor center was closed because of COVID and the thing was, we just didn't have any staff. And that was the big thing. Right. And we were in the process of renovating the visitor center as well. So yeah, that was quite the experience as well, you know, being in a new state with different guidelines.

I think, I, I think personally was different. The federal government, obviously we still, you know, follow these guidelines and even today, actually, I mean, even in the visitor center today at some of our different sites in Kentucky, depending on you know, where we are in the red, we, over the past month, we've been masking in the visitor center again. 

[00:09:01] Carrie: Uhhuh just, just because the....

[00:09:05] Steve: Because the rate of infection and all that. You know, so we're still following these guidelines and I think, you know, it's, it's been, it's been good, right? I think everyone's adjusted well, as best they could. And I know some people see it as an inconvenience, but we're just, you know, doing the best we can, doing what we're instructed and it's, it's gone well for us.

[00:09:22] Carrie: Mm-hmm. Good. Did you rethink anything about park service during the pandemic? Has the National Park Service changed the way that they do anything because of the pandemic other than, you know, obviously following guidelines and things like that? 

[00:09:39] Steve: Sure. Well, I think, and I can't speak for a lot of people because I've, I'm a frontline park ranger in many ways.

Right. And so we do visitor services we call it, so we're in visitor centers, we're out giving programs and things like that. And I think a lot of people worked, started working remotely and they've wanted to continue to work remotely. I've heard that echoed, not in just what I do in the park service, but across the board.

And, you know, and that includes non-government, you know, type employment. People have found that, Hey, I can thrive and do a really good job at, at home as well. As I mentioned, I, I don't function well at home. I can't really focus. And, you know, being a park ranger, you know, we're supposed to be there and engaging with the public.

Right. But I think, you know, there, it, it took depending on where you're at, it took some time to get the visitor centers back open. And I think there's staffing issues that are affecting everyone. Right. And we see that across the, the country and the world really, right. In every single industry. And so I think, you know, some are starting to reopen again limited hours and things like that.

But for us, you know, we weren't open cuz we just didn't have staff yet. You know? So one of my duties was to hire permanent park ranger and interns. And then I had to leave to go back to Washington DC and the visitor center at Camp Nelson actually reopened to the public in June of 2021.

And which is really exciting. And then, you know, I got back here permanently in September. And by that point, I I'm trying to recall, Carrie. It's been, you know, it's everything, you know, kind of blended over the past couple years. I, I know a lot of people can echo that sentiment and that experience.

And I think by that point we were still masking when I got back. And then, that's right with all the different variants out. And by like the spring of this past year, that's when we, we, we could take the mask off and now, now they're back on. 

[00:11:29] Carrie: Mmhmm. 

You kind of touched on this a little bit, but I'm curious if there are other ways that moving to Kentucky, you know, kind of in the middle of a pandemic, how that shaped your experience of it.

[00:11:46] Steve: Yeah, that's a great question. I think in Washington, DC, people were very proactive in regards to mask wearing, social distancing. Right. I remember actually being back in DC and this was the night that DC in a way reopened. Right. And I think it was late May and it'd been pretty quiet. You know, a lot of restaurants were doing takeout and things like that.

And people were masking everywhere, outside, inside to grocery shop and things like that. And then that, that May night I was out with some, some friends and I felt like it was DC again. It was loud and energetic. There was people everywhere, you know, music playing in the streets, cars, driving around and people at bars and restaurants and things like that.

And that's kind of when things reopened, it was really, really interesting. And then by the time I got here in September, you know, I, I obviously had left that behind and I believe things had been open in Kentucky a little bit longer than they were, in I'm sorry, in DC, then they were in Kentucky. And then when I got here wanted to be safe as possible.

Obviously, you know, a lot of people had their own individual preferences and things like that, but that was kind of the major change for me, you know, just the way different places handled this pandemic. You know, I think it was obviously by the summer of last year, people were kind of worn out, you know, and it was time to kind of, for a lot of people, that I'm ready to kind of

move forward with this. Right. But I think we found out last winter that it was, it was still prevalent, right. Especially with the different variants. And I, I think it was, it's been hard, I think for everyone just to be adaptive, right. Because you feel like you can move forward and sometimes we have to take a step back.

[00:13:29] Carrie: Mm-hmm . What will you remember most vividly from the past two and a half years? 

[00:13:36] Steve: Wow. That's a great question. How this impacted everyone. It impacted every individual. It impacted every industry, every field. I think about my friends and colleagues that are teachers and how they had to adjust literally on the fly as like, I like to say working in restaurants, they'd say on the fly, on the fly, we need it right away.

Right. And how incredibly talented and dedicated these people are to do something like that. Right. But what I've actually really I guess enjoyed in a way. I'm not sure if that's the right word, Carrie, but I've been very intrigued by people's experiences. That's why I think these pandemic stories are so important and I've been hearing from other people, right,

about their experience. I, I recall just a couple months ago, I was speaking to a college student. I think she was going into her third year and she mentioned just how traumatic the first year was. She was 18 years old. She had started college and then the pandemic happened. And then she was stuck in her dorm room and they had to go to online learning, you know, food was getting delivered to the dorms, right.

Like imagine being a freshman and you're supposed to be interacting with people and kind of growing into your own, and you're isolated. Right. Cause I know that, and I know that had an impact on a lot of different people. Right. And then other friends. Well, a lot of people haven't talked about their mental health.

And I know, I think, you know, as we come out of this, you're hearing more about people's experiences with their mental and physical health and how, you know, it was isolating for so many people and, and we handled things differently. Right. And I know a lot of people, it got pretty dark. And so I mentioned it for me,

I, I was around enough people, right. Because I lived in the house. And actually, you know, we, we had up to eight people living in that house. By the pandemic there was almost, almost like only like three or, I mean four or five of us. Right. It was cuz people weren't moving. Right. And people weren't coming into the city.

People weren't doing inter person internships, people, weren't going back to school and things like that. And so but fortunately I, I had a group of people around me, right. That kind of kept my spirits up. And then, I'm fortunate that I could still go to work. And that was a big deal for me. Staying physical, fit, I guess, in a way being active, I guess, was the better term for that.

But yeah, this was, you know, a life changing experience I think for everyone. Right. And I think we, the residual effects of that will impact us for generations, I think. At least another generation that this is a big deal. 

[00:16:11] Carrie: And speaking of those generations, what do you hope future generations will, will take out of?

What do you want them to know about COVID? 

[00:16:23] Steve: Well, it's interesting. I recall, you know, being in history, there were a lot of people that wrote about previous pandemics. We had just passed through, like the 100th anniversary of World War, the end of World War I and the Spanish flu and things like that. So there was a lot of people talking about that amongst my colleagues in the field and, you know, writing personal blogs and kind, literally diary journals about, you know, what was going on with them personally.

Things that were happening around them. And that's a really good question. Like why would I tell the next generation, cuz obviously this was recorded right with our media and people blog about it. People took, you know, people went out and about and kind of did as much as best they could, but I hope that they know that they're not alone, I think is the most important thing.

And even though if you might be physically isolated from others that, you know, there's hopefully a way that you can connect with others in a different avenue, right, with the technology, the way it is today, and then that we take care of each other. I think that's, that's really, really important.

[00:17:25] Carrie: Mm-hmm. Well, do you have any final thoughts you wanted to give? 

[00:17:31] Steve: Well, it's interesting, right? It's March of 2020, and now it's almost, it's September of 2023 and it. That was a long trying experience. But as I was just speaking with you, when I got here today, it kind of went by pretty quickly. Right. But if you kind of reflect and you look back and I think that's easier to do now with our technology, you know, it like these memories like pop up on your phone, I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't.

I, I, I can't believe that happened a year and a half or even two years ago. Right. It's a seminal event, right. That you just don't forget. Like you'll, you'll, I'll I think each person that experienced this will look back in 10, 20, 30 years, and they can share it with others. Like where were you at when the pandemic started?

Right. And just like we started the conversation today in Washington DC. Right. And. It changed everything. And it's impacted people in a multitude of ways, of the country in a multitude of ways, the world. Right. And we're still not out of it yet. I think that's important to understand as well. So I know, you know, we've hopefully gotten past the really, really dark parts of it, but I still think we have a way to go. 

[00:18:44] Carrie: Mm-hmm. Well, thank you so much, Steve, for sharing your pandemic story with us, we really appreciate it.

[00:18:49] Steve: Thank you. I appreciate. Oh, I'll share one thing. And this is kind of a, you know, a humorous story to conclude here. I haven't fully shaven my face since like 2012. And since I was doing essential duties, we had to get fitted for those N95 masks. Right. And they told me I had to shave and I was like, no, I will not shave.

And they're like, you need to that's that's the rules, I'm like. So I was actually in DC and went down to the US park police station. Right. And they were fitting us for these masks and checking our breathing and all this stuff. It was really cool. Just to kind of, you know, be a part of this, but they literally had

brand new clean razors there and they're like, we knew people wouldn't come. We knew people would come and not listen to directions. Cause I thought I could work my way out of it. Right. And so they gave me a razor, like go to the bathroom and shave and it was I was like, you know, kind of crying, you know, like if I had like really long hair, I was cutting my hair for the first time in years.

But I guess one of that's one of the memories I did remember, kind of humorous really. Right. But in order to wear that mask, I had to shave and that was not an easy thing to do. So, yeah, I think that's kind of a humorous way kind of one of those stories that, uh, I won't forget. So I thought that was a appropriate way to end this conversation.

So thank you so much, Carrie. I appreciate your time. 

[00:20:10] Carrie: You're welcome. 

And I will note for listeners that you have grown your facial hair back. 

[00:20:15] Steve: I have, I have indeed. And, yeah. As I said, it was the best part was seeing the table and they just had a bunch of brand new razors there. And they're like, here you go.

And like, okay.