Who Am I Without Her, Who Is She Without Us?

When my daughter was born I tracked her growth using drawings and paintings to mark the new warped experience of time. I saw only a few people, leaving my home just once a day for a walk. The recently mandated quarantines have forced this same period of social isolation. In quarantine and during the postpartum period, we are asked to stay inside to keep our families safe. With each day bleeding into the next, this has also become a moment to reflect on our new identities and values. Now with a toddler at home, the outside world feels like a shifting backdrop to my baby’s developmental leaps. When the first COVID-19 cases were reported she began to climb, at the start of the state-wide lockdown she began to point, and when the Black Lives Matter protests began she stood unaided for the first time. Her development as a person and as part of a new generation is entangled with America’s cultural shifts.