Blog #12

By now we all know that we should all be quarantined and practicing social distancing. That being said, I have had multiple celebrations canceled because of coronavirus. I have experienced one of two things, cancellation or zoom call. Currently, I am watching one of my lifelong neighbors, Sandhi, get married. He was supposed to be married sometime this summer in Seattle, which I was extremely excited about. I love getting dressed up, and I was especially excited to go to the West Coast to see Sandhi get married to his fiance (now wife!). After Seattle was labeled to be an epicenter of the coronavirus, the wedding couldn't possibly be held there, so it was canceled. This was unbelievably sad because of the fact that they had been dating for so long and we have long awaited their wedding. Since they are Harvard Medical students, they are in Boston right now. They had the ceremony on the river, which was BEAUTIFUL; today was a perfect day for a wedding! More about the newlyweds(!), more specifically, Sandhi, also known as Sandy because I could not pronounce his name as a child; he was always known to me as the oldest of my favorite neighbors. When I was a child, Sandhi babysat me along with his brother Aranda, Randy. They changed my diapers as a child and were even there when I cut my hair as a child. Another thing to know about Sandhi is that he’s insanely smart. He is currently at Harvard Medical School along with his wife(!). This summer they adopted an adorable dog named Ollie.

Currently, I am listening to my mom attempt to congratulate the newlyweds, who had their wedding, obviously, through zoom. My mom’s desktop does not have a video camera or a microphone to do so (do not worry she was very vocal in the chat). She then decided to call in, which resulted in her being on mute screaming at her phone. I can't believe the advances in technology that would accommodate a virtual wedding such as this. I could have never imagined someone having their ceremony alone with an officiant on a zoom call (I also never imagined I’d be a participant of a Harvard affiliated zoom call, but that's a different story). The fact that someone could hold a ceremony so that their parents in New Jersey, brothers in both Germany and China, friends from Australia, family members from Seattle, and other friends and family from all over the world can attend and celebrate with them is absolutely mind-boggling (also the number of loved ones in random countries was insane, that that is also a different story). The amount of reach and accessibility of technology is crazy and has advanced exponentially over the past couple of years. That being said, I am extremely thankful that it is this accessible because if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to be there for their special day. Even though they won’t read this, congrats!