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‘Has The World Ended Yet?’ Students Reflect On Letters To The Future

A class of UNC-Chapel Hill students turned to letter writing this year to process the pandemic.
A class of UNC-Chapel Hill students turned to letter writing this year to process the pandemic.
A class of UNC-Chapel Hill students turned to letter writing this year to process the pandemic.
Credit Pixabay
A class of UNC-Chapel Hill students turned to letter writing this year to process the pandemic.

  The letters begin with various greetings. “Dear 50 year of age self.” “To my future children.” “Dear future me, It’s me, I mean you, but circa 2020.” These are the words of a group of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill undergraduates who processed the reality of a pandemic-dominated year through letters to the future as a class assignment this spring. Host Anita Rao talks with two UNC-Chapel Hill students about letters they wrote to their future selves in March. Their instructors join to discuss the concept of letter writing as a way to process the pandemic.

 

The letters reveal a vulnerable side of the writers — a side that has gone through anger, grief and fear during the uncertainties of 2020. The students penned the letters more than six months ago, but second-year student Ankita Chopde and third-year student Isabel Salas say the words to themselves still ring true. Host Anita Rao talks with Chopde and Salas about their letters and how writing helped them process isolation from family and cancelled plans.

Their course instructors also join the conversation to discuss the concept of the assignment and the value of letter-writing. Alison LaGarry is a clinical assistant professor in the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Education, and Lucia Mock Muñoz de Luna is a doctoral student in the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Education.

 

Read the class letters to the future here.

 

Copyright 2020 North Carolina Public Radio

Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.
Kaia Findlay is a producer for The State of Things, WUNC's daily, live talk show. Kaia grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in a household filled with teachers and storytellers. In elementary school, she usually fell asleep listening to recordings of 1950s radio comedy programs. After a semester of writing for her high school newspaper, she decided she hated journalism. While pursuing her bachelor’s in environmental studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, she got talked back into it. Kaia received a master’s degree from the UNC Hussman School of Journalism, where she focused on reporting and science communication. She has published stories with Our State Magazine, Indy Week, and HuffPost. She most recently worked as the manager for a podcast on environmental sustainability and higher education. Her reporting passions include climate and the environment, health and science, food and women’s issues. When not working at WUNC, Kaia goes pebble-wrestling, takes long bike rides, and reads while hammocking.