Santa Clara, we are living through uncertain times. The unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year has brought forth unprecedented challenges and extraordinary change. We have witnessed unimaginable loss—of life, jobs, resources, and relationships—but also remarkable achievement. A vaccine for a once-in-a-lifetime virus was developed at record speed. A cultural, historic reckoning over racism converged in protests that spanned the globe. Here in the U.S., our democratic values were tested like never before. And in the midst of it all, life marched on: in new babies and marriages, in countless video calls and Zoom meetings, in distance learning, and in board games, books, and so many TV shows.
We want to chronicle it all, from the ordinary to the amazing. Help Santa Clara Magazine, in partnership with University Library Archives & Special Collections, record history. Submit your story—in text or audio form, or as original artwork—to this digital time capsule. Share the hurdles you’ve jumped over, the unexpected grace and gratitude you’ve found in isolation, how our collective SCU values of conscience and compassion have been strengthened. Your reflection will be housed in perpetuity in University Archives and provide future generations of historians firsthand accounts of how we got through this time, together yet apart.