Grimmie Washington, August 19th, 2024
Title
Grimmie Washington, August 19th, 2024
Description
In this interview, Grimmie Washington shares what it was like completing highschool and starting college during the first wave of Covid.
Publisher
Detroit Historical Society
Rights
Detroit Historical Society
Language
en-US
Narrator/Interviewee's Name
Grimmie Washington
Interviewer's Name
Taylor Claybrook
Date
8/18/2024
Interview Length
16:27
Transcription
Taylor Claybrook: Okay. Today is August 19th, 2024. My name is Taylor Claybrook and I am sitting down with.
Grimmie Washington: Grimmie Washington.
TC: Thank you for being here. So my first question is, what was your initial reaction to hearing about Covid when it was spreading and then when the lockdown finally happened?
GW: Like the initial March 13th lockdown?
TC: So we can start when you were still in high school, because I know that's when Covid was, like, really picking up. So when when you first heard about Covid.
GW: Okay. When I first heard about Covid, I did not take it seriously at all. I did not think it was going to be. Something that affected Americans. And so when I would talk about it with my classmates or my friends, it was definitely not in. A serious manner at all. We did not think that we would personally be affected by it. Ever.
TC: And then when the lockdown finally happened.
GW: When the lockdown finally happened. For the first few days, I was really excited because I was happy to have time off of school, especially my senior year. It was just any time away from school that I could. It was an exciting moment for me. But then after that, two weeks was up. It was just kind of. Confusion, but also still excited that I did not have to go to school, so it was still very much not. I was taking things more seriously, than before the lockdown. But it still wasn't something that. I really gave a lot of thought to outside of like, oh yeah, I don't have to go to school outside of like my personal wants and stuff. I wasn't really looking at it on like a big scale, like national issue type of thing.
TC: Right. And you were in high school. So yeah, it was completely different. It was like, oh, lockdown, whatever. I get to stay at home. So how was your academic career impacted? And you can answer that for the last couple of months of high school and then Wayne State, if you want to do it that way.
GW: Okay. For the last couple of months of high school, it was impacted in, in what I feel like was kind of a positive way, if you can look at it like that. They froze everybody's grades and everybody graduated. Which for me and a lot of my fellow classmates and my friends was like. Almost detrimental because we weren't really doing super well. So we were just excited to be able to kind of just like, slide past the whole graduation party and then like, meander our way into college. But it was the transition from high school to college where Covid became kind of, a really big question as far as where, where is the money for school going to and how is it being used? A lot of the adults in my life, after I graduated high school, they were really pushing me to not move onto campus and to, like, still enroll in school, but do it remote so that I could save money. And where I was at the time, I didn't feel like that was the safest option for me. As I was walking into, like, a new field of sobriety I needed, I feel like I needed a separation and to live on campus. But now that, like, I'm kind of Im a few years out of that, I do realize that that was a huge way of eating away at my finances because there were no in-person classes. Everything was shut down. All of the restaurants around campus were shut down. Our, our own, our own. What is it called? I was blanking on the word. Our own cafeteria was shut down multiple times throughout the school year. So it really put me in a position where I realized that I was paying a lot of money for less than half of a college experience. Really?
TC: And that I'm assuming that influence your decision to stop attending?
GW: Definitely.
TC: So what kept you busy during lockdown? Oh, you can do just the Wayne State. Okay. So, like, what kept you busy during lockdown? And you kind of already answered this. Where are you living? In Detroit. You said you were living on campus.
GW: Yeah, I was living on campus. Honestly, what kept me busy was being around my friends, finding, like that transition from high school friends to college friends and finding new communities. And that was my first time really living in community in that manner. And it was really, really necessary because like I said before, our access to food was very limited a lot. So a lot of the times to be able to be fed, you needed like a solid group of friends that you could, like, go to their dorm and grab snacks, grab food. If you didn't have a car, you could ask them to take you to a grocery store or something, because everything that was like in a walkable radius on campus was very inaccessible a lot of the time. So most of my time was just spent like being around other people because we didn't really have class. We had online classes, but it didn't really take up as much time as if it was in person. And you got to walk across campus and it, you know, there was less things to do in a day. So I just filled it with being around. Likewise, people.
TC: And that brings me to my next question. So how was the transition from in-person to online? So, you know being in person in high school and then you come to college and everything is completely remote. But what was that like.
GW: It was definitely strange because when I. When I was graduate of high school in the class of 2020. Zoom wasn't really like used super heavily. So like when after March 13th happened and we were still in high school, we did not have online classes. They just put our homework in an online format. So when I got to college and it's like all of my classes are on a zoom and it's just behind screens. It was very jarring, especially for all of my art classes where you're supposed to be in a studio with like 12 other artists all working together, looking at each other's art, being influenced by each other in real time and like, we had no access to that at all. So it was like. We didn't even really have. It was just very strange and it felt everything felt very disconnected, like it couldn't really fall into place very well. But also at the same time, there was. I think that I also enjoyed aspects of it because, it was my first year as a college student. I had a lot of anxiety about how. I would react emotionally and mentally, to like just being around so many people. So like the limited social interactions was, is it was positives and negatives to it.
TC: And what was it like when? We were kind of coming out of this online era and going back into the real world. I know, after like all the Covid restrictions were lifted, you weren't at Wayne anymore, but just in your everyday life. What was it like? You know, kind of integrating yourself back into everything?
GW: I feel like it was. Not so challenging after I left Wayne State. I started to immerse myself in like this was like in 2021, I started to immerse myself in the Detroit creative scene. I guess you could call it. And that hope, that transition. I feel like that was more of a traditional, like college experience of like being in community with people, being around artists, being around people that are like. Studying the same that I was, which is more in academic setting. Like, that transition was kind of easier than the transition from high school to to college being like. On campus, but everything being shut down.
TC: Right? And really quick. What was your program again? I don't think my program. You're what you were studying.
GW: I was studying industrial design. Okay. I kind of forget all of the intricacies. Yes. So long. I didn't know that I was studying design. And I have, like, a focus on industrial design. I was going to graduate with a BFA.
TC: Okay. And then the next question is, what was it like interacting with your family that lived outside of your home? So I guess in your case, it would be, what was it like interacting with everyone that lived outside of your dorm or on campus? What what was that like? Not even just family. Just family and friends that didn't go to Wayne State.
GW: I. Honestly, when I was on campus, all of my friends were also on campus. I didn't really talk to anybody who wasn't on campus just because of how like what happened in my personal life leading up to school and like, really starting fresh with, like, all of my connections with people. But as far as family, I relied on my family incredibly heavily while I was on campus because I was not mentally doing well at all. So I would have a lot of, personal breaks where I would have to come home for some time just to, like, regroup. But it was difficult trying to talk to my family about these struggles because their college struggles weren't encased in a pandemic. So it was just things that they didn't really have advice for because when they went to school, like when my mom went to college, she didn't have a computer at all. So it was just such a different and such a different thing. So it was certain things that I could ask advice for and other things that I really couldn't. Because, I mean, how can you answer something you never experienced? Yeah, I would go home a lot when I was there.
TC: And then the next question is, what do you wish Wayne State would have done differently during the pandemic?
GW: I wish that. Specifically for the 2020 school year. I really wish that they did not have living on dorms as an option at all. I wish that they, kept all of the dorms closed. Especially towers like the dorms where they know is going to be a huge wave of freshman sophomores. I think it was very. I think it was a decision that was led with greed and needing and wanting that new freshman income for the dorms. But I don't think it's ethical to. Allow students to pay to be in a dorm, but not always have consistent access to food. Whether that be through like Wayne State, cafeterias being closed, or the fact that almost every single walkable restaurant or place to eat on campus was closed.
TC: The pantry was closed too?
GW: The pantry was closed. The only places that were open were Leo's, Coney Island and the Starbucks. That's in the student center, the Taco Bell and the Panda Express. So that's what we whenever the oftentimes I would get out of work at Jimmy John's, walk back to the dorm to get, dinner. And it was just closed. They never sent any mass text or nothing like that. It would just be closed because they didn't have the staff. And so the only thing that really kept me from being hungry most of the time was making sure I ate at work pretty much. And a lot of other people, they did different things to get by too, but it happened many times where we just didn't have access to dinner. You know, and I really affected you. If you had night classes, then you go to the cafeteria after the your class and it's like, oh, I don't have anything to eat. I don't have a car. All of these restaurants are closed now. It's nighttime. It kind of puts you in like a really. Type predicament, and I think that that would have completely been eliminated if they just went 2020. Just remote completely.
TC: That and having a bunch of freshmen and sophomores in dorms then probably aren't taking Covid very seriously. Yeah, because like when I was an undergrad, it was a lot of people, like people would go to each other's dorms. And I'm sure that didn't stop.
GW: Oh no no no, no, not at all.
TC: So. And then the next question is, how long had you been in the city? In at Wayne when the lockdown happened?
GW: Not at all like the when. So when the initial lockdown happened, I was still in high school and Grosse Pointe and Harper Woods and then. Was September. September of 2020 is when I. This is my first time ever living in Detroit. Being on campus was my first time, living in this city and experiencing that. So is kind of it was just like a sucky time to experience living in Detroit, because it's also literally the beginning of the pandemic. So I wasn't really able to explore or anything. It was I was just on campus. I didn't really leave my dorm building because we didn't have a reason to. Everybody pretty much just stayed put that whole time.
TC: Yeah, everything was pretty quiet. Yeah, yeah. Will you answer all the questions that I have? But I did want to ask, what art scenes are you into now from? You know, when you were in, when you said you kind of got into the creative scene after you left? So what what are you up to now?
GW: Now I can say that I feel like I've kind of officially exited the Detroit creative scene just from. Uncomfortability and things that I've noticed that just made me basically where I'm at right now is I don't want to really be a part of any scene. I just want actual connections with people. So I've been doing less like art related stuff and more like. Farm related stuff and like building community off of that. I'm just really into growing food right now and talking to other people that are really into growing food. It's been more fun than like, talking to people who are photographers and painters and stuff. It just feels a little bit more passionate and a little bit more impactful for where I am.
TC: That's being influenced by what happened at Wayne State. So yeah.
GW: Yeah, definitely.
TC: Want to make sure other people have food security as well. Yeah, it's really good. Do you have any other additional thoughts or questions that you thought of during the interview?
GW: I do think that is very interesting. The state of my state right now. I have I have a friend who is attending Wayne State. They're also I do their hair and whenever I do their hair, I, they usually live in the Anthony Wayne, apartment. So I go over there and we usually just talk about the what their experiences being on Wednesdays didn't. And they put me privy to the fact that, like, I think last year it was the biggest class of freshmen that Wednesday has had in a really long time. And every time I am on campus to do that friend's hair, I'm just like, completely shocked and flabbergasted as to like how many people I see just walking around and like being on campus. It's just very interesting because when I see it, I'm like, dang, like I should have waited. It makes me feel like right now would have been a way better time to start my, college education than four years ago. And I'm like, dang, this is really why I feel like they should have, like, shut it down for a little bit to give people an actual. An actual full college experience that makes them want to keep coming back. You know.
TC: Very good.
Grimmie Washington: Grimmie Washington.
TC: Thank you for being here. So my first question is, what was your initial reaction to hearing about Covid when it was spreading and then when the lockdown finally happened?
GW: Like the initial March 13th lockdown?
TC: So we can start when you were still in high school, because I know that's when Covid was, like, really picking up. So when when you first heard about Covid.
GW: Okay. When I first heard about Covid, I did not take it seriously at all. I did not think it was going to be. Something that affected Americans. And so when I would talk about it with my classmates or my friends, it was definitely not in. A serious manner at all. We did not think that we would personally be affected by it. Ever.
TC: And then when the lockdown finally happened.
GW: When the lockdown finally happened. For the first few days, I was really excited because I was happy to have time off of school, especially my senior year. It was just any time away from school that I could. It was an exciting moment for me. But then after that, two weeks was up. It was just kind of. Confusion, but also still excited that I did not have to go to school, so it was still very much not. I was taking things more seriously, than before the lockdown. But it still wasn't something that. I really gave a lot of thought to outside of like, oh yeah, I don't have to go to school outside of like my personal wants and stuff. I wasn't really looking at it on like a big scale, like national issue type of thing.
TC: Right. And you were in high school. So yeah, it was completely different. It was like, oh, lockdown, whatever. I get to stay at home. So how was your academic career impacted? And you can answer that for the last couple of months of high school and then Wayne State, if you want to do it that way.
GW: Okay. For the last couple of months of high school, it was impacted in, in what I feel like was kind of a positive way, if you can look at it like that. They froze everybody's grades and everybody graduated. Which for me and a lot of my fellow classmates and my friends was like. Almost detrimental because we weren't really doing super well. So we were just excited to be able to kind of just like, slide past the whole graduation party and then like, meander our way into college. But it was the transition from high school to college where Covid became kind of, a really big question as far as where, where is the money for school going to and how is it being used? A lot of the adults in my life, after I graduated high school, they were really pushing me to not move onto campus and to, like, still enroll in school, but do it remote so that I could save money. And where I was at the time, I didn't feel like that was the safest option for me. As I was walking into, like, a new field of sobriety I needed, I feel like I needed a separation and to live on campus. But now that, like, I'm kind of Im a few years out of that, I do realize that that was a huge way of eating away at my finances because there were no in-person classes. Everything was shut down. All of the restaurants around campus were shut down. Our, our own, our own. What is it called? I was blanking on the word. Our own cafeteria was shut down multiple times throughout the school year. So it really put me in a position where I realized that I was paying a lot of money for less than half of a college experience. Really?
TC: And that I'm assuming that influence your decision to stop attending?
GW: Definitely.
TC: So what kept you busy during lockdown? Oh, you can do just the Wayne State. Okay. So, like, what kept you busy during lockdown? And you kind of already answered this. Where are you living? In Detroit. You said you were living on campus.
GW: Yeah, I was living on campus. Honestly, what kept me busy was being around my friends, finding, like that transition from high school friends to college friends and finding new communities. And that was my first time really living in community in that manner. And it was really, really necessary because like I said before, our access to food was very limited a lot. So a lot of the times to be able to be fed, you needed like a solid group of friends that you could, like, go to their dorm and grab snacks, grab food. If you didn't have a car, you could ask them to take you to a grocery store or something, because everything that was like in a walkable radius on campus was very inaccessible a lot of the time. So most of my time was just spent like being around other people because we didn't really have class. We had online classes, but it didn't really take up as much time as if it was in person. And you got to walk across campus and it, you know, there was less things to do in a day. So I just filled it with being around. Likewise, people.
TC: And that brings me to my next question. So how was the transition from in-person to online? So, you know being in person in high school and then you come to college and everything is completely remote. But what was that like.
GW: It was definitely strange because when I. When I was graduate of high school in the class of 2020. Zoom wasn't really like used super heavily. So like when after March 13th happened and we were still in high school, we did not have online classes. They just put our homework in an online format. So when I got to college and it's like all of my classes are on a zoom and it's just behind screens. It was very jarring, especially for all of my art classes where you're supposed to be in a studio with like 12 other artists all working together, looking at each other's art, being influenced by each other in real time and like, we had no access to that at all. So it was like. We didn't even really have. It was just very strange and it felt everything felt very disconnected, like it couldn't really fall into place very well. But also at the same time, there was. I think that I also enjoyed aspects of it because, it was my first year as a college student. I had a lot of anxiety about how. I would react emotionally and mentally, to like just being around so many people. So like the limited social interactions was, is it was positives and negatives to it.
TC: And what was it like when? We were kind of coming out of this online era and going back into the real world. I know, after like all the Covid restrictions were lifted, you weren't at Wayne anymore, but just in your everyday life. What was it like? You know, kind of integrating yourself back into everything?
GW: I feel like it was. Not so challenging after I left Wayne State. I started to immerse myself in like this was like in 2021, I started to immerse myself in the Detroit creative scene. I guess you could call it. And that hope, that transition. I feel like that was more of a traditional, like college experience of like being in community with people, being around artists, being around people that are like. Studying the same that I was, which is more in academic setting. Like, that transition was kind of easier than the transition from high school to to college being like. On campus, but everything being shut down.
TC: Right? And really quick. What was your program again? I don't think my program. You're what you were studying.
GW: I was studying industrial design. Okay. I kind of forget all of the intricacies. Yes. So long. I didn't know that I was studying design. And I have, like, a focus on industrial design. I was going to graduate with a BFA.
TC: Okay. And then the next question is, what was it like interacting with your family that lived outside of your home? So I guess in your case, it would be, what was it like interacting with everyone that lived outside of your dorm or on campus? What what was that like? Not even just family. Just family and friends that didn't go to Wayne State.
GW: I. Honestly, when I was on campus, all of my friends were also on campus. I didn't really talk to anybody who wasn't on campus just because of how like what happened in my personal life leading up to school and like, really starting fresh with, like, all of my connections with people. But as far as family, I relied on my family incredibly heavily while I was on campus because I was not mentally doing well at all. So I would have a lot of, personal breaks where I would have to come home for some time just to, like, regroup. But it was difficult trying to talk to my family about these struggles because their college struggles weren't encased in a pandemic. So it was just things that they didn't really have advice for because when they went to school, like when my mom went to college, she didn't have a computer at all. So it was just such a different and such a different thing. So it was certain things that I could ask advice for and other things that I really couldn't. Because, I mean, how can you answer something you never experienced? Yeah, I would go home a lot when I was there.
TC: And then the next question is, what do you wish Wayne State would have done differently during the pandemic?
GW: I wish that. Specifically for the 2020 school year. I really wish that they did not have living on dorms as an option at all. I wish that they, kept all of the dorms closed. Especially towers like the dorms where they know is going to be a huge wave of freshman sophomores. I think it was very. I think it was a decision that was led with greed and needing and wanting that new freshman income for the dorms. But I don't think it's ethical to. Allow students to pay to be in a dorm, but not always have consistent access to food. Whether that be through like Wayne State, cafeterias being closed, or the fact that almost every single walkable restaurant or place to eat on campus was closed.
TC: The pantry was closed too?
GW: The pantry was closed. The only places that were open were Leo's, Coney Island and the Starbucks. That's in the student center, the Taco Bell and the Panda Express. So that's what we whenever the oftentimes I would get out of work at Jimmy John's, walk back to the dorm to get, dinner. And it was just closed. They never sent any mass text or nothing like that. It would just be closed because they didn't have the staff. And so the only thing that really kept me from being hungry most of the time was making sure I ate at work pretty much. And a lot of other people, they did different things to get by too, but it happened many times where we just didn't have access to dinner. You know, and I really affected you. If you had night classes, then you go to the cafeteria after the your class and it's like, oh, I don't have anything to eat. I don't have a car. All of these restaurants are closed now. It's nighttime. It kind of puts you in like a really. Type predicament, and I think that that would have completely been eliminated if they just went 2020. Just remote completely.
TC: That and having a bunch of freshmen and sophomores in dorms then probably aren't taking Covid very seriously. Yeah, because like when I was an undergrad, it was a lot of people, like people would go to each other's dorms. And I'm sure that didn't stop.
GW: Oh no no no, no, not at all.
TC: So. And then the next question is, how long had you been in the city? In at Wayne when the lockdown happened?
GW: Not at all like the when. So when the initial lockdown happened, I was still in high school and Grosse Pointe and Harper Woods and then. Was September. September of 2020 is when I. This is my first time ever living in Detroit. Being on campus was my first time, living in this city and experiencing that. So is kind of it was just like a sucky time to experience living in Detroit, because it's also literally the beginning of the pandemic. So I wasn't really able to explore or anything. It was I was just on campus. I didn't really leave my dorm building because we didn't have a reason to. Everybody pretty much just stayed put that whole time.
TC: Yeah, everything was pretty quiet. Yeah, yeah. Will you answer all the questions that I have? But I did want to ask, what art scenes are you into now from? You know, when you were in, when you said you kind of got into the creative scene after you left? So what what are you up to now?
GW: Now I can say that I feel like I've kind of officially exited the Detroit creative scene just from. Uncomfortability and things that I've noticed that just made me basically where I'm at right now is I don't want to really be a part of any scene. I just want actual connections with people. So I've been doing less like art related stuff and more like. Farm related stuff and like building community off of that. I'm just really into growing food right now and talking to other people that are really into growing food. It's been more fun than like, talking to people who are photographers and painters and stuff. It just feels a little bit more passionate and a little bit more impactful for where I am.
TC: That's being influenced by what happened at Wayne State. So yeah.
GW: Yeah, definitely.
TC: Want to make sure other people have food security as well. Yeah, it's really good. Do you have any other additional thoughts or questions that you thought of during the interview?
GW: I do think that is very interesting. The state of my state right now. I have I have a friend who is attending Wayne State. They're also I do their hair and whenever I do their hair, I, they usually live in the Anthony Wayne, apartment. So I go over there and we usually just talk about the what their experiences being on Wednesdays didn't. And they put me privy to the fact that, like, I think last year it was the biggest class of freshmen that Wednesday has had in a really long time. And every time I am on campus to do that friend's hair, I'm just like, completely shocked and flabbergasted as to like how many people I see just walking around and like being on campus. It's just very interesting because when I see it, I'm like, dang, like I should have waited. It makes me feel like right now would have been a way better time to start my, college education than four years ago. And I'm like, dang, this is really why I feel like they should have, like, shut it down for a little bit to give people an actual. An actual full college experience that makes them want to keep coming back. You know.
TC: Very good.
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Citation
“Grimmie Washington, August 19th, 2024,” Detroit Historical Society Oral History Archive, accessed December 4, 2024, https://oralhistory.detroithistorical.org/items/show/1054.