GENEVA, N.Y. — Historians say it’s fascinating to think of how future generations will look back on these times. A Geneva woman who started keeping a journal right around the time the pandemic began says she never thought she’d still be doing it. 

So much has happened over the last two years and Katie Bay has documented pretty much all of it.

“This is the textbook definition of overwhelming right here,” said Bay, as she looked over a stack of journals and newspaper clippings documenting the pandemic. 

It began with one journal. Then two. Now the headlines and clippings will help make up a third. 

“You can tell it’s thick,” she said. “It’s got all different kinds of things in there.”

It's everything that has to do with the pandemic. She never could have imagined it would still be going.

“Oh, I had hoped not,” said Bay. “I really did. And you got to the point where you’re like, oh, we’re going to be doing this for a while.”

We first met Katie about a year ago. The emergency medical worker started her COVID journal so she could have something to share with her daughter, Annabella, when she got older. The good things — and bad.

“I had anxiety anyway,” she said. “But now it's, this is like my super special pandemic anxiety.”

Historians say it’s important to document these moments in time. Last summer, the Geneva Historical Museum collected pandemic-related photos and writings for an exhibit called “We Stayed at Home.”

“Already two years later, it kind of feels like history,” said curator of collections John Marks.

Marks says it’s important for future generations to know what happened.

“This is this generation’s Depression and World War II,” he said. “Well, when I was a kid we didn’t have proms for three years. We didn’t have school, we had to wear masks and everything was canceled.”

When Bay is done, when COVID-19 is done, Bay plans to give the museum a copy of her journals.

“This will definitely be talked about for generations,” said Marks. “So it's important to grab it while we can.”

Reflecting on the past two years, Bay says she plans to move on from her job as a first responder. It’s too much.

“This was the moment where I was like, we’re getting a new career,” she said, holding up a photo of herself, visibly upset. “This is twenty-something years of doing this, and the first time that I cried at work, because it was so overwhelming.”

Also overwhelming is the thought of finishing her COVID journal. There’s still important work to do.

“I’m gonna have to do it,” she said. “You have to continue once you started.”