COVID: five years later

 Five years ago, our lives shut down and we lived in limbo for months on end, not really sure how long lockdown would be. I remember being in Charlottesville and then getting the news that we would be sent home from spring break. I had no clue that I’d be in New York City, hiding out at home, waiting for school to open up in the fall.  

In the midst of that time, I honestly thought I would never forget it. And now, considering how the days blended together and how much I avoided the news, I have forgotten so much about that time.

Here’s a list of quarantine things from 2020:

Learning to do online school

Within days of being sent home, we were learning to do online school on Zoom. (Why wasn’t Skype chosen as the work-from-home video app?) I remember recording my French assignments in a random room in my house because the lighting was good there, 

People lost jobs and others were essential workers

The wild level of uncertainty and the way it all felt unreal was insane. Food lines were longer than ever (although considering the economy now, the data might beg to differ). People were grieving. Essential workers were risking their lives to help all of us—grocery store workers, warehouse workers, nurses and doctors. 

The feeling of the days blending together

Because there was no going outside, despite the weather getting warmer, I sometimes couldn’t even tell days apart. My journal entries were very repetitive because life indoors was the same. Because of this feeling, it kind of makes sense that there’s so much I’ve forgotten from this time.

Related Post: Movies, Shows, and Podcasts for Social Distancing

My media consumption skyrocketed

Who knows how much money I made Youtube in those days of scrolling for new content online? I also loved listening to Beautiful Anonymous and getting to hear how other strangers were getting through the pandemic. It was a weird time but it was made easier by knowing that we weren’t going through the struggle alone. I also became obsessed with Welcome to Nightvale, a show about a weird small town somewhere in the U.S., and caught up on their whole back catalog up until that point. I’d listen to it at night and it was delightful to hear Cecil say “Good night, Nightvale. Good night.”

I read a lot of sci-fi

I read Neal Shusterman and Michael Grant, and I guess I wanted to escape the real world implications of science gone wrong for a fiction version. I do still highly recommend Shusterman’s Scythe series, especially given the way AI has taken over!

Got back into my spiritual rhythms

Living at home before COVID, I often found it hard to retain spiritual rhythms outside of the routine I had at UVA, but with endless time on my hands, I finally started to read my Bible consistently at home. I was watching church online as well. We also would do small groups on Zoom (which was very much not the same).

Related Post: Life in Lockdown – July 2020

It was exhausting

More than anything, I think I just felt tired. Zoom was exhausting. I was tired of living in my pjs (my clothes were back in Virginia—no time to pack). I was tired of waiting to hear when we were going back to school. I was tired of the days being the same on an endless loop again and again and again. 

More media

I made a praise in quarantine playlist. I wrote little fiction stories for fun. I watched Farscape and the Great British Baking Show and laughed at Holey Moley. I started listening to Wolf 359, about a crew in space trying to live with each other and figure out what’s going on up there. 

There was so much I missed

I missed having my own room back at UVA. I missed the mountains and the green beauty of Virginia. I missed the Easter tradition my friend Karissa and I had, where we’d get Taco Bell and have a picnic. It was sweet!

Lessons from quarantine 

1. Anchoring habits are essential for not going insane
2. The dopamine of buying something new always wears off
3. A good audio drama is a special thing
4. Beautiful Anonmymous has always reminded me of the good of humanity
5. Value what you most want over what you want now
6. Choices lead, feelings follow

Hope this prompted your own reflection on COVID 5 years ago.

Signing off, 

Gigi