There are a few different dates that people consider when they think of the start of the pandemic. For me, I seem to always think of how March 13, 2020 was the last day that really felt normal. It was right before things shut down and before masks were required. I know that I was still worried about Covid and knew that it was starting to affect people in my area, but it still felt separate from my life until things started to change drastically.
And for the first few weeks of the pandemic, I was terrified. There were so many unknowns (there still are a lot of unknowns, but there’s more information about many things). I didn’t know what I really needed to worry about and what might have been an overreaction. Seeing people lined up outside of a grocery store and then finally getting inside and seeing how much was missing from the shelves was something that felt like it was out of a movie. I think I really was going between being numb and being panicked so much for the first few weeks. And it didn’t help that so much of my day-to-day routine was gone right away. I was lucky and didn’t lose my job right away, but it quickly went to having my hours cut by more than half and then down to 3 hours a week before I was out of work. I did do workouts at home so I could try to feel like I was in my routine, but it wasn’t the same as going to my workouts. And I didn’t see any of my friends because we didn’t know what we could do to keep each other safe.
Of course, at that time, we thought maybe this would be life for maybe a month or two. I don’t think anyone expected it to be the way it has turned out.
Last year, when we were marking 1 year since the start of the pandemic, things really were starting to feel hopeful. I had gotten my first vaccination and was about to get my second dose. Some of my friends were also getting their vaccinations and we were looking forward to seeing how quickly things might be returning back to what felt like normal. Most of us were expecting that we would be able to have a normal summer and I started to make plans.
But just like how we thought the pandemic would be over quickly, things a year in didn’t go the way we thought either. We had new variants that were more contagious and got people sick. Not everyone believed in the vaccinations and that caused people to get sick who could have prevented it if they did get vaccinated. And while some things were coming back, there was a lot that still wasn’t normal and people still were being very cautious. I was working on isolating myself less when I could be safe. I started to see friends again when we could be outdoors or in small groups of people who were all vaccinated. And I feel like a year ago, I thought that might be the beginning of the end.
Now that we are 2 years in, things are starting to normalize a bit more but I don’t know if that’s a good thing yet. Masks are not being required, but I still wear mine almost everywhere I go. Cases are down right now, but we can see trends happening in other places and that worries me. We are still in a time where some things are going back to the old way of normal and other things are still the new normal. And we don’t know how long the new normal will stay or if they will go back to the old normal one day.
I do want to stay hopeful and believe that it won’t be much longer before I can stop thinking about how I’m going to keep myself safe when I leave my home. I am taking chances with things that I wouldn’t have done a year ago, and I am trying to find the balance between staying safe and not living my life because of fear. It’s something that has been hard to balance since things started 2 years ago. But now I am able to put a bit more on living my life again and less on taking a lot of measures to stay safe.
I do believe that in a year, we will be recognizing the 3-year mark to the pandemic, but I hope that things will be safer in a year than they are now. Maybe whatever variant we have at that time will be not that contagious or will not get people that sick. But I think I’ve accepted that Covid is not going away and it will eventually be a regular part of life. We aren’t to a place where we can really think that way yet as too many people are still getting very sick and either having long-Covid with debilitating symptoms or dying, but I hope that we will be at that point sooner rather than later.
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