A year and six days ago, we published a roundtable about how we were all coping with the new and confusing onset of a quarantine in response to a global pandemic: “It’s a weird time, friends and loved ones; we’re all feeling disconnected and scared.” Some things have changed a lot since then; some have disconcertingly not changed much at all! Many of us have lost a great deal over the past year, whether that was loved ones, a job, our health, connection with community, and more. Few of us were prepared to still be in the place we are now a year in. It’s hard to know how to feel in the midst of so much grief and at the advent of what many tentatively hope is a milestone in terms of vaccination access. We were hoping not to have occasion to revisit this conversation as a one-year anniversary, but we do, so here we are, exploring the question: What do you feel like you’ve taken away from this past year of pandemic life?
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Valerie Anne! I came to a very similar realization about never really being “off” with roommates! Different circumstances of course, but I wasn’t expecting to identify with yours so strongly. It was such an odd feeling to identify, but I now live with just my partner and it’s a lot easier somehow. I also really liked my roommate(s)! There was just a level of like self-monitoring involved while living with other people that I didn’t realize was happening until the pandemic. Good luck with the day job hunt!
I feel like I’m living my purpose and hitting my stride. It has been a crazy twelve months, and I still fluctuate between feeling kick *ss for doing all of the things and just tired from doing all of the things. I used to wonder how my mom could just keep working all the time and now I get it. You just keep going because things need to get done so you do them. Trying to live my values while giving myself grace for my imperfections. And love and gratitude for all of the kindness in the world.
I learned that while this is the most isolated I’ve ever been, it’s not the loneliest I’ve ever been. and that put some stuff into perspective about how actually, I am kind of fucked up from what happened when I was younger. because if I can say “yeah, this is fine, it’s been worse before” while everyone around me is going absolutely bonkers from the isolation, then maybe that’s a bit of An Issue