COVID-19

Published 4 years, 3 months ago

Just as a foreword, I'll be discussing my ongoing experience with the COVID-19 pandemic in this post. For factual information about this virus, please consult these sources:

My Experience so Far

I first heard about COVID-19 sometime in early January. I brought it up to my family, and the general consensus was that it was unlikely to become anything serious. At the time, it sort of felt like it'd be similar to SARS or MERS in terms of scale and time frame.

Virus

The virus didn't feel real to me until about mid March. For context, a close family member is in one of the so-called "at risk groups" for this virus. I'd been discussing my concern about this family member's health to a friend, and they encouraged me to ask my supervisor if I could work remotely going forward, which I did and got approval for.

I'm very grateful to be in an industry that allows me to work from home in the first place. I know a lot of people lost their primary source of income- the income they rely on. Furthermore, I know that many others are required to continue working and interacting with people due to the critical nature of their jobs. I have another family member in this category, and I'm extremely thankful for the risk all of these people are taking in order to keep society functioning.

Based on how popular the idea of a pandemic is in pop-culture, I would've expected a lot more chaos than we're seeing at the moment. People are behaving in a fairly level-headed manner. I'm pleasantly surprised by humanity. I suppose there's still time for all that to change here in the US.

A group of zombies A group of zombies
Zombies: one of pop-culture's favorite depictions of a pandemic

Call it shyness if you must, but I've never been the sort to love getting out and being overly sociable. Now that I'm actually prohibited from being out, however, I've realized just how important it is to me- to my mental health. I really don't know what the future holds, but if my family and I make it through this, I can't wait to get out and meet new people.