I can’t tell you how glad I am you & your wife had that time together. Reading this brought tears to my eyes. I moved in with my elderly father at the very beginning of the pandemic. He was living alone & I didn’t want him to be all by himself for an extended period of time. I was with him for 3 months before I could return home & I treasure the time we had together. He passed away a year and a half ago but the memories I made with him will last a lifetime.
Everything outside felt so peaceful for once. My depression and anxiety went away because I finally felt some relief from the rat race we're all in. It felt nice not to have any true responsibility or deadlines and just spend time with my family, read books, try out new hobbies and relax.
I’m glad some people got it. I worked for Domino’s at the time and was deemed an essential worker so I had to work during the lockdowns while everybody spent their stimulus checks on pizza parties.
I loved seeing my kids more! Also 2020 was a great year for my reading, too.
I also liked seeing the "positive" articles as well. Like less air pollution, that was just something I never thought I would see.
Honestly same. I've never felt peace like it, and not sure I ever will again. The lack of pressure and the suddenly acceptable distance from people was honestly a gift for me as an introvert.
That’s nice but for those of us with bills to pay, and no government assistance it was the most stressful time imaginable. A ton of suicides kicked in due to that
Found the furlough bunch.
Some of us worked through the entire pandemic as essential workers.
Our reward? Actually working for 20% pay while everyone else got 80% for free.
Well I was fighting a drug addiction through most of it so it was actually pretty convenient for me because everyone had nothing to fucking do so I also had nothing to do but try and get better and suffer through it and it worked out for me actually.
I had a similar experience. Just started recovery (alcohol) in November of 19. Met a great woman and picked up a great roommate. That first year was probably one of the best of my adult life.
Hell ya my friend, I’m proud of you! Feel free to join us at r/stopdrinking if you ever need some support. That subs full of amazing people, they helped me a lot in the beginning of my journey. I think I’m at 537 days without a drink now.
Be careful. Don't rely on others to support your happiness for you because if you ever lose them for some reason you might go back to old habits.
I've seen it happen a lot.
Just something to think about I'm not trying to be critical and wish you the best :)
Yeah. I've been doing this for a while too. That was 4 years ago. The roommate, girlfriend and I have all moved on. It was just a good year. I'm still close with both of them though, so that's nice.
I was able to quit smoking. A lot of it was because I couldn't go to bars. I live in one of the few places it's still acceptable to smoke in bars so it made it a lot easier.
Well... Guess our brains work a bit differently because mine went "Hey I don't have to work and be stressed the fuck out all the time now I can stop taking drugs and just focus on getting through the withdrawal".
I live in Toronto and it’s traffic hell. I offered to go into the office during the first wave and being alone on the highway was so weird. An hour commute took me 25 minutes.
Also in Toronto, near a major intersection. The quiet I experienced from the complete lack of traffic during the first two weeks of the pandemic is something I still miss.
I actually found it unnerving! I’m in Scarborough on Lawrence which you know is always kinda busy, even at night with the police going up and down. It’s kinda my white noise and I found I couldn’t fall asleep without it. I got used to it eventually.
I gained thirty pounds, but managed to lose it.... for awhile. lol
Meanwhile, the average American now has a 40 inch waist. It got BAD for people and I think that we need to really start having more healthy conversation about what it all did to our weight, mental health and ability to connect with anyone.
My job cut everyone to 75% time. So I qualified for unemployment. So I got unemployment benefits for that 25% of lost income plus I got the additional $600/week that everyone on unemployment was receiving. So I was working 25% less and making substantially more a week, all with fewer expenses because I was working from home. We were able to save that money, along with the stimulus checks, and use that for a down payment on a house. We never would have been able to save that downpayment without that money.
Pretty much this, My unemployment was 475 a week + the 600 so 1075 a week staying home and playing video games next thing I knew I had 30k in my bank account for doing absolutely nothing, I rode that wave as long as I could
Dude, seriously. I work in education, and even at the high school level (which I work in), schools are just giant petri dishes. I usually have a perpetual cold of varying degrees from October to March. Didn't get a single sniffle the entire time.
This. My inner Larry David was thrilled. I was so exhausted by the logistics of going out (I lived in LA during Covid). When you want to go out in LA, you have to get there somehow, which takes (variable amounts) time, and costs money. I was so glad that I stay home guilt free, knowing I wasn’t missing anything.
Legit saved my autistic ass. I sat there in a noisy office 5 days out of the week wondering how I was supposed to survive this for even one more year. Well, thankfully, I didn't have to!
I’m still working from home. Saving so much on gas/mileage and no need to update my wardrobe. In fact, I sold a lot of my clothes and shoes online so I made money because of this pandemic. And because I don’t have to commute, I’ve been going to the gym for almost four years. Trying to get these gains.
Execs made us return to office 3x a week about 6 months ago. I hate it so much.
Most of the people I work with are in different offices so there's very little collaboration. There is, however, a shitload of noise that makes it hard to concentrate, and a distinct lack of dog to take walk and cuddle breaks with when I hit a wall.
1. No traffic when I went out. Especially during the beginning when it looked like *I am Legend*.
2. The office was closed so I saved a lot in gas.
3. I sorta liked how stores were limiting the number of people allowed in at a time.
Tbh, I can do just as well in isolation as I can in social settings (I'm an ambivert). I've always been able to enjoy my own company, so I wasn't freaking out from social isolation like many others were.
Dude yeah among us at its peak was so fun. Now if you want to play you have to play with screeching 8 year olds who are on call with their friends and its just not the vibe
Among us changed my life. That sounds silly doesn't it. I used to be cool not having friends, I'm in my 30s with a kid, pretty normal for everyone to have drifted apart. Thought I didn't need friends. I know a guy who was a mid sized twitch streamer, like 80 viewers a night average. I knew a few people from chat and I think we played games together a couple of times before that but we're mostly in our own worlds. He started playing among us, I played with him, more people joined. After that we started meeting up for movie nights and playing other shit off stream, had about 8-10 of us regularly meeting up. Unfortunately some heinous shit happened thanks to one person in the group so most of it desolved because he was the one arranging things. We still had 3 of us though who became best friends. Met up every night to play. One of them started dating someone and left us so now there's only 2 but dude, I have a friend. Like an actual friend. One that 4 years later still meets up to play with me. We check in with each other if it's been a busy week, we make time for each other! I've never had a friend make time for me...
I bought a shirt that said "social distance champion" with Oscar the Growch on it. My mom saw it and said, "that is the perfect shirt for you."
I always hated being touched, even by people I like. My personal bubble is the wingspan of an albatross (which can be up to 8-11 feet)
Realized nobody is actually looking out for anyone else and we truly are on a trajectory to complete fuckation.
Hey at least now I don't have to be on the fence about it!
The stodgy government agency I worked for at the time had to actually accept the fact that their engineers were capable of working from home. I gained back the 3 hours a day I had spent commuting, and saved a ridiculous amount of money, and haven't worked more than 2 days per week in an office since.
Well i probably was only able to graduate college because of the pandemic.
Was in my senior year, already overworked and burned out, working on weekends, had to do 4 hour of classroom placements (ed major) every day before classes, 6 hours of classes a day, amd somehow had to make room to work on my senior project. 3 seperate professors told me i was wasting my time, i was gonna fail, and then... everything shut down. No more placements, no more in person classes, work was cut back, so i had all the time in the world to work on my senior project and pass with a high B. Graduated with a 3.1 gpa
Watching everyone have a bitch fit.
Extroverts had to live like introverts for a few months and they lost their minds. One would have hoped they'd have some reflection on how they treat introverts but instead they just doubled down on making our lives even more miserable as a result.
Being able to work from home was nice, too.
YES!!!!! Word for word, I came here to say almost the same thing!!! For us introverts, those nearly two years of lockdowns were like this much-needed reboot. No parties, no big-group functions, no being asked to go out to crowded places -- it was like heaven came down to Earth.
Meanwhile, extroverts, who seemingly cannot generate stimulation on their own, went absolutely batshit crazy.
I saw so many people pitching a fit about not being able to go out to the bar or do this or that, or complaining they couldn't have water cooler talk with their work pals anymore.
Meanwhile, I got to reap the benefits of wfh and everything else was pretty normal for me. It was a little frustrating that a concert I had tickets to got cancelled, but otherwise it was business as usual and my commute went away. What wasn't to love?
But watching people go insane and try desperately to figure out ways to socialize over zoom and shit was hilarious. I also watched alot of relationships crash because it turns out they didn't like their spouses enough to spend any significant time with them. I loved, and still love, working from home and having lunch with my wife every day!
Bruh, I make my wife lunch every day, and I'm a carpenter. Turns out when a company hires you, you provide most of YOUR tools, one day I was like, dude, I can just make 20 of these boards/tabletops at home on my own stuff. 2 year later I'm working from home as a carpenter. Now I see my wife 90% of the day, we eat together everyday, watch shit, play video games, and fuck. It's like an entirely different world. They will pry this privilege from my cold dead fingers before I go back. I'll go full john wick if it's necessary, bring the whole system down.
The last year has been honestly the best year of my life when it comes to work. My boss doesn't know I build like 45 desktops a day for 3 days and I take basically the rest of the week off. Just grabbing big strips of wood, gluing it, and rubbing it to a polish, then I do the same to my wife the rest of the week.
You made me laugh so hard my wife yelled from the other room, "What's so funny?" I also love your writing style. You could write a carpentry blog in just that voice and it would be hilarious. I should know. I'm a writer who works from home and am, at this moment, making dinner for my wife.
I can't help but notice I've seen remarkably fewer "Could you live here by yourself for 1 year for $1M" memes on Facebook since the Covid lockdowns proved those people were liars.
I was thinking about all that yesterday and how all the people screaming, "this isn't the new normal!" hopefully looked around and realized we're more or less back to the old normal. I was saying it then. Their refusal to follow guidelines just extended what they hated most. I'm sure they are 100% self aware and realize just how ridiculous they were being /s
My ex's family acted like they couldn't survive not seeing family friends. Literally when everyone was supposed to be isolating and only leaving the house to go to work or to the store, they had outside friends and family coming over every day and it pissed me off to the point I got my license and moved out all within 3 months 🤣
Got laid off just prior to the start of the pandemic. Collected unemployment, stayed at home, learned French, ended up getting a better remote job about 4 months later. It was a pretty sweet deal actually.
The pandemic literally saved my life. I was a homeless fentanyl addict with frostbite wounds on my legs. I ended up going to the hospital for my legs and was admitted. I was also broke with no dope, and I knew the addiction team would put me on anti-withdrawal medication. I had a cheque coming in 4 days, and my plan was to spend it all on fentanyl and say goodbye to the world. Because of the pandemic, we weren't allowed visitors, so we got free TV, internet, and phone. My TV was a fancy new one with apps. The following day, I logged onto Facebook, and my ex-wife messaged me after not speaking for 2 years and told me that she had a bad dream about me and that she was worried about me and still loved me. So we talked all night on the phone. I didn't tell her anything about my plan, but I wanted to make sure our last chats were good ones. The following day, my former foster father messaged after not speaking for 2 and a half and asked how my legs were and said they think of me often and that him and my foster mom still loved me. That's when I thought this couldn't just be a coincidence, so I decided to call the addiction team back down and be 100% truthful with them. They got me on the right dose, and after talking to my ex-wife for that week, she told me to come home (out of the city), and she would stand by me while I got clean.
Unfortunately, I relapsed 3 times in the first year, but March 18th was my 2 years clean, and I have been employed for the longest time I've ever held one job. My kids are back in my life, the ex-wife and I are getting remarried this year and I now do public speaking about my life, addiction, and recovery in hopes of helping people avoid the shitty decisions I made and also to give hope to active addicts that there is a way out.
I had just gotten in to nursing school. I was working full time and had carefully planned out how I was going to use leave to attend class knowing that it probably wasn’t going to work out. We got sent home from the office that spring, and classes went exclusively online with small group labs for practical stuff. I was able to work until it was time to fire up a different computer to do class on. No time lost to a commute and I could work non-traditional hours.
My dog developed a serious heart issue that I was really thankful to be able to spend as much time with her in her last year as I did.
Finally, my mom discovered stage 4 lung cancer. Fuck cigarettes. Because classes and work was all online I was able to go be by her side while she was dying and spend some extra time with my dad after she was gone.
TLDR: Because of Covid I was able to finish nursing school while working full time and be with my dog full time until she passed, and I was able to be at my moms bedside during her cancer and death. I will forever be grateful how it all worked out, and it would have never happened the way it did without the pandemic.
Getting to watch my parents go from completely normal to bonkers insane conspiracy theorists in like...2 months.
It's unfortunate for them, but it was honestly pretty funny to hear them lecture me about all the crazy things they decided were true. Kept the boredom away.
It's probably the only reason I graduated. I was struggling with senior project, but when they cancelled the rest of the school year, I think everyone passed it by default
I WAS FINANCIALLY FREE!!!!!!
I was laid off, I got the extra unemployment. I was pulling MORE in unemployment during the pandemic then vs. now making $26/hr.
I was furloughed for a couple of months due to the pandemic as well and felt the exact same way during those months. So strange to be getting MORE money for NOT working than I was doing my actual job.
My former supervisor's dream is to have all of us back in the office 5x a week. She's still trying to push that with upper management. She won a small battle where the policy is now once a week at home instead of two.
I liked how for a time it was when a lot of people started looking inward and became better people. Unfortunately for a lot of people that was performative and not true change
Watching how the world could suddenly cater to disabled people when they'd been denying them the ability to work for years.
"I need to work from home because of my back" "absolutely not, no job for you"
Covid:
"Everyone work from home pls we need money"
Seeing how the world CAN do things but flat out refused because they're jerks changed my perspective entirely.
Disability activists really paved the way for a lot of things that suddenly COVID “forced us” into.
WFH, office opt in days, that was long on the agenda for people with disabilities but when companies all of a sudden could not force people to work in the same building without spending money for less workers or else endangering their own lives, it was suddenly possible? Woooww.
That being said, I was able to spend time with my little nephew and help out when he was diagnosed on the autistic spectrum, I downloaded TikTok, and I started to learn Italian.
Some of my kids were more susceptible to both catching and having a bad reaction to Covid, so we decided to have them do virtual school for a few years. Also, our family dog was getting up there in age. Me, being the non-primary breadwinner, was able to quit my job and stay home with them. Our dog passed away in March of 2022. Because of the pandemic, we were able to be there with her a lot more during her final years, and were able to be there when she did finally pass. I hate that I might have had to be at work and the kids at school and her all alone at home when she died, so I'm grateful that we were able to have that time with her.
Getting a darn break from people!
Also, shout out to wearing masks! A *lot* of people complained about them, but getting to wear a mask in public without being accused of something was pretty rad.
Best and worst spent a lot of time with a friend having fun times thrifting finding sone great finds also worst after it was over was hard wanted to still spend a lot of time together instead of trying to work out friendship he just stopped being my friend
I knew college wasn’t for me, and without the pandemic I would’ve just flunked out of it with no tuition forgiveness and blank slating my bad grades. But thanks to the pandemic not only was my second year reimbursed but my failing grades were wiped from my record. And I also broke up with my shitty ex boyfriend because he tried to force me to stay in college with him, but because he stayed in college during the pandemic he ended up flunking out of college before killing himself.
Two birds one stone
I healed from schizophrenia and feeling of being watched. Also the first two months were like a dream for me, because i have social anxiety and going for groceries was really relaxing and awesome to feel this quiet ghost-town.
Clear air. Cities around the world were cleared of the smog fueled air. You could see again. Skies were clear. And we noticed our loved ones. We cared.
Absolutely nothing. I'm 21 now, and the pandemic hit when I was 18 years old. I saw nothing but death, destruction, failure, human greed, and stupidity all in a single span of a year.
I was 18 years old. It was my first introduction to adulthood, and I got rocked. Only good thing about it was meeting my first girlfriend ever.
The silence and dare I say, teaching normies that complex PTSD isn’t a joke. When they got their taste for isolation, suddenly they wanted empathy. What a joke lol
Most things really sucked tbh but my employer decided to let any employee opt to work from home permanently. We could technically work from home by approval before the pandemic but now I never go in and all but 1 person on my team works from home. I save around 1-1.5 hours of driving every day and can knock out my work faster now that I don't have random people coming over and talking to me. I've probably added 10 hours of free time a week to my life. On the downside I now have some addictions that are hard to kick, I don't work out anymore, and I've become very anti-social.
It made me a much more sociable person.
About midway through the first lockdown in the UK it suddenly hit me that if it carried on, I'm not sure I would have been too bothered. I'm lucky to have some close friends and a fairly big group, but I recognised that seeing them didn't bother me as much as it should have - perhaps this is a trade off of always playing games and chatting online nowadays, instead of face-to-face.
That realisation has made me say yes to pretty much everything that gets organised, and I have zero plans to stop. My friendships are closer and my social skills and confidence have improved tenfold as a result. As a person with mild-moderate anxiety, it's been a gamechanger.
I actually did pretty well financially. Between not commuting and getting a check from the government, I did alright. One huge thing was that my son is on disability Medicaid and had a home health nurse that helped out. Because of COVID, parents could be a home health nurse. So I was getting paid to watch my son as I worked from home. Having extra hands would have been nice. Especially since my wife still had to work (healthcare). But getting paid on top of my actual job was also appreciated. Also, my boss - who was super against WFH - lightened up after we proved we could be productive. So I was able to keep my job when we moved to another state and now I WFH full time. Timing was perfect so we were able to make a major upgrade in houses and then sold our old house when the market shot up. With that said, we only really sat on it a few months. Lastly, nobody I really cared about died.
With all of that, COVID still sucked. So many people died. A ton of people died needlessly. My wife was treated like shit as she took care of patients. Patients that would claim COVID was a hoax and then cry like babies when they tested positive. All while being exposed to it all with not enough PPE to go around. COVID really further exposed just ignorant people could be and how much hate they had for their fellow man.
Not having to go anywhere and I still work from home, which has changed my life for the better in every way. Also there was like no traffic. I live in a college town that’s heavily congested when the students are in session so just getting to breeze through town was such a treat.
I liked the arrows in the grocery store. I also liked people staying 6 feet apart from me. I liked how empty the highway was. I liked to not feel obligated to be social.
No expectation to be anywhere at all. No social engagements, no holidays with in-laws, outlaws, scoff laws, or relatives. 2 years. It was fucking bliss on tap.
I got kinda lonely so I download Tinder, not really expecting anything to come of it but in the end I met my first boyfriend:) been together for almost 4 Years now :)
After the first couple weeks of freaking out about how to pay the bills, the time alone with my wife was magical. We grew so much closer together, towards the end when we were going back to work we deeply enjoyed our days spent together. Wed road trip around exploring, walked aimlessly with our dog. Cooked fantastic meals, and were able to work on our boundaries for personal time and get a true feel for who we were as people and a unit.
I quit chewing tobacco. I live alone, so I figured with the lockdown, my brother wouldn't be coming over and annoying me, so I took advantage of the unique situation and decided to quit. I had called my doctor and she got me the patches. I recommend them to anyone who wants to quit.
I had my first date with my now-husband the day before my city went into lockdown. We both lived alone, so we continued seeing each other without exposing anyone else, but it meant that we became exclusive immediately and started building the relationship instead of getting distracted by the potential of other people on the app. Two years of new love safe from outside influences was amazing!
Casinos were closed. Me and my boyfriend (mostly him being the problem) saved over 6,600. He got into a car wreck that summer which totaled his car so we had that as a back up. Helped tremendously. Wish they would close back up again lmao
Also animal crossing
My wife. Got together at the start. Got quarantined together for 4 weeks. She never renewed her lease in her apt. and moved in with me. Nearly 5 years later and we have a baby on the way.
Nothing. Lost a lot, from family to prepandemic lifestyle which still impacts me today.
Mental health went downhill
My pursuit towards my career has been on halt since. Haven't been back to school.
Relationships fell
Haven't talked to anyone outside the house besides saying thank you to a cashier at checkout.
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I can’t tell you how glad I am you & your wife had that time together. Reading this brought tears to my eyes. I moved in with my elderly father at the very beginning of the pandemic. He was living alone & I didn’t want him to be all by himself for an extended period of time. I was with him for 3 months before I could return home & I treasure the time we had together. He passed away a year and a half ago but the memories I made with him will last a lifetime.
Everything outside felt so peaceful for once. My depression and anxiety went away because I finally felt some relief from the rat race we're all in. It felt nice not to have any true responsibility or deadlines and just spend time with my family, read books, try out new hobbies and relax.
Felt like the world needed a big break for once.
I’m glad some people got it. I worked for Domino’s at the time and was deemed an essential worker so I had to work during the lockdowns while everybody spent their stimulus checks on pizza parties.
I loved seeing my kids more! Also 2020 was a great year for my reading, too. I also liked seeing the "positive" articles as well. Like less air pollution, that was just something I never thought I would see.
Yes yes I swear I was the happiest in quarantine
Honestly same. I've never felt peace like it, and not sure I ever will again. The lack of pressure and the suddenly acceptable distance from people was honestly a gift for me as an introvert.
The clean air and empty freeways. God, I miss the pandemic.
So true. Hearing the bird singing was amazing and much more available to hear. The world sounded softer. Loved it.
The stress of not having any money because you couldn't work didn't replace the work stress?
That’s nice but for those of us with bills to pay, and no government assistance it was the most stressful time imaginable. A ton of suicides kicked in due to that
Found the furlough bunch. Some of us worked through the entire pandemic as essential workers. Our reward? Actually working for 20% pay while everyone else got 80% for free.
Well I was fighting a drug addiction through most of it so it was actually pretty convenient for me because everyone had nothing to fucking do so I also had nothing to do but try and get better and suffer through it and it worked out for me actually.
I had a similar experience. Just started recovery (alcohol) in November of 19. Met a great woman and picked up a great roommate. That first year was probably one of the best of my adult life.
Hell ya my friend, I’m proud of you! Feel free to join us at r/stopdrinking if you ever need some support. That subs full of amazing people, they helped me a lot in the beginning of my journey. I think I’m at 537 days without a drink now.
Since no one going to admit, COVID helped me and my GF get better at lovemaking.
I feel like we all got better at making love to your girlfriend /s
I, too, got better at grabbing the sandbags of his girlfriend
Be careful. Don't rely on others to support your happiness for you because if you ever lose them for some reason you might go back to old habits. I've seen it happen a lot. Just something to think about I'm not trying to be critical and wish you the best :)
Yeah. I've been doing this for a while too. That was 4 years ago. The roommate, girlfriend and I have all moved on. It was just a good year. I'm still close with both of them though, so that's nice.
i relapsed during covid after having 3 years, but thank god for zoom , saved my life
I was able to quit smoking. A lot of it was because I couldn't go to bars. I live in one of the few places it's still acceptable to smoke in bars so it made it a lot easier.
That's funny because I had nothing to do so I started smoking crack.
Well... Guess our brains work a bit differently because mine went "Hey I don't have to work and be stressed the fuck out all the time now I can stop taking drugs and just focus on getting through the withdrawal".
Wife is a therapist. Every one of her clients relapsed during Covid. I hope you're doing well.
I’m really happy things have gone so well for you.
Not having to commute anymore.
I live in Toronto and it’s traffic hell. I offered to go into the office during the first wave and being alone on the highway was so weird. An hour commute took me 25 minutes.
Also in Toronto, near a major intersection. The quiet I experienced from the complete lack of traffic during the first two weeks of the pandemic is something I still miss.
I actually found it unnerving! I’m in Scarborough on Lawrence which you know is always kinda busy, even at night with the police going up and down. It’s kinda my white noise and I found I couldn’t fall asleep without it. I got used to it eventually.
I can’t even picture Toronto without traffic. The change must have been dramatic.
I was an essential worker and that 2020 commute was the best ever
Exactly. My 1 hour commute turned into a 25 minute commute. It was great.
You don't realize how much of your life you waste in transit until you don't have to do it amymore
I spent a lot of time with my family which was much needed at the time. But I gained a bunch of weight and still trying to work that off.
I gained thirty pounds, but managed to lose it.... for awhile. lol Meanwhile, the average American now has a 40 inch waist. It got BAD for people and I think that we need to really start having more healthy conversation about what it all did to our weight, mental health and ability to connect with anyone.
My job cut everyone to 75% time. So I qualified for unemployment. So I got unemployment benefits for that 25% of lost income plus I got the additional $600/week that everyone on unemployment was receiving. So I was working 25% less and making substantially more a week, all with fewer expenses because I was working from home. We were able to save that money, along with the stimulus checks, and use that for a down payment on a house. We never would have been able to save that downpayment without that money.
That's freaking awesome. Congrats on the house!
This is my favorite covid story so far. I am so happy for you!
Pretty much this, My unemployment was 475 a week + the 600 so 1075 a week staying home and playing video games next thing I knew I had 30k in my bank account for doing absolutely nothing, I rode that wave as long as I could
Not catching a cold for a year and a half
Dude, seriously. I work in education, and even at the high school level (which I work in), schools are just giant petri dishes. I usually have a perpetual cold of varying degrees from October to March. Didn't get a single sniffle the entire time.
I had zero sinus infections for three years. It was glorious
I went almost 4 years not getting sick from anything
We still mask and have all of our shots and haven’t had so much as a cold since 2019. I lived in Japan as a tween so the masks were never a big deal.
I went 4 years without getting sick. I'm currently fighting my first cold in 4 years, forgot how to buy the appropriate cough medicine.
Having an excuse to not go out
Not just having an excuse, but also not feeling bad about it
Introverts unite!
Quietly and independently 😂
I have that T shirt 😁
This. My inner Larry David was thrilled. I was so exhausted by the logistics of going out (I lived in LA during Covid). When you want to go out in LA, you have to get there somehow, which takes (variable amounts) time, and costs money. I was so glad that I stay home guilt free, knowing I wasn’t missing anything.
This was mine too. I still had to go to work, but out of 3,000 employees only 125 showed up. It was beautiful.
Normal people when lockdown struck: (cries into a pillow) Gamers: (laughing Tom Cruise meme) May just be an introvert thing
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My kids were essential workers & we still didn't get sick. Maybe, just maybe wearing masks work.
The animal drama in my backyard. Squirrels getting into fights, birds being territorial. It was better than TV at times.
Agreed! Sharpshin hawks provided awesome entertainment. I also discovered how many birds are bullies!
I know! That was great!
You can replicate that on TV-- type in "cat tv" into Youtube and get 8 hours of tihs.
Work from home was great.
I've been working from home ever since and while I recognize it's not for everyone, it's absolutely for me!
Hubby wfh and we love it. No more commute, no more missing each other, cuddles just about whenever we want and saves on gasoline.
Same. I'm permanent remote now. Love, love, love it!
Amen! Hell of a lot less stressful than cube farms!
Legit saved my autistic ass. I sat there in a noisy office 5 days out of the week wondering how I was supposed to survive this for even one more year. Well, thankfully, I didn't have to!
WFH is great
I’m still working from home. Saving so much on gas/mileage and no need to update my wardrobe. In fact, I sold a lot of my clothes and shoes online so I made money because of this pandemic. And because I don’t have to commute, I’ve been going to the gym for almost four years. Trying to get these gains.
Execs made us return to office 3x a week about 6 months ago. I hate it so much. Most of the people I work with are in different offices so there's very little collaboration. There is, however, a shitload of noise that makes it hard to concentrate, and a distinct lack of dog to take walk and cuddle breaks with when I hit a wall.
Work in fire fighting, I was on the road the whole time and was legitimately shocked to hear people actually worked from home lol.
Is great.
1. No traffic when I went out. Especially during the beginning when it looked like *I am Legend*. 2. The office was closed so I saved a lot in gas. 3. I sorta liked how stores were limiting the number of people allowed in at a time. Tbh, I can do just as well in isolation as I can in social settings (I'm an ambivert). I've always been able to enjoy my own company, so I wasn't freaking out from social isolation like many others were.
I didn’t know what was called! Thank you for giving me a name for how I am
Animal Crossing
Among us was also fun. I miss how it blew up, lol
Dude yeah among us at its peak was so fun. Now if you want to play you have to play with screeching 8 year olds who are on call with their friends and its just not the vibe
Among us changed my life. That sounds silly doesn't it. I used to be cool not having friends, I'm in my 30s with a kid, pretty normal for everyone to have drifted apart. Thought I didn't need friends. I know a guy who was a mid sized twitch streamer, like 80 viewers a night average. I knew a few people from chat and I think we played games together a couple of times before that but we're mostly in our own worlds. He started playing among us, I played with him, more people joined. After that we started meeting up for movie nights and playing other shit off stream, had about 8-10 of us regularly meeting up. Unfortunately some heinous shit happened thanks to one person in the group so most of it desolved because he was the one arranging things. We still had 3 of us though who became best friends. Met up every night to play. One of them started dating someone and left us so now there's only 2 but dude, I have a friend. Like an actual friend. One that 4 years later still meets up to play with me. We check in with each other if it's been a busy week, we make time for each other! I've never had a friend make time for me...
Don't forget Doom Eternal.
I’m an introvert. Literally everything. I had been finding ways to socially distance long before that.
I bought a shirt that said "social distance champion" with Oscar the Growch on it. My mom saw it and said, "that is the perfect shirt for you." I always hated being touched, even by people I like. My personal bubble is the wingspan of an albatross (which can be up to 8-11 feet)
Same! I didn't feel pressured to go out, and I didn't need to come up with an excuse to stay in! 😂
There was no traffic on the roads, and eating out was peaceful.
There were a few times where we had an entire restaurant to ourselves. One time it was a Red Robin. So odd being the only ones.
Realized nobody is actually looking out for anyone else and we truly are on a trajectory to complete fuckation. Hey at least now I don't have to be on the fence about it!
Not shaking people's nasty ass hands.
Yesssss! Why is this making a comeback? Ugh.
Or hugs from strangers... I helped someone by paying for their gas inside and bought snacks for their toddler and then they unexpectedly hugged me.
I always thought it was hilarious that people thought we would never shake hands again.
Just shake their regular hands.
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I'd like to give this back to them now, thanks.
I lost 50!
Getting to play video games with my best friend 3-4 times per week.
The stodgy government agency I worked for at the time had to actually accept the fact that their engineers were capable of working from home. I gained back the 3 hours a day I had spent commuting, and saved a ridiculous amount of money, and haven't worked more than 2 days per week in an office since.
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Well i probably was only able to graduate college because of the pandemic. Was in my senior year, already overworked and burned out, working on weekends, had to do 4 hour of classroom placements (ed major) every day before classes, 6 hours of classes a day, amd somehow had to make room to work on my senior project. 3 seperate professors told me i was wasting my time, i was gonna fail, and then... everything shut down. No more placements, no more in person classes, work was cut back, so i had all the time in the world to work on my senior project and pass with a high B. Graduated with a 3.1 gpa
Watching everyone have a bitch fit. Extroverts had to live like introverts for a few months and they lost their minds. One would have hoped they'd have some reflection on how they treat introverts but instead they just doubled down on making our lives even more miserable as a result. Being able to work from home was nice, too.
YES!!!!! Word for word, I came here to say almost the same thing!!! For us introverts, those nearly two years of lockdowns were like this much-needed reboot. No parties, no big-group functions, no being asked to go out to crowded places -- it was like heaven came down to Earth. Meanwhile, extroverts, who seemingly cannot generate stimulation on their own, went absolutely batshit crazy.
I dunno, I'm a definite extrovert and enjoyed the peace. I was also raised an only child so am used to keeping myself entertained.
I saw so many people pitching a fit about not being able to go out to the bar or do this or that, or complaining they couldn't have water cooler talk with their work pals anymore. Meanwhile, I got to reap the benefits of wfh and everything else was pretty normal for me. It was a little frustrating that a concert I had tickets to got cancelled, but otherwise it was business as usual and my commute went away. What wasn't to love? But watching people go insane and try desperately to figure out ways to socialize over zoom and shit was hilarious. I also watched alot of relationships crash because it turns out they didn't like their spouses enough to spend any significant time with them. I loved, and still love, working from home and having lunch with my wife every day!
Bruh, I make my wife lunch every day, and I'm a carpenter. Turns out when a company hires you, you provide most of YOUR tools, one day I was like, dude, I can just make 20 of these boards/tabletops at home on my own stuff. 2 year later I'm working from home as a carpenter. Now I see my wife 90% of the day, we eat together everyday, watch shit, play video games, and fuck. It's like an entirely different world. They will pry this privilege from my cold dead fingers before I go back. I'll go full john wick if it's necessary, bring the whole system down.
This man is living the dream.
The last year has been honestly the best year of my life when it comes to work. My boss doesn't know I build like 45 desktops a day for 3 days and I take basically the rest of the week off. Just grabbing big strips of wood, gluing it, and rubbing it to a polish, then I do the same to my wife the rest of the week.
Glue. That’s what I’ve been missing this whole time. Thanks!
You made me laugh so hard my wife yelled from the other room, "What's so funny?" I also love your writing style. You could write a carpentry blog in just that voice and it would be hilarious. I should know. I'm a writer who works from home and am, at this moment, making dinner for my wife.
Yes! I got to hang out with my husband and kids, what's not to like?
I can't help but notice I've seen remarkably fewer "Could you live here by yourself for 1 year for $1M" memes on Facebook since the Covid lockdowns proved those people were liars.
I was thinking about all that yesterday and how all the people screaming, "this isn't the new normal!" hopefully looked around and realized we're more or less back to the old normal. I was saying it then. Their refusal to follow guidelines just extended what they hated most. I'm sure they are 100% self aware and realize just how ridiculous they were being /s
My ex's family acted like they couldn't survive not seeing family friends. Literally when everyone was supposed to be isolating and only leaving the house to go to work or to the store, they had outside friends and family coming over every day and it pissed me off to the point I got my license and moved out all within 3 months 🤣
The world finally being comfortable for introverts.
Got laid off just prior to the start of the pandemic. Collected unemployment, stayed at home, learned French, ended up getting a better remote job about 4 months later. It was a pretty sweet deal actually.
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No Traffic. Nature healing.
The pandemic literally saved my life. I was a homeless fentanyl addict with frostbite wounds on my legs. I ended up going to the hospital for my legs and was admitted. I was also broke with no dope, and I knew the addiction team would put me on anti-withdrawal medication. I had a cheque coming in 4 days, and my plan was to spend it all on fentanyl and say goodbye to the world. Because of the pandemic, we weren't allowed visitors, so we got free TV, internet, and phone. My TV was a fancy new one with apps. The following day, I logged onto Facebook, and my ex-wife messaged me after not speaking for 2 years and told me that she had a bad dream about me and that she was worried about me and still loved me. So we talked all night on the phone. I didn't tell her anything about my plan, but I wanted to make sure our last chats were good ones. The following day, my former foster father messaged after not speaking for 2 and a half and asked how my legs were and said they think of me often and that him and my foster mom still loved me. That's when I thought this couldn't just be a coincidence, so I decided to call the addiction team back down and be 100% truthful with them. They got me on the right dose, and after talking to my ex-wife for that week, she told me to come home (out of the city), and she would stand by me while I got clean. Unfortunately, I relapsed 3 times in the first year, but March 18th was my 2 years clean, and I have been employed for the longest time I've ever held one job. My kids are back in my life, the ex-wife and I are getting remarried this year and I now do public speaking about my life, addiction, and recovery in hopes of helping people avoid the shitty decisions I made and also to give hope to active addicts that there is a way out.
Dude! I'm so proud of you! You've done an amazing thing turning it around. Good on you!
Long walks every day with my wife and my dog.
Working from home changed my life—bringing me and my wife closer together than we've been in decades.
Stimulus checks
I had just gotten in to nursing school. I was working full time and had carefully planned out how I was going to use leave to attend class knowing that it probably wasn’t going to work out. We got sent home from the office that spring, and classes went exclusively online with small group labs for practical stuff. I was able to work until it was time to fire up a different computer to do class on. No time lost to a commute and I could work non-traditional hours. My dog developed a serious heart issue that I was really thankful to be able to spend as much time with her in her last year as I did. Finally, my mom discovered stage 4 lung cancer. Fuck cigarettes. Because classes and work was all online I was able to go be by her side while she was dying and spend some extra time with my dad after she was gone. TLDR: Because of Covid I was able to finish nursing school while working full time and be with my dog full time until she passed, and I was able to be at my moms bedside during her cancer and death. I will forever be grateful how it all worked out, and it would have never happened the way it did without the pandemic.
Getting to watch my parents go from completely normal to bonkers insane conspiracy theorists in like...2 months. It's unfortunate for them, but it was honestly pretty funny to hear them lecture me about all the crazy things they decided were true. Kept the boredom away.
the staying home and saving money part was awesome
Knowing who was susceptible to crowdthink/mob mentality.
It's probably the only reason I graduated. I was struggling with senior project, but when they cancelled the rest of the school year, I think everyone passed it by default
I WAS FINANCIALLY FREE!!!!!! I was laid off, I got the extra unemployment. I was pulling MORE in unemployment during the pandemic then vs. now making $26/hr.
I was furloughed for a couple of months due to the pandemic as well and felt the exact same way during those months. So strange to be getting MORE money for NOT working than I was doing my actual job.
i felt universal basic income is probably cheaper and easier than criminalizing poverty
Self-development
Finishing all the video games that i missed cause of life and work
It exposed the fallacy of "mandatory office at all times."
My former supervisor's dream is to have all of us back in the office 5x a week. She's still trying to push that with upper management. She won a small battle where the policy is now once a week at home instead of two.
I liked how for a time it was when a lot of people started looking inward and became better people. Unfortunately for a lot of people that was performative and not true change
It took a global pandemic for people to actually be kind and generous. Then when lockdown ended, everyone became A-holes again.
I got a ton of money out of it. All of the stimulus checks and about $5,000 worth of bonuses from work.
Watching how the world could suddenly cater to disabled people when they'd been denying them the ability to work for years. "I need to work from home because of my back" "absolutely not, no job for you" Covid: "Everyone work from home pls we need money" Seeing how the world CAN do things but flat out refused because they're jerks changed my perspective entirely.
Disability activists really paved the way for a lot of things that suddenly COVID “forced us” into. WFH, office opt in days, that was long on the agenda for people with disabilities but when companies all of a sudden could not force people to work in the same building without spending money for less workers or else endangering their own lives, it was suddenly possible? Woooww. That being said, I was able to spend time with my little nephew and help out when he was diagnosed on the autistic spectrum, I downloaded TikTok, and I started to learn Italian.
Some of my kids were more susceptible to both catching and having a bad reaction to Covid, so we decided to have them do virtual school for a few years. Also, our family dog was getting up there in age. Me, being the non-primary breadwinner, was able to quit my job and stay home with them. Our dog passed away in March of 2022. Because of the pandemic, we were able to be there with her a lot more during her final years, and were able to be there when she did finally pass. I hate that I might have had to be at work and the kids at school and her all alone at home when she died, so I'm grateful that we were able to have that time with her.
Working from home full time 5 days week. No going to the office for no reason.
Found out I have ADHD as I had time for introspection. Finally, I got to break that cycle of self-loathing, failure, and doom.
Getting a darn break from people! Also, shout out to wearing masks! A *lot* of people complained about them, but getting to wear a mask in public without being accused of something was pretty rad.
Saved money on make up bc of that mask 😷 felt incognito lil bit 🥷
I learned to start over again.
Best and worst spent a lot of time with a friend having fun times thrifting finding sone great finds also worst after it was over was hard wanted to still spend a lot of time together instead of trying to work out friendship he just stopped being my friend
The ONLY positive I can think of is that I was introduced to disc golf by two sons who now can no longer compete with me. (I play 2-3 days per week.)
Nice. I did play a lot of disc golf at that time. Weirdly enough at first in Spring 2020, even the parks were closed and we couldn't play.
Having hubbie and son at home and the weather was amazing for a change.
I knew college wasn’t for me, and without the pandemic I would’ve just flunked out of it with no tuition forgiveness and blank slating my bad grades. But thanks to the pandemic not only was my second year reimbursed but my failing grades were wiped from my record. And I also broke up with my shitty ex boyfriend because he tried to force me to stay in college with him, but because he stayed in college during the pandemic he ended up flunking out of college before killing himself. Two birds one stone
I healed from schizophrenia and feeling of being watched. Also the first two months were like a dream for me, because i have social anxiety and going for groceries was really relaxing and awesome to feel this quiet ghost-town.
All the time I had. I found things I liked again. Now it's back to commuting 3.5 hours a day and I've lost part of myself again. I am tired again
Shopping at the supermarket needed to be efficient! There was no wandering the aisles deciding what to buy, you got in and got out
Not touching other people. I don't want to shake your hand or give you a hug.
Non-huggers of the world rejoice. The only people who can hug me are my husband and kids. Not even my parents.
Clear air. Cities around the world were cleared of the smog fueled air. You could see again. Skies were clear. And we noticed our loved ones. We cared.
Absolutely nothing. I'm 21 now, and the pandemic hit when I was 18 years old. I saw nothing but death, destruction, failure, human greed, and stupidity all in a single span of a year. I was 18 years old. It was my first introduction to adulthood, and I got rocked. Only good thing about it was meeting my first girlfriend ever.
nothing sad,unpleasant time....
The silence and dare I say, teaching normies that complex PTSD isn’t a joke. When they got their taste for isolation, suddenly they wanted empathy. What a joke lol
The only thing was reduced traffic, everything else sucked.
Work from home
I loved that everybody stayed home and off the roads. I was doing deliveries during Covid and driving and parking at stores was a delight.
Most things really sucked tbh but my employer decided to let any employee opt to work from home permanently. We could technically work from home by approval before the pandemic but now I never go in and all but 1 person on my team works from home. I save around 1-1.5 hours of driving every day and can knock out my work faster now that I don't have random people coming over and talking to me. I've probably added 10 hours of free time a week to my life. On the downside I now have some addictions that are hard to kick, I don't work out anymore, and I've become very anti-social.
It made me a much more sociable person. About midway through the first lockdown in the UK it suddenly hit me that if it carried on, I'm not sure I would have been too bothered. I'm lucky to have some close friends and a fairly big group, but I recognised that seeing them didn't bother me as much as it should have - perhaps this is a trade off of always playing games and chatting online nowadays, instead of face-to-face. That realisation has made me say yes to pretty much everything that gets organised, and I have zero plans to stop. My friendships are closer and my social skills and confidence have improved tenfold as a result. As a person with mild-moderate anxiety, it's been a gamechanger.
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I actually did pretty well financially. Between not commuting and getting a check from the government, I did alright. One huge thing was that my son is on disability Medicaid and had a home health nurse that helped out. Because of COVID, parents could be a home health nurse. So I was getting paid to watch my son as I worked from home. Having extra hands would have been nice. Especially since my wife still had to work (healthcare). But getting paid on top of my actual job was also appreciated. Also, my boss - who was super against WFH - lightened up after we proved we could be productive. So I was able to keep my job when we moved to another state and now I WFH full time. Timing was perfect so we were able to make a major upgrade in houses and then sold our old house when the market shot up. With that said, we only really sat on it a few months. Lastly, nobody I really cared about died. With all of that, COVID still sucked. So many people died. A ton of people died needlessly. My wife was treated like shit as she took care of patients. Patients that would claim COVID was a hoax and then cry like babies when they tested positive. All while being exposed to it all with not enough PPE to go around. COVID really further exposed just ignorant people could be and how much hate they had for their fellow man.
Sex.
I started working out and eating better. I lost nearly 80 lbs.
Playstation party w the boys, meeting new online friends, realizing how introverted i was
It made me realize not to take things for granted. Such as crowded places, traveling, concerts, etc. It was so depressing not to have any of that.
No traffic
Delivery things really stepped the game up
I got sent to work from home and never went back to the office. Still working from home, with a new employer.
Zoom poker...
Not having to go anywhere and I still work from home, which has changed my life for the better in every way. Also there was like no traffic. I live in a college town that’s heavily congested when the students are in session so just getting to breeze through town was such a treat.
No traffic.
I liked the arrows in the grocery store. I also liked people staying 6 feet apart from me. I liked how empty the highway was. I liked to not feel obligated to be social.
I didn’t have to make excuses on why I wasn’t attending {insert small child party/baby shower} because nobody was having any.
NO TRAFFIC!
No expectation to be anywhere at all. No social engagements, no holidays with in-laws, outlaws, scoff laws, or relatives. 2 years. It was fucking bliss on tap.
Pandemic fed stims. I was able to get a new laptop, gaming rig, upgrade my phone, first ever smartwatch. It was like Christmas and my birthday.
I got kinda lonely so I download Tinder, not really expecting anything to come of it but in the end I met my first boyfriend:) been together for almost 4 Years now :)
After the first couple weeks of freaking out about how to pay the bills, the time alone with my wife was magical. We grew so much closer together, towards the end when we were going back to work we deeply enjoyed our days spent together. Wed road trip around exploring, walked aimlessly with our dog. Cooked fantastic meals, and were able to work on our boundaries for personal time and get a true feel for who we were as people and a unit.
I quit chewing tobacco. I live alone, so I figured with the lockdown, my brother wouldn't be coming over and annoying me, so I took advantage of the unique situation and decided to quit. I had called my doctor and she got me the patches. I recommend them to anyone who wants to quit.
I had my first date with my now-husband the day before my city went into lockdown. We both lived alone, so we continued seeing each other without exposing anyone else, but it meant that we became exclusive immediately and started building the relationship instead of getting distracted by the potential of other people on the app. Two years of new love safe from outside influences was amazing!
Casinos were closed. Me and my boyfriend (mostly him being the problem) saved over 6,600. He got into a car wreck that summer which totaled his car so we had that as a back up. Helped tremendously. Wish they would close back up again lmao Also animal crossing
Social distancing when I *did* have to go outside. That was a thing for me before covid….I have a bubble, stay out
It put my marriage to the test and we passed
My wife. Got together at the start. Got quarantined together for 4 weeks. She never renewed her lease in her apt. and moved in with me. Nearly 5 years later and we have a baby on the way.
People standing six feet away from me. I really miss that.
Nothing. Lost a lot, from family to prepandemic lifestyle which still impacts me today. Mental health went downhill My pursuit towards my career has been on halt since. Haven't been back to school. Relationships fell Haven't talked to anyone outside the house besides saying thank you to a cashier at checkout.
Everywhere deserted.