Sure, everyone is waxing poetic about how one year of COVID life has gone, so here's my version. Interestingly, the seasons played a huge part in how I've weathered (pun totally intended) the lockdown/quarantine saga of the past year. Spoiler alert — COVID summer good, COVID winter bad.
From my perspective, the coronavirus pandemic started feeling real the first weekend of March. I was on the way to Beech Mountain for a girls trip. We shared what we'd heard about it like it was any other national event that was happening far away. But it was much closer than we knew — Camden, a small city about 40 miles northeast of Columbia recorded its first COVID-19 cases in South Carolina while we were on our trip. Coronavirus was still an abstract topic of conversation, we had no idea how far-reaching it would really become.
The Beginning
About a week and a half later, mid-March, grocery stores were running out of staple items and the big toilet paper rush was happening across the country. We tried to stock up on food as best we could and only go to the store every few weeks. On March 1, we had just happened to go to Costco and stocked up on 2 cases of toilet paper, which of course left me feeling a strange combination of relieved and a little smug.
Though cases were still not super high in South Carolina, the case numbers were growing rampant in Camden. I have a few coworkers who live in Camden, and we were starting to learn how badly COVID-19 affects immunocompromised people, like Patrick. Each new work day consisted of even more avoiding of coworkers than usual, more handwashing, and more doomscrolling all day long. Chairs in communal places were removed, and common gathering areas were roped off with yellow caution tape for a really delightful apocalyptic feel. Finally, on a rainy March 24, we were sent to a weird warehouse to get RSA tokens, and told we would be working from home for an unforeseen amount of time. Like everyone, we assumed that meant maybe a month, tops. I waved on taking my office plants home, and luckily, they came with.
The first month of working from home was welcomed but difficult. Time felt strange and disjointed. I had a lot of work to do updating websites with COVID information, and my back hurt from having to figure out where in the house to work that felt comfortable.
COVID Summer
As the weather heated up, I sat outside more, enjoying this strange turn of events. I watched cases rise throughout the world and the country, but I felt very secure in our little work from home bubble. We got homemade masks, and I waffled at first on wearing them. It felt weird covering my face to go run everyday errands, like I was about to rob the joint. I hate to admit this, but sometimes in the beginning, I'd wait for another mask wearer to walk by before I'd get out of the car and go into the store wearing mine. This was maybe mid-April, when we didn't know how well masks worked to prevent spread, and before it became so politically divisive.
Still though, I enjoyed my afternoon sunning-working sessions with my laptop outside. We thought "Okay maybe we'll be recalled to the office by July, better enjoy this NOW." So I organized and did the little things I've always wanted to get done but never had the time to really do. I'd wipe, sort through drawers, and dust between emails, as a way to stay moving throughout the day too. My back was starting to feel weird from sitting in my hard dining room chairs for 10+ hours a day. Then July 4th came and went, people partied like it was 2019, and the cases spiked. Realizing going back to the office was so not happening soon, I chilled with the cleaning.
COVID Winter
Autumn brought slowly descending temperatures and waning sunlight. I went to a weekly happy hour with two other friends at WECO, where we sat at big tables outside and wore masks to walk up to the outdoor bar to get our beers. Then finally, it became too cold to continue. This was COVID winter. I figured it would be no big deal. There were holidays, lots of work to do because the end of the year brings on a ton of website changes at my job, and I could handle a month or two of relaxing indoors, right? An incredibly cold and rainy February nearly broke my sanity.
It's still a little chilly, the time is about to change, and I am looking forward to weekly post-yoga beers with my friends. It's on the horizon, I feel it. As much as I enjoy not going out and doing as much, I don't know that I — or society — can handle another COVID winter like that.
Vaccinate SC
South Carolina continues to fumble the vaccination process badly. A month in and they were still dicking around in phase 1A. Lines to get vaccinated were 3+ hours long for people over the age of 65 to get their shot. Younger people found ways to get vaccinated by volunteering, then too many people tried to do it. No judgement here, as long as doses aren't getting wasted, I don't care who gets it. Phase 1B just opened up today for people over the age of 55, with certain medical conditions, and essential workers who cannot socially distance.
I'm fine waiting my turn though, as I've grown accustomed to this slower pace of life. My work gets done, I've grown this blog a lot more than I ever imagined, I sleep better, and my home is cleaner than ever. Trying to go run multiple errands in one day now is exhausting. I've adopted a "one thing a day" attitude when it comes to putting in extra effort. I can wait to get my vaccine, because other people's lives are not as easy as mine.
The Future of COVID
Honestly, who knows what the future is going to bring? Supposedly there's enough actual dosage to vaccinate in the United States before summer, but is there enough manpower? Unlikely. Then you have the (OF COURSE) stupid politicalization of it by mindless fools. To that, I say: "Your DNA isn't that freakin' great anyways. Who cares if it gets altered?" By the way, it won't do that, you science-fiction believing moron.
As far as work goes, I think my company will keep us home through the end of 2021. After that — who knows? I'd love to see a hybrid model where we go in once a week for scheduled meetings. But as with most corporate entities, change is slow to come. It's a terrible thought, but I am glad COVID forced companies to change their plans quickly. It's working fantastically as far as I can tell.
There will be a decline in case numbers as we get toward the end of summer as more people get shots. The downside is people are going to have rose-colored glasses trying to hustle things to "normal" before the holiday spending season. Well, here's news for you — there is no new normal. If you eat blown-on birthday cake, you're gross. If you don't wash your hands at a greater rate than you did before, you're gross. And if you pack shoulder to shoulder in an indoor area again and high five strangers, you're gross. There will only be pre-COVID life, and post-COVID life. There's no putting the toothpaste back in the tube here, friends.
And that, for historical purposes, is my life and thoughts from a year of corona. If only I knew in March 2020 that girls trip would become a significant marker to a big life change.
