I worked at the hospital, got burned out, and retired.

I worked at walmart so people were angrier and I wore a mask. That’s about it. The paid 2 weeks off when I got covid were nice tho.

The week evening shut down:

Finished a vacation and was about to start a new job and then told not to come in for a while. They eventually mailed me a laptop but got like two weeks being paid to do nothing.

Matched with some lady on a dating app and were planning to meet but had to switch to a virtual date. We’re married now.

Went back to school. Graduated. Now, just like in 2008, I can’t find a job.

Like, how many times is this economy gonna fuck me?

I’m a doctor so I was at work, I was extremely butthurt at all my friends who got to chill at home playing video games during the lockdown.

I kept going to work at a so-called “essential” job until they laid me off, and spent the rest of it with my amazing spouse. It turns out we are one of those couples who genuinely enjoy being together 24/7 while the world outside goes to shit.

I mostly worked from home, and this allowed me to spend more time and bond more closely with my two young boys, and I also improved my cooking skills.

For me, the pandemic was a catalyst to improve my life.

covid quarantine was not really different from my non covid day to day. I was already wfh and I do not go to crowded things. masking was the only thing that changed for me.

Alcoholism

I got up to Covid, and then Long Covid. I could do very little, except sleep, lie in bed listening to audio books, and doing jigsaws. It was basically that for about a year. Yay. I’m nostalgic for the time off work, and learning about how to recover, and manage my health. I eventually got to a place where I was eating super healthy, doing loads of yoga and light weight training, and my body was getting really strong and feeling good, even though I couldn’t do much with it because of the fatigue. I wish I had the time now to be as healthy as I’d like to be, but I’m back full time working, as well as caring for my mum. I’d like to get that back, being able to focus on my health.

Do you look back on any aspects of it nostalgically?

I miss having a socially acceptable excuse to hang out at home and not have to spend all my spare time out & about.

I miss having a full workday where I could complete all my actual work in an hour and spend the remaining seven hours playing video games while being available through Teams & email should something arise.

I miss being able to wake up at 755, chug a diet dr pepper, and still get to work on time.

I miss being able to spend the workday in flipflops and boxers, and only putting on a shirt if I had a video call.

I don’t miss all the death & misery & related bullshit, but those are the things that I do miss.

My wife and I had just moved and were living in my relative’s field in a 5th wheel while we arranged to have a house built. The pandemic hit and construction immediately stopped, so we continued living in that 5th wheel for another six months. The two of us, a dog, and three cats. I shockingly didn’t get laid off but didn’t have any work to do, so I just slept and played video games.

We bought a house in June, at the very bottom of our market. We couldn’t afford our house now, even if interest rates were still super low. We definitely couldn’t afford to build the house we could have afforded to build in early 2020, despite making nearly twice as much as when we first moved here. Fuck this economy.

Anyhow… We moved in, then the whole west coast lit on fire. The skies were dark purple some days. It was wild. I still didn’t have much to do at work, so video games and naps it was. I found a half face respirator and a cache of P100 filter cartridges while unpacking, so I got to go around feeling invincible for the rest of the pandemic. That was nice.

Worked from home for 2-3 years. It was nice. Now they forced us back to the office, but once you’ve had a taste of freedom it’s hard to want to go back to that grind.

Overall, Covid was good for me, aside from the 1-2 times I caught it. But, the government was handing out free money, the job market was hot as hell and I got a high paying new job. Interest rates were low and I managed to scoop up a home and lock in with a low rate. It was the first time in my life that I feel like I got ahead after years of low wages and digging myself out of student loan debt.

Animal crossing, gardening, zoom happy hours, ukulele. I work from home anyway so it was life as usual in my career, I just picked up way more hobbies.

I didn’t experience any quarantines. I only read about them happening in other countries in the news. I kept going to work normally like all the other people I work with. Wearing a mask and washing my hands a bit more freguently was pretty much the only thing covid changed in my life at the time.