(Warning: This blog is a long one as talks about the Covid-19 pandemic, politics, Trump, has some swearing and a bunch of depressing things. Please take care before reading on.)
For decades, many people have their “Where were you” moments that affected them. For some, it’s “Where were you when Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese in 1941?” Well, I know that my maternal grandparents were toddlers and my paternal grandparents were in their late teens/early 20s’. I “think” even my late paternal grandfather served in the Army during World War II (don’t know, but that’s based on the documents that I can find on Ancestry.com as of now)!
For others, it’s “Where were you when JFK was assassinated in 1963?” I know that my mom was 3 years old and my late daddy was 7 years old. I also know that after JFK’s death, it was the last time that an American president died in office.
Then there’s the famous one: “Where were you when 9/11 happened?” I was 5 ½ years old and was attending morning daycare while my parents were at work. I make special note of my mom, who was a civilian contractor working for the government. She actually had to go home early because of the attack! Even though we lived thousands of miles away from New York City, where two of four planes crashed!
Then there’s the most recent one: “Where were you when World Health Organization (or WHO) declared Covid-19, a pandemic?” I was 24 years old and was at a small park in a small German city when I saw the news on my iPhone and it forever changed my life; for the best and for the worst.
I first heard news about the virus early that year. That it came from a wet meat market in China and that it spread around the world in lighting pace. At first, many though this was going to be like the 2009 swine flu pandemic (which happened when I was in the 7th grade) where it was bad, but not bad to the point it that everything have to be shut down.
But it did get bad.
The first sign that Covid is going to be different than the swine flu is that one month before the lockdown, I heard on the news that the annual Carnival of Venice (which takes place right before Lent) got CANCELLED due to fears of people getting sick with Covid! While my family hasn’t been there since 2012, you know something big is going on to the point they have to cancel a well-known festival.
The next sign is that mom told me to not get on the buses or the trains due to her fears of me getting sick. I get it. It’s February, where it’s cold, that you can easily get sick from standing next to a sick person. Being on either a bus or train with said sick person and several other people makes it worst. Then with Covid going around that might be deadly for some, I can’t blame mom for not wanting me to risk it. And thanks to autism, whenever you tell me to either do or not do a certain thing, I WILL OBEY THAT RULE!
I haven’t ridden public transportation since then.
The other sign is that mom told me that I need to start wearing a mask whenever I go outside and do my “Poke walk” as my mom like to call them (as Pokémon Go is the only reason I even go outside). Okay fine, I thought to myself. The masks that mom gave me were those cheap, blue surgical masks that doctors often wear from Amazon. I remember those masks like to fog up my glasses whenever I walk outside due to the weather being cold. I remember only wearing them whenever I’m in the local grocery store since there are many people inside.
The last sign that it’s going to be bad is that right before the lockdown, I remember hearing my mom talking to my older sister (who was at the family home back in the States) on the phone that she needs to start buying all the meat, put them in the huge freezer in the garage and to buy bulk of canned goods and dry food. Actually, she told her buy bulk, of everything! It was like mom knows something big is going down and we need to prepare for the worst.
Then comes that faithful day of March 11, 2020, where I did my normal Poke walk around the small city. I sat down on the bench to take a break from walking and went on my iPhone to catch up on my social media feeds and browse the Internet. I don’t know where I saw it, but I saw the news report that the WHO declared Covid, a pandemic.
I don’t know what happened next, but something tells me that I need to come home. FAST!
I did that and I saw that my mom was already there! I found that weird because it was around 2/3pm and mom isn’t supposed to get off of work until 5pm. I don’t remember her telling me that she has a doctor’s appointment on that day and I don’t remember that Wednesday (the day the pandemic was declared) being a holiday either. So I asked her why she’s home early than usual.
She said that her boss got a message from one the commander general of the military that she worked at, that everyone should go home. And stay home!
That’s when I knew things got real and that the pandemic is going to change our lives forever.
Shortly after hearing the news, that’s when I start seeing the words “cancelled”, “postponed”, “closed” and “moved online” on the Internet. That’s because with a virus going around, being in a huge crowd isn’t a good idea.
So all the sports games were forced to be canceled, moved, postponed or being played with no crowd. Concerts were forced to be canceled as well. Hopefully those who bought their tickets get refunded…right? All the movie theaters were forced to shut down and now everyone watched their movies at home. Some TV shows got cancelled because it’s now too dangerous to film scenes. As for talk shows, they end up filming their shows without a live audience and for some; it makes their shows feel eerie as it’s nothing but silence and the boom of the microphone.
Same thing for real live events as well. All the vacations, weddings, graduations, baby showers? Nope, they’re either cancelled, delayed or moved online. I kind of feel bad for those people who had plans to go to these plans and the pandemic had to go ruin it. My family was one of those whose plans were ruined by Covid.
Mom was supposed to go to a work conference in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany in April and I was going to go with her. It would’ve been the first time I’ve been there in ten years! Now Covid won’t allow that to happen. Ditto to the renaissance festivals that would take place in spring; I think for some, it’s the first time they got cancelled since WORLD WAR II!!!
Then in May, one of my older cousins was going to graduate from med school in Florida and she invited all of my mom’s side of the family to come. It was going to be the first time I get to see all my older cousins in DECADES! Covid said nope and we’re not allowed to even leave the COUNTRY because of it!
Then one month later, the youngest son of one of my family friend, was going to graduate from high school in Texas. That didn’t happen. But I did saw his (and my older cousin’s) graduation from Zoom instead.
Actually, Zoom took over most of everything that’s supposed to happen in real life. Weddings, graduations, baby showers? Zoom. Your relative’s funeral, who “might have” died of Covid? Zoom. How about work and business meetings? Zoom. What about meetups and drinking parties? Zoom. And what about school now that my nephew and my nieces can’t go in person thanks to Covid? Zoom replaced that too. I hear that you can even go to detentions on Zoom!
I just find it crazy that small video conferencing software became the social lifeline that everyone didn’t know or need. Like, celebrities used it for live table scripts of TV shows and movies. Bureaucratic circles use it for meetings and politics. And even just random meetups used Zoom! Of course, once the pandemic “ended” in 2022, people stopped using Zoom as much now they can go outside and interact without getting sick. But I just find that all weird that Zoom was the big thing for a while.
As for life outside of Zoom, everyone have to wear masks now. Like there are posted signs in stores that you must wear one or you’re not allowed in! While this may seem harsh for some, for others, it’s a blessing in disguise! As for those who suffered health problems, people wearing masks were the best thing that ever happened to them! Same thing for some autistic people who hate making eye contact where wearing a mask (if they can tolerate it), can even help them hide their disability from strangers and not get judged!
Wearing a mask made me feel a little comfortable and I remember it’s the reason why I didn’t get a cold for a while since everyone is wearing a mask now and that I don’t like making eye contract that much!
You also now have to stand six feet (or one meter since I live in Germany) away from others when you’re in a line. Everything was closed in Germany expect for grocery stores, pharmacies and gas stations. Lockdowns were put in place and there were fines if you had physical contact with more than one person from outside of your household. Like, everything became a ghost town overnight. The small city we lived in got so quiet; that the only thing we can hear now is ambulance sirens, probably heading to another Covid patient!
So now, mom telework from home (and made cloth masks on her off time to give to charity on base) and I rarely go outside, beside taking out the trash and walking to the nearby grocery store to buy groceries, since some of the food is cheaper in the local economy than if you buy it from the commissary. Actually, I started to get anxiety from going outside at that time and from seeing people not wearing their masks properly.
It’s mainly because of my mom, who has several health issues that affect her. Such as being a smoker, having asthma and is a cancer survivor. I heard that those three groups and the fact she’s in her late 50s’ (when Covid started) were mostly likely to die from it. I know that she’s the main breadwinner of the household (as she’s paying both rent in Germany and mortgage back in the States) and if anything happens to her, then all hell will break lose! That my sister and her kids back at home, won’t have a house over their heads anymore and I’ll be stuck paying $33,000 of student loans without any help!
As the result of not wanting to accidently kill my mother just for spending a few minutes outside, I end up staying indoors just like a good citizen should do. But the downside of doing that is I end up regaining all the weight I that lost from moving back home when I transferred schools in 2017 and when I moved back to Germany in 2019! Like that sucked. I was doing so well too! Then the pandemic had to go ruin everything! Because of that, it took me three years to lose all that weight again! Ugh!
But getting (or accidently giving my mom) Covid wasn’t the only thing problem I had. Social media was another thing that made me anxious.
Like at the beginning, everyone was like “we’ll get through this”, “we’re in this together”. Businesses were saying in their ads “in these trying times”. Then there’s everyone on social media who was like: let’s make banana bread and make art and crafts to help get though time.
I know this is when TikTok got big and became the social media app for the youth and they went there. I never get the hype of TikTok and you won’t convince me to get on it! Same thing with social deduction game Among Us, which exploded in popularity thanks to the pandemic and later gave birth to memes and slang that people still use to this day. I could never get into that game, even though I later bought it on Steam for like, $3 due to being on sale at the time.
For a while, I felt that Covid actually brought people TOGETHER! That everyone is suffering from the same thing. That now is the time for unity. That everything is going to be fine at the end as long we listen to our government and the health workers, whose working very hard in treating Covid!
But all that was short lived as the months go by; people became depressed of others being selfish toward others. For being rude to essential workers, for refusing to wear their masks out in public and even hosting parties when the government said you’re not allow to.
I recalled the last part is what took down Boris Johnson as he and the Conservatives rather have their Christmas parties than stay home and care about the hundred thousands of British citizens who were dying of Covid and was forced to stay home for their own sake because the government says so. I think even the British Royal Family (who actually followed the law by staying home) scolded him and the Conservatives for that!
Then people start spreading lies about the pandemic being “planned” by the government. That the virus escaped from a lab in China and that all Chinese people are not to be trusted because they have Covid in their systems. That wearing masks would cause low blood oxygen levels and a weakened immune system. And that Covid is all nothing but a lie. Social media can be real scary.
Then in late May 2020, an unarmed Black man named George Floyd was killed by a police officer, that made many angry and it brought back the Black Lives Matter movement. It caused people to get vocal about defunding the police, encouraged others to go to protests and talked about systemic racism in pop culture.
Now normally this event would last at least two weeks, before everyone moved on to the next big thing. But since Covid shut down all of sports events, movie theaters and any type of distraction, people are now forced to face this reality and caused them to do something about this.
In one of my older blogs, I mention that while it’s great at first, that people are finally doing something that Black people were trying to tell everyone about this issue for decades. But after a while, it caused my mental health to decline because I’m reminded how cruel the world is and that I feel like you need to care about this topic or everyone would think you’re a terrible person! I had to get off of social media for a bit until this cools down.
But funny thing is when I returned two weeks later, the #MeToo movement 2.0 took over and it took down some famous YouTubers, Twitch streamers, people in the wrestling community and even players from the Super Smash Bro. gaming community! I know one Twitch streamer I followed, had to kick out four mods from his streaming group because they were outed as sexual predators and a different collab that he was in, had to shut down because half of their members were outed as sexual predators too! I remember having to get off of social media once more because it was getting too much for me to handle!
Yeah, June 2020 was a bad month to be on social media if you have anxiety.
Even though Covid and social media (at the time) made me more anxious than usual, I remembered there were some “good things” that made my life a little tolerable. First of all is that the pandemic was great for people who were autistic and introvert as this means they don’t have to go outside and interact as much! This was mostly me since I’m both autistic and an introvert and I enjoyed being alone, even prior to the pandemic. So basically, little has changed in my life other than mom stayed home more than usual.
Next is nine days after the start of the pandemic, Animal Crossing: New Horizons finally came out on the Switch! Like I mention in my Animal Crossing Interest subpage, this game helped me get though most of the pandemic as many people were playing the game to cope with the lockdown. And despite the issues that the game has later on, it actually made the Animal Crossing series mainstream and made Nintendo millions!
Another thing that helped me cope with the pandemic is me getting into the Danganronpa Another series, which I got into right before the pandemic started. Even though the series ended two months earlier, it made me appreciate fan games better. And lastly, it helped me get thought the horrible month of June 2020, by watching the English fan translated Let’s Play of the sequel on YouTube.
The pandemic is also where I developed my Everlasting webcomic, which is a slice of life series that takes place in the early 2000s. I think the reason why I made the series is because I was starting to get nostalgic of 2000s, where back then the Internet is only connected though the computer and that Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon used to be good. It was also around the same time I started listening to pop-punk again, when the genre was starting to get popular again. All of that was something to keep me from thinking about the pandemic, how depressing social media is and that Trump is making my country, a laughing stock.
Of course, I have to remember there were bad things that happened during that era. Such as the Middle Eastern wars, the hyper Americanization that happened after 9/11, that pop culture was mean to women, fat people and people of color. And that the Great Recession happened, which eventually kept the Republicans out of the White House for the next eight years.
And speaking of, shortly after the pandemic started, there was another Recession that caused many to lose jobs and shut down businesses in America. It was thanks to that and how many people died during the pandemic, it actually caused Trump to LOSE his reelection in November 2020! For the moment, it was one of the better things that happened in America in a long time. That hate was defeated and the government will finally have normalcy again.
Then after the pandemic ended, there was inflation that made everything expensive. So expensive, it actually helped Trump get his job BACK in last year’s election! Now my country is the laughing stock once more as 76 million people decided to vote back the racist person, not because he was responsible for killing a million people because of his poor handling of the pandemic, but so their groceries can stop being so expensive.
So in summary, the economy is the reason why Trump lost his job AND the reason he gained it back! I hate being an American…
Eventually in May 2021, the Covid shots finally came out. At first, they only came for medical workers and people with life threating health issues (like my mom). Then it came out for the rest of the adults and when we first got ours, we wore our Moderna t-shirts that my mom got from the Internet, to the vaccine clinic on the main military base in the area we lived. We got our shots and have one of the medic people put a stamp in our official vaccine book (or the golden book my mom called it), which will allow us to fly back to the States.
After getting the shot, we got sick for a few days as it was one of the side effects. Afterwards, things started to return to “normal” I would say. Mainly that we went back to the States for the first time since 2019 to see our family. That I can go back to riding the public bus and the train without the risk of getting sick (and maybe getting Covid). And that I can go back doing my Poke walk around the small Germany city without the fear of Covid.
But then in March 2022, me and mom had to move back to Texas and by then, nobody is wearing their masks anymore. Mainly that some think being forced to wear them violates their rights and freedoms. Now being caught wearing one means you’re going to get punched in the face! Well not really where I live. But it’s sad that now masks are now used a weapon and wearing one means trouble.
Heck, even my mom said I don’t need to wear in public anymore since we got so many Covid shots at this point. Yes mom, I get it. But I like not getting sick and I know you have health problems and wearing a mask in public will help that.
And speaking of Covid vaccines, now there are people who refused to get the vaccine because they said that it cause cancer, alter human DNA, increase blood clots, etc. etc. That being forced to have a vaccine card in order to enter places and leave the country, violates your rights and freedoms.
Awful lies about the pandemic that causes families and friends to fall apart because they felt victim of whatever lie that someone said on social media about the vaccine. One of my older sister’s ex and his family were those anti-vaxxers and it’s one of the reasons why she dumped him!
Now, it’s been five years since the start of the Covid pandemic. Covid isn’t as much of a threat anymore. Yeah, you can still get it. But you won’t die from it as long you got the latest Covid vaccine.
It the pandemic that caused Trump to lose his reelection, but now he’s back in office and is currently stripping away minorities’ rights as we speak. Zoom isn’t popular anymore and neither is New Horizons. For some who used to telework at home because of Covid, are now forced to go back to work in person because their boss (and Trump) said so. People are now meaner and more divided compared to five years ago. To make matter worst, it’s not going to get better anytime soon.
Even then, there are some things I wished that would make my time during the pandemic better than it did. That I should’ve had more hobbies instead of doomscrolling various social media accounts and not read the news that often. I should’ve played more video games and watched anime that’s in my backlog. Maybe not overeat in order to cope with the pandemic. That might’ve kept the 20 pounds from coming back.
Despite that, I like to thank Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the Danagronpa Another series and Everlasting for helping me cope with the pandemic.
I hope that I don’t have to go through another pandemic like that ever again; especially since we’re back in the States now, where it got really bad during Covid. But something tells me that I might have to start preparing for either a revolution, a civil war or another World War in hand because of how things are with the world right now!
I hope I’m wrong on that one and that it’s my anxiety, playing tricks on me. But if it does happen again, at least I’ll remember what to do this time that’ll help me cope better than when the pandemic happened.