I’ve been thinking about life pre pandemic and post pandemic, and realized how much momentum I lost with it.
Freshmen year of college was a rough adjustment, but then I got back on my feet second semester only to have the rug pulled by lockdowns. Then the next two semesters were just isolation. By junior year all of that toll had habituated me into being withdrawn, and I did a 180 my senior year and had a good life. But once I finally got better, college ended and the campus environment was no more, friends got dispersed and those withdrawn habituations came back.
Lockdowns were only a year but it felt like the impact of them took away 4 years from me now, makes me ruminate wondering what the version of me in a timeline with no covid would’ve looked like.
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Personally? I had no momentum before COVID, now I have a shit ton. Kinda glad I was a fuck up in my early 20s so I could get shit done now that I'm in my mid 20s.
Yep me too. Got sober right before COVID and then COVID spurred something inside me. Lost a ton of weight. Helped found a company. Started taking life way less serious but being way more productive and building stuff.
Well it made me more isolated somewhat, but I noticed a change in people I just interact with like something feels off I don’t know if that makes sense lol
I had family members die, and maybe they wouldn’t have at that point if Covid hadn’t happened. It would’ve been cool to have had more in-person time in undergrad and I could’ve met more people…I did grad school though, so that kinda helped supplement things?
too much, it really encouraged me to become a hermit which fuckin sucks because i was JUST learning how to be actually social before it hit
Could always try learning now mate, you're still young and luckily there's no covid restrictions anymore.
you're so right, i'm going to try to exit my shell more in 2026! it's pretty scary but i know that there are so many lovely things out there that aren't worth missing out on
Glad to hear it! You've got this :)
For me it was almost 3 years. My country closed everything down in March 2020. The last measures were in place up until April 2023. First time going back Uni in person was October 2023. I was working, but most people were staying at home, except for the summer months. I was really thinking it wouldn‘t get any better.
Before Covid I was always the loudest and craziest, during covid I gained a lot of weight, lost all my self-esteem and got problems with anxiety. I‘ve got back into shape, look better than ever before, but I‘m still relatively quiet and unsure of myself. I‘m still an extrovert, as I still get my energy from spending time with people, but I feel like anxiety is holding me back.
Still working on it, but I feel like I‘ve lost half of my 20s to covid.
Holy shit are we the same person???
Same. I was such a “fuck it, what’s the worst that can happen?” Person before COVID and now my anxiety is so bad I can barely manage to have small talk with a person waiting for an elevator because I’m afraid I’ll say something stupid and they’ll judge me :(
COVID ruined my chances at going to college, so I ended up going when I was 25 instead of 22, like I had planned. After graduating, I still haven't been able to find work in my field (IT). But I recently moved so now it's just looking for a car, and hopefully finding a job that's in my field.
None
It made it nearly impossible to get an internship while I was in undergrad. Making my first job in my field much harder to obtain.
But now that I’m a few years past that I don’t think my life would’ve been that much different had I gotten the internship experience
All of it. My college required me to have an internship and thesis paper or project to graduate. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't land a proper internship in the middle of 2020. Also I couldn't keep up with online classes. My grades slipped so much and I had no motivation or passion to come up with a thesis. I ended up having to graduate with a general studies bachelor instead of a bfa. Add the start of AI replacing jobs in my field I couldn't get a foot in any door. Every job required experience with ai and I had to choose between facilitating the end of human art or abandoning the field. I chose to abandon this path, because I only chose that major because I thought it would provide a decent plan B. Ironically I probably would have gotten further if I had gone down my original idea of philosophy, traditional art, and linguistics, but nooooo I needed to find a stable job with programming. Well look where that got me.
Ruined my entire life trajectory. I was going to join the Navy reserves. Covid came and I was informed they weren’t taking reservist applications anymore. Decided to go to college, hated virtual school. As soon as virtual school ended and things were kinda normal around 2023 I went way overboard on partying and socializing again since it had been so long without it and nearly flunked out. Gained a decent bit of weight and graduated with a semi-useless degree.
Now I’ve lost some of the weight and I do have a decent job at least but that big gap during Covid set my social skills back about 15 years. Absolutely crippling anxiety meeting new people, trying new things, etc. ever since Covid since I got so used to doing the same things for 2-3 years straight.
TLDR:Covid really derailed my life for a while but I need to stop blaming it after nearly 5 years
Exactly 2 "your moms" and one "no you".
I waited until Feb 2020, my senior year of college to actually go to my first college party. I remember being like damn that was best night of my life, and at the time my friend was talking about coronavirus and saying how she didn’t wanna get sick over break or something. Next thing I know i’m in the library next month studying for my final and they announced we were going on spring break early. Everybody cheered, but instantly i felt off. I was super happy, but then just was in my gut thinking something isn’t right. I took the shuttle back down and remember everybody coming back up with HELLA groceries to their dorms and I was so confused. I went home and never went back to campus, graduated 2021.. I definitely lost all of my momentum during lockdown. I lost all my freedom/social life. Moved to a state i knew nobody and had to live with family and we fought pretty much every other week of lockdown. Lockdown actually essentially brought every single fucking trauma to the surface and then destroyed every fabric of my life, which domino effected my entire 20s up until this year when I finally got my spark back lol. I stopped talking about it because I feel like now people will look at you crazy if you even mention covid shit. But yeah it essentially destroyed my entire life lmao. Like a butterfly effect . Crazy shit.
Covid didnt effect me one bit. Honestly I kinda miss the lock downs. Seemed like i was the only one that lived normally
None because I was still in sixth form when it started, and the UK didn't have any covid restrictions when I started uni in 2021
I was in my senior year of college, i was supposed to have an internship, which ended up getting cancelled by covid smh
i think im less social and more jaded now too. it also helps that people got meaner ever since the lockdown
I was in college finally hitting my social stride and going out way more, literally had one of the best get togethers at this st Patrick’s day party right before lockdowns were announced. Was making all these new friends and was going to renew my lease in my college town and become a townie there after graduating. Didn’t work out that way, lost contact with everyone from college.
So. Much.
I went from starting university to having to go online for my entire degree 3 weeks into my first year. I never stepped foot onto the campus after that. I lost all of my friends and haven’t been able to make any new ones, I developed severe anxiety and agoraphobia which I’m still working through, and at 25 I can’t believe what a waste my early twenties have been because of it and then the domino effect it caused. Unfortunately it also caused me to develop a drinking problem and my mental health suffered so much, luckily I’ve kicked that habit now but my anxiety and agoraphobia are still there 🥲
I also lost the opportunity to drive. I was on track for my license and then we couldn’t take lessons anymore. That stalled a lot of progress and the anxiety factor didn’t help. Here’s to 2026 being the year of healing though 🤍
a lot. i became chronically ill towards the end of 2018 which was the beginning of college for me. it started off with lyme disease, ovarian cysts, stomach issues, and disordered eating. i had to take time off from school and was finally getting back on track at a new school with a roommate i loved and a new major that i felt passionate about when the pandemic started. i had an important procedure for my stomach sheduled for march 2020 that was pushed back 8 months and the delay caused me to develop more health issues. at the end of 2021 i was starting to feel like i was almost physically back to normal and then i got long covid and was sick for another few years. thankfully im doing good now but fuck covid.
It definitely made me lose some momentum but I gained it back around 2021/22 fully. To me it was more like a setback rather than a full blown issue. I was able to recover and I’ve been growing from that experience ever since
It’s hard to say really because I graduated in 2020. So like a fuck ton of momentum, really, but then I ended up going back to school for law school in 2021 and was able to recover a bit of momentum. That said, lockdowns where I live really lasted closer to 2 years so the first half of my first year of law school was completely online.
In hindsight, as much momentum as it stole from me, I’m glad it happened at the tail end of undergrad instead of the beginning of law school.
A LOT, but I eventually gained it back. Took a few years though.
My momentum was dead long before covid 🤣
Yes
It gave me a lot of time with my dad who died in 2022, I’m only grateful for lockdown
Little to none, I was already 22 when the pandemic started and working a full time job so I just kept working and life went on as mostly normal
Ruined my college experince and likely caused my major change, leading me from going to be a pharmacist to an industrial maintenance tech. So, a lot.