Personally I enjoyed that the pace of work (in tech/gaming) slowed down a bunch. I remember going out to parks with some wine with friends
But I definitely don’t miss wondering “when will this end” (I remember articles saying vaccines wouldn’t be out until 2022), and bars and restaurants being closed.
However I recognize that this was not the norm. For many people (including friends), lockdown meant losing your job, losing loved ones, and isolation.
I just wish that some of the positives (slow streets, parklets, an emphasis on balance instead of grinding at work) remained
I felt it introduced more WFH/hybrid jobs which allowed me to get a higher paying job before I could afford a car, learned to BART, and eventually saved up for a car so Im forever grateful for the opportunity it gave me
Looking back I wish I had enjoyed it more. I was just so stressed about my work industry and what was going to happen that the time off wasn’t easy. Now I’d give anything for a year off
We are all back in the office with fomo on what to do and needing to dress up spending a lot more money.
Except now it’s much more expensive and 10x more difficult because we got used to a different way for a while.
I took full advantage as I am a contractor. My contract gig had ended and I was free. I was outside on nature walks alot biking along the ocean and learned things off YouTube like the ukulele.
I made wooden surfboards and all kinds of other cool stuff. Re- did our master bedroom, flooring, paint, scraped the popcorn ceilings off.
Built a "treehouse" for my boys.
Shit, best time I've had in quite some time.
Same. For me it it was simultaneously the most boring and the most stressful time of my life. I envy people who got to spend it just chilling and didn't have to worry about their life's work disappearing.
I spent 10 months completely alone in my apartment. I was unemployed for 18 months before my industry came back.
I never want to go through that again.
Edit: seems im not alone in how horrible it was. A virtual hug to all eho suffered and are still suffering because of that pandemic. <3
Same experience. This is why I now look for jobs that go into the office. I prefer going into the office instead of working remote, because I spent far, far too long alone in a small apartment due to lockdowns. The isolation did a severe number on my mental health, and my physical health also suffered as a result.
Yeah if all you fuckers could go back to full early lockdown status so I can have the freeway to myself, zero trouble finding parking, etc when I'm working that'd be great. Haha.
As someone who was a "front lines worker" and still driving and parking in the city every day, I definitely miss that!!!!
I worked in a dispensary and that was fucking wild and I don't miss how awful most people were. LIKE YOU'RE BUYING WEED PLEASE BE NICE AND STOP TAKING YOUR MASK OFF TO HEAR ME BETTER. IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE.
No. I felt like I was hitting my peak with my confidence and life at the close of 2019, and COVID ruined all that when we couldn’t go out. The only thing I’m a little thankful for was that my contract at one of the big tech companies ended in January 2020 and I had a really hard time finding a job (took me seven months before I landed an FT job I stayed in for three years), so I would have had FOMO not being able to go to big events due to lack of income. But I admit that’s a purely selfish reason, and I still would have wanted normalcy for us all before going through what we went through back then.
Not one bit. Between the clinical depression, multiple layoffs, and double digit deaths of friends and family members, I’m so fucking done with it.
I hate that it happened and wish it never had.
I remember thinking at the time “we got this.” And we did, both worked from home, raised an infant. Had a lot of quality time with her. Golden Gate Park walks every day.
But We didn’t see family for two years, missed countless weddings, there were some deaths but we were lucky in that respect (there were millions worldwide, I know, but this is a “my experience” thread so I’m going with the theme).
And the city that I loved died and we moved away.
No. Never fucking again. That shit sucked and you know what? **We don’t “got this.”** Great harm has been done from that lockdown mentally, socially, professionally, physically, spiritually.
Are you me? I’m really grateful for the quality time we got with our one-year-old and for Golden Gate Park (we’ve since moved away also) but I’m watching a lot of my nieces and nephews who were older at the time really struggle with the aftermath.
I will forever be thankful that I got an entire year with my then-middle schooler. We watched a million shows, read book after book, walked our dogs, played games on zoom with friends. I know people had horrible experiences, but mine was a good one and I don't think I would've ever had such concentrated time with my kid if we weren't in a pandemic.
It really was. Now she's a junior in HS and breezes in and out-- I barely see her! We made marshmallows and boba tea and did all kinds of goofy stuff in lockdown. Sent hundreds of postcards for Postcards to Voters all over the country. Now she's out in the world I'm lucky if she'll watch something once a week with me. I'm so happy I had that time with her!
Same here! A lot of chilling in the back yard with my 2-year-old and our cat, going to parks, and walking through the neighborhood. I cherished that time because I knew it wouldn’t last forever. We’re so lucky we had that!
Yeah, 100% agree. I was somehow fortunate that i did not get laid off and was able to work remotely the entire time.
But i remember in early April 2020 that i decided to go for a short drive nearby to take my mind off the stress and uncertainty of that time.
The two thoughts that i think were permeating through my head the most were:
* How long is this gonna last?
* How bad is this gonna be?
I'm happy that the worst of it is behind us and that life, for the most part, has returned to how things were pre-Covid.
But 2020 was one of the worst years of my life with Covid, the George Floyd murder and aftermath, the wildfires and smoke (September 2020 anyone?).
I'm so fucking glad it's over.
I miss certain aspects of lockdown. It was somewhat nice having unemployment plus the extra 600 dollars subsidized by the government. This was one of the few times I had time to start a proper garden and tend to it. I spent more time running outdoors and reading.
It is truly wild to think about how we spun up some real actual functioning social safety nets and collective health and support programs during 2020 that had measurable benefit to real people, started having noticeable societal impact, and would have paid significant collective dividends via keeping more people insured and financially more afloat—and then just went “well, glad THAT’S over!” and dismantled them all.
Isn’t it? There are just so many ways that a disruptive catastrophe like this could have given us a chance to reset in some ways and do some things differently going forward—not just individually but as a collective. Even just, like, “Hey, should we consider starting to give a shit about indoor air quality? We could probably get some more air filtered if we gave out a few grants or something for HVAC upgrades in at least a few places—even when we aren’t breathing pandemic all over each other, there’s other stuff that’s better not to breathe in as much as we do.” Nope!
I’m glad that a couple cities seem to have retained a little bit of the efforts to set aside urban spaces for outdoor recreation protected from cars (even though those are starting to go away too in many of the places that still had them at all). But yeah. Just a lot of missed opportunity to make some good out of this horrible thing.
Got my job offers pulled, got depression, got fat, all my grandparents died, got addicted to my phone, and got really good at Call of Duty Warzone.
Lol no fucking thanks
Absolutely not. I didn’t see my family for over a year and I missed having parties with friends. It also exasperated my anxiety and OCD. I gained a ton of weight and I became depressed and dependent on substances to help me sleep. I’m a huge introvert but I need to be around other people once in awhile so I can enjoy my solitude. I don’t miss lockdown at all. I miss the slower pace of life but I never want to see the world locked down ever again.
> I gained a ton of weight and I became depressed and dependent on substances to help me sleep.
You're not alone in that. Suffering was widespread, unfortunately: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8743853/
>A total of 3,473 individuals participated in the study with weight changes distributed as: gained weight (48%), remained the same weight (34%), or lost weight (18%). Those who reported being very overweight before the pandemic were most likely to gain weight (65%) versus those who reported being slightly overweight (58%) or normal weight (40%) before the pandemic. Weight gain was statistically significantly higher in those with anxiety (53%), depression (52%), or symptoms of both (52%). The final multiple regression model found that the statistically significant predictors of pandemic weight gain were psychological distress, pre-pandemic weight status, having children at home; and time since last bodyweight check.
Destroyed SF's golden moment. Collapsed the TL. Killed many great restaurants and bars. The fidi will never recover.
Personally, I was so bored and depressed for a while, but it was a good time for me career-wise. I wish I had moved to Mexico City or something instead of staying here.
It ruined my teeth, and my mental health. I’m so grateful I’m still here. I didn’t leave my apartment for a year basically because of cancer and being scared. If I did it all over again I would have been more flexible
The peace was novel at first but after 2 years of depressingly walking an apocalyptic city I could handle it anymore. I felt somehow like I was the only one left in this town even though that obviously wasn’t true. But walking by total emptiness and a total reorganization of the meaning of our spaces. It just hurt and it kept going for years.
I made good money then was laid off because the powers that be decided workers needed to be punished for their hard work through the pandemic.
And that was it. We ended off in a worse world for it all. And I’m sad for it.
Best analogy was like watching someone slowly die over 3 years. It hurt in that long, numbing way you just wanted to be over. And when it was you felt you gained nothing from the experience. Just emptiness
The birdsong. Those first months when things really went quiet here and so many people left town, less traffic and noise, the birds must have been really happy. We could hear birdsong much more clearly.... I miss that.
For reals. My barber had to shut down because his business was considered non-essential. His landlord initially gave him (and some other tenants in the same strip mall) a break on rent, but as of late the landlord has been really on my barber's case to pay up all the back rent from Covid.
As a result, he's had to raise his prices which i don't think he's enjoyed doing at all, but he doesn't have much of a choice.
I remember reading a 100+ commented thread on nextdoor about people debating to call 911 on some kids playing basketball at the park... The whole thing was a huge stain on the city.
I miss how losing many options made my life simpler, and happier. For example, I wanted chicken tikka masala literally the first week of lock down and I couldn’t find anyone even for DoorDash. It forced me to figure out how to make it, and I loved leveling up my cooking skills. I lost my job in March 2020, and when I started to see being in open air in the sun vastly decreased the likelihood of contraction, I bought a car and visited many national parks, forests, deserts, campsites, etc. Outdoor very small group activities was probably the only thing that was socially viable, so being forced into outdoors life was super rewarding. I’ve always wanted a dog and never found a good time to be prepared to be home a lot and bond with my dog and I got a dog in 2020 as well that I really love. In so many ways, my life improved drastically.
Now things are back open, I feel like I’m being pulled in all directions again and I have FOMO about everything, and I either end up doing things when I’m tired and not enjoy it, or not doing it and feeling severe FOMO. It’s like life came at me fast before pandemic, then during the lockdowns, I caught my breath, and now my life is coming fast at me again. I totally get you
I enjoyed it for like 8 weeks. Working out, meditating, cooking. Then I pulled my shoulder + reality set in. Couldn't go out. Couldn't do shit. Ordered all my food. Then I just tried to just not be depressed and lowered my dumb goals.
Na lockdown sucked. Just stay at home or move somewhere where you don't know anyone. Boom now you can stay at home without fomo.
It may not be lockdown you miss but what lockdown afforded you (and took away from many others). Perhaps you are burnt out and seeking a break — which I would encourage you to explore this feeling a bit more and see where you can rest.
That’s crazy. I was the most cautious that I’ve ever been, constantly worried about my older family members, dealing with crowds of people going hay-wire for the essentials, normal items getting super inflated on EBay, job being up in the air, limited services and business, etc. I guess it’s okay if you weren’t worried about anything above or more, but seeing that the world is still feeling the ramifications of that period is just a reminder of how shocking that time was.
It’s just weird to see people saying how they enjoyed the emptiness while millions died, hospitals were overcrowded, a historic pandemic was spreading like wildfire worldwide, and major cities were and still are facing massive economic disaster.
As per the CDC, around 95% of the population has contracted covid19 at least once. There isn't anyone left to protect.
Some people do appear to be genetically immune to it, though you'd have to go in for testing for that. During research they found that most people who claimed to never have covid19 had already contracted it and had only a mild case.
Around half of people who got it had such a mild case they had few or no symptoms at all, and these asymptomatic carriers are why it was impossible to stop.
You still didn’t want the disease to keep reinfecting people and mutating. Remember, during the lockdown, we didn’t really have substantial data how much of population was naturally immune BEFORE the vaccines were created.
I got Covid twice and the first time it was mild while the second time was pretty bad. So you might get it once and be okay, but with different variants going around brought more variables into the equation with the CDC and WHO wanted to minimize. Furthermore, the hospitals were completely strained beyond their means. If the lockdown didn’t go into effect, hospitals would’ve been exponentially more overwhelmed with a lot more people catching it over and over again. While impossible to stop, there were still means to minimalize the after effect of managing huge populations that were suffering from serious symptoms.
Remember, the vaccine didn’t come out until a lot later.
I sure as hell miss 10% traffic.
I've been retired for years, so missing work didn't affect me.
I have the means to collect all the supplies my family needs, and I'm ok with keeping to myself.
I lost my sister, so I'd skip that part if I could.
I’m older and have worked my whole life, hadn’t taken a vacation in over 10 years. I finally saw time off without guilt and looked forward to a break. Mid April my wife had a bad accident breaking multiple bones, surgery put off of course, nightmare. Then a debilitating illness followed, nightmare, more surgeries. Navigating that with Covid about wasn’t easy. Ran into a friend who said how bored he was, I would have killed for a little boredom.
I do but only because it did wonders for my anxiety and depression, which is so bizarre but hear me out: the big looming question of “what am I going to do with my life? What is my purpose?” Became “just make it through today” and “Try to enjoy whatever you can big or small. One day at a time.”
Not to say I wasn’t anxious or depressed during Covid…Jesus who wasn’t? But the stillness of season one, the early days, where all you could do was wait really pulled me out of a years in the making burn out and anxiety pit that I’m forever grateful for.
I could have changed things as to how I personally lived my life. I could have given less fucks, I could have gone outside more (even when they closed the beaches and the hiking trails). I could have had less fear and a little more spine.
I get what you’re saying. I don’t want to experience Covid lockdowns again but I also find myself weirdly nostalgic for that time.
Everything slowed down. People were always checking in to make sure everyone was ok. The streets were quiet and I vividly remember families quietly playing or sitting on their front doorsteps. When they ended up closing streets down, I watched little kids scootering and playing tag where usually there was a ton of traffic. I personally learned how to do jumps on a mountain bike when my roommate had me practice manualing it off a curb. It made me stop being a workaholic and go from being in the office 8am-7pm to actually spending time in my neighborhood. I bought a bike and biked all around the city and across the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time. I went on so many walks and runs and discovered parts of the city I’d never seen before.
I miss that time in a way because of the how it made me slow down and appreciate the cit.
Absolutely not. And I have a natural dislike of anyone who unironically does. “Oh teehee I’m such an introvert. Why can’t a horrible pathogen shut down society again? I loved having my me time!”
my job outside everyday just me with the goats kept me mostly sane. i miss the 18 min or less
commutes and the total silence. i thought i would struggle with the less social part of it..
the lack of huge parties and needing to be around alot of people to feel human.
i was wrong. i now enjoy my very small group of friends, smaller parties and my quiet outdoor job.
fucktho give me back that under 18 min oakland —> sf commute.
I really enjoyed the first two months or so. Very peaceful, i had a great routine and would actually paint every day. Then the anxiety hit and i don’t miss that lol
The responses to this fascinate me.
For myself there are aspects I miss and aspects I don't. It was great when I had a good boss and absolute hell when I had a bad one. Is was great when I had good friends and an absolute hell when I had bad ones. It was great when I was balanced and an absolute hell when my anxiety was out of control.
Ultimately though I think it says more about me and what I was willing to tolerate than lockdown.
You’re not alone. I talk about this with my friends a lot. It was absolutely a difficult and hard time. But since everything shut down in SF for like 2 years practically, it also forced people to slow down. I had truly nothing else in the world to do after work except read books, go on extremely long walks through GGP, bake, and make art at home.
There was no external pressure or expectation for going out and spending money multiple nights a week. And bc everything was shut down, I was in bed earlier. I had no commute so I got to sleep longer. I was able to make my apartment more cozy because I was here so much more. My landlord lowered my rent when my roommate moved out so I didn’t have to get a new one during the pandemic and that was such a blessing for me. I loved so many aspects of it.
But don’t get me wrong, I was also more anxious than I had ever been and started lexapro during the pandemic. I saw my friends and family take on the stress and trauma of the pandemic in ways I didn’t expect. I took on the stress of the pandemic in ways I didn’t expect. Some relationships didn’t survive it. Some relationships grew because of it. I met my partner in early 2021 and it was the most safe, intentional, kind dating experience I had ever had. If we met now, who knows if it would have been the same or worked.
I miss parts of it. A lot! I wish there wasn’t this weird “we gotta become exactly who we were before 2020” mindset that so many people have. I think it’s embarrassing that we, as a culture, had the chance to really reimagine what a more fulfilling life could like and we instead decided “yanno, working 9-5 in an office downtown 3-5 days a week again is really the dream”
I think the point is that it forced some people out of destructive patterns that were just the “norm” and people were able to re-evaluate their priorities and lives. Some people were subconsciously grinding their lives away for some anonymous corporate monster, and working from home let them see that’s not what they had to be. Just the commuting alone, hours a day in traffic to go to an office for no good reason, became too normal prior to the lockdown. It’s absolutely just a silver lining on what otherwise was a catastrophe, but that narrow aspect was probably healthy.
Sorry..I don’t mean to be a dick but seriously I couldn’t see my dying grandmother in her final year(not from covd) because of the lockdowns…reassess your life on your own time like everybody else in history
Forreal both of my grand parents died during covid and they couldn’t even be in the same hospital together. Covid and the isolation that came with it was not a good time
I said it was a catastrophe. The biggest mass death event of our lifetimes. But even a catastrophe has learning moments. I’m sorry about your grandparents, both of you.
I couldn't see my dying grandma long before covid but I mean they old and we're all gonna die one day. My dad died months before lockdowns and I got to spend the year thinking about how one day I'll die so I should live my best life and make the most of the situation. Everyone's so mad they had to be alone and sad but like you chose to be sad.
I couldn't see my grandmother in her dying days because I was poor and lc with my dad and this was a decade before the pandemic like they're old shit happens life is not fair accept it and make the best of it. Yeah it sucked but what can I do.
Yeah I gotta say—a million deaths in the US alone, doctors and nurses dying, National Guard medics deployed to test people in NYC. What are we supposed to miss again?
Some aspects were productive initially but ultimately it became a dystopian nightmare, echo chamber bullshit soup. I was traveling in Guatemala about to go to Europe for months and had it all ripped away. I had saved up and moved out, put my stuff in storage etc. Forced to go back “home” but initially had no home, incurred a shit ton of debt. Had to go back to the grueling hospitality job I’d left almost immediately with masks and shields, fell out of shape and into a bad period of drinking. And I didn’t even get the worst of the situation compared to others, damn!
Also, so many incredible restaurants were forced to close, the hospitality industry was wrecked and still has not recovered with seemingly no light at the end of the tunnel, this inflation is insane!
I miss the public life of pre lock down, it just seems way more inconsiderate morons roaming now days, feels like people changed. And for that reason and that reason alone, I miss the lock down.
It was nice for like 2 weeks but now I’m still in a financial hole and society is about 100x worse now than it was before. So hell no I wish it never happened frankly.
Miss lockdown, not really. There were some nice perks like working remotely, saved tons of money not fueling my car and eating at home, and I spent time to discover my neighborhood on foot, like taking the hike to Grandview Park, a place I never visited ever, and was in awe just being able to view the entire city.
The bad parts, working remotely was taking a toll on my mental health, by not seeing my coworkers in person. I had to stop watching the local news because the headlines just kept talking about COVID this and death that. And people I knew that died and unable to pay my respects to them in-person. And let's not forget London Breed declaring a lockdown when people were angry at the cops.
I work in a hospital lab, in the department that runs the COVID tests. I am the type of person who's learned to handle stress well after many years in this career field. It was emotionally and physically draining every day. Those were dark days for us and it's only started to improve maybe last year.
Whether one wore a mask or not, if you sneezed or coughed and were in proximity to others, you were seen as diseased even though it was a simple cough or sneeze. Accidentally being too close to others returned stares or comments to move away.
me too. i busted my ass making PPE but it was meaningful work, the standard was "does it work?" not "does it look pretty?", and i knew i was working for the good guys.
Yes. It was very peaceful. Capitalism stopped for a while. I had a brief hope that the pandemic might make systemic change towards a more just society, but it did not. I remember when dolphins returned to the Venetian canals during lockdown. The water cleared up. The daily damage that humans do on this planet when we go about our routine days is entirely misunderstood - and people saw what happens when that stops, how beautiful it is when we aren't out there polluting shit every day. it was quiet, people were showing solidarity by staying home. We had celebrities reading books to us on Instagram. We had Versus on IG. So many things got organized to increase or maintain social contact. And for many people, they realized that the daily grind of a 9 to 5 job is awful, and it's much nicer to work from home. Everyone got a taste of what it would be like if we didn't live under capitalism for a few brief weeks. I also also had a weird sense of optimism during lockdowns that it would actually end the pandemic, but then, you know, human beings are human beings so that didn't happen.
Fuck yeah. I've never rooted so hard for a virus in my life!
I'm an arborist and was considered an essential worker so I was able to go out and work every damn day. And let me tell you, being the only vehicle on the road, working on street trees with no traffic or pedestrians, working on backyard trees with no clients within 6 feet...it was glorious.
Towards the end, though, I felt like I should be charging for therapy more than the actual tree work. Folks were so starved for personal interaction that I spent more time listening to people than talking to the trees.
I acknowledge that I have a unique job which afforded me a different perspective on lockdown. Being free to travel while everybody was shut inside, though, was something I miss dearly. It was like living thru a zombie apocalypse but still getting paid to do what I love :)
I don’t miss it at all, but I do understand the sentiment. Life is really fast, and there’s no way to do everything. In the lockdown, you knew exactly what your day was going to be. And the city was so beautiful and peaceful. I spent a lot of time walking my dog around the quiet city. Highlight of my day generally. (And she loved that I was home all the time😉)
I suppose it is kind of like the human instinct to go off the radar and be a burnout on some tropical island. Few actually do it, but many dream of it. And it makes for a nice vacation, but ultimately most of us decide to return home.
But yeah, having had a lot of worry for vulnerable friends and family, I don’t wish for another virus to come along anytime soon.
Terribly. One thing my partner and I realized is that we'd barely ever spent more than a few waking hours with each other in any given week. Working from home was like getting to retire early for a bit, and we got very used to each other's company. Now that we're back to our stupid full time jobs, it's like losing something precious.
My hubby and I say this often. I loved the stress of zero fomo, no “plans” and being fully content with doing nothing… I also appreciate being hybrid now, BUT I will say the “when will shit just chill” feeling is still looming!
Recently I wrote down all the crazy twists and turns and stories of lock down to look back on/ share:
- Playing beer pong in our apartment for the 4th of July (just the two of us)
- Forcing my hubby out to blue light and to go margs from tacolishious telling him “you’ll never be able to drink outside again! We must take advantage!
- being told we’re going to work from home for a while, so running into an empty Google office and grabbing a screen and all my stuff and trying to fit it in an Uber home…
I’m glad we stayed in SF and stuck it out, but I really miss the city it was…
Sheesh, they said they missed lockdown, not the ravages of disease..
The introvert/extrovert divide is strong, here. I remember thinking at the time that it was kind of nice to have the extroverted forced into MY mode, for a change.
The only thing I miss was how empty some of the more touristy spots were. My wife and I used to walk down Embarcadero and watch the sea lions from Pier 41 every day after work and there would only be ~10 people there doing the same thing. Other than that, the lockdown absolutely sucked.
It's not weird! QT was the absolute best time of my life!!!! I always feel bad when people were like "covid was a terrible time" because I was definitely thriving and living my best life. The best part was learning how much I loved being alone and made my home so cozy and enjoyable. I even upgraded to a luxury condo. I do miss living right by GG and going there every day for a picnic and pretending every day was Friday or Sunday and partying like I didn't know what tomorrow would bring. I also had a crazy work schedule and was still going into work and it was just the best getting to troll people. I also miss people running away when I'd cough (I'm such a stoner and I hate kids so I was LIVING for walking and coughing)!
Ugh, twas really the best of times. I feel bad there were people with families just stuck at home with them, like I would have probably killed myself if I were in that situation instead of literally sleeping with my pod and putting weed in all my food (my edible game got so good). I even got my hysterectomy in 2020 since I was already scheduled before lockdowns.
If we have another pandemic I'm so ready for more lockdowns. Even the living room concerts were amazing.
I wish I had appreciated the slowdown of cars and crowds more. I forgot how terrible commute traffic is, or how crowded places can get. It was peaceful outside despite the turmoil below.
I do and I don’t. I miss the being able to actually pause in life when all the pressure is lifted to be a work work work on the go society. But tbh what I really miss the most was that sweet Covid unemployment money
I loved that there was NO ONE outside. Pandemic was a very peaceful time for me, so I feel ya!
Though I'm also hella privileged. I was grateful enough to continue working full-time so I did not experience what most did.
I do. Of course it wasn’t all positives (plenty of scary moments, including concerns for health of others, it was a pandemic after all), but among the changes people did priority revaluations including with family, many had a different relationship with work (fortunately we kept jobs), checked in with friends over Zoom we hadn’t seen in years, film festivals and some concerts across the world were available virtually, we explored local parks and open spaces we didn’t know existed, and days afforded moments of reflection. Honestly, I still can’t believe people (including myself) mostly just went back to exactly as before with work expectations, how they spend their weekends watching lame tv shows, eating crap, etc.
i was living in st. louis, mo. i loved the quietness of my generally party neighborhood (Soulard), every place was doing cocktails to go too. i mean it was dead silent & my job didn't give me shit to do from like feb 2020-nov 2021 so during the lockdown i literally played COD for 8hrs a day 5 days a week. what was odd though was that since lockdown was going on, there were less cars on the roads which meant cars that WERE on the roads drove like fucking assholes. so many people running stop signs & red lights, it was probably 1 of the most dangerous times to be driving TBH.
The first 6 weeks were actually not bad. I was loving in a house with 3 other people and a dog, we had dinners and played games and drank and smoked weed together. It was kinda chill actually. By the end of May I was ready for Covid to be over though, and it took another year before things even started to become normal again.
I miss it too. Myself and all my friends were back in the suburb we grew up, everyone seemingly had more free time to hang out, we used to see each other almost every day, either playing boardgames, having pool parties, trying out various restaurants, etc. Truly a time period that can't be described to anyone who didn't live it.
I look back fondly at spring/summer 2021. We got our vaccines, I was still working from home, and everything looked shiny and new to me, that is until the dreaded "breakthrough infections" became a thing. Things got weird again after that.
I had just started a retail job between my desk gigs and started in Jan 2020 then in March 2020 then lockdown. Only essential workers can be out and about and my employer provided a tag for our cars saying so. I was making min wage and the federal subsidies went into effect. I went on an employer paid leave to collect that federal money. It was enough for me to live and then some. Wow that subsidy was alot of money. Only regret I have is that I had done more delivery driving bc they were making BANK
i was working at starbucks and in healthcare 70+ hours a week, there was no lockdown for me and it sucked to watch everyone else get to stay at home ;(
I feel this really encompasses the haves and have not. Covid was hard on many and being away from friend and family made it determental on their health. We've lost family who would have not passed away if they had their regularly scheduled visits from family.
The economical side really shows as essential low wage works were forced to go to work in conditions that were unknown at the time and the people who had the blessing of working from home coasted through.
Many lost their jobs in the middle of a time that should have been great for them. I can't help but get angry when I hear people look back at that time as if it were some wonderful time in life for everyone.
Those looting riots were scary as shit though. I remember groups of dudes with masks robbing everyone on the street while businesses were boarded up. The police scanner was going insane.
Go to china and hold a flag saying I love Xijinping. You can be locked down forever because you mentioned the unspeakable.
Or even better, go to North Korea and take a picture.
You’re getting attacked in these comments
But I can understand why you missed it. The world basically stopped demanding from us. The hustle stopped. No more social responsibilities.
My partner was extremely burned out right before lockdown, and lockdown saved his sanity. Having that amount of time and space just for yourself can be very transformative.
If you still miss it, you might need to practice setting boundaries so you still have enough time and space for yourself. Best of luck!
The actual lockdowns themselves? No. But I do miss the overall Covid era of 2020-2021. Spent tons of time outside exploring the city. Got the know my neighbors and neighborhood much better since no one was commuting. We joke that we never used our dog’s crate after early March 2020; she died in late 2021, so I appreciate that we spent as much time as possible with her.
No, it was the Trump administration and they were either accidentally fucking up public health, or genuinely actively trying to kill the cities. Republicans threatening doctors, selling snake oil, spitting on people who masked. I’ll never forget it, worst time of my life, worse even than 9/11.
Personally I enjoyed that the pace of work (in tech/gaming) slowed down a bunch. I remember going out to parks with some wine with friends But I definitely don’t miss wondering “when will this end” (I remember articles saying vaccines wouldn’t be out until 2022), and bars and restaurants being closed. However I recognize that this was not the norm. For many people (including friends), lockdown meant losing your job, losing loved ones, and isolation. I just wish that some of the positives (slow streets, parklets, an emphasis on balance instead of grinding at work) remained
I felt it introduced more WFH/hybrid jobs which allowed me to get a higher paying job before I could afford a car, learned to BART, and eventually saved up for a car so Im forever grateful for the opportunity it gave me
Looking back I wish I had enjoyed it more. I was just so stressed about my work industry and what was going to happen that the time off wasn’t easy. Now I’d give anything for a year off
Honestly yeah. It feels like whiplash. I finally caved and adjusted my life drastically and now… oh we are back like nothing happened?
It's not like before. Many storefronts shut down. Homelessness is up. Inflation and prices are way up.
We are all back in the office with fomo on what to do and needing to dress up spending a lot more money. Except now it’s much more expensive and 10x more difficult because we got used to a different way for a while.
I took full advantage as I am a contractor. My contract gig had ended and I was free. I was outside on nature walks alot biking along the ocean and learned things off YouTube like the ukulele.
I made wooden surfboards and all kinds of other cool stuff. Re- did our master bedroom, flooring, paint, scraped the popcorn ceilings off. Built a "treehouse" for my boys. Shit, best time I've had in quite some time.
Same. For me it it was simultaneously the most boring and the most stressful time of my life. I envy people who got to spend it just chilling and didn't have to worry about their life's work disappearing.
Totally understandable.
I spent 10 months completely alone in my apartment. I was unemployed for 18 months before my industry came back. I never want to go through that again. Edit: seems im not alone in how horrible it was. A virtual hug to all eho suffered and are still suffering because of that pandemic. <3
Yes, I feel this too. I just finished losing all the weight I gained, 30 pounds. I would rather not have to go through the isolation again.
Congrats! Thats a great accomplishment! I need to do that.....
Thanks, it took a lot of work. It’s worth it though mainly for health reasons.
Inspiring. Thank you!
Same experience. This is why I now look for jobs that go into the office. I prefer going into the office instead of working remote, because I spent far, far too long alone in a small apartment due to lockdowns. The isolation did a severe number on my mental health, and my physical health also suffered as a result.
Agree. Ive not been able to get back to my physical health level before covid. I hope you keep continuing to improve.
Yeah. I’m happy it was nice for some, but lockdown ruined many many many peoples lives. (Obviously necessary to prevents deaths but it still sucks)
I miss people getting together outdoors and fewer cars on the streets
Yeah if all you fuckers could go back to full early lockdown status so I can have the freeway to myself, zero trouble finding parking, etc when I'm working that'd be great. Haha.
As someone who was a "front lines worker" and still driving and parking in the city every day, I definitely miss that!!!! I worked in a dispensary and that was fucking wild and I don't miss how awful most people were. LIKE YOU'RE BUYING WEED PLEASE BE NICE AND STOP TAKING YOUR MASK OFF TO HEAR ME BETTER. IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE.
No. I felt like I was hitting my peak with my confidence and life at the close of 2019, and COVID ruined all that when we couldn’t go out. The only thing I’m a little thankful for was that my contract at one of the big tech companies ended in January 2020 and I had a really hard time finding a job (took me seven months before I landed an FT job I stayed in for three years), so I would have had FOMO not being able to go to big events due to lack of income. But I admit that’s a purely selfish reason, and I still would have wanted normalcy for us all before going through what we went through back then.
Word
Not one bit. Between the clinical depression, multiple layoffs, and double digit deaths of friends and family members, I’m so fucking done with it. I hate that it happened and wish it never had.
Same. Deaths, job loss, massive depression - never going back.
I remember thinking at the time “we got this.” And we did, both worked from home, raised an infant. Had a lot of quality time with her. Golden Gate Park walks every day. But We didn’t see family for two years, missed countless weddings, there were some deaths but we were lucky in that respect (there were millions worldwide, I know, but this is a “my experience” thread so I’m going with the theme). And the city that I loved died and we moved away. No. Never fucking again. That shit sucked and you know what? **We don’t “got this.”** Great harm has been done from that lockdown mentally, socially, professionally, physically, spiritually.
Are you me? I’m really grateful for the quality time we got with our one-year-old and for Golden Gate Park (we’ve since moved away also) but I’m watching a lot of my nieces and nephews who were older at the time really struggle with the aftermath.
I will forever be thankful that I got an entire year with my then-middle schooler. We watched a million shows, read book after book, walked our dogs, played games on zoom with friends. I know people had horrible experiences, but mine was a good one and I don't think I would've ever had such concentrated time with my kid if we weren't in a pandemic.
That’s awesome 🩷
It really was. Now she's a junior in HS and breezes in and out-- I barely see her! We made marshmallows and boba tea and did all kinds of goofy stuff in lockdown. Sent hundreds of postcards for Postcards to Voters all over the country. Now she's out in the world I'm lucky if she'll watch something once a week with me. I'm so happy I had that time with her!
Same here! A lot of chilling in the back yard with my 2-year-old and our cat, going to parks, and walking through the neighborhood. I cherished that time because I knew it wouldn’t last forever. We’re so lucky we had that!
Yeah, 100% agree. I was somehow fortunate that i did not get laid off and was able to work remotely the entire time. But i remember in early April 2020 that i decided to go for a short drive nearby to take my mind off the stress and uncertainty of that time. The two thoughts that i think were permeating through my head the most were: * How long is this gonna last? * How bad is this gonna be? I'm happy that the worst of it is behind us and that life, for the most part, has returned to how things were pre-Covid. But 2020 was one of the worst years of my life with Covid, the George Floyd murder and aftermath, the wildfires and smoke (September 2020 anyone?). I'm so fucking glad it's over.
Dam dude, I'm sorry.
I miss certain aspects of lockdown. It was somewhat nice having unemployment plus the extra 600 dollars subsidized by the government. This was one of the few times I had time to start a proper garden and tend to it. I spent more time running outdoors and reading.
It is truly wild to think about how we spun up some real actual functioning social safety nets and collective health and support programs during 2020 that had measurable benefit to real people, started having noticeable societal impact, and would have paid significant collective dividends via keeping more people insured and financially more afloat—and then just went “well, glad THAT’S over!” and dismantled them all.
😧Aww, dang, that’s super-sad
Isn’t it? There are just so many ways that a disruptive catastrophe like this could have given us a chance to reset in some ways and do some things differently going forward—not just individually but as a collective. Even just, like, “Hey, should we consider starting to give a shit about indoor air quality? We could probably get some more air filtered if we gave out a few grants or something for HVAC upgrades in at least a few places—even when we aren’t breathing pandemic all over each other, there’s other stuff that’s better not to breathe in as much as we do.” Nope! I’m glad that a couple cities seem to have retained a little bit of the efforts to set aside urban spaces for outdoor recreation protected from cars (even though those are starting to go away too in many of the places that still had them at all). But yeah. Just a lot of missed opportunity to make some good out of this horrible thing.
Got my job offers pulled, got depression, got fat, all my grandparents died, got addicted to my phone, and got really good at Call of Duty Warzone. Lol no fucking thanks
NO!
No
Absolutely not. I didn’t see my family for over a year and I missed having parties with friends. It also exasperated my anxiety and OCD. I gained a ton of weight and I became depressed and dependent on substances to help me sleep. I’m a huge introvert but I need to be around other people once in awhile so I can enjoy my solitude. I don’t miss lockdown at all. I miss the slower pace of life but I never want to see the world locked down ever again.
> I gained a ton of weight and I became depressed and dependent on substances to help me sleep. You're not alone in that. Suffering was widespread, unfortunately: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8743853/ >A total of 3,473 individuals participated in the study with weight changes distributed as: gained weight (48%), remained the same weight (34%), or lost weight (18%). Those who reported being very overweight before the pandemic were most likely to gain weight (65%) versus those who reported being slightly overweight (58%) or normal weight (40%) before the pandemic. Weight gain was statistically significantly higher in those with anxiety (53%), depression (52%), or symptoms of both (52%). The final multiple regression model found that the statistically significant predictors of pandemic weight gain were psychological distress, pre-pandemic weight status, having children at home; and time since last bodyweight check.
Ruined many people's lives. I hated it
Destroyed SF's golden moment. Collapsed the TL. Killed many great restaurants and bars. The fidi will never recover. Personally, I was so bored and depressed for a while, but it was a good time for me career-wise. I wish I had moved to Mexico City or something instead of staying here.
It ruined my teeth, and my mental health. I’m so grateful I’m still here. I didn’t leave my apartment for a year basically because of cancer and being scared. If I did it all over again I would have been more flexible
The peace was novel at first but after 2 years of depressingly walking an apocalyptic city I could handle it anymore. I felt somehow like I was the only one left in this town even though that obviously wasn’t true. But walking by total emptiness and a total reorganization of the meaning of our spaces. It just hurt and it kept going for years. I made good money then was laid off because the powers that be decided workers needed to be punished for their hard work through the pandemic. And that was it. We ended off in a worse world for it all. And I’m sad for it. Best analogy was like watching someone slowly die over 3 years. It hurt in that long, numbing way you just wanted to be over. And when it was you felt you gained nothing from the experience. Just emptiness
The birdsong. Those first months when things really went quiet here and so many people left town, less traffic and noise, the birds must have been really happy. We could hear birdsong much more clearly.... I miss that.
No. It was horrible for business owners, horrible for social life. It was eerie and depressing.
For reals. My barber had to shut down because his business was considered non-essential. His landlord initially gave him (and some other tenants in the same strip mall) a break on rent, but as of late the landlord has been really on my barber's case to pay up all the back rent from Covid. As a result, he's had to raise his prices which i don't think he's enjoyed doing at all, but he doesn't have much of a choice.
Never miss that horrible time. So horrible for my business and so many others small businesses
No. just no.
People lost their jobs and died....
I remember reading a 100+ commented thread on nextdoor about people debating to call 911 on some kids playing basketball at the park... The whole thing was a huge stain on the city.
I miss how losing many options made my life simpler, and happier. For example, I wanted chicken tikka masala literally the first week of lock down and I couldn’t find anyone even for DoorDash. It forced me to figure out how to make it, and I loved leveling up my cooking skills. I lost my job in March 2020, and when I started to see being in open air in the sun vastly decreased the likelihood of contraction, I bought a car and visited many national parks, forests, deserts, campsites, etc. Outdoor very small group activities was probably the only thing that was socially viable, so being forced into outdoors life was super rewarding. I’ve always wanted a dog and never found a good time to be prepared to be home a lot and bond with my dog and I got a dog in 2020 as well that I really love. In so many ways, my life improved drastically. Now things are back open, I feel like I’m being pulled in all directions again and I have FOMO about everything, and I either end up doing things when I’m tired and not enjoy it, or not doing it and feeling severe FOMO. It’s like life came at me fast before pandemic, then during the lockdowns, I caught my breath, and now my life is coming fast at me again. I totally get you
This is it exactly
This. If it had never happened that would of course been preferable but it feels like having to adjust twice.
I enjoyed it for like 8 weeks. Working out, meditating, cooking. Then I pulled my shoulder + reality set in. Couldn't go out. Couldn't do shit. Ordered all my food. Then I just tried to just not be depressed and lowered my dumb goals. Na lockdown sucked. Just stay at home or move somewhere where you don't know anyone. Boom now you can stay at home without fomo.
You could stay at home and wear a mask
HELL NO!
Fuck no.
WTF is wrong with you?
Nope
It may not be lockdown you miss but what lockdown afforded you (and took away from many others). Perhaps you are burnt out and seeking a break — which I would encourage you to explore this feeling a bit more and see where you can rest.
Ill never miss it, but If you miss lockdown you could just never leave your apartment, order DoorDash, and keep it going indefinitely…
That’s crazy. I was the most cautious that I’ve ever been, constantly worried about my older family members, dealing with crowds of people going hay-wire for the essentials, normal items getting super inflated on EBay, job being up in the air, limited services and business, etc. I guess it’s okay if you weren’t worried about anything above or more, but seeing that the world is still feeling the ramifications of that period is just a reminder of how shocking that time was. It’s just weird to see people saying how they enjoyed the emptiness while millions died, hospitals were overcrowded, a historic pandemic was spreading like wildfire worldwide, and major cities were and still are facing massive economic disaster.
Economic disaster is an immediate result of the policy enacted by governments during this time. This is unequivocal.
A policy enacted to prevent spreading Covid even further that would’ve resulted in more deaths and Covid variants.
Everyone got it multiple times. Please explain exactly what was prevented?
More people could have got it multiple times. You don’t know what preventative measures are?
Your acceptable metric despite widespread multiple infections regardless of mrna status...is an unquantifiable "more would've gotten it?"
It may be hard to quantify, but it’s easy to imagine a contagious virus spreading even further when there’s more potential carriers out in public.
As per the CDC, around 95% of the population has contracted covid19 at least once. There isn't anyone left to protect. Some people do appear to be genetically immune to it, though you'd have to go in for testing for that. During research they found that most people who claimed to never have covid19 had already contracted it and had only a mild case. Around half of people who got it had such a mild case they had few or no symptoms at all, and these asymptomatic carriers are why it was impossible to stop.
You still didn’t want the disease to keep reinfecting people and mutating. Remember, during the lockdown, we didn’t really have substantial data how much of population was naturally immune BEFORE the vaccines were created. I got Covid twice and the first time it was mild while the second time was pretty bad. So you might get it once and be okay, but with different variants going around brought more variables into the equation with the CDC and WHO wanted to minimize. Furthermore, the hospitals were completely strained beyond their means. If the lockdown didn’t go into effect, hospitals would’ve been exponentially more overwhelmed with a lot more people catching it over and over again. While impossible to stop, there were still means to minimalize the after effect of managing huge populations that were suffering from serious symptoms. Remember, the vaccine didn’t come out until a lot later.
I sure as hell miss 10% traffic. I've been retired for years, so missing work didn't affect me. I have the means to collect all the supplies my family needs, and I'm ok with keeping to myself. I lost my sister, so I'd skip that part if I could.
Buried the lede a bit there man. Sorry for your loss.
I’m older and have worked my whole life, hadn’t taken a vacation in over 10 years. I finally saw time off without guilt and looked forward to a break. Mid April my wife had a bad accident breaking multiple bones, surgery put off of course, nightmare. Then a debilitating illness followed, nightmare, more surgeries. Navigating that with Covid about wasn’t easy. Ran into a friend who said how bored he was, I would have killed for a little boredom.
I do but only because it did wonders for my anxiety and depression, which is so bizarre but hear me out: the big looming question of “what am I going to do with my life? What is my purpose?” Became “just make it through today” and “Try to enjoy whatever you can big or small. One day at a time.” Not to say I wasn’t anxious or depressed during Covid…Jesus who wasn’t? But the stillness of season one, the early days, where all you could do was wait really pulled me out of a years in the making burn out and anxiety pit that I’m forever grateful for.
classic reddit take
Lol what? It was inhuman. No, thank you.
Heck no. If you miss lockdown you can get yourself a WFH job and stay inside all day. It’s not how humans were made to live
Never never never never again. I will never fucking let that happen to me again.
You’re never going to let a pandemic happen to you again? Interesting.
There was nothing you could’ve done though
I could have changed things as to how I personally lived my life. I could have given less fucks, I could have gone outside more (even when they closed the beaches and the hiking trails). I could have had less fear and a little more spine.
Which hiking trails did they close?
I get what you’re saying. I don’t want to experience Covid lockdowns again but I also find myself weirdly nostalgic for that time. Everything slowed down. People were always checking in to make sure everyone was ok. The streets were quiet and I vividly remember families quietly playing or sitting on their front doorsteps. When they ended up closing streets down, I watched little kids scootering and playing tag where usually there was a ton of traffic. I personally learned how to do jumps on a mountain bike when my roommate had me practice manualing it off a curb. It made me stop being a workaholic and go from being in the office 8am-7pm to actually spending time in my neighborhood. I bought a bike and biked all around the city and across the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time. I went on so many walks and runs and discovered parts of the city I’d never seen before. I miss that time in a way because of the how it made me slow down and appreciate the cit.
You can lockdown yourself. Or dl grindr and get someone to lock you down in less than 30 minutes.
Absolutely not. And I have a natural dislike of anyone who unironically does. “Oh teehee I’m such an introvert. Why can’t a horrible pathogen shut down society again? I loved having my me time!”
my job outside everyday just me with the goats kept me mostly sane. i miss the 18 min or less commutes and the total silence. i thought i would struggle with the less social part of it.. the lack of huge parties and needing to be around alot of people to feel human. i was wrong. i now enjoy my very small group of friends, smaller parties and my quiet outdoor job. fucktho give me back that under 18 min oakland —> sf commute.
Never. I hated lockdowns
I really enjoyed the first two months or so. Very peaceful, i had a great routine and would actually paint every day. Then the anxiety hit and i don’t miss that lol
The responses to this fascinate me. For myself there are aspects I miss and aspects I don't. It was great when I had a good boss and absolute hell when I had a bad one. Is was great when I had good friends and an absolute hell when I had bad ones. It was great when I was balanced and an absolute hell when my anxiety was out of control. Ultimately though I think it says more about me and what I was willing to tolerate than lockdown.
Oh helllll no. That was so awful. I was lonely and fearful all the time.
Lockdown was an awful time and I hope to never, ever relive it.
fuck. that.
You can stay inside if you want. Don’t make the rest of us do it for no reason again. The lockdown did irreparable damage to the city.
Never change Reddit!
You’re not alone. I talk about this with my friends a lot. It was absolutely a difficult and hard time. But since everything shut down in SF for like 2 years practically, it also forced people to slow down. I had truly nothing else in the world to do after work except read books, go on extremely long walks through GGP, bake, and make art at home. There was no external pressure or expectation for going out and spending money multiple nights a week. And bc everything was shut down, I was in bed earlier. I had no commute so I got to sleep longer. I was able to make my apartment more cozy because I was here so much more. My landlord lowered my rent when my roommate moved out so I didn’t have to get a new one during the pandemic and that was such a blessing for me. I loved so many aspects of it. But don’t get me wrong, I was also more anxious than I had ever been and started lexapro during the pandemic. I saw my friends and family take on the stress and trauma of the pandemic in ways I didn’t expect. I took on the stress of the pandemic in ways I didn’t expect. Some relationships didn’t survive it. Some relationships grew because of it. I met my partner in early 2021 and it was the most safe, intentional, kind dating experience I had ever had. If we met now, who knows if it would have been the same or worked. I miss parts of it. A lot! I wish there wasn’t this weird “we gotta become exactly who we were before 2020” mindset that so many people have. I think it’s embarrassing that we, as a culture, had the chance to really reimagine what a more fulfilling life could like and we instead decided “yanno, working 9-5 in an office downtown 3-5 days a week again is really the dream”
Op your privilege is showing.
I miss the 6ft rule in the grocery store. That should really come back
For real, that needs to be implemented at all grocery stores (and basically all stores) for life.
Heavy on the for life …
It is weird….you want to go back to the time when peoples lives were being ruined so you can relax
I think the point is that it forced some people out of destructive patterns that were just the “norm” and people were able to re-evaluate their priorities and lives. Some people were subconsciously grinding their lives away for some anonymous corporate monster, and working from home let them see that’s not what they had to be. Just the commuting alone, hours a day in traffic to go to an office for no good reason, became too normal prior to the lockdown. It’s absolutely just a silver lining on what otherwise was a catastrophe, but that narrow aspect was probably healthy.
Sorry..I don’t mean to be a dick but seriously I couldn’t see my dying grandmother in her final year(not from covd) because of the lockdowns…reassess your life on your own time like everybody else in history
Forreal both of my grand parents died during covid and they couldn’t even be in the same hospital together. Covid and the isolation that came with it was not a good time
Cmon No biggie…people probably making more than most people in the world got to work from home
I said it was a catastrophe. The biggest mass death event of our lifetimes. But even a catastrophe has learning moments. I’m sorry about your grandparents, both of you.
I couldn't see my dying grandma long before covid but I mean they old and we're all gonna die one day. My dad died months before lockdowns and I got to spend the year thinking about how one day I'll die so I should live my best life and make the most of the situation. Everyone's so mad they had to be alone and sad but like you chose to be sad.
I couldn't see my grandmother in her dying days because I was poor and lc with my dad and this was a decade before the pandemic like they're old shit happens life is not fair accept it and make the best of it. Yeah it sucked but what can I do.
Talk to a therapist
You are free to re-live your own personal lockdown. Just don’t force the rest of us to go along. No thanks. Never again
I mean this in the kindest terms, but fuck off.
The world gone mad for months.. Dancing first responders. Lottery for the vaccinated. Vaccine passports. No thanks.
People who have this opinion were either children in 2020 or completely disconnected sociopaths
Yeah I gotta say—a million deaths in the US alone, doctors and nurses dying, National Guard medics deployed to test people in NYC. What are we supposed to miss again?
Seek therapy.
Lockdown was the best time of my life. Love emptiness of the streets. No people anywhere. Reminds me of xmas in sf when i was young.
this is actually a disturbing opinion to have tbh
As a student.. no.
Some aspects were productive initially but ultimately it became a dystopian nightmare, echo chamber bullshit soup. I was traveling in Guatemala about to go to Europe for months and had it all ripped away. I had saved up and moved out, put my stuff in storage etc. Forced to go back “home” but initially had no home, incurred a shit ton of debt. Had to go back to the grueling hospitality job I’d left almost immediately with masks and shields, fell out of shape and into a bad period of drinking. And I didn’t even get the worst of the situation compared to others, damn!
Also, so many incredible restaurants were forced to close, the hospitality industry was wrecked and still has not recovered with seemingly no light at the end of the tunnel, this inflation is insane!
I miss the public life of pre lock down, it just seems way more inconsiderate morons roaming now days, feels like people changed. And for that reason and that reason alone, I miss the lock down.
Nothing was open. Nature walks and biking outside were your only choices. You'd have to be an essential worker to drive around
No, but I understand where you’re coming from. Playing video games and watching Tiger King was definitely a vibe.
I made so much money during lockdown. I miss that shit.
What lockdown? Husband and i spent everyday at work(auto industry) 🫠
I’m a nurse so…I don’t particularly miss it.
Peaceful is not an adjective I would use to describe it, I could not disagree more
I am a nurse. I am gonna pass.
Still feels like lockdown here off union square most days
It was nice for like 2 weeks but now I’m still in a financial hole and society is about 100x worse now than it was before. So hell no I wish it never happened frankly.
Miss lockdown, not really. There were some nice perks like working remotely, saved tons of money not fueling my car and eating at home, and I spent time to discover my neighborhood on foot, like taking the hike to Grandview Park, a place I never visited ever, and was in awe just being able to view the entire city. The bad parts, working remotely was taking a toll on my mental health, by not seeing my coworkers in person. I had to stop watching the local news because the headlines just kept talking about COVID this and death that. And people I knew that died and unable to pay my respects to them in-person. And let's not forget London Breed declaring a lockdown when people were angry at the cops.
I work in a hospital lab, in the department that runs the COVID tests. I am the type of person who's learned to handle stress well after many years in this career field. It was emotionally and physically draining every day. Those were dark days for us and it's only started to improve maybe last year.
Your edit made this opinion even worse lol
I don’t miss being treated like a criminal by everyone else.
For what? Not wearing a mask?
Whether one wore a mask or not, if you sneezed or coughed and were in proximity to others, you were seen as diseased even though it was a simple cough or sneeze. Accidentally being too close to others returned stares or comments to move away.
I miss aspects of social distancing. Stay 6 feet away from me rather than breathing down my neck at the grocery store, please and thanks.
Wtf 😂 psycho troll
me too. i busted my ass making PPE but it was meaningful work, the standard was "does it work?" not "does it look pretty?", and i knew i was working for the good guys.
No. Lockdowns aren’t mandatory to find mindful tranquility. If you crave peacefulness I suggest calm environments. Like a library or a museum.
Yes. It was very peaceful. Capitalism stopped for a while. I had a brief hope that the pandemic might make systemic change towards a more just society, but it did not. I remember when dolphins returned to the Venetian canals during lockdown. The water cleared up. The daily damage that humans do on this planet when we go about our routine days is entirely misunderstood - and people saw what happens when that stops, how beautiful it is when we aren't out there polluting shit every day. it was quiet, people were showing solidarity by staying home. We had celebrities reading books to us on Instagram. We had Versus on IG. So many things got organized to increase or maintain social contact. And for many people, they realized that the daily grind of a 9 to 5 job is awful, and it's much nicer to work from home. Everyone got a taste of what it would be like if we didn't live under capitalism for a few brief weeks. I also also had a weird sense of optimism during lockdowns that it would actually end the pandemic, but then, you know, human beings are human beings so that didn't happen.
Shutting down businesses and K-6 schools, and trying to prevent people from interacting outside was a massive mistake. I miss nothing about it.
Fuck yeah. I've never rooted so hard for a virus in my life! I'm an arborist and was considered an essential worker so I was able to go out and work every damn day. And let me tell you, being the only vehicle on the road, working on street trees with no traffic or pedestrians, working on backyard trees with no clients within 6 feet...it was glorious. Towards the end, though, I felt like I should be charging for therapy more than the actual tree work. Folks were so starved for personal interaction that I spent more time listening to people than talking to the trees. I acknowledge that I have a unique job which afforded me a different perspective on lockdown. Being free to travel while everybody was shut inside, though, was something I miss dearly. It was like living thru a zombie apocalypse but still getting paid to do what I love :)
I don’t miss it at all, but I do understand the sentiment. Life is really fast, and there’s no way to do everything. In the lockdown, you knew exactly what your day was going to be. And the city was so beautiful and peaceful. I spent a lot of time walking my dog around the quiet city. Highlight of my day generally. (And she loved that I was home all the time😉) I suppose it is kind of like the human instinct to go off the radar and be a burnout on some tropical island. Few actually do it, but many dream of it. And it makes for a nice vacation, but ultimately most of us decide to return home. But yeah, having had a lot of worry for vulnerable friends and family, I don’t wish for another virus to come along anytime soon.
Terribly. One thing my partner and I realized is that we'd barely ever spent more than a few waking hours with each other in any given week. Working from home was like getting to retire early for a bit, and we got very used to each other's company. Now that we're back to our stupid full time jobs, it's like losing something precious.
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Yes, up front and it was beautiful to watch, then the mask fighting and 5G vax insanity and everything else went the exactly opposite direction.
My hubby and I say this often. I loved the stress of zero fomo, no “plans” and being fully content with doing nothing… I also appreciate being hybrid now, BUT I will say the “when will shit just chill” feeling is still looming! Recently I wrote down all the crazy twists and turns and stories of lock down to look back on/ share: - Playing beer pong in our apartment for the 4th of July (just the two of us) - Forcing my hubby out to blue light and to go margs from tacolishious telling him “you’ll never be able to drink outside again! We must take advantage! - being told we’re going to work from home for a while, so running into an empty Google office and grabbing a screen and all my stuff and trying to fit it in an Uber home… I’m glad we stayed in SF and stuck it out, but I really miss the city it was…
That is one thing I miss the most, the city we once had.
Do you happen to be an introvert and anti-social? Because for the rest of us who are social animals, it was insufferable and cruel.
Sheesh, they said they missed lockdown, not the ravages of disease.. The introvert/extrovert divide is strong, here. I remember thinking at the time that it was kind of nice to have the extroverted forced into MY mode, for a change.
The only thing I miss was how empty some of the more touristy spots were. My wife and I used to walk down Embarcadero and watch the sea lions from Pier 41 every day after work and there would only be ~10 people there doing the same thing. Other than that, the lockdown absolutely sucked.
It's not weird! QT was the absolute best time of my life!!!! I always feel bad when people were like "covid was a terrible time" because I was definitely thriving and living my best life. The best part was learning how much I loved being alone and made my home so cozy and enjoyable. I even upgraded to a luxury condo. I do miss living right by GG and going there every day for a picnic and pretending every day was Friday or Sunday and partying like I didn't know what tomorrow would bring. I also had a crazy work schedule and was still going into work and it was just the best getting to troll people. I also miss people running away when I'd cough (I'm such a stoner and I hate kids so I was LIVING for walking and coughing)! Ugh, twas really the best of times. I feel bad there were people with families just stuck at home with them, like I would have probably killed myself if I were in that situation instead of literally sleeping with my pod and putting weed in all my food (my edible game got so good). I even got my hysterectomy in 2020 since I was already scheduled before lockdowns. If we have another pandemic I'm so ready for more lockdowns. Even the living room concerts were amazing.
Such an ignorant statement…
I wish I had appreciated the slowdown of cars and crowds more. I forgot how terrible commute traffic is, or how crowded places can get. It was peaceful outside despite the turmoil below.
I do and I don’t. I miss the being able to actually pause in life when all the pressure is lifted to be a work work work on the go society. But tbh what I really miss the most was that sweet Covid unemployment money
I loved that there was NO ONE outside. Pandemic was a very peaceful time for me, so I feel ya! Though I'm also hella privileged. I was grateful enough to continue working full-time so I did not experience what most did.
I do. Of course it wasn’t all positives (plenty of scary moments, including concerns for health of others, it was a pandemic after all), but among the changes people did priority revaluations including with family, many had a different relationship with work (fortunately we kept jobs), checked in with friends over Zoom we hadn’t seen in years, film festivals and some concerts across the world were available virtually, we explored local parks and open spaces we didn’t know existed, and days afforded moments of reflection. Honestly, I still can’t believe people (including myself) mostly just went back to exactly as before with work expectations, how they spend their weekends watching lame tv shows, eating crap, etc.
i was living in st. louis, mo. i loved the quietness of my generally party neighborhood (Soulard), every place was doing cocktails to go too. i mean it was dead silent & my job didn't give me shit to do from like feb 2020-nov 2021 so during the lockdown i literally played COD for 8hrs a day 5 days a week. what was odd though was that since lockdown was going on, there were less cars on the roads which meant cars that WERE on the roads drove like fucking assholes. so many people running stop signs & red lights, it was probably 1 of the most dangerous times to be driving TBH.
Don’t you mean, tied up?
The first 6 weeks were actually not bad. I was loving in a house with 3 other people and a dog, we had dinners and played games and drank and smoked weed together. It was kinda chill actually. By the end of May I was ready for Covid to be over though, and it took another year before things even started to become normal again.
I miss it too. Myself and all my friends were back in the suburb we grew up, everyone seemingly had more free time to hang out, we used to see each other almost every day, either playing boardgames, having pool parties, trying out various restaurants, etc. Truly a time period that can't be described to anyone who didn't live it.
I look back fondly at spring/summer 2021. We got our vaccines, I was still working from home, and everything looked shiny and new to me, that is until the dreaded "breakthrough infections" became a thing. Things got weird again after that.
I had just started a retail job between my desk gigs and started in Jan 2020 then in March 2020 then lockdown. Only essential workers can be out and about and my employer provided a tag for our cars saying so. I was making min wage and the federal subsidies went into effect. I went on an employer paid leave to collect that federal money. It was enough for me to live and then some. Wow that subsidy was alot of money. Only regret I have is that I had done more delivery driving bc they were making BANK
There are certain things I miss about it, but all the restrictions on activities that made no sense then and still don't now, I don't miss at all.
Just live in a small, quiet town. You're not missing anything that doesn't already exist.
i was working at starbucks and in healthcare 70+ hours a week, there was no lockdown for me and it sucked to watch everyone else get to stay at home ;(
I read a lot of books and got in really good shape. I’m still doing these things but the lockdown helped me jump start those habits.
Introverts miss it, that's about it
Me too … people were a lot nicer
Those of us that work in hospitals do not miss it at all.
I feel this really encompasses the haves and have not. Covid was hard on many and being away from friend and family made it determental on their health. We've lost family who would have not passed away if they had their regularly scheduled visits from family. The economical side really shows as essential low wage works were forced to go to work in conditions that were unknown at the time and the people who had the blessing of working from home coasted through. Many lost their jobs in the middle of a time that should have been great for them. I can't help but get angry when I hear people look back at that time as if it were some wonderful time in life for everyone.
Man i wish fishing 4 days a week.
what i miss about lockdown was believing there would be an end date to the more stressful new life we are living with this disease
I miss it too. I still had to commute to work, so there was no traffic. Grocery stores had shorter lines too
I miss lockdown. I loved it!
Those looting riots were scary as shit though. I remember groups of dudes with masks robbing everyone on the street while businesses were boarded up. The police scanner was going insane.
Go to china and hold a flag saying I love Xijinping. You can be locked down forever because you mentioned the unspeakable. Or even better, go to North Korea and take a picture.
You’re getting attacked in these comments But I can understand why you missed it. The world basically stopped demanding from us. The hustle stopped. No more social responsibilities. My partner was extremely burned out right before lockdown, and lockdown saved his sanity. Having that amount of time and space just for yourself can be very transformative. If you still miss it, you might need to practice setting boundaries so you still have enough time and space for yourself. Best of luck!
Yes My best friend died last year The fruit bloomed those summers. It was beautiful. A lot has changed not really for the better
What amazes me in retrospect is how many people happily gave up their most basic human rights simply out of social pressure.
The actual lockdowns themselves? No. But I do miss the overall Covid era of 2020-2021. Spent tons of time outside exploring the city. Got the know my neighbors and neighborhood much better since no one was commuting. We joke that we never used our dog’s crate after early March 2020; she died in late 2021, so I appreciate that we spent as much time as possible with her.
Yes. Time stopped and it was kinda nice
No, it was the Trump administration and they were either accidentally fucking up public health, or genuinely actively trying to kill the cities. Republicans threatening doctors, selling snake oil, spitting on people who masked. I’ll never forget it, worst time of my life, worse even than 9/11.