I have been thinking a lot lately about our life during the pandemic, partly as it has come up in conversation a lot with friends. This is a blog and not a series of peer-reviewed scientific papers. I would need months to dive deep into the literature we have compiled on the “lessons learned” from the COVID-19 pandemic response, so this will not be that. Rather, I’d like to share some lessons-learned and thoughts on the pandemic that I have heard amongst my group of friends and within my family unit.

Full disclosure: we are all young-ish (30s to early 40s), healthy people of good fortune. Regardless of race or nationality, the individuals whose thoughts I will be discussing are all financially stable and remained so during the lockdowns. For that, I am acknowledging a certain level of privilege that afforded most of us to have a fairly different perspective and lived experience on the matter.

It is interesting looking back, as I remember news headlines popping up on my phone during this trip about a contagious virus in China, but being fairly dismissive of them. The countless times in my life where China was dealing with this bird flu or that corona virus, I had become desensitized to these headlines. The day of our return, however, things began to change. We started hearing stories of people in the U.S., Germany, Austria, and Italy – travelers – coming down with similar symptoms and ending up in hospital. Our plane boarded and took us home, all the same. Less than a week after returning things really changed. There was a quiet tension in the air and a constant uncertainty from people wondering how serious this was, or how it might affect them.

One of my girlfriends and I decided to go downtown for a night out, knowing there had been discussions of a potential lockdown as fears and reality would enter a singularity. It was a complete ghost town. We finished our dinner at an traditional German restaurant then made our way through the old streets, winding around, looking for some place else to sit and have a cocktail before heading home. What we saw were mostly closed shops and those that remained open were virtually empty. Apart from enjoying the Altstadt to ourselves, we did start to wonder if we had somehow missed an announcement and should have remained home that night. One of our favorite lounges was still open, however, so we had our final drink then parted ways. It felt as though we had unwittingly toasted to a world we would be saying goodbye to, a farewell to life we had always known. The next day, it all shut down.

This began the months-long life changing event for the world on a macro-scale and for our family on a “micro-scale”. My son, who had never before been homeschooled, was home doing lessons via Zoom; my husband, who had never before (prior to the age of 15) been off work for more than 2 weeks at a time was now home with nothing to do; and I…well…other than having two people in my space now, had not experienced any significant change. I had recently gone on a sabbatical in order to continue my graduate studies, plan trips, help our son with school, and start working towards a career change. My studies were online and my current semester had me taking epidemiology, which was brilliant. Every topic was being reinforced in real time, but I do recall feeling completely disinterested in writing about west nile virus while the world was falling apart around me from a corona virus.

Despite the hardships we saw others endure and the collective trauma so many of us experienced, the lockdowns, for our family, were not a time of adversity. We did experience a rather strange “good-bye” to some close friends who were moving back to the U.S. (on account of the lockdown rules) and my son did suffer a bit from the social isolation; however, we cooked elaborate meals, I taught myself how to sew cloth masks (although, I’m not saying they were GOOD), we worked out everyday (Morning Meltdown, 100 day challenge!), we made exquisite cocktails and iced coffee drinks, and we thoroughly enjoyed the garden. It was the most beautiful spring season we had ever experienced in Germany.

This is clearly not the picture of a society ravished by death, disease, stress, or exhaustion. Given the great fortune we experienced, we could have easily claimed the pandemic was a hoax or a lie or “just a flu”. After-all, so many people evaluate the truth based on personal experiences. We like what we can see or experience for ourselves to determine its validity. But it wasn’t a hoax, and governments were doing their best to figure out how to manage the situation whilst scientists did their best to find answers. I don’t think every society got it right. At the beginning, I was grateful to be in Germany. Their tight restrictions, access to testing centers, efficient supply chains, and collective respect and consideration from their citizens meant that we never ran out of food or supplies, the risk of the dreaded “super spreader” was low, and we knew exactly what was expected of us in nearly every situation. By the end, though, we were ready to bail. Germany maintained those regulations long after we had been vaccinated as we watched other countries slowly re-open for events, travel, dining, and generally everything else.

Our Lockdown story is certainly more than just a handful of paragraphs, but I think it is important that while we should also remember the seriousness of what the world experienced that year, we should also look at some of the good that came of the 2020 pandemic. Whether they are stories, lessons, or positive changes in how we do or see certain things, there were constructive take-aways from our collective lived experience. This week I am going to attempt to list the benefits that we experienced and share some of the recipes we enjoyed during this time. I would love to hear what others experienced during this time, and encourage you to share a comment about a joyous part of your lockdown experience, whether great or small.

Much like any horrible event in history, we should remember those who died and those who were on the front lines – left with PTSD from the trauma of working in healthcare or the trauma of losing a loved one, as well as those who were isolated or thrust into poverty after losing a job.