By Raymond Nava
Getting back into pre-pandemic routines is going to be difficult, if not impossible, to get back into.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a dramatic effect on how people and for some this completely reshaped their daily routines.
When the pandemic hit, we all went into lockdown mode.
People started to work from home. Children and college students attended classes online, and everyone stayed at home.
Everyone had to adjust to the new circumstances from the pandemic.
Before the pandemic and lockdown happened, I would not go out that often. The months in lockdown were akin to how I spent my summer and winter breaks, cooped up inside my house.
Taking classes online was something that was definitely new.
Online learning at East Los Angeles College during COVID-19 were lectures via Zoom.
The transition was seamless and something that worked very well. It was more preferable than the other forms of online classes, where there was no virtual lecture available.
Learning without a lecture is almost impossible for me, which is why the change to learning online through Zoom wasn’t that difficult.
After spending about two years attending online Zoom classes, it actually feels like transitioning back to in-person classes is going to be a big challenge.
Before the lockdown, leaving home and going to the campus in the spring and fall every week was like a rhythm.
The two years since March 2020 have been the longest I’ve ever experienced just staying home.
I’ve grown so accustomed to just staying home and online classes that the thought of having to leave to go to campus feels almost like an inconvenience.
I’m sad that this happened, as a good portion of my college experience has been from home, and I miss how things were before the pandemic, even though it’s hard trying to get back into how things were.
The few times where I’ve had to return to the campus felt like a huge learning curve to get back into the habit.
This also goes for those who are transitioning back to working in person full time.
My mother has been mostly working from home since the pandemic. Over the past year she’s been slowly making that transition back to working at her office full time.
Work and learning from home became a habit thanks to the pandemic, and this has been a habit that’s been molded for almost two years.
One of the things that makes it hard to get back into the old habit is the convenience and comfort of home.
There’s so many times where I just don’t want to leave and I’ve become so comfortable with just staying inside.
It’s really difficult for me to adjust to getting up in the morning, getting dressed and leaving every day when I have class.
Even for other things such as going to doctors appointments or shopping for new clothes, I just want to stay inside after spending two years hardly doing any of that.
This experience is just one of many that has arisen since the pandemic.
The long-lasting impact of COVID-19 is not just the health impact, but the societal impact as well.
The changes in everyone’s daily lives are always going to be different.
For some, they can easily get back into the old habits before COVID-19. For others, including myself, I find it may be a hard routine to get back into.