my daily routine in covid 19 essay

Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Covid 19 — My Experience during the COVID-19 Pandemic

My Experience During The Covid-19 Pandemic

Categories: Covid 19

About this sample

Words: 440 |

Published: Jan 30, 2024

Words: 440 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Introduction, physical impact, mental and emotional impact, social impact.

World Health Organization. (2021). Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard. https://covid19.who.int/
American Psychiatric Association. (2020). Mental health and COVID-19. https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-blogs/apa-blog/2020/03/mental-health-and-covid-19
The New York Times. (2020). Coping with Coronavirus Anxiety. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/well/family/coronavirus-anxiety-mental-health.html

Cite this Essay

To export a reference to this article please select a referencing style below:

Let us write you an essay from scratch

450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Prof Ernest (PhD)

Verified writer

Expert in: Nursing & Health

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

3 pages / 1405 words

1 pages / 477 words

2 pages / 985 words

3 pages / 1172 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Covid 19

The COVID-19 pandemic, which first emerged in late 2019, has brought about a global crisis that extends far beyond the realms of physical health. Beyond the direct threat to one's physical well-being, the pandemic has unleashed [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic, which swept across the globe, brought about profound changes in our daily routines and lifestyles. In this essay, we will explore the ways in which the pandemic has transformed the way we live, work, and [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has swept across the globe, has not only caused physical health concerns but has also had a profound impact on mental health. This essay, titled "How Does COVID-19 Affect Mental Health," delves [...]

An unprecedented global crisis of our era, the COVID-19 pandemic, has left an indelible mark on humanity, reshaping the fabric of societies, disrupting economic landscapes, and exacting a heavy toll on human life. As nations [...]

As a Computer Science student who never took Pre-Calculus and Basic Calculus in Senior High School, I never realized that there will be a relevance of Calculus in everyday life for a student. Before the beginning of it uses, [...]

Good morning, today I am going to give a speech on something that is hot in the news at the moment and could potentially harm us, that thing is a coronavirus. There isn’t a huge amount to say about it as it is still being [...]

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

Instructions Followed To The Letter
Deadlines Met At Every Stage
Unique And Plagiarism Free

< Previous

Home > History Community Special Collections > Remembering COVID-19 Community Archive > Community Reflections > 21

Community Reflections

My life experience during the covid-19 pandemic.

Melissa Blanco Follow

Document Type

Class Assignment

Publication Date

Affiliation with sacred heart university.

Undergraduate, Class of 2024

My content explains what my life was like during the last seven months of the Covid-19 pandemic and how it affected my life both positively and negatively. It also explains what it was like when I graduated from High School and how I want the future generations to remember the Class of 2020.

Class assignment, Western Civilization (Dr. Marino).

Recommended Citation

Blanco, Melissa, "My Life Experience During the Covid-19 Pandemic" (2020). Community Reflections . 21. https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/covid19-reflections/21

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Since September 23, 2020

Included in

Higher Education Commons , Virus Diseases Commons

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately, you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.

Advanced Search

Notify me via email or RSS
Expert Gallery
Collections
Disciplines

Author Corner

SelectedWorks Faculty Guidelines
DigitalCommons@SHU: Nuts & Bolts, Policies & Procedures
Sacred Heart University Library

Home | About | FAQ | My Account | Accessibility Statement

Privacy Copyright

I Thought We’d Learned Nothing From the Pandemic. I Wasn’t Seeing the Full Picture

M y first home had a back door that opened to a concrete patio with a giant crack down the middle. When my sister and I played, I made sure to stay on the same side of the divide as her, just in case. The 1988 film The Land Before Time was one of the first movies I ever saw, and the image of the earth splintering into pieces planted its roots in my brain. I believed that, even in my own backyard, I could easily become the tiny Triceratops separated from her family, on the other side of the chasm, as everything crumbled into chaos.

Some 30 years later, I marvel at the eerie, unexpected ways that cartoonish nightmare came to life – not just for me and my family, but for all of us. The landscape was already covered in fissures well before COVID-19 made its way across the planet, but the pandemic applied pressure, and the cracks broke wide open, separating us from each other physically and ideologically. Under the weight of the crisis, we scattered and landed on such different patches of earth we could barely see each other’s faces, even when we squinted. We disagreed viciously with each other, about how to respond, but also about what was true.

Recently, someone asked me if we’ve learned anything from the pandemic, and my first thought was a flat no. Nothing. There was a time when I thought it would be the very thing to draw us together and catapult us – as a capital “S” Society – into a kinder future. It’s surreal to remember those early days when people rallied together, sewing masks for health care workers during critical shortages and gathering on balconies in cities from Dallas to New York City to clap and sing songs like “Yellow Submarine.” It felt like a giant lightning bolt shot across the sky, and for one breath, we all saw something that had been hidden in the dark – the inherent vulnerability in being human or maybe our inescapable connectedness .

More from TIME

Read More: The Family Time the Pandemic Stole

But it turns out, it was just a flash. The goodwill vanished as quickly as it appeared. A couple of years later, people feel lied to, abandoned, and all on their own. I’ve felt my own curiosity shrinking, my willingness to reach out waning , my ability to keep my hands open dwindling. I look out across the landscape and see selfishness and rage, burnt earth and so many dead bodies. Game over. We lost. And if we’ve already lost, why try?

Still, the question kept nagging me. I wondered, am I seeing the full picture? What happens when we focus not on the collective society but at one face, one story at a time? I’m not asking for a bow to minimize the suffering – a pretty flourish to put on top and make the whole thing “worth it.” Yuck. That’s not what we need. But I wondered about deep, quiet growth. The kind we feel in our bodies, relationships, homes, places of work, neighborhoods.

Like a walkie-talkie message sent to my allies on the ground, I posted a call on my Instagram. What do you see? What do you hear? What feels possible? Is there life out here? Sprouting up among the rubble? I heard human voices calling back – reports of life, personal and specific. I heard one story at a time – stories of grief and distrust, fury and disappointment. Also gratitude. Discovery. Determination.

Among the most prevalent were the stories of self-revelation. Almost as if machines were given the chance to live as humans, people described blossoming into fuller selves. They listened to their bodies’ cues, recognized their desires and comforts, tuned into their gut instincts, and honored the intuition they hadn’t realized belonged to them. Alex, a writer and fellow disabled parent, found the freedom to explore a fuller version of herself in the privacy the pandemic provided. “The way I dress, the way I love, and the way I carry myself have both shrunk and expanded,” she shared. “I don’t love myself very well with an audience.” Without the daily ritual of trying to pass as “normal” in public, Tamar, a queer mom in the Netherlands, realized she’s autistic. “I think the pandemic helped me to recognize the mask,” she wrote. “Not that unmasking is easy now. But at least I know it’s there.” In a time of widespread suffering that none of us could solve on our own, many tended to our internal wounds and misalignments, large and small, and found clarity.

Read More: A Tool for Staying Grounded in This Era of Constant Uncertainty

I wonder if this flourishing of self-awareness is at least partially responsible for the life alterations people pursued. The pandemic broke open our personal notions of work and pushed us to reevaluate things like time and money. Lucy, a disabled writer in the U.K., made the hard decision to leave her job as a journalist covering Westminster to write freelance about her beloved disability community. “This work feels important in a way nothing else has ever felt,” she wrote. “I don’t think I’d have realized this was what I should be doing without the pandemic.” And she wasn’t alone – many people changed jobs , moved, learned new skills and hobbies, became politically engaged.

Perhaps more than any other shifts, people described a significant reassessment of their relationships. They set boundaries, said no, had challenging conversations. They also reconnected, fell in love, and learned to trust. Jeanne, a quilter in Indiana, got to know relatives she wouldn’t have connected with if lockdowns hadn’t prompted weekly family Zooms. “We are all over the map as regards to our belief systems,” she emphasized, “but it is possible to love people you don’t see eye to eye with on every issue.” Anna, an anti-violence advocate in Maine, learned she could trust her new marriage: “Life was not a honeymoon. But we still chose to turn to each other with kindness and curiosity.” So many bonds forged and broken, strengthened and strained.

Instead of relying on default relationships or institutional structures, widespread recalibrations allowed for going off script and fortifying smaller communities. Mara from Idyllwild, Calif., described the tangible plan for care enacted in her town. “We started a mutual-aid group at the beginning of the pandemic,” she wrote, “and it grew so quickly before we knew it we were feeding 400 of the 4000 residents.” She didn’t pretend the conditions were ideal. In fact, she expressed immense frustration with our collective response to the pandemic. Even so, the local group rallied and continues to offer assistance to their community with help from donations and volunteers (many of whom were originally on the receiving end of support). “I’ve learned that people thrive when they feel their connection to others,” she wrote. Clare, a teacher from the U.K., voiced similar conviction as she described a giant scarf she’s woven out of ribbons, each representing a single person. The scarf is “a collection of stories, moments and wisdom we are sharing with each other,” she wrote. It now stretches well over 1,000 feet.

A few hours into reading the comments, I lay back on my bed, phone held against my chest. The room was quiet, but my internal world was lighting up with firefly flickers. What felt different? Surely part of it was receiving personal accounts of deep-rooted growth. And also, there was something to the mere act of asking and listening. Maybe it connected me to humans before battle cries. Maybe it was the chance to be in conversation with others who were also trying to understand – what is happening to us? Underneath it all, an undeniable thread remained; I saw people peering into the mess and narrating their findings onto the shared frequency. Every comment was like a flare into the sky. I’m here! And if the sky is full of flares, we aren’t alone.

I recognized my own pandemic discoveries – some minor, others massive. Like washing off thick eyeliner and mascara every night is more effort than it’s worth; I can transform the mundane into the magical with a bedsheet, a movie projector, and twinkle lights; my paralyzed body can mother an infant in ways I’d never seen modeled for me. I remembered disappointing, bewildering conversations within my own family of origin and our imperfect attempts to remain close while also seeing things so differently. I realized that every time I get the weekly invite to my virtual “Find the Mumsies” call, with a tiny group of moms living hundreds of miles apart, I’m being welcomed into a pocket of unexpected community. Even though we’ve never been in one room all together, I’ve felt an uncommon kind of solace in their now-familiar faces.

Hope is a slippery thing. I desperately want to hold onto it, but everywhere I look there are real, weighty reasons to despair. The pandemic marks a stretch on the timeline that tangles with a teetering democracy, a deteriorating planet , the loss of human rights that once felt unshakable . When the world is falling apart Land Before Time style, it can feel trite, sniffing out the beauty – useless, firing off flares to anyone looking for signs of life. But, while I’m under no delusions that if we just keep trudging forward we’ll find our own oasis of waterfalls and grassy meadows glistening in the sunshine beneath a heavenly chorus, I wonder if trivializing small acts of beauty, connection, and hope actually cuts us off from resources essential to our survival. The group of abandoned dinosaurs were keeping each other alive and making each other laugh well before they made it to their fantasy ending.

Read More: How Ice Cream Became My Own Personal Act of Resistance

After the monarch butterfly went on the endangered-species list, my friend and fellow writer Hannah Soyer sent me wildflower seeds to plant in my yard. A simple act of big hope – that I will actually plant them, that they will grow, that a monarch butterfly will receive nourishment from whatever blossoms are able to push their way through the dirt. There are so many ways that could fail. But maybe the outcome wasn’t exactly the point. Maybe hope is the dogged insistence – the stubborn defiance – to continue cultivating moments of beauty regardless. There is value in the planting apart from the harvest.

I can’t point out a single collective lesson from the pandemic. It’s hard to see any great “we.” Still, I see the faces in my moms’ group, making pancakes for their kids and popping on between strings of meetings while we try to figure out how to raise these small people in this chaotic world. I think of my friends on Instagram tending to the selves they discovered when no one was watching and the scarf of ribbons stretching the length of more than three football fields. I remember my family of three, holding hands on the way up the ramp to the library. These bits of growth and rings of support might not be loud or right on the surface, but that’s not the same thing as nothing. If we only cared about the bottom-line defeats or sweeping successes of the big picture, we’d never plant flowers at all.

More Must-Reads from TIME

Welcome to the Golden Age of Scams
Introducing TIME's 2024 Latino Leaders
How to Make an Argument That’s Actually Persuasive
Did the Pandemic Break Our Brains?
33 True Crime Documentaries That Shaped the Genre
The Ordained Rabbi Who Bought a Porn Company
Why Gut Health Issues Are More Common in Women
The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2024

Quarantine Diaries: One Word

Quarantine Diaries One Word

If you had to pick one word to describe your coronavirus pandemic experience, what word would you choose these are ours., explore related topics:.

Coronavirus
Share this story
15 Comments Add

Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 15 comments on Quarantine Diaries: One Word

This is one of the best, inspiring and insightful pieces. I loved the creativity in how each piece was featured. Everyone’s story was well presented and the content exemplified the word it represented. I especially loved the colorful way the word title s were displayed. Thank you.

CHILDREN. Spending an enormous amount of time in the house with my school-aged children, balancing home-schooling, discipline, play, healthy meals, bedtime routines, while also still trying to do my own work.

Every one of these is beautiful. Thank you!

ROLLERCOASTER

Also, love this piece…well done.

This was a very “healthy” piece of work. Mindful. I can relate to each of you. Beautifully done. Thank you.

Wow. These are so thoughtful and creative.

This collection of stories made me a little less sad, so I’d say they’ve done their job. Also- definite future historical artifacts.

Opportunity

Really beautiful! I love this.

Interstitial: When the pandemic was still new and Shelter at Home orders were not yet given, I told my Manager at work that the world was shifting on it’s axis. It needed a correction in how the poles lined up. I don’t know why I was thinking that way. I am generally not a scientific person.

Now that we are into the seventh week of sheltering at home, I realize that we can never “go back” to our lives before the pandemic. Too much has changed. The old habits and routines are gone and won’t ever return. We have wiped the slate clean and are adjusting our worldview to begin again in a Brave, New World. Every action, emotion and habit will need to be examined. How does it fit with the new way of thinking? Is it something important or frivolous? Only then can we go boldly into the new day.

I loved reading all the word essays – so raw and heartfelt – beautiful.

With thanks to the last post from Carol – love that word ‘interstitial’! The between ‘then’ and ‘now’ times. I will start reflecting on which of my ‘old’ habits I will take forward….thanks for that prompt.

It has been a “Nightmarish” year, full of doubt, anxiety,and too damn many people just plain ignoring it.

As the coronavirus continues to spread and confine people largely to their homes, many are filling pages with their experiences of living through a pandemic. Their diaries are told in words and pictures : pantry inventories, window views, questions about the future, concerns about the present.

I definitely can relate to this I also couldn’t keep my eyes off of social media. This was very interesting and detailed.

Latest from BU Today

Novelist jayne anne phillips delivers ha jin lecture tuesday, bu celebrates melissa l. gilliam’s inauguration as president, bu student performers are thrilled to be part of historic inauguration week, larry summers, former u.s. treasury secretary, helps launch questrom school institute at bu, bu will provide covid boosters, flu shots to students, faculty, and staff, bu field hockey launches patriot league play friday, it’s lobster night—grab your butter and prepare to get (very) messy, the weekender: september 19 to 22, university, ra union agree to 3-year contract, with vote pending, black student film festival heads to the big screen, bu sustainability festival at gsu plaza, yue-sai kan—dubbed the “chinese oprah”—speaks at bu, bu president emphasizes open, respectful dialogue, praises community for “preserving a civil and intellectually rich environment”, advice to first-year students from seniors at boston university, bu to host first-ever safety fest in observance of national preparedness month, introducing bu’s newest terriers: aditi singh (eng’28), fall’s 14 biggest bu construction projects: women’s hockey locker room, sao moves into the gsu, the new lavender house, and more, men’s, women’s soccer in search of first wins ahead of conference play, bu says it’s working hard to fix student information system woes, what’s hot in music september: new albums, local concerts.

8 Lessons We Can Learn From the COVID-19 Pandemic

BY KATHY KATELLA May 14, 2021

Rear view of a family standing on a hill in autumn day, symbolizing hope for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic

Note: Information in this article was accurate at the time of original publication. Because information about COVID-19 changes rapidly, we encourage you to visit the websites of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), and your state and local government for the latest information.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed life as we know it—and it may have changed us individually as well, from our morning routines to our life goals and priorities. Many say the world has changed forever. But this coming year, if the vaccines drive down infections and variants are kept at bay, life could return to some form of normal. At that point, what will we glean from the past year? Are there silver linings or lessons learned?

“Humanity's memory is short, and what is not ever-present fades quickly,” says Manisha Juthani, MD , a Yale Medicine infectious diseases specialist. The bubonic plague, for example, ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages—resurfacing again and again—but once it was under control, people started to forget about it, she says. “So, I would say one major lesson from a public health or infectious disease perspective is that it’s important to remember and recognize our history. This is a period we must remember.”

We asked our Yale Medicine experts to weigh in on what they think are lessons worth remembering, including those that might help us survive a future virus or nurture a resilience that could help with life in general.

Lesson 1: Masks are useful tools

What happened: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) relaxed its masking guidance for those who have been fully vaccinated. But when the pandemic began, it necessitated a global effort to ensure that everyone practiced behaviors to keep themselves healthy and safe—and keep others healthy as well. This included the widespread wearing of masks indoors and outside.

What we’ve learned: Not everyone practiced preventive measures such as mask wearing, maintaining a 6-foot distance, and washing hands frequently. But, Dr. Juthani says, “I do think many people have learned a whole lot about respiratory pathogens and viruses, and how they spread from one person to another, and that sort of old-school common sense—you know, if you don’t feel well—whether it’s COVID-19 or not—you don’t go to the party. You stay home.”

Masks are a case in point. They are a key COVID-19 prevention strategy because they provide a barrier that can keep respiratory droplets from spreading. Mask-wearing became more common across East Asia after the 2003 SARS outbreak in that part of the world. “There are many East Asian cultures where the practice is still that if you have a cold or a runny nose, you put on a mask,” Dr. Juthani says.

She hopes attitudes in the U.S. will shift in that direction after COVID-19. “I have heard from a number of people who are amazed that we've had no flu this year—and they know masks are one of the reasons,” she says. “They’ve told me, ‘When the winter comes around, if I'm going out to the grocery store, I may just put on a mask.’”

Lesson 2: Telehealth might become the new normal

What happened: Doctors and patients who have used telehealth (technology that allows them to conduct medical care remotely), found it can work well for certain appointments, ranging from cardiology check-ups to therapy for a mental health condition. Many patients who needed a medical test have also discovered it may be possible to substitute a home version.

What we’ve learned: While there are still problems for which you need to see a doctor in person, the pandemic introduced a new urgency to what had been a gradual switchover to platforms like Zoom for remote patient visits.

More doctors also encouraged patients to track their blood pressure at home , and to use at-home equipment for such purposes as diagnosing sleep apnea and even testing for colon cancer . Doctors also can fine-tune cochlear implants remotely .

“It happened very quickly,” says Sharon Stoll, DO, a neurologist. One group that has benefitted is patients who live far away, sometimes in other parts of the country—or even the world, she says. “I always like to see my patients at least twice a year. Now, we can see each other in person once a year, and if issues come up, we can schedule a telehealth visit in-between,” Dr. Stoll says. “This way I may hear about an issue before it becomes a problem, because my patients have easier access to me, and I have easier access to them.”

Meanwhile, insurers are becoming more likely to cover telehealth, Dr. Stoll adds. “That is a silver lining that will hopefully continue.”

Lesson 3: Vaccines are powerful tools

What happened: Given the recent positive results from vaccine trials, once again vaccines are proving to be powerful for preventing disease.

What we’ve learned: Vaccines really are worth getting, says Dr. Stoll, who had COVID-19 and experienced lingering symptoms, including chronic headaches . “I have lots of conversations—and sometimes arguments—with people about vaccines,” she says. Some don’t like the idea of side effects. “I had vaccine side effects and I’ve had COVID-19 side effects, and I say nothing compares to the actual illness. Unfortunately, I speak from experience.”

Dr. Juthani hopes the COVID-19 vaccine spotlight will motivate people to keep up with all of their vaccines, including childhood and adult vaccines for such diseases as measles , chicken pox, shingles , and other viruses. She says people have told her they got the flu vaccine this year after skipping it in previous years. (The CDC has reported distributing an exceptionally high number of doses this past season.)

But, she cautions that a vaccine is not a magic bullet—and points out that scientists can’t always produce one that works. “As advanced as science is, there have been multiple failed efforts to develop a vaccine against the HIV virus,” she says. “This time, we were lucky that we were able build on the strengths that we've learned from many other vaccine development strategies to develop multiple vaccines for COVID-19 .”

Lesson 4: Everyone is not treated equally, especially in a pandemic

What happened: COVID-19 magnified disparities that have long been an issue for a variety of people.

What we’ve learned: Racial and ethnic minority groups especially have had disproportionately higher rates of hospitalization for COVID-19 than non-Hispanic white people in every age group, and many other groups faced higher levels of risk or stress. These groups ranged from working mothers who also have primary responsibility for children, to people who have essential jobs, to those who live in rural areas where there is less access to health care.

“One thing that has been recognized is that when people were told to work from home, you needed to have a job that you could do in your house on a computer,” says Dr. Juthani. “Many people who were well off were able do that, but they still needed to have food, which requires grocery store workers and truck drivers. Nursing home residents still needed certified nursing assistants coming to work every day to care for them and to bathe them.”

As far as racial inequities, Dr. Juthani cites President Biden’s appointment of Yale Medicine’s Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, MHS , as inaugural chair of a federal COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force. “Hopefully the new focus is a first step,” Dr. Juthani says.

Lesson 5: We need to take mental health seriously

What happened: There was a rise in reported mental health problems that have been described as “a second pandemic,” highlighting mental health as an issue that needs to be addressed.

What we’ve learned: Arman Fesharaki-Zadeh, MD, PhD , a behavioral neurologist and neuropsychiatrist, believes the number of mental health disorders that were on the rise before the pandemic is surging as people grapple with such matters as juggling work and childcare, job loss, isolation, and losing a loved one to COVID-19.

The CDC reports that the percentage of adults who reported symptoms of anxiety of depression in the past 7 days increased from 36.4 to 41.5 % from August 2020 to February 2021. Other reports show that having COVID-19 may contribute, too, with its lingering or long COVID symptoms, which can include “foggy mind,” anxiety , depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder .

“We’re seeing these problems in our clinical setting very, very often,” Dr. Fesharaki-Zadeh says. “By virtue of necessity, we can no longer ignore this. We're seeing these folks, and we have to take them seriously.”

Lesson 6: We have the capacity for resilience

What happened: While everyone’s situation is different (and some people have experienced tremendous difficulties), many have seen that it’s possible to be resilient in a crisis.

What we’ve learned: People have practiced self-care in a multitude of ways during the pandemic as they were forced to adjust to new work schedules, change their gym routines, and cut back on socializing. Many started seeking out new strategies to counter the stress.

“I absolutely believe in the concept of resilience, because we have this effective reservoir inherent in all of us—be it the product of evolution, or our ancestors going through catastrophes, including wars, famines, and plagues,” Dr. Fesharaki-Zadeh says. “I think inherently, we have the means to deal with crisis. The fact that you and I are speaking right now is the result of our ancestors surviving hardship. I think resilience is part of our psyche. It's part of our DNA, essentially.”

Dr. Fesharaki-Zadeh believes that even small changes are highly effective tools for creating resilience. The changes he suggests may sound like the same old advice: exercise more, eat healthy food, cut back on alcohol, start a meditation practice, keep up with friends and family. “But this is evidence-based advice—there has been research behind every one of these measures,” he says.

But we have to also be practical, he notes. “If you feel overwhelmed by doing too many things, you can set a modest goal with one new habit—it could be getting organized around your sleep. Once you’ve succeeded, move on to another one. Then you’re building momentum.”

Lesson 7: Community is essential—and technology is too

What happened: People who were part of a community during the pandemic realized the importance of human connection, and those who didn’t have that kind of support realized they need it.

What we’ve learned: Many of us have become aware of how much we need other people—many have managed to maintain their social connections, even if they had to use technology to keep in touch, Dr. Juthani says. “There's no doubt that it's not enough, but even that type of community has helped people.”

Even people who aren’t necessarily friends or family are important. Dr. Juthani recalled how she encouraged her mail carrier to sign up for the vaccine, soon learning that the woman’s mother and husband hadn’t gotten it either. “They are all vaccinated now,” Dr. Juthani says. “So, even by word of mouth, community is a way to make things happen.”

It’s important to note that some people are naturally introverted and may have enjoyed having more solitude when they were forced to stay at home—and they should feel comfortable with that, Dr. Fesharaki-Zadeh says. “I think one has to keep temperamental tendencies like this in mind.”

But loneliness has been found to suppress the immune system and be a precursor to some diseases, he adds. “Even for introverted folks, the smallest circle is preferable to no circle at all,” he says.

Lesson 8: Sometimes you need a dose of humility

What happened: Scientists and nonscientists alike learned that a virus can be more powerful than they are. This was evident in the way knowledge about the virus changed over time in the past year as scientific investigation of it evolved.

What we’ve learned: “As infectious disease doctors, we were resident experts at the beginning of the pandemic because we understand pathogens in general, and based on what we’ve seen in the past, we might say there are certain things that are likely to be true,” Dr. Juthani says. “But we’ve seen that we have to take these pathogens seriously. We know that COVID-19 is not the flu. All these strokes and clots, and the loss of smell and taste that have gone on for months are things that we could have never known or predicted. So, you have to have respect for the unknown and respect science, but also try to give scientists the benefit of the doubt,” she says.

“We have been doing the best we can with the knowledge we have, in the time that we have it,” Dr. Juthani says. “I think most of us have had to have the humility to sometimes say, ‘I don't know. We're learning as we go.’"

Information provided in Yale Medicine articles is for general informational purposes only. No content in the articles should ever be used as a substitute for medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician. Always seek the individual advice of your health care provider with any questions you have regarding a medical condition.

More news from Yale Medicine

Woman with face protective mask standing on the street, possibly with post-COVID-19 symptoms

Writing about COVID-19 in a college admission essay

by: Venkates Swaminathan | Updated: September 14, 2020

Print article

Writing about COVID-19 in your college admission essay

For students applying to college using the CommonApp, there are several different places where students and counselors can address the pandemic’s impact. The different sections have differing goals. You must understand how to use each section for its appropriate use.

The CommonApp COVID-19 question

First, the CommonApp this year has an additional question specifically about COVID-19 :

Community disruptions such as COVID-19 and natural disasters can have deep and long-lasting impacts. If you need it, this space is yours to describe those impacts. Colleges care about the effects on your health and well-being, safety, family circumstances, future plans, and education, including access to reliable technology and quiet study spaces. Please use this space to describe how these events have impacted you.

This question seeks to understand the adversity that students may have had to face due to the pandemic, the move to online education, or the shelter-in-place rules. You don’t have to answer this question if the impact on you wasn’t particularly severe. Some examples of things students should discuss include:

The student or a family member had COVID-19 or suffered other illnesses due to confinement during the pandemic.
The candidate had to deal with personal or family issues, such as abusive living situations or other safety concerns
The student suffered from a lack of internet access and other online learning challenges.
Students who dealt with problems registering for or taking standardized tests and AP exams.

Jeff Schiffman of the Tulane University admissions office has a blog about this section. He recommends students ask themselves several questions as they go about answering this section:

Are my experiences different from others’?
Are there noticeable changes on my transcript?
Am I aware of my privilege?
Am I specific? Am I explaining rather than complaining?
Is this information being included elsewhere on my application?

If you do answer this section, be brief and to-the-point.

Counselor recommendations and school profiles

Second, counselors will, in their counselor forms and school profiles on the CommonApp, address how the school handled the pandemic and how it might have affected students, specifically as it relates to:

Grading scales and policies
Graduation requirements
Instructional methods
Schedules and course offerings
Testing requirements
Your academic calendar
Other extenuating circumstances

Students don’t have to mention these matters in their application unless something unusual happened.

Writing about COVID-19 in your main essay

Write about your experiences during the pandemic in your main college essay if your experience is personal, relevant, and the most important thing to discuss in your college admission essay. That you had to stay home and study online isn’t sufficient, as millions of other students faced the same situation. But sometimes, it can be appropriate and helpful to write about something related to the pandemic in your essay. For example:

One student developed a website for a local comic book store. The store might not have survived without the ability for people to order comic books online. The student had a long-standing relationship with the store, and it was an institution that created a community for students who otherwise felt left out.
One student started a YouTube channel to help other students with academic subjects he was very familiar with and began tutoring others.
Some students used their extra time that was the result of the stay-at-home orders to take online courses pursuing topics they are genuinely interested in or developing new interests, like a foreign language or music.

Experiences like this can be good topics for the CommonApp essay as long as they reflect something genuinely important about the student. For many students whose lives have been shaped by this pandemic, it can be a critical part of their college application.

Want more? Read 6 ways to improve a college essay , What the &%$! should I write about in my college essay , and Just how important is a college admissions essay? .

Homes Nearby

Homes for rent and sale near schools

Why the worry about Critical Race Theory in schools?

How our schools are (and aren't) addressing race

The truth about homework in America

What should I write my college essay about?

What the #%@!& should I write about in my college essay?

Yes! Sign me up for updates relevant to my child's grade.

Please enter a valid email address

Thank you for signing up!

Server Issue: Please try again later. Sorry for the inconvenience

With 50 days left, we need your help

The US presidential campaign is in its final weeks and we’re dedicated to helping you understand the stakes. In this election cycle, it’s more important than ever to provide context beyond the headlines, but in-depth reporting is costly. To continue this vital work, we have an ambitious goal to add 5,000 new members .

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Read these 12 moving essays about life during coronavirus

Artists, novelists, critics, and essayists are writing the first draft of history.

by Alissa Wilkinson

The world is grappling with an invisible, deadly enemy, trying to understand how to live with the threat posed by a virus . For some writers, the only way forward is to put pen to paper, trying to conceptualize and document what it feels like to continue living as countries are under lockdown and regular life seems to have ground to a halt.

So as the coronavirus pandemic has stretched around the world, it’s sparked a crop of diary entries and essays that describe how life has changed. Novelists, critics, artists, and journalists have put words to the feelings many are experiencing. The result is a first draft of how we’ll someday remember this time, filled with uncertainty and pain and fear as well as small moments of hope and humanity.

The Vox guide to navigating the coronavirus crisis

At the New York Review of Books, Ali Bhutto writes that in Karachi, Pakistan, the government-imposed curfew due to the virus is “eerily reminiscent of past military clampdowns”:

Beneath the quiet calm lies a sense that society has been unhinged and that the usual rules no longer apply. Small groups of pedestrians look on from the shadows, like an audience watching a spectacle slowly unfolding. People pause on street corners and in the shade of trees, under the watchful gaze of the paramilitary forces and the police.

His essay concludes with the sobering note that “in the minds of many, Covid-19 is just another life-threatening hazard in a city that stumbles from one crisis to another.”

Writing from Chattanooga, novelist Jamie Quatro documents the mixed ways her neighbors have been responding to the threat, and the frustration of conflicting direction, or no direction at all, from local, state, and federal leaders:

Whiplash, trying to keep up with who’s ordering what. We’re already experiencing enough chaos without this back-and-forth. Why didn’t the federal government issue a nationwide shelter-in-place at the get-go, the way other countries did? What happens when one state’s shelter-in-place ends, while others continue? Do states still under quarantine close their borders? We are still one nation, not fifty individual countries. Right?

A syllabus for the end of the world

Award-winning photojournalist Alessio Mamo, quarantined with his partner Marta in Sicily after she tested positive for the virus, accompanies his photographs in the Guardian of their confinement with a reflection on being confined :

The doctors asked me to take a second test, but again I tested negative. Perhaps I’m immune? The days dragged on in my apartment, in black and white, like my photos. Sometimes we tried to smile, imagining that I was asymptomatic, because I was the virus. Our smiles seemed to bring good news. My mother left hospital, but I won’t be able to see her for weeks. Marta started breathing well again, and so did I. I would have liked to photograph my country in the midst of this emergency, the battles that the doctors wage on the frontline, the hospitals pushed to their limits, Italy on its knees fighting an invisible enemy. That enemy, a day in March, knocked on my door instead.

In the New York Times Magazine, deputy editor Jessica Lustig writes with devastating clarity about her family’s life in Brooklyn while her husband battled the virus, weeks before most people began taking the threat seriously:

At the door of the clinic, we stand looking out at two older women chatting outside the doorway, oblivious. Do I wave them away? Call out that they should get far away, go home, wash their hands, stay inside? Instead we just stand there, awkwardly, until they move on. Only then do we step outside to begin the long three-block walk home. I point out the early magnolia, the forsythia. T says he is cold. The untrimmed hairs on his neck, under his beard, are white. The few people walking past us on the sidewalk don’t know that we are visitors from the future. A vision, a premonition, a walking visitation. This will be them: Either T, in the mask, or — if they’re lucky — me, tending to him.

Essayist Leslie Jamison writes in the New York Review of Books about being shut away alone in her New York City apartment with her 2-year-old daughter since she became sick:

The virus. Its sinewy, intimate name. What does it feel like in my body today? Shivering under blankets. A hot itch behind the eyes. Three sweatshirts in the middle of the day. My daughter trying to pull another blanket over my body with her tiny arms. An ache in the muscles that somehow makes it hard to lie still. This loss of taste has become a kind of sensory quarantine. It’s as if the quarantine keeps inching closer and closer to my insides. First I lost the touch of other bodies; then I lost the air; now I’ve lost the taste of bananas. Nothing about any of these losses is particularly unique. I’ve made a schedule so I won’t go insane with the toddler. Five days ago, I wrote Walk/Adventure! on it, next to a cut-out illustration of a tiger—as if we’d see tigers on our walks. It was good to keep possibility alive.

At Literary Hub, novelist Heidi Pitlor writes about the elastic nature of time during her family’s quarantine in Massachusetts:

During a shutdown, the things that mark our days—commuting to work, sending our kids to school, having a drink with friends—vanish and time takes on a flat, seamless quality. Without some self-imposed structure, it’s easy to feel a little untethered. A friend recently posted on Facebook: “For those who have lost track, today is Blursday the fortyteenth of Maprilay.” ... Giving shape to time is especially important now, when the future is so shapeless. We do not know whether the virus will continue to rage for weeks or months or, lord help us, on and off for years. We do not know when we will feel safe again. And so many of us, minus those who are gifted at compartmentalization or denial, remain largely captive to fear. We may stay this way if we do not create at least the illusion of movement in our lives, our long days spent with ourselves or partners or families.

What day is it today?

Novelist Lauren Groff writes at the New York Review of Books about trying to escape the prison of her fears while sequestered at home in Gainesville, Florida:

Some people have imaginations sparked only by what they can see; I blame this blinkered empiricism for the parks overwhelmed with people, the bars, until a few nights ago, thickly thronged. My imagination is the opposite. I fear everything invisible to me. From the enclosure of my house, I am afraid of the suffering that isn’t present before me, the people running out of money and food or drowning in the fluid in their lungs, the deaths of health-care workers now growing ill while performing their duties. I fear the federal government, which the right wing has so—intentionally—weakened that not only is it insufficient to help its people, it is actively standing in help’s way. I fear we won’t sufficiently punish the right. I fear leaving the house and spreading the disease. I fear what this time of fear is doing to my children, their imaginations, and their souls.

At ArtForum , Berlin-based critic and writer Kristian Vistrup Madsen reflects on martinis, melancholia, and Finnish artist Jaakko Pallasvuo’s 2018 graphic novel Retreat , in which three young people exile themselves in the woods:

In melancholia, the shape of what is ending, and its temporality, is sprawling and incomprehensible. The ambivalence makes it hard to bear. The world of Retreat is rendered in lush pink and purple watercolors, which dissolve into wild and messy abstractions. In apocalypse, the divisions established in genesis bleed back out. My own Corona-retreat is similarly soft, color-field like, each day a blurred succession of quarantinis, YouTube–yoga, and televized press conferences. As restrictions mount, so does abstraction. For now, I’m still rooting for love to save the world.

At the Paris Review , Matt Levin writes about reading Virginia Woolf’s novel The Waves during quarantine:

A retreat, a quarantine, a sickness—they simultaneously distort and clarify, curtail and expand. It is an ideal state in which to read literature with a reputation for difficulty and inaccessibility, those hermetic books shorn of the handholds of conventional plot or characterization or description. A novel like Virginia Woolf’s The Waves is perfect for the state of interiority induced by quarantine—a story of three men and three women, meeting after the death of a mutual friend, told entirely in the overlapping internal monologues of the six, interspersed only with sections of pure, achingly beautiful descriptions of the natural world, a day’s procession and recession of light and waves. The novel is, in my mind’s eye, a perfectly spherical object. It is translucent and shimmering and infinitely fragile, prone to shatter at the slightest disturbance. It is not a book that can be read in snatches on the subway—it demands total absorption. Though it revels in a stark emotional nakedness, the book remains aloof, remote in its own deep self-absorption.

Vox is starting a book club. Come read with us!

In an essay for the Financial Times, novelist Arundhati Roy writes with anger about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anemic response to the threat, but also offers a glimmer of hope for the future:

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.

From Boston, Nora Caplan-Bricker writes in The Point about the strange contraction of space under quarantine, in which a friend in Beirut is as close as the one around the corner in the same city:

It’s a nice illusion—nice to feel like we’re in it together, even if my real world has shrunk to one person, my husband, who sits with his laptop in the other room. It’s nice in the same way as reading those essays that reframe social distancing as solidarity. “We must begin to see the negative space as clearly as the positive, to know what we don’t do is also brilliant and full of love,” the poet Anne Boyer wrote on March 10th, the day that Massachusetts declared a state of emergency. If you squint, you could almost make sense of this quarantine as an effort to flatten, along with the curve, the distinctions we make between our bonds with others. Right now, I care for my neighbor in the same way I demonstrate love for my mother: in all instances, I stay away. And in moments this month, I have loved strangers with an intensity that is new to me. On March 14th, the Saturday night after the end of life as we knew it, I went out with my dog and found the street silent: no lines for restaurants, no children on bicycles, no couples strolling with little cups of ice cream. It had taken the combined will of thousands of people to deliver such a sudden and complete emptiness. I felt so grateful, and so bereft.

And on his own website, musician and artist David Byrne writes about rediscovering the value of working for collective good , saying that “what is happening now is an opportunity to learn how to change our behavior”:

In emergencies, citizens can suddenly cooperate and collaborate. Change can happen. We’re going to need to work together as the effects of climate change ramp up. In order for capitalism to survive in any form, we will have to be a little more socialist. Here is an opportunity for us to see things differently — to see that we really are all connected — and adjust our behavior accordingly. Are we willing to do this? Is this moment an opportunity to see how truly interdependent we all are? To live in a world that is different and better than the one we live in now? We might be too far down the road to test every asymptomatic person, but a change in our mindsets, in how we view our neighbors, could lay the groundwork for the collective action we’ll need to deal with other global crises. The time to see how connected we all are is now.

The portrait these writers paint of a world under quarantine is multifaceted. Our worlds have contracted to the confines of our homes, and yet in some ways we’re more connected than ever to one another. We feel fear and boredom, anger and gratitude, frustration and strange peace. Uncertainty drives us to find metaphors and images that will let us wrap our minds around what is happening.

Yet there’s no single “what” that is happening. Everyone is contending with the pandemic and its effects from different places and in different ways. Reading others’ experiences — even the most frightening ones — can help alleviate the loneliness and dread, a little, and remind us that what we’re going through is both unique and shared by all.

Recommendations

Today, Explained

Understand the world with a daily explainer plus the most compelling stories of the day.

This is the title for the native ad

“What Has Your Pandemic Experience Been Like?”

Fourteen alumni tell us how COVID-19 has shaped their lives.

I n March, when we were considering CCT’s Summer 2020 issue, we knew that we wanted to address the shockwave that had upended and overtaken all of our lives. The COVID-19 pandemic was — is — that rare event that affects everyone with ties to the College. Even as this introduction is written, its vast, global story continues to evolve, expanding and deepening in ways that resist easy comprehension.

Against this backdrop, we knew we could tell a more personal story, create a record of how the coronavirus and its many ripple effects had been experienced by our community. And so, in April and early May, we asked 14 alumni to offer a keyhole into their daily lives: What did their new routines look like? How had work changed? What had been challenging, and where were they finding their joys?

The responses were varied, shaped by age, profession, location and all the personal variables that distinguish one life from the next. And what began as a kind of time capsule became, slowly, so much more. The reflections enlarged our view beyond the walls that had all too literally been hemming us in. They invited us to exercise our empathies, take comfort in shared experiences and — with so many of us social-distanced into solitude or small groups — feel the warmth of connection.

It will be a long time before we can fully reckon with all that’s happened and is happening during this pandemic. But we are going through it together, and we hope that our contribution can help.

— The Editors

Editor-at-large, iHeartMEDIA; chief content officer at Nineteen Twenty Media

“T hough I was an English lit major at Columbia, these days I find myself immersed in the sciences, living out Einstein’s definition of insanity on the regular: watching the news, then instantly regretting it; begging/bribing/browbeating my kids to sit for home-schooling, only to surrender an hour later; channeling Alice Waters for breakfast, Chester Cheetah by lunch. Our days here at Casa Goldman (me, two grade-schoolers, one eye- rolling husband) are — wait, what day is it, again? We ditched the skim for half-and-half. We subscribed to Hulu. We pray to the broadband gods to keep our signal strong. We are, as the kids say, hashtag blessed.

“As a writer, I wrestle with a strange new tension: I have never felt more creative and yet so hard-pressed to eke out the time and focus to write. But I’ve still managed to bank a win or two. I launched a podcast called Hazmat Hotel , in which I interview interesting people about how coronavirus has upended their professions. (Hit me up if you’d like to be a guest.) I finished my one-woman show about Jim Comey. I am knee-deep in a new screenplay. In the past eight weeks, one of my boys has discovered Seinfeld, the other ‘Shark Week,’ so that Hulu subscription is basically paying for itself now. The news from Casa G is that we are all OK, hanging in and enormously grateful, thank you for asking.”

Policy analyst, NYC Mayor’s Office of Policy and Planning; volunteer coordinator, Bowman for Congress

“I work for the Office of the Mayor in New York City full-time and coordinate volunteers on Jamaal Bowman’s congressional campaign in NY-16 part-time. With local government on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis and, as I write, the June 23 primary less than two months away, I am busier than I have ever been.

“I try my best to work out a few times a week and use Friday evenings to catch up on TV shows and work on crafts. I rediscovered my pottery tools when quarantine began and ordered polymer clay and embroidery floss to make earrings. A friend recommended that I order a weaving loom to make tapestries and rugs — it just arrived, so I am going to try that this week. My roommate’s mom might drop off an old sewing machine so I can try my hand at that, too.

“Work can be a bit overwhelming, so using my hands to make things for myself, family and friends is a welcome reprieve from corona madness.”

COURTESY AMARI HAMMONDS ‘09

Associate deputy solicitor general, Office of the Solicitor General in the California Department of Justice

“W hat if I had to go about my life not knowing the next time it’d be OK to touch another person? I’m single and I live alone, so this has become an abiding question in the weeks, now months, since March 16, when the Bay Area announced its first-in-the-nation shelter-in-place order.

“I’ve learned that isolation makes the memory of my last human contact more indelible — a Kid ’n Play-inspired kickstep as my friend Colin left what would be our last Sunday pancakes together. We now connect through FaceTime meals; from afar, he’s taught me how to make a poached egg. But I’ve also learned that regardless of health orders, video calls won’t cut it. I’m grateful to have cultivated relationships with a select few who, like me, crave connection in the absence of the pandemic-friendly community offered by roommates or romantic partners ‘adjacent’ to their households. A conversation while biking 6 ft. apart is critical nourishment. I once petted a gentle old dog named Loki after one such ride to the Sausalito waterfront, and it was like oxygen for me — though for her, probably more about the hot pastrami sandwich in my hand.

“Most importantly, I’ve learned to be gentle with myself for the swirl of feelings this all brings. It is possible to feel at once abandoned by friends who have hunkered down with the privilege of companionship, while also compassionate toward their choice — one I’d likely make, if given the option. It’s OK to spend one night crying myself to sleep, wishing I could join my mom across the country, then the next cutting up playing Codenames over Google Hangouts as if I’d lived my life this way all along.

“Until ‘normal’ returns at some indeterminate point, in some indeterminate form, I’m learning what that looks like for now and receiving sweetness in every form. My friend and her husband recently invited me for a socially distant picnic, and to meet their puppy. I’ll be there with a fashionably colorful mask and hand sanitizer at the ready.”

COURTESY BRENDON JOBS ‘05

Director of diversity and inclusion, The Haverford School; social studies methods instructor at the Penn Graduate School of Education

“S chool closed suddenly in March as the threat of pandemic became a real crisis. Like many, I’ve been going through a grieving process for the life, vigor and human connection that the schoolhouse offered me in all my years of teaching.

“At the start, I was overwhelmed with the multitude of tasks needed to make the transition [to remote learning] work for my students, faculty and other communities that I serve. Fear and duty defined my feelings in that moment. But it wasn’t long before anger and resentment grabbed hold of me. Hopeful proclamations that ‘we’re all in this together’ came from official channels; they offered encouragement that if we adhered to social distancing we could flatten the curve and ‘get back to normal.’ It wasn’t long afterward that nasty disparities in race and class, in keeping with pre-COVID-19 patterns, magnified. As an educator, I wondered: How can I explain this to kids? How does what they’re witnessing shape their understanding of how the world works?

“As a black queer man growing up in the 1990s, I remember living with the fear of the AIDS virus. Implicitly, I was fed the message that I lived with greater risk of contracting the disease in a way that stigmatized me. Those old feelings have reemerged as I have witnessed COVID-19 transform from a foreign threat into a health crisis disproportionately infecting and killing Black and Brown people; meanwhile, violent, armed calls to reopen businesses rage from white protestors in Michigan and Pennsylvania despite these deaths. My mother and sister still report to their jobs as ‘essential workers,’ and my father lost his job abruptly as an early casualty of the predicted economic crash. These disparities will only grow as long as we continue to allow politics and business interests to make us willfully ignorant to wild differences in the human experience of this moment. I often struggle to imagine a different, more hopeful outcome.

COURTESY DR. JOSH JOHNSON ‘13

Surgical resident, NewYork Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center

“R inging loudly in the background of my day is a cacophony of alarms and notifications that are meant to signify an imminent medical emergency — yet they have become so ubiquitous that I can no longer distinguish among them. The hours I spend on the wards have not changed much; I am here for anywhere between 12 and 24 hours a shift, depending on the day. However, the intricacies of my work have shifted dramatically. Willing or not, I am greeted each day by an endless list of patients with tarnished lungs who require the utmost interventions possible to keep oxygen flowing throughout their bodies. It has been truly taxing.

“The difficulty lies in having to carry on and continue my duties without the time to grieve our losses, to celebrate our wins and to reflect upon our struggles. Yet what has been remarkable is that my connection to my patients and their families has never been deeper. Though my patients cannot speak to me, I hear their pain. Though I cannot see their loved ones in person I have had immensely intimate conversations with them, and I have forged relationships based solely on trust and hope. During this pandemic I have healed others more through compassion and understanding than I have through modern science. That is the lesson I hope to never forget.”

COURTESY NYPD

Chief chaplain, NYPD; adjunct professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

“L ife in the Age of COVID-19 has not been simple or easy for any of us. I’ve had to respond to new challenges: teach classes remotely, conduct Zoom funeral services, attend virtual meetings and counsel the troubled by telephone. Perhaps the most awe- some responsibility of all was to fulfill a request to do a video with a message of ‘uplift’ and ‘encouragement’ for our police officers. Quite frankly, reading the newspaper reports every day about the ever-mounting casualty figures, and discovering that many of the victims are people I know and love, leaves me in need of uplift and encouragement. However, I felt this was really important because police officers are among the first responders to have suffered the heaviest casualties. After all, they are required to answer the call of duty regardless of the risks, including the coronavirus.

“Somehow, notwithstanding my own concerns and anxieties, I managed to put something together. It was based on Mark Twain’s observation that courage isn’t the ‘absence of fear but the mastery of it.’ There are two ways to transcend anxiety: faith in God and faith in each other. To believe in God is not simply to believe that there is a deity who will intervene and alter reality to accord with our wishes. Even more basically, it is the confidence that there is a Benevolent Intelligence undergirding the universe that fills us with the hope, optimism and trust that human beings possess the wisdom and skills required to solve the toughest problems.

“Then there is the most effective therapy of all — each other. Men and women, helping and supporting one another by doing things they don’t have to do, is the essence of love and closest we shall ever come to experiencing genuine spirituality. It is true that COVID-19 requires us to stay apart physically, but getting in touch with each other — as well as family, friends and neighbors assisting each other — can be so important and pivotal in transcending this crisis. I certainly cherish the calls and emails I have received as I cope with the physical distancing of this experience. What they proclaim in the most eloquent and dramatic way possible is that we don’t have to struggle with this alone.”

COURTESY IAN LENDLER ‘96

Children’s book author

“L ike so many others, the virus, alas, has afflicted me.

“For I, you see, am a writer, and I write things of terrible importance. I am a Creator of Truths, a conjuror of metaphors. Every morning I sit at my desk and I call to my Muse; she answers, and we begin a delicate dance of words and images and — oh yes! — similes as well! And just as my prose begins to touch the great mysteries of Life —

“‘DAD! DAD!’ My children burst into the room. ‘Can we have some Goldfish crackers?’

“‘Be still!’ I shriek. ‘What matters your aquatic-shaped snacks when I seek Beauty?’ “But it is too late. My Muse begins to back out of the room. She says, ‘You never told me you had kids.’

“‘You don’t understand,’ I splutter. ‘Normally they’re at school now.’ But she is already gone.

“Then, my wife shouts from a different room that she’s on a Zoom call and the kids need lunch.

“So I make my kids lunch.

“In the afternoon, once again, I tap at my keyboard, calling my Muse back, and with a curtsy and an impish wink, she and I begin to weave our —

‘Dad! DAD! We’re playing Fortnite with our cousins. We need your computer!’ and my kids snatch my laptop away.

“And so I wander the house, alone, bereft of my computer (and thus, all meaning), until my wife shouts from a different room that she’s on a Zoom call and can I get dinner started?

“And tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this sheltered-in-place ... until ... what’s this?!

“I have been asked to do an ‘Instagram live reading,’ whatever that is ... But I seize my chance to perform for my adoring audience. To conjure worlds for them; to shaman their imaginations to an ethereal realm.

“So for your undoubted delight (and the consideration of Nobel Prize committees), I give you what I believe to be my most harrowing and important work to date. ”

COURTESY STEVE MARTINEZ ‘11

Television producer, ESPN’s The Jump

“T he show must go on, but my daily routine has been altered significantly. The Jump is now entirely produced from home: on-air talent, producers, directors and so on; we’re doing our best to help deliver to folks a 30-minute slice of escapism every day. Most of our work in production is now done the night before a show (previously, most of the production occurred the morning of ). We complete our daily tapings by 11:30 a.m. PT, but by 1:00 p.m. PT, we are on a conference call discussing the plan for the next day’s show. The current production strategy involves a balance between staying ahead in terms of preparation and being ready for news to break at a moment’s notice.

“Communication has been a challenge at times. It might not look like it at home when you see three people on your screen, but it takes dozens of talented folks to put on a TV show. My previous routine heavily relied upon face-to-face communication for most of my catching up with staff members.

“I find joy in spending time with my wife, Stephanie, and my dog, Callie, here in my Los Angeles home. I also take great pride in the ability to get a show on the air with the entire staff working from home, something we never knew was possible until we were confronted with that problem. Mainly, I just want the NBA back.”

PHOTOS BY MIKE MELLIA ‘02

Director, photographer, creator of advertising for fashion and lifestyle brands

“M any of the world’s greatest successes took place in a garage — Apple, Google, Disney. By the same token, I always loved seeing pictures of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, two great abstract expressionist painters, painting in outdoor barns on Long Island during the 1950s and 1960s. They said they liked the light. What I really think they needed was the isolation and the silence.

BY MIKE MELLIA ‘02

“To me, painting is a performance with an audience of zero, and the record of that performance is the physical object created, a mysterious enigma. Over tens of thou- sands of hours of practice, you train yourself to not even be conscious of yourself; it feels like I’m watching someone else paint a picture. There is also some element to painting that feels like robbing a bank: the intensity, the speed and the risk that you can only experience after learning to transcend all your experience and training. These large oil paintings are inspired by the wild chaos, the light and the color of nature I’m experiencing with my wife and two babies at our home in Southampton, N.Y. I hope they will bring you some joy.”

P ASCAL PERICH

Geezer Fitness

I just did twenty-five push-ups, then vacuumed the floor and then dropped down and did twenty more, for what reason I cannot say or even want to think about, especially at this moment when I am still breathing hard.

I almost didn’t know what day it is and then I did, locked into time, suddenly more secure that it’s Thursday! Which means nothing or next to nothing. I am next to nothing— it’s in this room with me, an old pal.

Snow falling from gray sky, it’s time to bake, scones, I mean, and right out of the oven take one and butter it, with jam, teapot hot at hand, and exult in the fact of everything horrible.

COURTESY DAVID PENG ‘83

Head of Asia Pacific Ex Japan at Legal & General Investment Management; president, Columbia University Alumni Association Hong Kong

“T hough I am a New Yorker, I have spent my professional life in North Asia and this is my fourth posting in Hong Kong, with in-between postings in Taipei, Shanghai and Beijing. I was in Hong Kong during the SARS epidemic in 2003. Most people in Hong Kong remember that period well. When news broke in January about what was happening in Wuhan, people in Hong Kong quickly realized the potential of another epidemic.

“The Hong Kong government was quick to put in place restrictive measures. To date, Hong Kong has never had an official lockdown, but people take the lead from the government, which asked all civil servants to work from home under two orders. People in Hong Kong are very careful to protect themselves and others, and mask wearing is universally practiced. With one of the highest population densities in the world, Hong Kong has managed to ward off a high level of viral transmission and achieved minimal death.

“When I traveled to London for meetings at the end of January through the middle of February, friends and colleagues were not concerned.They also thought it was odd that there would be runs on basic supplies like toilet paper. We know now how quickly the virus traveled and the devastation it has inflicted on our world, with the highest rates of infection and death in Europe and the United States.

“At my office in Hong Kong, we continue to practice a work- from-home policy. Our U.K. head office went into lockdown. This forced many businesses to operate remotely and digitally. For many of us, it was a continuation of the restrictions we have become accustomed to.

“My proudest moment thus far during this pandemic is how the Columbia community in Greater China and Singapore banded together to raise funding to procure and donate PPE to our frontline medical professionals and essential workers. We raised more than $2.1 million in a matter of weeks, which allowed us to donate masks, respirators, gowns, gloves, eye protectors, hazmat suits and more to Columbia University Medical Center/New York Presbyterian Hospital and other affiliated hospitals and emergency service providers.

“During my time at Columbia, I was an official University tour guide. The highlight for me was always Low Memorial Library, where I would stop my tour group in front of the Columbia motto. In Latin, it reads: In Lumine Tuo Videbimus Lvmen (‘In thy light we shall see light’).

“During these dark times, it is my great hope that the pandemic has shown us how we can be better ourselves and that, united, we shall continue to see the light.”

PHOTOS COURTESY JILL SANTOPOLO ‘03

Editor and author

“O n March 12, when Penguin Random House (PRH)’s work-from-home policy began, I grabbed my laptop and headed out of New York City, down to Washington, D.C., where my husband works and where we have a second small apartment. I figured we’d be there for a week at the most, until he began to work from home, and then we’d head back to Manhattan. I’m writing this on May 8. We haven’t yet been back. We are grateful to have jobs we can do from home — his in data and analytics, mine as an editor and novelist. But both of us working from home has meant getting creative with our 700-sq.-ft. space. The bedroom is his office, the rest of the apartment, mine, with a desk — actually, a table that formerly held our record player — next to the refrigerator.

COURTESY JILL SANTOPOLO ‘03

“But at the same time, I can’t stop thinking about New York City. I lived there during 9-11, the 2003 blackout, Hurricane Sandy. I feel like I’ve abandoned my city in its time of need. Neoclassical buildings are beautiful, but so are skyscrapers.

“This pandemic might have made me a Washingtonian, but it also made me realize that in my heart I will always be a New Yorker.”

Entrepreneur; founder, Locasaur

“I left New York in mid-March thinking I’d be back in a matter of weeks, and my packing reflected this. As the situation became more clear, I realized I’d be staying here for a while, on my family’s farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Those who know me know I’m not exactly upset by this. I grew up here, alongside a rotating menagerie of horses, chickens, sheep and the occasional goat. There are 10 shades of green in every direction, and I’ve never been more thankful for the wide open, secluded space. “So much of what’s great about New York happens after dark, and waking up early is done at your own peril. When I’m home, however, I’m on ‘farm time.’ Coffee is on and the house is buzzing by 6:00 a.m. My company Locasaur’s daily standup isn’t until 10:00 a.m., so early mornings are usually given to farm tasks and chores. There is a rhythm that you get into living on a farm; days keep churning, things keep needing to get done. A farmer’s mindset is that no matter the day’s challenge, you find a fix.

C OURTESY SIMON SCHWARTZ ‘17

“The majority of my day is devoted to re- mote work of the most urgent kind. Locasaur is a relationship app for local businesses and their regulars, and right now local businesses need their regulars more than ever. Every creative solution demanded by the reality of COVID-19 — the bakery now doing road- side pickup, the florist who started delivering, the bartender selling premixed cocktails — starts with a business having a group of core customers who truly care about it. Our goal is to power some of those creative solutions and help these businesses go digital without giving up the ‘personal touch’ that means so much to their survival. The next 12–18 months won’t be easy, but local business owners are uniformly some of the toughest people I know. In many ways they, too, have a farmer’s mindset.”

COURTESY MARGARET TRAUB ‘88

Head of global initiatives, International Medical Corps

“M y work is emergency medical relief, so the pandemic has taken over my daily life in every way. My organization normally works in conflict and disaster zones overseas, but with COVID-19, in addition to responding to the pandemic in 30 countries, we have deployed healthcare workers and supplies on the front-lines here in the United States — at hospitals in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Puerto Rico, so far.

“My days start around 5:30 a.m. — bleary-eyed in bed, scrolling through emails and the latest news. I learned early that if I don’t get into the shower by 6:30 a.m., I wind up chained to Skype and video calls in my PJs (and sometimes a nice blouse) until 5:00 p.m. Yes, that’s happened more times than I’m comfortable admitting.

“In between calls with our teams — mostly about procuring PPE, or moving supplies and clinicians, or raising money — I’m checking in with my family in New York, Utah and Arizona. I have a severely immuno-compromised sister and healthy but 90-ish-year-old parents, so I worry constantly about them and have to resist the urge to go be with them. I frequently text and call friends, including my Columbia pals. And at some point during my days I try to squeeze in a workout — usually to old episodes of 30 Rock. Another important COVID-19 distraction: cooking and baking, which I love.

“My heart breaks every day, thinking of the suffering going on around us. And not a day goes by that I don’t feel grateful to be healthy and to have a mostly healthy family and a job that puts a roof over our head and food on our table.

“Thanks to all those heroes out there, putting their lives on the line to serve their fellow humans. Everyone stay safe and healthy!”

Issue Contents

Published three times a year by Columbia College for alumni, students, faculty, parents and friends.

Columbia Alumni Center 622 W. 113th St., MC 4530, 4th Fl. New York, NY 10025 212-851-7852 [email protected]

CCAA on Facebook
CCAA on LinkedIn
CCAA on Twitter
CCAA YouTube Channel
CCAA on Instagram
Manage Your Subscription
Support CCT

Columbia Alumni Center 622 W. 113th St., MC 4530, 4th Fl. New York, NY 10025 212-851-7488 [email protected]

Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

Full Topic List

Regions & Countries

Publications
Our Methods
Short Reads
Tools & Resources

Read Our Research On:

In Their Own Words, Americans Describe the Struggles and Silver Linings of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The outbreak has dramatically changed americans’ lives and relationships over the past year. we asked people to tell us about their experiences – good and bad – in living through this moment in history..

Pew Research Center has been asking survey questions over the past year about Americans’ views and reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic. In August, we gave the public a chance to tell us in their own words how the pandemic has affected them in their personal lives. We wanted to let them tell us how their lives have become more difficult or challenging, and we also asked about any unexpectedly positive events that might have happened during that time.

The vast majority of Americans (89%) mentioned at least one negative change in their own lives, while a smaller share (though still a 73% majority) mentioned at least one unexpected upside. Most have experienced these negative impacts and silver linings simultaneously: Two-thirds (67%) of Americans mentioned at least one negative and at least one positive change since the pandemic began.

For this analysis, we surveyed 9,220 U.S. adults between Aug. 31-Sept. 7, 2020. Everyone who completed the survey is a member of Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Respondents to the survey were asked to describe in their own words how their lives have been difficult or challenging since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, and to describe any positive aspects of the situation they have personally experienced as well. Overall, 84% of respondents provided an answer to one or both of the questions. The Center then categorized a random sample of 4,071 of their answers using a combination of in-house human coders, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service and keyword-based pattern matching. The full methodology and questions used in this analysis can be found here.

In many ways, the negatives clearly outweigh the positives – an unsurprising reaction to a pandemic that had killed more than 180,000 Americans at the time the survey was conducted. Across every major aspect of life mentioned in these responses, a larger share mentioned a negative impact than mentioned an unexpected upside. Americans also described the negative aspects of the pandemic in greater detail: On average, negative responses were longer than positive ones (27 vs. 19 words). But for all the difficulties and challenges of the pandemic, a majority of Americans were able to think of at least one silver lining.

Both the negative and positive impacts described in these responses cover many aspects of life, none of which were mentioned by a majority of Americans. Instead, the responses reveal a pandemic that has affected Americans’ lives in a variety of ways, of which there is no “typical” experience. Indeed, not all groups seem to have experienced the pandemic equally. For instance, younger and more educated Americans were more likely to mention silver linings, while women were more likely than men to mention challenges or difficulties.

Here are some direct quotes that reveal how Americans are processing the new reality that has upended life across the country.

901 E St. NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20004 USA (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax (+1) 202-419-4372 | Media Inquiries

Research Topics

Email Newsletters

ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan, nonadvocacy fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It does not take policy positions. The Center conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, computational social science research and other data-driven research. Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts , its primary funder.

Current Issue
Journal Archive
Current Call

Search form

Follow Perspectives on Urban Education on Twitter

Coronavirus: My Experience During the Pandemic

Anastasiya Kandratsenka George Washington High School, Class of 2021

At this point in time there shouldn't be a single person who doesn't know about the coronavirus, or as they call it, COVID-19. The coronavirus is a virus that originated in China, reached the U.S. and eventually spread all over the world by January of 2020. The common symptoms of the virus include shortness of breath, chills, sore throat, headache, loss of taste and smell, runny nose, vomiting and nausea. As it has been established, it might take up to 14 days for the symptoms to show. On top of that, the virus is also highly contagious putting all age groups at risk. The elderly and individuals with chronic diseases such as pneumonia or heart disease are in the top risk as the virus attacks the immune system.

The virus first appeared on the news and media platforms in the month of January of this year. The United States and many other countries all over the globe saw no reason to panic as it seemed that the virus presented no possible threat. Throughout the next upcoming months, the virus began to spread very quickly, alerting health officials not only in the U.S., but all over the world. As people started digging into the origin of the virus, it became clear that it originated in China. Based on everything scientists have looked at, the virus came from a bat that later infected other animals, making it way to humans. As it goes for the United States, the numbers started rising quickly, resulting in the cancellation of sports events, concerts, large gatherings and then later on schools.

As it goes personally for me, my school was shut down on March 13th. The original plan was to put us on a two weeks leave, returning on March 30th but, as the virus spread rapidly and things began escalating out of control very quickly, President Trump announced a state of emergency and the whole country was put on quarantine until April 30th. At that point, schools were officially shut down for the rest of the school year. Distanced learning was introduced, online classes were established, a new norm was put in place. As for the School District of Philadelphia distanced learning and online classes began on May 4th. From that point on I would have classes four times a week, from 8AM till 3PM. Virtual learning was something that I never had to experience and encounter before. It was all new and different for me, just as it was for millions of students all over the United States. We were forced to transfer from physically attending school, interacting with our peers and teachers, participating in fun school events and just being in a classroom setting, to just looking at each other through a computer screen in a number of days. That is something that we all could have never seen coming, it was all so sudden and new.

My experience with distanced learning was not very great. I get distracted very easily and find it hard to concentrate, especially when it comes to school. In a classroom I was able to give my full attention to what was being taught, I was all there. However, when we had the online classes, I could not focus and listen to what my teachers were trying to get across. I got distracted very easily, missing out on important information that was being presented. My entire family which consists of five members, were all home during the quarantine. I have two little siblings who are very loud and demanding, so I’m sure it can be imagined how hard it was for me to concentrate on school and do what was asked of me when I had these two running around the house. On top of school, I also had to find a job and work 35 hours a week to support my family during the pandemic. My mother lost her job for the time being and my father was only able to work from home. As we have a big family, the income of my father was not enough. I made it my duty to help out and support our family as much as I could: I got a job at a local supermarket and worked there as a cashier for over two months.

While I worked at the supermarket, I was exposed to dozens of people every day and with all the protection that was implemented to protect the customers and the workers, I was lucky enough to not get the virus. As I say that, my grandparents who do not even live in the U.S. were not so lucky. They got the virus and spent over a month isolated, in a hospital bed, with no one by their side. Our only way of communicating was through the phone and if lucky, we got to talk once a week. Speaking for my family, that was the worst and scariest part of the whole situation. Luckily for us, they were both able to recover completely.

As the pandemic is somewhat under control, the spread of the virus has slowed down. We’re now living in the new norm. We no longer view things the same, the way we did before. Large gatherings and activities that require large groups to come together are now unimaginable! Distanced learning is what we know, not to mention the importance of social distancing and having to wear masks anywhere and everywhere we go. This is the new norm now and who knows when and if ever we’ll be able go back to what we knew before. This whole experience has made me realize that we, as humans, tend to take things for granted and don’t value what we have until it is taken away from us.

Articles in this Volume

[tid]: dedication, [tid]: new tools for a new house: transformations for justice and peace in and beyond covid-19, [tid]: black lives matter, intersectionality, and lgbtq rights now, [tid]: the voice of asian american youth: what goes untold, [tid]: beyond words: reimagining education through art and activism, [tid]: voice(s) of a black man, [tid]: embodied learning and community resilience, [tid]: re-imagining professional learning in a time of social isolation: storytelling as a tool for healing and professional growth, [tid]: reckoning: what does it mean to look forward and back together as critical educators, [tid]: leader to leaders: an indigenous school leader’s advice through storytelling about grief and covid-19, [tid]: finding hope, healing and liberation beyond covid-19 within a context of captivity and carcerality, [tid]: flux leadership: leading for justice and peace in & beyond covid-19, [tid]: flux leadership: insights from the (virtual) field, [tid]: hard pivot: compulsory crisis leadership emerges from a space of doubt, [tid]: and how are the children, [tid]: real talk: teaching and leading while bipoc, [tid]: systems of emotional support for educators in crisis, [tid]: listening leadership: the student voices project, [tid]: global engagement, perspective-sharing, & future-seeing in & beyond a global crisis, [tid]: teaching and leadership during covid-19: lessons from lived experiences, [tid]: crisis leadership in independent schools - styles & literacies, [tid]: rituals, routines and relationships: high school athletes and coaches in flux, [tid]: superintendent back-to-school welcome 2020, [tid]: mitigating summer learning loss in philadelphia during covid-19: humble attempts from the field, [tid]: untitled, [tid]: the revolution will not be on linkedin: student activism and neoliberalism, [tid]: why radical self-care cannot wait: strategies for black women leaders now, [tid]: from emergency response to critical transformation: online learning in a time of flux, [tid]: illness methodology for and beyond the covid era, [tid]: surviving black girl magic, the work, and the dissertation, [tid]: cancelled: the old student experience, [tid]: lessons from liberia: integrating theatre for development and youth development in uncertain times, [tid]: designing a more accessible future: learning from covid-19, [tid]: the construct of standards-based education, [tid]: teachers leading teachers to prepare for back to school during covid, [tid]: using empathy to cross the sea of humanity, [tid]: (un)doing college, community, and relationships in the time of coronavirus, [tid]: have we learned nothing, [tid]: choosing growth amidst chaos, [tid]: living freire in pandemic….participatory action research and democratizing knowledge at knowledgedemocracy.org, [tid]: philly students speak: voices of learning in pandemics, [tid]: the power of will: a letter to my descendant, [tid]: photo essays with students, [tid]: unity during a global pandemic: how the fight for racial justice made us unite against two diseases, [tid]: educational changes caused by the pandemic and other related social issues, [tid]: online learning during difficult times, [tid]: fighting crisis: a student perspective, [tid]: the destruction of soil rooted with culture, [tid]: a demand for change, [tid]: education through experience in and beyond the pandemics, [tid]: the pandemic diaries, [tid]: all for one and 4 for $4, [tid]: tiktok activism, [tid]: why digital learning may be the best option for next year, [tid]: my 2020 teen experience, [tid]: living between two pandemics, [tid]: journaling during isolation: the gold standard of coronavirus, [tid]: sailing through uncertainty, [tid]: what i wish my teachers knew, [tid]: youthing in pandemic while black, [tid]: the pain inflicted by indifference, [tid]: education during the pandemic, [tid]: the good, the bad, and the year 2020, [tid]: racism fueled pandemic, [tid]: coronavirus: my experience during the pandemic, [tid]: the desensitization of a doomed generation, [tid]: a philadelphia war-zone, [tid]: the attack of the covid monster, [tid]: back-to-school: covid-19 edition, [tid]: the unexpected war, [tid]: learning outside of the classroom, [tid]: why we should learn about college financial aid in school: a student perspective, [tid]: flying the plane as we go: building the future through a haze, [tid]: my covid experience in the age of technology, [tid]: we, i, and they, [tid]: learning your a, b, cs during a pandemic, [tid]: quarantine: a musical, [tid]: what it’s like being a high school student in 2020, [tid]: everything happens for a reason, [tid]: blacks live matter – a sobering and empowering reality among my peers, [tid]: the mental health of a junior during covid-19 outbreaks, [tid]: a year of change, [tid]: covid-19 and school, [tid]: the virtues and vices of virtual learning, [tid]: college decisions and the year 2020: a virtual rollercoaster, [tid]: quarantine thoughts, [tid]: quarantine through generation z, [tid]: attending online school during a pandemic.

Report accessibility issues and request help

PERSPECTIVES
SUBMIT A PERSPECTIVE
A NEW MAP OF LIFE

THE NEW MAP OF LIFE

AFTER THE PANDEMIC

It is said that culture is like the air we breathe. We don’t notice it until it’s gone.

The COVID-19 pandemic is bringing into focus a once invisible culture that guides us through life. Seemingly overnight, we experienced profound changes in the ways that we work, socialize, learn, and engage with our neighborhoods and larger communities.

For a short time, before new routines and practices replace familiar old ones, we can see with greater clarity the positive and negative aspects of our former lives. The suddenness and starkness of this transformation allows us to examine daily practices, social norms and institutions from perspectives rarely allowed.

The fragility of the global economy becomes glaringly apparent as critical supply chains faulter, unemployment surges, and markets vacillate. Tacit assumptions about health care systems become clear as we see how they function, fail to function, and have long underserved large parts of the population. Just as sure, sheltering in place allows us to appreciate precious details of our lives that we have taken for granted: the appeal of workplaces, the comfort of human touch, dinner parties, travel, and paychecks. Indeed, through ambivalent eyes we also recognize ways that life is better as we shelter in place.

The premise of the New Map of Life:™ After the Pandemic project is that we have a fleeting window of time that affords us an unprecedented opportunity to examine our lives. Going forward, life will be different and by compiling the insights we have today we can inform and guide the culture that will inevitably emerge from our collective experience. Your insights can contribute to the reshaping of social norms, systems, and practices that shape our collective futures.

Since the founding of the Stanford Center on Longevity, we have advocated for a major redesign of life that better supports century-long lives. More recently, we undertook the New Map of Life ™ initiative, which focuses on envisioning a world where people experience a sense of purpose, belonging, and worth at all stages of life. As tragedies unfold before our eyes, we aim to capture the lessons they teach. With your help, we can compile current insights, fleeting thoughts and deeper reflections about the ways we live now so that going forward we bolster, modify and reinvent cultures that improve quality of life for ourselves, our children, and future generations.

The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the various authors on this website do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Stanford Center on Longevity or official policies of the Stanford Center on Longevity.

Caring for the self and others: a reflection on everyday commoning amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Reflective Essay
Published: 24 August 2020
Volume 2 , pages 243–251, ( 2020 )

Cite this article

Chun Zheng 1

44k Accesses

6 Citations

11 Altmetric

Explore all metrics

In this essay, I share my experiences and reflection on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of a Chinese student residing in Pittsburgh, USA. Three examples of “commoning”—acts of managing shared resources by a group of people—reveal the importance of care and collaboration in the time of uncertainty. First, when COVID-19 posed a threat to the food supply chain, community gardens and home gardening ensured food security and enhanced mutual support. Second, the emergence of online activities of teaching, learning, and collaborating presented an opportunity of having more collective, equitable, and diverse formats of virtual communities. Lastly, volunteering in the distribution of “Healthy Packs,” I witnessed the nurture of a sense of belonging and a connection with home in the student community. These examples suggest that facing the crisis, care-driven commoning activities at the individual, everyday level lay the foundation for large-scale collaborative systems.

Community-Engaged Learning: Sticky Learning About the Social World

Problemaufriss: Caring Communities als Mit-Wegbereiter für eine sich erneuernde Gesellschaft

Growing, Learning, Sharing, and Healing Together: Home Garden Networks as a Learning City and Movement to Global Citizenship and Life-Long Learning

Explore related subjects.

Artificial Intelligence

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

1 Commoning in a crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic is sweeping the planet. We, as individuals in the extended human family, are living through a crisis together. Within the vast and daunting global crisis are changes to every person’s daily life. These changes reveal the normally hidden human needs of care and collaboration and force us to re-invest in ourselves and our communities. In this essay, I share my personal experiences since the beginning of the pandemic and my observations of care-based everyday commoning activities over this period from the perspective of a Chinese student residing in Pittsburgh, USA (Fig. 1 ). Commoning, as defined by Gibson-Graham et al. ( 2013 ), takes place when a group of people is motivated by an ethic of care for a flourishing and sustainable common future and decides to manage shared resources in a collective manner. After discussing three examples of everyday commoning: gardening as commoning, online sharing as commoning, and volunteering as commoning, I reflect on the potential of expanding the sentiment of care for ourselves and others into larger-scale collaborative networks.

Spatial pattern of COVID-19 cases in Pittsburgh neighborhoods. Locations mentioned in this paper are highlighted. The map was created by the author based on the open data accessed on July 28 from Allegheny County Public Health Department ( https://www.alleghenycounty.us/Health-Department/Resources/COVID-19/COVID-19.aspx ) and Esri ArcGIS Database ( https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcgis-online/resources )

2 From one epicenter to another

January 23rd, the day before the Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve, the news that Wuhan and three other surrounding cities were going into lockdown Footnote 1 struck all TV channels in China. While words of the spread of a new type of pneumonia had been circulating for days (Wee and Wang 2020 ), Wuhan’s lockdown marked the start of an unprecedented national struggle and later, a global crisis.

Although physically stranded overseas, I could hear the worry in my family and friends’ voices over the phone. The anticipated joy of the annual family reunion was completely overwhelmed. In the following month, tracking the number of confirmed cases and the death toll became my daily routine. Watching more and more cities turn into darker colors Footnote 2 on the color-coded live COVID-19 tracking map put me into fear and homesickness.

Subsequently, I observed, in Pittsburgh, USA, personal protective equipment (PPE) in nearby pharmacies were almost sold out by February (Fig. 2 ). I collected 80 masks from over 10 shops in our region, most of which were the last bundles left for sale, to mail to a police friend working at the frontline in China. By the time I was ready to mail out the package, all flights to and from China had been banned (Corkery and Karni 2020 ). The travel ban not only meant the package would not have guaranteed delivery in the foreseeable future, but also put me into the mentality of being cut off from my homeland. Throughout February, via WeChat, Footnote 3 family and friends shared stay-home updates, cheered up each other, and even guided me to prepare for a potential COVID-19 outbreak in Pittsburgh. Geographical separations and time differences didn’t prevent us from caring for and supporting each other.

Last of N95 masks left in a Home Depot, 13 miles away from central Pittsburgh (February 2, 2020. Photography provided by the author)

On March 16, when most students were in the spring break, Pittsburgh officially reported its first two cases, Footnote 4 which meant educational entities had to make different decisions. Pittsburgh heavily relies on its education industry. The student population takes up 27% of the total population of the city. Footnote 5 Therefore, schools, preceding other public and private sectors in the city, responded to the outbreak first by switching to online classes, which lowered the risk of infection and spreading of the virus in the city that might be caused by students’ domestic and international travel. Still, I believe more earlier actions could have been implemented citywide and nationwide, including social distancing, encouragement to wear masks, and cancellations of large gatherings, to name a few. Nonetheless, what seemed so obvious to me, or to any Chinese citizen living in the USA, turned out to be invisible to most Americans, especially politicians and decision makers. The US government was overly optimistic about the epidemic and focused its resources on political rivalries, thus missing early opportunities to contain the outbreak. Compared with the constant and rolling media coverage of self-help prevention measures in China, the American people were given confusing and sometimes contradictory information, which blurred the severity of the pandemic. The rest of the story is well known. The malfunction of the government, the partisan differences, the sacrifices of healthcare workers, the hoarding of living essentials and weapons, etc., have become new abnormal norms in the USA. In these selfish, divisive and confusing situations, it is inevitable for many to find alternatives to self-help.

The duality of my experiences in two epicenters—the USA and China—has inspired me to recognize and cherish the spirit of mutual support and sentiment of care from others, as well as rethink where we can individually begin to act upon and contribute to forming a more collaborative and interconnected world. It took a long time for the majority of the world to realize that “the well-being of the group is endangered by indifferent individuals, and that community means originally simply a pooling of duties” (Jones 2020 , para 9). As individuals, we are incapable of changing the irreversible crisis; our duties lie simply in small everyday commoning actions.

3 Care and commoning

Commoning is the act of managing and sharing material and non-material resources, of creating things together, and of cooperating to meet shared goals among a group of people (Bollier and Helfrich 2015 , p. 17; Džokić and Neelen 2015 , p. 15; Bollier 2014 , p. 15). The participants in commoning processes are people who prioritize care for one another. Volunteering, altruism, selflessness, peer-assistance, mutual support, and so on can all be considered synonyms of commoning (Bollier 2020 , para 10). Prior to the pandemic, the logic of commoning can be found in cooperatively managed forests, social currencies, open-source software, citizen-managed urban spaces, community gardens, cooperative housings, and more. Commoning has been and is prevalent around the world as an essential survival strategy, especially in challenging times (Troncoso 2020 ; Baibarac and Petrescu 2017 , p. 229). We can, moreover, note that when governmental or market systems fail in the crisis, more people are finding their ways to support others through commoning—for instance, in the USA, crowdsourcing masks and ventilators, and mobilizing food bank resources for the elderly living alone amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A critical emotional motivation behind these commoning activities is care.

Our perception of care often draws on the traditional imaginaries of the parents’ domestic responsibility of taking care of children and the housework, or the healthcare workers’ job of providing service in the medical sphere. On the one hand, the ongoing pandemic has brought these traditional imaginaries of care into the spotlight. Healthcare workers who haven’t been paid enough appreciation are now deemed essential and thus regarded with greater value than before (Fig. 3 ). Households are forced to devote increasing time in domestic caregiving during physical distancing. On the other hand, the current crisis also triggers our rethink of alternative ways of caring beyond these formats (Morrow and Parker 2020 ; Thackara 2015 ; Petrescu and Trogal 2017 ). Here, I argue that care, manifesting in ways of verbal encouragement, physical gestures like waving and hugging, a sense of responsibility, commoning activities, etc., is a more inclusive concept than the traditional perception of care. It is a deep-rooted ability of human beings to resonate and connect with others. As Sennett claims, “Buried in all of us is the infantile experience of relating and connecting to the others who took care of us” (Sennett 2012 , p. 9). The pandemic is a catalyst for awakening people’s innate ability to care. We can all find ways to care for the self and others. The following examples aim at sharing my encounters of care-driven everyday commoning activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. They manifest that commoning is one of the most efficient ways of caregiving and is essential for not only our current survival but also a collective caring future.

“Heroes at work” slogans were displayed in the garden and on the building façade of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Shadyside Hospital in Pittsburgh, USA (May 5, 2020. Photography provided by the author)

4 Gardening as commoning

The top priority for individuals in quarantine is food. The food supply chain, including food production, processing, distribution, consumption, and disposal, needs to be operational for all of us to survive. However, the current food supply chain is severely compromised by COVID-19. According to the Washington Post (Telford and Kindy 2020 ), over 30 meat plants across the country owned by major American meat processing companies reported coronavirus outbreaks in their factories. The plants were forced to shut down because of growing numbers of confirmed cases and lack of PPE. Meanwhile, the transportation and distribution links on the supply chain also face unprecedented challenges. High demands for food delivery services put drivers and distributors at risk, as the virus can stay viable on cardboard boxes or plastic bags for a few days. Footnote 6 Both the processing and distribution links on the food supply chain are weakened, which has turned tons of milk, vegetables, and meat into waste.

Recognizing the vulnerability of a long food supply chain, many individuals and nonprofit organizations, such as community gardens, community farms, and home gardeners, have made contributions to shorten the food supply chain. By securing their own and local food supplies, they reduce the reliance on processing and transportation links on the chain (Fig. 4 ). In the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Garfield, the Garfield Community Farm, despite suffering from a large loss of financial income and voluntary labor during COVID-19, decided to donate all their sales to restaurants to the poor and healthcare workers in the neighborhood (Fig. 5 ). On the other side of the globe, the Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) Garden in Shanghai initiated a SEEDING campaign to facilitate community trust-building amid the pandemic (Jian 2020 ). The campaign encouraged people to develop a self-sufficient lifestyle at home and to share their home-grown produce and seeds with neighbors in non-contact ways. Many creative participants designed, modeled, and built small exchange stations in their local communities. Conversations among neighbors were triggered upon the implementation of these stations. Several weeks ago, I joined the SEEDING group and started to share the progress of my own home seeding project. Quick growing herbs, like basil and oregano, are optimal for apartment dwellers like me. My project is still gradually expanding with handmade hydroponics of onions, green onions, and garlic (Fig. 6 ).

Food supply chain infographic (Source: Sandia Seed Company. https://www.sandiaseed.com/blogs/news/shorten-your-food-chain-infographic . Accessed by the author on May 5, 2020)

On March 25, the first donation was made by Garfield Farm since the stay-at-home order was placed in Pittsburgh (Source: Garfield Community Farm Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/GarfieldCommunityFarm . Accessed by the author on April 25, 2020)

The author’s home planting project on the windowsill (June 26, 2020. Photography provided by the author)

Gardening as a commoning practice has both ecological and social benefits. Growing and eating locally reduces the energy consumed in processing and transportation and rebuilds the connection between people and nature, which is a way to care for the environment. At the same time, less consumption of processed food lowers the risk of exposure for workers in food processing and transportation industries. Gardening also brings people together, either by engaging people in the farm work or by allowing people to share their gardening knowledge with others. When sharing updates of my home gardening project in the SEEDING group, I received detailed guidance and encouragement from other home gardeners. The communication, care, and enlightenment from others in this turbulent time have become an indispensable source of life motivation. That is to say, gardening as a commoning activity is also a way to care for our social well-being. It creates connections among people with diverse social and cultural backgrounds in the time of physical separation.

5 Online sharing as commoning

Currently, the majority of family networks, businesses, and schools depend on online video communication technology. Many online activities of working, teaching, learning, collaborating, and sharing have emerged. The heavy reliance on the online video conference platforms (e.g., Zoom, one of the most widely used Apps) raises the question of how technology might contribute to a more inclusive and equitable future for knowledge exchange and socialization.

Even when the world comes to a halt, intellectual flows and simulations do not. Professor Jeffrey Hou from the University of Washington, Seattle, initiated a platform named disCO-commons: Distance Collaboration Commons in Support of Design for Social Change, Footnote 7 on which scholars, students, educators, and practitioners in architecture, design, and planning could contribute to a collection of academic resources. Discussions and debates around design thinking are also continued with Design Baithak, Footnote 8 a weekly Zoom event organized by Ahmed Ansari, an assistant professor at New York University. The discussants come from all parts of the country and across continents. Besides, many international conferences in academia have also switched to free online formats. Distance, time, and financial concerns are no longer barriers. In pre-pandemic times, academic collaborations at such scales would take months to plan and coordinate. COVID-19 and technology have miraculously pushed the progress of remote knowledge sharing and collaborations.

Concurrently, online social activities are taking place exponentially. Figure 7 shows a screenshot of our 2018 Carnegie Mellon Master of Urban Design alumni reunion, held on Zoom. Two years after graduation, friends from five different countries, across three continents, managed to meet virtually. Some of us are foreigners staying in the USA, some traveled home before the outbreak, and some are in their homeland but separated from the family. The moment we saw each other, memories of us being physically together were recalled. Technology shortened the geographical distance between us. Figure 8 shows an online yoga class that I joined. The teacher just completed her yoga training in Portland, Oregon, and kindly provided free online classes. In such a time of uncertainty, spending some time each day doing yoga, meditation, or stretching is a good way to relieve the anxiety and despair that the mainstream social media is trying to render. When the body is relaxed, the mind becomes composed.

Virtual alumni reunion (April 10, 2020. Screenshot provided by the author)

Remote yoga class (April 26, 2020. Screenshot provided by the author)

Despite the challenge of video bombs and internet interferences, online sharing has brought genuine excitement for the possibilities afforded by unique forms of information caregiving. With careful application and management of new technology, virtual communication has shown outstanding efficiency in (re)connecting people and promoting more accessible ways of education and socialization. Now that we have a firmer grasp on the planning, coordination, and execution of these online activities, we may start to imagine a network of virtual commoning.

6 Volunteering as commoning

It seems that our hands are tied because of the limitation of face-to-face contact with others. However, challenges always prelude opportunities. Coronavirus interrupts our normal socialization but offers unique volunteering opportunities that call for reciprocity among strangers. In April, the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) were planning to distribute packs of personal protective supplies sent by the Consulate General of PR China in New York to CMU Chinese students. I signed up to be the volunteer and was assigned to be the driver and distributor for our apartment building and several surrounding blocks (Fig. 9 ). Myself and 20 other volunteers collectively coordinated the transportation and distribution of over a thousand “Health Packs” with the assistance of CSSA staff, brainstorming and deciding the best timing, location, and method of distribution. The quick reaction and organization were all from the bottom-up. Two other volunteers and I took advantage of the fact that the foyer of my apartment building is separated from the lobby by a glass door. We placed the bags in the foyer and waited in the lobby (Fig. 10 ). Remaining mindful of social distancing rules, recipients came and lined up on the sidewalk outside the foyer. Each person who entered the foyer showed us their student ID against the glass door to confirm the pickup. For residents in the building, a digital signup sheet was circulated for them to fill in their apartment numbers. Based on the signup sheet, we left the bags directly in front of their apartment doors. Volunteering in this distribution, I witnessed the nurture of a sense of belonging and a connection with home in the Chinese student community.

The author picking up two boxes of “Health Packs” from the post office (April 17, 2020. Photography provided by the author)

A box packed with 24 “Health Packs” to distribute to Chinese students (April 17, 2020. Photography provided by the author)

Recent anti-Chinese rhetoric in the USA and around the world has put many Chinese citizens overseas in trepidation. Incidents of racism are on the rise, as President Donald Trump “continues to stoke xenophobia by using a racist name for the virus and associating it with Asian Americans” (Zhou 2020 , para 6). Now more than ever, Chinese students are questioning our identities and trying to find a sense of belonging, both physically and mentally. Physical isolations have also worsened the situation as the feelings of uncertainty and fear are internalized. Apart from providing material security, more importantly, “Health Packs” sent a signal of being cared for by others and were catalysts for commoning practices. In this case, each one of the volunteers and recipients was fulfilling his/her duty in connecting these worried and isolated individuals. Volunteering as a way of commoning demonstrates that, by carrying out small acts of care for others, we, regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender, or age, have the agency to overcome physical isolation and dismantle the difficulties posed by the crisis.

7 From a current me to a future we

As I put this paper together, the death toll of COVID-19 across the world has surpassed 650,000, Footnote 9 casting an even larger shadow of uncertainty over the future. The harder the crisis hits us, the more we have to look for the positive changes that it facilitates. The above-mentioned experiences and examples are personal and quotidian. However, what is personal and present allows us to imagine what is collective and future.

The three commoning examples that I have discussed are all manifestations of how care has connected us, which forms the premise for systematic changes. Because of care for the Earth, home gardeners and community farmers will contribute to building more sustainable food production and consumption systems. Because of care for our minds, online sharing will connect into global knowledge systems. Because of care for ourselves and each other, volunteering activities and mutual support will continue building more supportive, inclusive, and equitable social systems. We need to recognize that the scaling from individual commoning activities to larger neighborhood, local, and regional collaborative systems may require much more efforts, education, and time. Nonetheless, we can still continue fulfilling our own duties as connecting dots in the systems, weaving the collective networks.

The COVID-19 pandemic can be the most effective moment in which we disrupt unhealthy norms and validate new possibilities. Care-based commoning can be one of these possibilities. The emphasis on giving rather than taking, on solidarity rather than individuality, on care rather than indifference is what I would like to reflect on when engaging in and discussing everyday commoning experiences. Taking everyday commoning practices as the starting point, it is necessary to start imagining a new collaborative future that is no longer constrained by geospatial boundaries and physical contacts. In fact, since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, care has been ubiquitous; we have all sensed it in the formats “of responsibility, of sharing, of reciprocity, of democratic organization, and of welfare” (Petrescu and Trogal 2017 , p. 194). As we remain physically apart, let us see this as an opportunity to practice our muscles of commoning and build the strength to care for ourselves and others.

Coverage on Wuhan lockdown can further be found on South China Morning Post ( https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3047278/wuhan-goes-shutdown-china-tries-contain-deadly-coronavirus ).

Larger numbers of confirmed cases are presented in darker colors in most COVID-19 live tracking maps, for instance, Baidu COVID-19 live data ( https://voice.baidu.com/act/newpneumonia/newpneumonia ) and Sina News COVID-19 live tracking ( https://news.sina.cn/zt_d/yiqing0121 ).

WeChat is the most widely used multi-purpose messaging, social media and mobile payment app in China.

The information of Pittsburgh’s first two COVID-19 cases is available on TribLIVE ( https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-allegheny/allegheny-county-to-announce-1st-coronavirus-cases/ ).

Student population percentage is calculated based on data provided by the US Census Bureau ( https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/pittsburghcitypennsylvania ).

The information is acquired from the study of coronavirus survival time on surfaces by US National Institutes of Health ( https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/study-suggests-new-coronavirus-may-remain-surfaces-days ).

More information on the Distance Collaboration Commons in Support of Design for Social Change can be found on their Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/880415052397554 ).

The time, guests and topics of Design Baithak can be found on the website ( https://sites.google.com/view/designbaithak/ ).

The COVID-19 death toll number is acquired from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center ( https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html ).

Baibarac C, Petrescu D (2017) Open-source resilience: a connected commons-based proposition for urban transformation. Proc Eng 198:227–239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.07.157

Article Google Scholar

Bollier D (2014) Think like a commoner: a short introduction to the life of the commons. New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, pp 9–20

Google Scholar

Bollier D (2020) Commoning as a pandemic survival strategy. Free, fair and alive: the insurgent power of the commons. https://www.freefairandalive.org/commoning-as-a-pandemic-survival-strategy/ . Accessed 2 April 2020

Bollier D, Helfrich S (eds) (2015) Patterns of commoning. Common Strategies Group, Amityville, New York, p 17

Corkery M, Karni A (2020) Trump administration restricts entry into U.S. from china. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/business/china-travel-coronavirus.html . Accessed 2 Jul 2020

Džokić A, Neelen M (2015) Instituting commoning. Footprint 9(1):21–34

Gibson-Graham JK, Cameron J, Healy S (2013) Take back the economy: an ethical guide for transforming our communities. University of Minnesota Press, London, pp 138–147

Book Google Scholar

Jian Y (2020) Urban home gardening takes root amid epidemic. Shanghai Daily. https://www.shine.cn/news/metro/2002262834/?fbclid=IwAR1cDp6qNN7-Sv5dPHdnl2P-Kpcb2jtlt3dhGlW8vQvs3386aWQIEgMBT24 . Accessed 26 Feb 2020

Jones T (2020) After coronavirus, the penny has dropped that wellbeing isn’t individual but social. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/12/after-coronavirus-the-penny-has-dropped-that-wellbeing-isnt-individual-but-social . Accessed 2 May 2020

Morrow O, Parker B (2020) Care, commoning and collectivity: from grand domestic revolution to urban transformation. Urban Geogr. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2020.1785258

Petrescu D, Trogal K (eds) (2017) The social (re)production of architecture: politics, values and actions in contemporary practice. Taylor and Francis Group, Routledge, pp 194–197

Sennett R (2012) Together: the rituals, pleasures and politics of cooperation. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 9–13

Telford T, Kindy K (2020) Inside Smithfield, JBS and Tysons Food meat plants, fears grew of employees working sick, without protective gear. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/25/meat-workers-safety-jbs-smithfield-tyson/ . Accessed 6 May 2020

Thackara J (2015) How to thrive in the next economy: designing tomorrow’s world today. Thames and Hudson, New York, pp 120–134

Troncoso S (2020) Commons: how the art of co-operation is the only way out of this crisis. Medium: The Commons Transition. https://medium.com/commons-transition/commons-how-the-art-of-co-operation-is-the-only-way-out-of-this-crisis-ab2c9ec96c08 . Accessed 27 July 2020

Wee S, Wang V (2020) China Grapples With Mystery Pneumonia-Like Illness. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/06/world/asia/china-SARS-pneumonialike.html . Accessed 8 May 2020

Zhou L (2020) How the coronavirus is surfacing America’s deep-seated anti-Asian biases. Vox. https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/4/21/21221007/anti-asian-racism-coronavirus . Accessed 5 May 2020

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chun Zheng .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Zheng, C. Caring for the self and others: a reflection on everyday commoning amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Socio Ecol Pract Res 2 , 243–251 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-020-00062-3

Download citation

Received : 11 July 2020

Accepted : 13 August 2020

Published : 24 August 2020

Issue Date : September 2020

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-020-00062-3

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Everyday commoning
Food supply chain
Online sharing
Healthy packs

Find a journal
Publish with us
Track your research

MY COVID-19 Story: how young people overcome the covid-19 crisis

As part of UNESCO’s initiative “MY COVID-19 Story”, young people have been invited to tell their stories and experiences: how they feel, how they act, what makes them feel worried and what future they envision, how the crisis has affected their lives, the challenges they face, new opportunities being explored, and their hopes for the future. This campaign was launched in April as part of UNESCO’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to give the floor to young people worldwide, share their views and amplify their voices. While the world grapples with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, many young people are taking on new roles, demonstrating leadership in their countries and communities, and sharing creative ideas and solutions. To this day, UNESCO has already received more than 150 written testimonials.

Self-isolation can be a difficult time… However, many young people worldwide decided to tackle this with productivity and positivity. Monty (17), a secondary school student from the United Kingdom, is developing new digital skills and has created his own mini radio station. Lockdown helped Öykü (25), a young filmmaker from Turkey, to concentrate on her creative projects. And for Joseph (30), a teacher from Nigeria, this time is a way to open up to lots of learning opportunities through webinars.

The crisis has changed not only the daily routine, but also perceptions of everyday life. For some young people rethinking the value of time and common moral principles appears to be key.

“The biggest lesson for me is understanding … [the value of] time. During these last months I made more use of my time than in a past year.” - shares young tech entrepreneur Barbara (21), from Russia. Ravikumar (24), a civil engineer from India, believes “This crisis makes us socialize more than ever. We are eating together, sharing our thoughts and playing together which happened rarely within my family before.”

Beyond the crisis

After massive upheavals in the lives of many people, the future for young people seems to be both a promising perspective to seize some new emerging opportunities, and a time filled with uncertainty about the crisis consequences and the future world order.

“It is giving us an opportunity to look into how we need to better support our vulnerable populations, in terms of food and educational resources”, says Anusha (19), from the United States of America. For Mahmoud (22), from Egypt, the COVID-19 crisis is a call to action: “After the pandemic, I will put a lot of efforts into helping people who have been affected by COVID-19. I am planning to improve their health by providing sports sessions, highlighting the importance of a healthy lifestyle.”

The COVID-19 pandemic brings uncertainty and instability to young people across the world, making them feel worried about this new reality they’re living in and presenting several new challenges every day, as they find themselves at the front line of the crisis. That is why, more than ever, we need to put the spotlight on young women and men and let their voice be heard!

Be part of the campaign!

Join the “MY COVID-19 Story” campaign! Tell us your story!

We will share it on UNESCO’s social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram), our website, and through our networks across the world.

You can also share your testimonials by recording your own creative video! How? Sign up and create your video here: https://zg8t9.app.goo.gl/Zw2i .

More information on the campaign

More on this subject

Life before and after COVID-19: The ‘New Normal’ Benefits the Regularity of Daily Sleep and Eating Routines among College Students

Catalina ramírez-contreras.

1 Department of Nutrition, Food Science, and Gastronomy, Food Science Torribera Campus, University of Barcelona, 08921 Barcelona, Spain; [email protected] (C.R.-C.); [email protected] (M.F.Z.-R.)

2 Nutrition and Food Safety Research Institute, INSA-UB, 08921 Barcelona, Spain

María Fernanda Zerón-Rugerio

Maria izquierdo-pulido.

After the COVID-19 lockdown, a ‘new normal’ was established, involving a hybrid lifestyle that combined face-to-face with virtual activity. We investigated, in a case-control study, the impact of the ‘new normal’ on daily sleep and eating routines, compared with pre-pandemic conditions. To do this, we propose using social and eating jet lag as markers of the regularity in daily routines. Additionally, we studied whether the ‘new normal’ had an impact on the body mass index (BMI), diet quality, and other health-related variables. This study included 71 subjects in the pre-pandemic group, and 68 in the ‘new normal’ group (20–30 years). For all participants, we evaluated social and eating jet lag, BMI, diet and sleep quality, eating behaviors, physical activity, and well-being. General linear models were used to compare outcome variables between pre-pandemic and ‘new normal’ groups. The results revealed that the ‘new normal’ was associated with greater regularity in daily sleep and eating routines (−0.7 h of social jet lag (95% CI: −1.0, −0.4), and −0.3 h of eating jet lag (95% CI: −0.5, −0.1)), longer sleep duration on weekdays (1.8 h (95% CI: 1.5, 2.2)), and lower sleep debt (−1.3 h (95% CI: −1.7, −0.9)). Regarding BMI and other health-related variables, we observed that these variables were similar between ‘new normal’ and pre-pandemic groups. These findings indicate that the ‘new normal’ had a positive impact on daily sleep and eating routines. Additionally, our results indicated that the ‘new normal’ offered college students a more sustainable lifestyle, which was associated with more hours of sleep during the week and lower sleep debt. This, in the long run, could have a positive impact on BMI and overall health.

1. Introduction

In modern societies, infrastructure development and urbanization have positively influenced people’s lifestyles by allowing greater access to food and education [ 1 ]. However, these factors can also work in the opposite direction through exposure to artificial light at night, long working hours, longer commutes, and increased general stress associated with living in urban areas [ 1 , 2 ]. Not surprisingly, evidence has shown that the modern lifestyle is associated with obesity, unhealthy eating patterns, and a sedentary lifestyle [ 1 , 3 ]. Furthermore, the modern lifestyle can also have an adverse impact on our daily sleeping and eating routines, which include “when” we sleep, and “when” we eat. Note that access to artificial light at night has allowed us to eat and stay awake at almost any time of the day, associating the latter with late sleep onset, short sleep duration, and also with a mismatch between internal circadian rhythms and external time (known as circadian misalignment) [ 2 , 4 , 5 ].

In the general population, the most extreme example of circadian misalignment is seen among shift-workers. However, college students, who usually push activities to a later clock time, are prone to a mild type of circadian misalignment, denominated social jet lag [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. The latter arises from the accumulated sleep debt throughout the week, especially since school schedules tend to start early, which forces them to align their waking hours with the social obligations of the weekdays [ 5 , 7 ]. Nevertheless, since sleep debt is unsustainable, young people generally prolong sleep duration on weekends, resulting in a discrepancy in their sleep routines on weekends versus weekdays [ 6 , 9 ]. Note that social jet lag is considered a potential risk factor for obesity [ 6 , 7 , 10 , 11 ] and unhealthy eating habits among college students [ 6 , 11 ]. In this context, insufficient sleep is one of the main mechanisms that trigger these associations [ 7 ]. In particular, the short duration of sleep is related to a higher food intake [ 12 ], mainly due to alterations in appetite hormones (e.g., ghrelin and leptin), hedonic eating, and a longer time awake, which translates into more opportunities to eat and snack [ 12 , 13 , 14 ].

Furthermore, it has been reported that individuals with the greatest social jet lag are also those who eat breakfast and dinner later [ 11 ]. Our group has demonstrated that irregularity in the timing of meals throughout the week, especially at breakfast time, is significantly associated with a greater social jet lag [ 9 ]. Due to its resemblance with social jet lag, we denominated this irregularity in eating routines as ‘eating jet lag’. In this regard, we have shown that a greater eating jet lag was significantly associated with a higher body mass index (BMI) among college students. Similar to the circadian desynchrony that arises from social jet lag, we hypothesized that eating jet lag could be linked to circadian misalignment, and therefore has a negative impact on BMI [ 9 ]. It should also be noted that a greater ‘jet lag’ at the time of the first meal has also been associated with a higher BMI and waist circumference among women [ 15 ].

In light of the evidence, it seems reasonable to recommend maintaining regular sleep and eating routines throughout the week, which would presumably be associated with a lower BMI and healthier eating habits. However, due to the modern lifestyle, this seemed impossible. It was not until the social restrictions issued in response to the COVID-19 pandemic showed that a greater flexibility in social schedules and less time spend commuting had positive changes in terms of sleep routines [ 2 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Specifically, studies showed that lockdown was associated with later wakeup time, longer sleep duration, and lower social jet lag [ 2 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. However, the benefits of regular daily sleep and eating routines on BMI and diet quality remain to be studied. To our knowledge, only Blume et al. [ 17 ] found that regular sleep routines (given by lower social jet lag) limited the decline in sleep quality and well-being during lockdown.

In our country, after the strict lockdown period, economic and social activities resumed at the end of June 2020. Therefore, a ‘new normal’ was established, which included, among others, a hybrid lifestyle that combined face-to-face with virtual activity [ 19 ]. Implicitly, the need to resume life after COVID-19 lockdown through the ‘new normal’ meant that, in relation to pre-pandemic conditions, there would be a before and after in terms of daily sleeping and eating routines, and their regularity. Therefore, the objective of our research was to evaluate the impact of the ‘new normal’ on daily sleep and eating routines in relation to pre-pandemic conditions. To do this, we propose using social and eating jet lag as markers of regularity in daily sleep and eating routines. We hypothesized that, compared with pre-pandemic conditions, the ‘new normal’ would be associated with lower social and eating jet lag, and thus, greater regularity in sleep and eating routines. In addition, we analyzed whether the ‘new normal’ had an impact in BMI, diet quality, and other health-related variables (including eating behaviors, sleep quality, physical activity, and well-being).

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. study design and participants.

Undergraduate students (aged 20–30 years) of the Bachelor’s Degree in Human Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain) were recruited in November 2019 (pre-pandemic) and November 2020 (‘new normal’) for a case-control study. Note that in Catalonia (Spain), the ‘new normal’ included the mandatory use of face-masks, social distancing, and a hybrid lifestyle that combined face-to-face with virtual activity. Additionally, starting in October 2020, this ‘new normal’ also included a curfew from 22:00 to 6:00, prioritizing the home-office when possible, and, at university, classes were taught online [ 19 ]. Social life and leisure time were allowed (at least in gatherings of fewer than six people), restaurants and cultural activities were opened from 6:00 to 21:30, and individual outdoor exercise was allowed [ 19 ].

2.2. Recruitment

Recruitment consisted of an informative talk, in which the details of the research were explained to the students, and they were invited to participate in the study. The eligibility criteria included college students enrolled in the University of Barcelona aged between 20 and 30 years old. Exclusion criteria consisted of unwillingness to participate in the study, and the participants who provided incomplete information required for the development of the study. Based on these criteria, a total of 150 subjects were included in the study, all of whom gave written informed consent. Furthermore, we excluded subjects with missing information ( n = 11), which resulted in a final analytical sample of 139 subjects. All study procedures were performed according to the ethical guidelines of the Declaration of Human Studies of Helsinki, and were approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Barcelona (IRB00003099).

2.3. Data Collection

We used Open Data Kit (ODK) [ 20 ], which is an open-source software, to design an online screening tool, where we included a series of validated questionnaires (detailed below) to evaluate the chronotype, diet quality, eating behaviors, physical activity, and well-being. ODK has a user-friendly web interface for designing web forms and programming simple logic.

2.4. Markers of Daily Routines

2.4.1. sleep routines.

Participants completed a sleep diary during seven consecutive days, where they recorded bedtimes and wakeup times. From these data, we calculated the following variables:

i. Sleep duration (h), calculated as the difference between bedtime and wakeup time.
ii. Social jet lag (h), calculated as the difference between each participant’s midpoint of sleep on weekdays and midpoint of sleep on weekends [ 5 ]. All analyses were performed using the absolute value of social jet lag [ 5 ].
iii. Sleep debt (h), calculated as the difference in sleep duration between weekends and weekdays [ 21 ].

2.4.2. Eating Routines

Participants completed a meal timing diary during seven consecutive days, where they reported the timing of the meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, or any other meal). From these data, we calculated the following variables:

i. Eating duration (h), calculated as the length between the first and the last caloric event [ 11 ].
ii. Eating jet lag (h), calculated as the difference between each participant’s eating midpoint on weekends and eating midpoint on weekdays [ 9 ]. All analyses were conducted using the absolute value of eating jet lag.

2.5. Anthropometric Parameters

Weight was measured with a body composition analyzer (InBody 720, Biospace, Seoul, Korea), with the subjects wearing light clothing and without shoes, to the nearest 0.1 kg. Height was determined using a fixed wall stadiometer (Seca 217, Seca, Hamburg, Germany) to the nearest 0.1 cm. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated as weight (kg) divided by height squared (m).

2.6. Health-Related Variables

2.6.1. diet quality.

Diet quality was evaluated using the Mediterranean Diet Quality Index (KIDMED), which has been validated in the Spanish population [ 22 ]. The KIDMED test is based on the principles that underpin Mediterranean dietary patterns and those that undermine it. Briefly, the KIDMED test includes questions such as: ‘Do you have fruit or fruit juice every day?’, ‘Do you have fresh or cooked vegetables regularly once a day?’, ‘Do you consume nuts regularly (at least 2–3 times per week)?’, and ‘Do you go more than once a week to a fast-food (hamburger, pizza) restaurant? ’ . Items denoting lower adherence to the Mediterranean diet were assigned a value of −1, and those related to higher adherence were scored +1. KIDMED scores range from −4 to 12 points, where the higher the score, the better the diet quality.

2.6.2. Eating Behaviors

Eating behaviors were assessed using the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ-R21C) [ 23 ]. Briefly, the TFEQ-R21C includes 21 items such as: ‘I’m always hungry enough to eat at any time’, ‘I start to eat when I feel anxious’, ‘I take small portions on purpose to control my weight’, ‘When I feel lonely, I console myself by eating’, ‘I don’t eat some food because they make me fat’. These items are used to evaluate the following dimensions of eating behavior:

i. Cognitive restraint, understood as the conscious efforts of individuals to control what they eat to maintain or lose weight.
ii. Uncontrolled eating, which expresses the tendency to eat excessively in response to the loss of control over the food itself.
iii. Emotional eating, understood as the need to overeat when individuals are unable to cope with emotionally negative situations and moods.

The TFEQ-R21C consists of 21 items that are scored on a four-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (‘Definitely true’) to 4 (‘Definitely false’). Scores are calculated separately for each dimension as a mean of all items, where the higher the score, the greater the emotional eating, the cognitive restraint, and/or the uncontrolled eating [ 23 , 24 ].

2.6.3. Physical Activity

The level of physical activity was evaluated using the short version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) [ 25 ]. This version of the IPAQ questionnaire has been validated in the Spanish population, in which a good correlation with accelerometer data was obtained. The IPAQ contains questions such as: ‘During the last 7 days, on how many days did you do vigorous physical activities like heavy lifting, digging, aerobics or fast bicycling?’, ‘How much time did you usually spend doing vigorous physical activities on one of those days’, ‘During the last 7 days, on how many days did you do moderate physical activities like carrying light loads, bicycling at a regular pace, or doubles tennis? Do not include walking’, ‘How much time did you usually spend doing moderate physical activities on one of those days’, ‘During the last 7 days, on how many days did you walk for at least 10 minutes at a time?’, and ‘How much time did you usually spend walking on one of those days?’. The physical activity score was calculated in Metabolic Equivalents of Task (MET)-minutes per week. In this case, the higher the score, the more intense the level of physical activity.

2.6.4. Sleep Quality

Additionally, sleep quality was evaluated with the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) [ 26 ], which has been validated in Spanish population [ 27 ]. The PSQI contains questions such as: ‘during the past month, how often have you had trouble sleeping because you had bad dreams?’, ‘during the past month, how would you rate your sleep quality overall?’, ‘during the past month, how often have you had trouble staying awake while driving, eating meals, or engaging in social activities?’. The PSQI consists of 19 items, each rated on a four-point scale (0–3), grouped into seven components: subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbance, use of sleeping medications, and daytime dysfunction. Scores range from 0 to 21, where the higher the score, the worse the sleep quality.

2.6.5. Well-Being

This variable was assessed using the World Health Organization-5 (WHO-5) Well-Being Index [ 28 ]. The WHO-5 includes five statements: ‘I have felt cheerful and in good spirits’, ‘I have felt calm and relaxed’, ‘I have felt active and vigorous’, ‘I woke up feeling fresh and rested’ and ‘My daily life has been filled with things that interest me’. The respondent is asked to rate, on a five-point Likert scale (from 0 ‘at no time’ to 5 ‘all the time’), how well each of the five statements apply to him or her when considering the last 14 days. The total raw score is multiplied by 4 to obtain a final score on the scale from 0 to 100, where the higher the score, the higher the well-being.

2.7. Statistical Analyses

Normality was confirmed through histograms and Q–Q plots. Descriptive characteristics are presented for all participants, including mean and standard deviation for continuous variables, and proportions for categorical variables. A chi-squared test was used to compare gender between pre-pandemic and ‘new normal’ groups. Meanwhile, General Linear Models (GLMs) were used to compare age, and sleep and eating routines between pre-pandemic and ‘new normal’ groups. In addition, we used GLMs to calculate adjusted differences in variables related to sleep and eating routines (reference category ‘pre-pandemic’). Subsequently, we compared BMI, diet quality, eating behaviors, physical activity, and well-being variables between pre-pandemic and ‘new normal’ groups using GLMs. All p -values were corrected using the Benjamini–Hochberg method, assuming a False Discovery Rate (FDR) of 5%. All analyses were adjusted for age and gender, and were performed with the SPSS statistical computer software, version 25.0 (IBM SPSS Statistics, Armonk, NY, USA). Significance testing was considered when p < 0.05.

A total of 139 college students were included in this case-control study. The mean age of the participants in the pre-pandemic group ( n = 71) was 22.5 ± 2.3 years, whereas the subjects in the ‘new-normal’ group ( n = 68) were 22.8 ± 3.1 years old ( p = 0.446). Regarding gender, most of the participants were women (pre-pandemic 81.7%, and ‘new normal’ 88.2%), with no statistically significant differences between groups ( p = 0.281).

Regarding sleep routines, our results revealed that though bedtime was similar between pre-pandemic and ‘new normal’ groups, wakeup time differed significantly on weekdays (06:44 ± 00:59 vs. 08:19 ± 00:57, p < 0.001). Specifically, we observed that during the ‘new normal’, participants woke up 1.6 h (95% CI: 1.3, 1.9) later on weekdays ( Figure 1 ). In addition, we observed a significant increase in sleep duration on both weekdays and weekends during the ‘new normal’. However, the greatest increase was found on weekdays, when sleep duration was 1.8 h longer (95% CI: 1.5, 2.2) ( Figure 1 ).

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is nutrients-14-00351-g001.jpg

Changes in sleep routines between ‘new normal’ and pre-pandemic groups. General linear models were used to calculate adjusted differences in sleep routines between ‘new normal’ and pre-pandemic conditions (reference group “pre-pandemic”). Analyses were adjusted for age and gender. p -values were corrected using the Benjamini–Hochberg method, assuming a False Discovery Rate (FDR) of 5%. ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.

Interestingly, our results showed a significant reduction in social jet lag and sleep debt during the ‘new-normal’ compared to pre-pandemic conditions. In this regard, we noted that the participants reduced their social jet lag to almost one hour (−0.7 h (95% CI: −1.0, −0.4)), whereas sleep debt was reduced by 1.3 h (95% CI: −1.7, −0.9) ( Figure 1 ).

As for eating routines ( Table 1 ), we observed that eating jet lag was significantly reduced in the ‘new normal’ (−0.3 h (95% CI: −0.5, −0.1)). We also found a slight advance in dinner time during weekdays ( p < 0.05), in which case, dinner was 0.2 h earlier (95% CI: −0.44, −0.04) in the ‘new normal’. In addition, and despite the significant difference in wakeup time on weekdays, we observed that breakfast time on weekdays was similar between the pre-pandemic and ‘new normal’ groups ( Table 1 ).

Comparison of eating routines between pre-pandemic and ‘new normal’ groups.

	Pre-Pandemic ( 71)	New Normal ( 68)	-Value
Eating jet lag, h	0.9 (0.7)	0.6 (0.5)
Breakfast
Weekdays, hh:mm	09:10 (01:22)	09:05 (00:58)	0.141
Weekends, hh:mm	10:11 (01:22)	09:52 (01:00)	0.284
Lunch
Weekdays, hh:mm	14:02 (00:39)	14:10 (00:30)	0.383
Weekends, hh:mm	14:30 (01:57)	14:28 (00:34)	0.494
Dinner
Weekdays, hh:mm	21:37 (00:41)	21:22 (00:28)
Weekends, hh:mm	21:32 (00:57)	21:31 (00:39)	0.542
Eating duration
Weekdays, hh:mm	12.4 (1.5)	12.1 (1.1)	0.892
Weekends, hh:mm	11.0 (1.8)	11.5 (1.0)	0.176

Values are mean and standard deviation (SD) for continuous data. a Statistical analyses: general linear models were used to compare eating routines between pre-pandemic and ‘new normal’ groups. Analyses were adjusted for age and gender. p -values were corrected using the Benjamini–Hochberg method, assuming a False Discovery Rate (FDR) of 5%. Significant p -values are shown in bold.

Our results also indicated that BMI and diet quality were similar between the pre-pandemic and ‘new normal’ groups ( Table 2 ). Regarding eating behaviors, the results showed that cognitive restraint was reduced by 0.2 points (95% CI: −0.4, −0.1) in the ‘new normal’, whereas no differences were found in emotional and uncontrolled eating scores. Regarding sleep quality and physical activity, we did not observe any significant difference between groups ( Table 2 ). Likewise, we observed that well-being was similar between the pre-pandemic and ‘new normal’ groups.

Comparison of pre-pandemic and ‘new normal’ conditions in body mass index and health-related variables.

	Pre-Pandemic ( 71)	New Normal ( 68)	-Value
Body mass index, kg/m	22.2 (3.2)	21.3 (2.7)	0.177
Diet quality, score	8.9 (1.8)	8.5 (1.9)	0.366
Eating behaviors
Cognitive restraint, score	2.1 (0.5)	1.9 (0.3)
Emotional eating, score	1.7 (0.6)	1.7 (0.6)	0.893
Uncontrolled eating, score	1.9 (0.5)	1.9 (0.4)	0.707
Sleep quality, score	5.1 (2.4)	5.2 (2.5)	0.818
Physical activity, MET-minutes/day	2242.8 (1591.1)	2193.9 (1913.7)	0.899
Well-being, score	57.8 (16.6)	55.2 (17.6)	0.550

Values are mean and standard deviation (SD). MET, metabolic equivalent of task. a Statistical analyses: general linear models were used to compare body mass index and health-related variables between pre-pandemic and ‘new normal’ groups. Analyses were adjusted for age and gender. p -values were corrected using the Benjamini–Hochberg method, assuming a False Discovery Rate (FDR) of 5%. Significant p -values are shown in bold.

4. Discussion

Our findings revealed that, relative to pre-pandemic conditions, the ‘new normal’ had a positive impact in terms of regularity in daily sleep and eating routines. Therefore, the greater flexibility in social schedules provided by the ‘new normal’ was significantly associated with lower social and eating jet lag (−0.7 h and −0.3 h, respectively). Furthermore, our results suggest that in the ‘new normal’, the sleep routines followed by college students on weekdays were more sustainable. Note that in the ‘new normal’, participants slept 1.8 h more, and sleep debt was reduced by ~1.3 h.

These findings are in line with the conclusions drawn from COVID-19 lockdown studies indicating that greater flexibility in social schedules, possibly due to online learning and the elimination of commute time, had a positive impact on daily sleep routines [ 2 ]. This is supported by the significant decrease in sleep debt and social jet lag found during the ‘new normal’. Furthermore, our results showed that the ‘new normal’ lifestyle could mitigate the misalignment between biological and social clocks [ 2 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. It should be noted that circadian misalignment has been associated with obesity and metabolic alterations [ 6 , 7 , 10 , 11 ], as well as with unhealthy eating habits [ 6 , 29 ]. Therefore, it is plausible that, in the long term, regularity in daily sleep routines could have a positive impact on body weight and other health-related variables in college students. However, evidence from longitudinal studies needs to be warranted.

Regarding eating routines, we noticed a slight advance in dinner timing on weekdays (~0.24 h). Note that advancing dinner time would allow postprandial blood glucose to return to fasting values before the rise in endogenous melatonin levels [ 30 ]. In fact, having dinner closer to bedtime is associated with obesity and metabolic alterations [ 4 , 30 , 31 ]. Furthermore, this subtle shift in dinner timing plus the regularity in daily sleep routines seen in the ‘new normal’ are related to a lower eating jet lag. Regularity in daily eating routines is crucial to maintaining optimal nutrient utilization [ 32 , 33 ]. Note that, when eating occurs at an expected (or regular) time, the circadian system ensures that the proper pathways that help to assimilate the nutrients begin to increase in anticipation of food intake [ 32 ]. However, when food intake occurs at an unexpected (or irregular) time, nutrient sensing pathways act on the peripheral clocks so that food is anticipated at the new mealtime in the following days [ 32 ]. Thus, eating can independently activate nutrient-sensing pathways, compromising the way food is processed during the postprandial period. Not surprisingly, the irregularity in daily eating routines (given by a greater eating jet lag) has been associated with obesity [ 9 , 15 ].

It is worth noting that regularity in daily sleep and eating routines might explain why BMI was similar between the ‘new normal’ and the pre-pandemic groups. We cannot ignore that the COVID-19 lockdown was a stressful time that, among others, had a negative impact on what we ate, how well we slept, and how much exercise we practiced [ 17 , 34 , 35 , 36 ]. Unsurprisingly, during the COVID-19 lockdown, people were more likely to gain weight. In fact, a recent systematic review and meta-analysis found that body weight and BMI increased significantly (~1.57 kg and ~0.31 kg/m 2 , respectively) during the lockdown period compared with pre-pandemic conditions [ 37 ]. Thus, our results suggest that the measures that characterized the ‘new-normal’ (such as prioritizing online classes, allowing individual exercise, and letting people have some sort of social life) may have helped college students to maintain and/or recover their weight once they returned to ‘normal’ life.

In line with the above, we observed that diet quality was similar between the ‘new normal’ and pre-pandemic groups. Our hypothesis was that schedule flexibility could play a role in maintaining diet quality, as having online classes could give college students more time to do other activities, such as cooking. This trend was also observed in young Spanish adults during the COVID-19 lockdown [ 34 ]. The authors reported that 57% of the population studied increased their home cooking practices [ 34 ], which could favor the consumption of healthier homemade foods [ 38 ]. It is worth mentioning that meals prepared and eaten at home are associated with higher-quality diets and better health outcomes [ 39 , 40 , 41 ]. Specifically, Larson et al. [ 39 ] showed that young adults who frequently bought their own food and prepared meals at home had a better diet quality. Interestingly, adherence to a healthy diet could play a significant role in the prevention and predisposition to viral infections, such as COVID-19 [ 42 , 43 ]. According to recent reviews, special attention should be paid to nutrients that play a role in regulating the immune response [ 43 ]. For example, Messina et al. [ 42 ] hypothesized that omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids could be used to reduce inflammation, as well as to ameliorate lung damage that occurs after coronavirus infection.

It is also worth noting that in the ‘new normal’, college students were more relaxed in terms of their diet, without compromising diet quality. It is noteworthy that our results showed that cognitive restraint was significantly lower in the ‘new normal’ compared with the pre-pandemic group. Importantly, less cognitive restraint does not necessarily imply that the subjects are prone to increase their body weight, but quite the opposite [ 44 , 45 ]. In fact, previous research performed by our group showed that a greater dietary restraint is associated with a higher BMI among college students [ 45 ].

Along these lines, we observed that the flexibility provided by the ‘new normal’ could have helped to maintain sleep quality, despite the stressful pandemic context. This would also be in line with the findings of Blume et al. [ 17 ] during COVID-19 lockdown. According to the authors, the reduction in sleep debt and social jet lag limited the decline in sleep quality during lockdown. Furthermore, Pilz et al. [ 46 ] suggested that it is not the delay in sleep timing that affects sleep quality, but rather the social jet lag. The authors explained that the combination of late sleep schedules with the time constrains of the social clock could explain why subjects who had a preference for late sleep schedules usually showed the worst sleep quality.

Regarding other health-related variables, our results revealed that physical activity was similar between the ‘new normal’ and pre-pandemic groups (~2242.8 vs. ~2193.9 MET-minutes/day, respectively). This can be attributed to the fact that, despite the restrictions, in the ‘new normal’, exercise was allowed. Importantly, Zhang et al. [ 47 ] observed that during COVID-19 lockdown, performing 2500 METs/week of physical activity (equivalent to a moderate level of physical activity [ 48 ]) alleviated negative emotions in college students, which could also be in line with our results regarding well-being. It is worth noting that despite social restrictions and the curfew issued in the ‘new normal’, well-being remained similar between the ‘new normal’ and pre-pandemic groups. It is also plausible that the consistency of daily sleep routines could also be associated with the maintenance of well-being in the ‘new normal’ [ 2 , 49 ].

Our study has certain limitations, starting with the observational nature of the study, that prevent us from claiming causation. Additionally, we acknowledge as a limitation that our sample consisted mostly of women and undergraduate students of the Bachelor’s Degree in Human Nutrition and Dietetics, which is not representative of the entire population. Furthermore, the representativeness of our results is limited to students living in an urban area. We also acknowledge our results are based upon a cohort of healthy young adults, who may not be representative of the entire population in terms of sleep and meal timing. Nonetheless, the strength of our study is that this is the first research to study the effects of the ‘new normal’ on daily sleep and eating routines, BMI, and health-related variables in college students.

5. Conclusions

In summary, our findings indicate that the ‘new normal’ was associated with greater regularity in daily sleeping and eating routines. Additionally, we observed that BMI, diet and sleep quality, the level of physical activity, and well-being were similar between the ‘new normal’ and pre-pandemic groups. Although, we did observe that college students were less restrictive in terms of their diet, without compromising diet quality. It is also worth noting that the ‘new normal’ offered college students a more sustainable lifestyle, which was reflected in longer sleep duration on weekdays, as well as with less social and eating jet lag. These findings point to the need to rethink the possibility of combining face-to-face activities with remote work and online education, which could be associated with more hours of sleep during weekdays, and the regularity of daily sleep and eating routines. However, more studies are needed to investigate the long-term potential benefits of regular sleep and eating routines on BMI and other health-related variables. Finally, our findings could help formulate public health recommendations for future pandemics where social distancing measures are needed to halt the spread of a virus.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization and methodology, M.I.-P. and M.F.Z.-R.; investigation, formal analysis, data curation, and writing—original draft preparation, C.R.-C. and M.F.Z.-R.; writing—review and editing, M.I.-P.; supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition, M.I.-P. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

CRC was supported by the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID)/Scholarship Program/DOCTORADO BECAS CHILE/2019–72200134.

Institutional Review Board Statement

The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Barcelona (IRB00003099, 20 May 2020).

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Share full article

Supported by

current events

12 Ideas for Writing Through the Pandemic With The New York Times

A dozen writing projects — including journals, poems, comics and more — for students to try at home.

By Natalie Proulx

The coronavirus has transformed life as we know it. Schools are closed, we’re confined to our homes and the future feels very uncertain. Why write at a time like this?

For one, we are living through history. Future historians may look back on the journals, essays and art that ordinary people are creating now to tell the story of life during the coronavirus.

But writing can also be deeply therapeutic. It can be a way to express our fears, hopes and joys. It can help us make sense of the world and our place in it.

Plus, even though school buildings are shuttered, that doesn’t mean learning has stopped. Writing can help us reflect on what’s happening in our lives and form new ideas.

We want to help inspire your writing about the coronavirus while you learn from home. Below, we offer 12 projects for students, all based on pieces from The New York Times, including personal narrative essays, editorials, comic strips and podcasts. Each project features a Times text and prompts to inspire your writing, as well as related resources from The Learning Network to help you develop your craft. Some also offer opportunities to get your work published in The Times, on The Learning Network or elsewhere.

We know this list isn’t nearly complete. If you have ideas for other pandemic-related writing projects, please suggest them in the comments.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

Want all of The Times? Subscribe .

IMAGES

😱 My daily life short paragraph. My daily life. 2022-10-11
≫ Nationalism and Covid-19 Pandemic Free Essay Sample on Samploon.com
💄 Your daily routine essay. My Daily Routine Essay and Composition. 2022-11-09
Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)
ESSAY ON COVID 19
💄 Your daily routine essay. My Daily Routine Essay and Composition. 2022-11-09

VIDEO

Essay on my daily routine in English || My daily routine essay writing
Pandemic COVID-19 Essay
Article on COVID 19
My Daily Routine
coronavirus essay in punjabi,covid 19 essay in punjabi,coronavirus essay in punjabi language
When Life's a Routine

COMMENTS

My Experience During The Covid-19 Pandemic
Conclusion. In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on my life. It affected me physically, mentally, and emotionally and challenged my ability to cope with adversity. However, it also taught me valuable lessons and allowed me to grow as an individual. This is only a sample.
My Life Experience During the Covid-19 Pandemic
Abstract. My content explains what my life was like during the last seven months of the Covid-19 pandemic and how it affected my life both positively and negatively. It also explains what it was like when I graduated from High School and how I want the future generations to remember the Class of 2020.
Insights into the impact on daily life of the COVID-19 pandemic and
1. Introduction. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to unprecedented changes in people's daily lives, with implications for mental health and well-being [1-4], both at the level of a given country's population, and when considering specific vulnerable groups [5-7].In order to mitigate the untoward impact of the pandemic (including lockdown) and support mental health ...
How to Write About Coronavirus in a College Essay
Writing About Coronavirus in Main and Supplemental Essays. Students can choose to write a full-length college essay on the coronavirus or summarize their experience in a shorter form. To help ...
How the Pandemic Has Changed Our Lives
Since the pandemic started, nearly two-thirds of the survey's participants (62%) say they've made a significant lifestyle change, including: More time outdoors or experiencing nature. Improved ...
The Pandemic Helped Me Realize How Essential My Routines Are
By setting routines for myself, I was able to shield myself from chaos. "It helps you feel like you're in control," Charles Duhigg, who wrote "The Power of Habit," said in an interview ...
What We Learned About Ourselves During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Alex, a writer and fellow disabled parent, found the freedom to explore a fuller version of herself in the privacy the pandemic provided. "The way I dress, the way I love, and the way I carry ...
Quarantine Diaries: One Word
My daily routine has been upended, luxuries I took for granted snatched away, but I feel a little bit of power in exercising my creativity. This pandemic thwarted an opportunity I had to go to a conference I had been looking forward to for a long time and a chance for a weekend visit to my brother who lives in Washington, D.C.
8 Lessons We Can Learn From the COVID-19 Pandemic
The CDC reports that the percentage of adults who reported symptoms of anxiety of depression in the past 7 days increased from 36.4 to 41.5 % from August 2020 to February 2021. Other reports show that having COVID-19 may contribute, too, with its lingering or long COVID symptoms, which can include "foggy mind," anxiety, depression, and post ...
Writing about COVID-19 in a college admission essay
The student or a family member had COVID-19 or suffered other illnesses due to confinement during the pandemic. The student suffered from a lack of internet access and other online learning challenges. Students who dealt with problems registering for or taking standardized tests and AP exams. Jeff Schiffman of the Tulane University admissions ...
Six Aspects of Daily Life Rapidly Changed by COVID-19
Nonetheless, COVID-19 has laid a foundation for people to link food safety and pandemic risk more seriously. Some 60 per cent of people polled in China said they were far less likely to consume raw meat now. 'The pandemic will increase interest in lab-grown meats, for instance, and more 'sterile' ways of producing meat.
12 moving essays about life during coronavirus
Read these 12 moving essays about life during coronavirus. Artists, novelists, critics, and essayists are writing the first draft of history. A woman wearing a face mask in Miami. Alissa Wilkinson ...
"What Has Your Pandemic Experience Been Like?"
The COVID-19 pandemic was — is — that rare event that affects everyone with ties to the College. Even as this introduction is written, its vast, global story continues to evolve, expanding and deepening in ways that resist easy comprehension. ... "T he show must go on, but my daily routine has been altered significantly. The Jump is now ...
How the COVID-19 pandemic has changed Americans' personal lives
The outbreak has dramatically changed Americans' lives and relationships over the past year. We asked people to tell us about their experiences - good and bad - in living through this moment in history. Pew Research Center has been asking survey questions over the past year about Americans' views and reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Coronavirus: My Experience During the Pandemic
The coronavirus is a virus that originated in China, reached the U.S. and eventually spread all over the world by January of 2020. The common symptoms of the virus include shortness of breath, chills, sore throat, headache, loss of taste and smell, runny nose, vomiting and nausea. As it has been established, it might take up to 14 days for the ...
Effects of COVID-19 pandemic in daily life
Presently the impacts of COVID-19 in daily life are extensive and have far reaching consequences. These can be divided into various categories: Closure of places for entertainment such as movie and play theatres, sports clubs, gymnasiums, swimming pools, and so on. This COVID-19 has affected the sources of supply and effects the global economy.
A New Map of Life: After the Pandemic
For a short time, before new routines and practices replace familiar old ones, we can see with greater clarity the positive and negative aspects of our former lives. ... The COVID-19 outbreak has altered daily life for Americans - from how they work and attend school, to the ways they connect with others, to how they worship. These ...
Life During Pandemic Essay
Life During Pandemic Essay - Check Life Lessons From COVID-19. Last Updated on Aug 11, 2023. Download as PDF. The Covid-19 pandemic had completely disrupted lives around the world. With lockdowns and social distancing measures in place, daily life had changed dramatically for people globally. No one was truly prepared for how much of an impact ...
Caring for the self and others: a reflection on everyday ...
In this essay, I share my experiences and reflection on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of a Chinese student residing in Pittsburgh, USA. Three examples of "commoning"—acts of managing shared resources by a group of people—reveal the importance of care and collaboration in the time of uncertainty. First, when COVID-19 posed a threat to the food supply chain ...
MY COVID-19 Story: how young people overcome the covid-19 crisis
During these unprecedented times due to the COVID-19 pandemic, young people find themselves stuck at their homes across the world. ... The crisis has changed not only the daily routine, but also perceptions of everyday life. For some young people rethinking the value of time and common moral principles appears to be key.
How Is the Coronavirus Outbreak Affecting Your Life?
Find all our Student Opinion questions here. Note: The Times Opinion section is working on an article about how the coronavirus outbreak has disrupted the lives of high school students.
Life before and after COVID-19: The 'New Normal' Benefits the
These findings are in line with the conclusions drawn from COVID-19 lockdown studies indicating that greater flexibility in social schedules, possibly due to online learning and the elimination of commute time, had a positive impact on daily sleep routines . This is supported by the significant decrease in sleep debt and social jet lag found ...
12 Ideas for Writing Through the Pandemic With The New York Times
8 a.m. Changing routines Make small discoveries. To stretch my legs during the lockdown, I've been walking around the block every day, and I've started to notice details that I'd never seen ...