One of the best things to come out of this pandemic is the sense of community spirit. Many people decided to go with the “everyone for themselves attitude,” but most people began wearing masks, donating food and necessary items, and looked out for those in need.
There have always been helpers, but COVID-19 really highlighted what makes humanity good – the fact that we help each other. There was a story about a young woman who finally beat cancer, but her friends couldn’t throw a party. Instead, the entire block lined up (socially distanced, of course) to cheer her on while she drove home from her last chemo treatment.
While the dolphins of Venice got debunked, that doesn’t mean the air and water haven’t improved. There have been plenty of studies that found pollution has dropped quite a bit since everyone is stuck at home.
According to National Geographic, air pollution in the United States dropped anywhere from 3% (like in Dallas and Chicago) to 33% (in Los Angeles). Even though there are no dolphins, the waters of Venice really did clear up. Even the air in China (one of the most polluted places in the world) got a lot clearer!
How many times have you been washing your hands in the restroom to see someone walk out without even touching the water? Yeah, too many times. It’s gross. Every day, we touch tons of bacteria and possible viruses, and some people don’t wash their hands all day!
With the coronavirus potentially on every surface and item, people are always washing their hands. Even better, many people are washing their hands for 20 seconds – the proper amount of time to get rid of anything on the skin. Maybe the flu won’t be nearly as bad in the coming seasons thanks to hand washing!
We’ve all wanted to work from home at least once in our lives, so we can admit it’s been nice. There are definitely drawbacks but working from home during this pandemic certainly beats going to the office every day. We can work in our pajamas, work in silence (or with blasting music), and feel comfortable in our own skin.
Every one of us can work in an environment that works best for them. Businesses also save money since they don’t need an office! Google and Twitter have decided to permanently work from home. We’re guessing a lot of other businesses will follow suit.
Quarantine locked everyone in their homes, including college students who had to go somewhere once the campus shut down. This meant families got to spend a lot of quality time with each other. It really gave everyone a chance to reconnect, something many can’t do because they’re too busy.
Unfortunately, some people aren’t able to see their loved ones because they’re in the hospital or nursing homes. That’s when technology and innovation stepped in. We’ve been able to talk to our loved ones via Zoom and FaceTime as if they were in the room with us!
We’re not talking about just medical professionals. For years, we’ve known that nurses, doctors, and other medically important staff are essential to our community. As far as “essential workers” are concerned, we’re talking about grocery store workers, construction crew, delivery drivers, fast food employees, and everyone that keeps the ball rolling behind the scenes.
Since America is always so busy, we rely on these essential workers to show up each and every day. Now, they’re risking their lives to do so. COVID-19 puts a focus on how important these people are, and that’s something many have forgotten prior to the pandemic.
Students transitioned to online learning and lucky workers were able to bring their equipment home to continue working in their own house. Unfortunately, many of us learned that our infrastructure isn’t prepared to handle that much strain on the system.
Telecommunications companies immediately set to work, improving things across the board from replacing lines, equipment, and machinery. Sure, it took a while, but in the grand scheme of things, we all now have better internet than before!
Several studies from FitBit and published journals discovered that people are actually sleeping more now! Stress is all weighing down on us, so sleeping more becomes pretty important. In fact, America pretty much ran on a sleep debt – maybe that’s why coffee is so big here!
A study published in Current Biology found that students are sleeping 15 minutes longer each night. On the other hand, FitBit discovered that its users were sleeping on average 17 more minutes per night in April than they had been in January (pre-lockdown). Get those Z’s!
Many countries wear masks to prevent illness, especially places like China and Japan. Thanks to masks, sickness doesn’t run rampant in these countries, but that wasn’t something America subscribed to. In fact, you were looked at strange if you walked out of your home with a face mask. Some places even required you to take off face masks before entering.
Now, that’s all changed. It took a while, but people now realize that wearing a mask is the best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other illnesses. In the future, this could result in lower flu deaths and decreased spread of sickness. That’s great news for anyone with a compromised immune system.
A lot of us were looking for something to do after lockdown. Amusement parks closed, restaurants shut down, and malls were kaput. Well, entertainers did something about that! There were free concerts that we could watch that raised awareness and money if you had the dough to donate.
On top of that, many platforms allowed free enrollment for select classes. Sure, you couldn’t get your bachelors for free, but the quarantine was the perfect time to learn something new – a new language, hobby, or just general knowledge.
For years and years, people have always focused on how America never slows down. We work 40 to 60 hours a week (depending on the profession) and complaining about how much work we do has become a brag, especially if we lose sleep because of it.
Not anymore. Quarantine has forced everyone to slow down and do a mental checklist on themselves. Are they eating enough? Sleeping enough? Drinking enough water? Chances aren’t great, but now, we can fix all that and focus on ourselves. It’s a little shocking how much that impacts our mental health.
If you were lucky, you had the weekend to work on projects that really needed to be done, like that decluttering job in the closet we’ve been working on for months. Now, we can actually complete those projects. It’s easy to spend 15 minutes a day decluttering or working on a project that’s been pushed back for months (or years).
Have you seen project completion pics from your friends? It’s almost like creativity ramped up along with the extra time! A lot of people are using this time to complete home improvement projects, which is why Home Depot and other home improvement stores have done phenomenal sales during the pandemic.
So, the pandemic has been hard on everyone – literally everyone. From the smallest child to the oldest adult, everyone is stressed, scared, and worried. For that reason, a lot of news outlets and social media platforms have begun focusing on the good in the world to boost our morale.
These are stories of people donating to help others, like volunteers who go to the store to get groceries for elderly individuals. The good can be as small as a puppy stumbling over his own paws. Stuff like that is guaranteed to make you smile.
Because we have such a strict work schedule that often leaves us exhausted (usually thanks to lack of sleep), we all forgot hobbies. Sewing, knitting, wood-burning, leatherwork – there’s an endless list. Not anymore. America began picking up hobbies again, even if simply out of boredom.
Heck, some people picked up things as gnarly as blacksmithing! Could you imagine making your own sword during quarantine? Sheesh. Others decided to go a more traditional route like writing. Whatever your jam, work it and enjoy life through hobbies.
When was the last time you got in contact with family who lives across the country? Or your friends who live down the street? It’s probably been a while. Many of us have lost contact with friends because we’ve been so busy, and that’s no way to live life.
Seeing each other is pretty much out of the question, but that doesn’t mean we can’t check up on everyone. People have begun chatting with friends and long-distance family members much more often than before. Keeping in contact with those we care about is always important.
