The Weekend Wind-Down #13 - May 19, 2024

This weekend's edition is a different kind of newsletter. There is one topic that has been on my mind for a while and my activities this weekend made me feel it was time to write about it. It has been four years since most of the world shut down because of the COVID pandemic, the world collectively experienced possibly the biggest global event in our lifetimes, and I don't think myself, and many other people have really processed what happened and how it changed us and our society. In almost every country people experienced lockdowns, we all went through the fear of the unknown, the rapid changes in our lifestyles, and now that masks and social distancing are a thing of the past, we've kind of just tried to move on without stopping to reflect on what happened. So today I want to share my thoughts on the pandemic and hopefully start a discussion, or at least people's personal reflection on what we all went through together.

What I'm thinking about the COVID-19 Pandemic this weekend

At the beginning of February 2020, I was feeling great. I started a new job at an exciting startup, the office was near to my house, my colleagues seemed awesome, we played pool and switch at lunchtime, and got free lunches on Fridays. I also switched to a new branch of my gym that was only two stops away from the office, I had plenty of time to train and even have breakfast on the balcony before work, the mat was huge, and there were great coaches and training partners. At the end of the first month I traveled to our HQ in Seattle and the day we arrived COVID was in the news because there was an outbreak at a nursing home. While we were there I stopped by Home Depot and some other stores and all the masks and hand sanitizer were sold out because people had bought it and sent it back to China. As I flew home the first week of March I had a feeling this was going to be big and wasn't going to be over any time soon, frankly, I had no idea.

Our shared experience

I don't think there has been any catastrophe since WWII that affected people around the globe like the pandemic did. The 9/11 attacks were probably the closest, but that was a singular event and happened only in the US, not the slow lumbering trainwreck that unfolded over weeks and months that COVID was. Not only was almost everyone affected, but we all had a similar experience, virtually connected, but in physical isolation. People across the globe went through lockdowns, fear of the unknown, loss or possible loss of loved ones, binging news, fearful grocery shopping runs, eerily empty streets, and everything else that came with it. Of course, I'm speaking from a place of privilege, the essential workers, doctors, nurses, delivery drivers, and many more share a deeper level of trauma and more difficult pandemic experience. But billions of us across the world, sat alone, together, waiting for the end; of the world or the pandemic, we didn't know which.

The social shift

In the movies when there is an alien invasion, zombie apocalypse, or meteor about to hit Earth, humanity responds by banding together, gathering a team of the best and brightest to go out and save the world while the rest of the population stands by and cheers. The pandemic fuelled a fundamental shift in how people interact with each other and the world because we were shown starkly that our leaders don't know any better than us, there is no cavalry coming to save us, and when shit goes down, we're on our own. Because of this, people since are more selfish, less caring of others, and more protective of what they have. The facade was torn away, and we all saw behind the curtain how fragile our civilization and way of life are, and how easily it can be taken away. I at least, and I think many others, never paused to mentally process how fundamentally our view of the world changed. When the world opened up again, we rushed to get back to our pre-pandemic lives, traveling, meeting friends, and going to the gym, but our psychology can never go back to 2019.

Our un-mourned losses

We lost two years. There's no evil mastermind to blame, no single leader to overthrow, and no one else's shoulder to cry on, because we all went through the same thing. Not only did we all experience the loss of time and disruption to our lives, many of us experienced personal hardships. People spent years away from their loved ones, loss of income, quarantines in hotels or hospitals, and so much more. My wife wasn't able to visit her father before he passed or attend his funeral, I wasn't allowed in the delivery room when my daughter was born, and there are countless similar stories around the world. Even the people who didn't have a specific loss lost a lot. Kids missed recess and lunches with their classmates, university students missed studying in the library and Friday night parties, we missed birthday celebrations and anniversaries. But how do we let ourselves feel deserving of mourning when we all went through it together and there are so many others with more tragic stories.

The good parts of the pandemic

But it wasn't all bad. We spent more time with our families, we learned that WFH works, we got better at cooking, we learned that we don't need to be busy all the time, and maybe we learned to appreciate what we have all the more. Honestly, I was one of the people who didn't mind the lockdown that much, I'm a homebody anyway and it was nice to not have any social obligations. For all that I've said so far, COVID wasn't as bad as we feared when it first started, for most healthy people it isn't serious and the world didn't end up looking like 28 Days Later. Actually, there were many improvements in the environment and wildlife growth for the few months things were shut down, many people also made their health a higher priority, and started other hobbies and creative projects. So there was some light in the dark tunnel that we shouldn't ignore.

Conclusion

The catalyst for this post is that this weekend I met with a group of ex-colleagues from that job I started in February of 2020, it was a great reunion, and everyone has gone on to make good career moves and grow their families, and we look back on our time with that company with fond memories. I also went to my last open mat yesterday at the Holland Village branch where I started training at the same time, the gym unfortunately has to relocate due to landlord issues. For those two days, I got a glimpse of time travel; it almost felt like it was 2019 and the pandemic hadn't happened. But it did. The deepest conversations I can recall about the pandemic revolved mostly around laughing at the toilet paper hoarders. I'm glad the world has restarted, small businesses can continue growing, restaurants are back in full swing, and kids can go to school without masks. But I think all of us need to give ourselves a moment to reflect back on what a crazy thing happened to us all and what we should learn from it, personally, as a society, and as a civilization.

Note: My goal is to eventually move this newsletter to email format which will land in your inbox every Sunday evening (Singapore time). Subscribe here if you want to receive this by email after I make the change.

This post was originally published on my website at https://nicholasbraman.com/2024/05/19/the-weekend-wind-down-13-may-19-2024/