Post 5: More Social While Social Distancing?

A year ago from now if you told me that I would be traveling and hanging out with friends as often as I wanted, I would think that you’re lying or have the cure to this virus. In March of 2020 I just knew that my days of being a social queen were over. My prom got cancelled and my graduation was just days away from being cancelled as well. However, somehow during this pandemic my friends and I had become closer than ever.

During the school year we would hang out maybe every once in a while and of course for each others’ birthdays. We usually would only go to the mall or randomly go out to eat at a random restaurant that I would drag them to go try. With the news that many people could be asymptomatic and could be walking around with the disease without knowing, my group was scared. We all took everything very seriously but for some reason we started to also hang out more. We all of course stayed home from March until May but then we started to perk up more when testing became more available. We would get tested frequently and only hang out with each other and our families. We went on picnics and hung out at each other’s houses in moderation. Most of the time we were just hanging out at the park and staring at clouds. In December we even got an AirBnB for a few days in August to celebrate the new year together (everyone was covid free).

Looking back on all that we did it does seem a little irresponsible to be around them as much and also in the capacity that we were in. I would hang out with them multiple days out of the week and I now understand how risky that really could’ve been. However, I think that we all wanted to be so close to everyone and always around others that could make us laugh and smile because we needed the human interaction. It’s hard to sit at home all day or in isolation and not miss others. It’s almost unnatural to go so long without seeing friends and the family that lives with you. Also deep down inside we all knew the risk and uncertainty along with this pandemic. We didn’t know when it would be our last time hanging out with everyone or even if it would get worst and we would have to stay in isolation for an even longer time period. We needed to feel something normal and above all we wanted to be happy in a time full of sorrow.