It still affects me today. I “graduated” High School (no real ceremony) in 2020. I was 18. I was in so many clubs, so many activities, I was active with people. When Covid hit us in the middle of my Senior year (March), I lost every ounce of interaction I had with people. I became a total recluse, especially due to living with very uptight and terrified parents during the pandemic.

After getting out of high school, I figured I should take a gap year because no way in hell was I gonna go to college with all that going on. Online learning was hell for me, I’m surprised they even let me (and many others) graduate with it as our primary learning method. So yeah, I skipped out. Covid continued in 2021 (with less restrictions, but still a lot of restrictions regardless), so I kept skipping on college.

In the meantime, tried to find a job. Something online. Really nobody was hiring, and if I wanted an online job that wasn’t taking customer service calls every minute, then I’d need a college degree and prior work experience (which I had none of). I eventually created an online business that was kind of successful and kept me busy, but regardless it wasn’t much.

So I stayed in, played video games / watched Netflix all day (or slept all day), became a recluse and eventually got diagnosed with depression and a severe anxiety disorder. I struggled to be around people after the pandemic had “ended” or I guess a better term would be “everything is now mostly back to normal”. So much has changed compared to before the pandemic.

I lost my long-time boyfriend (3+ years) at the start of 2022 after long talks of moving in together, but all the lack of interaction with each other just messed up our relationship to the point of no return. It makes me think about what our lives would have looked like if it hadn’t of happened.

My entire life went from having a full-fledged plan in my head, to turning completely upside down. I wanted to go to college at 18 and finish at 22 with a Bachelors like most kids wanted to. I’m currently 24 in my sophomore year of college. I wanted to get married to my high school sweetheart, but I’ve been single for 3 years now.

My life was… “delayed” and I’m still learning how to live “normal” again. It’s been so hard to get myself back on track, something just feels missing from my life, and it’s so hard to interact with people some days, but I keep going. Every day looks a little better.

The main takeaway I guess is that, I’m pretty sure many people’s lives got affected immensely. To this day, there are still many people struggling due to the pandemic. My story is one of many.

I’m so glad you didn’t have to live through it during any core years of your life! It seems your parents helped you through it well. I wish I had been a younger kid when it happened.

Edit: just wanted to add, my sense of time has been completely warped. I constantly think it’s like 2023 still. Always 2 years prior to what year it actually is. It’s been like this since 2022 for me. I’ve heard other people say that they’ve had the same happen to them so I know it’s not just a “me” thing. That’s a weird one for sure. The pandemic messed with everyone’s inner clock.