One year later: Reflecting on life before the pandemic

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down our lives. Though the pandemic had already been recognized in China and a few cases had even been found in the United States, it wasn’t until states began shutting down and President Trump declared a national emergency on March 13 that we began to understand just how serious the threat was.

Even at BenefitsPRO, we urged caution, writing in February that employers and their workers should, “Keep calm and wash your hands.” And Kaiser Family Foundation polling found that, at the end of February, just 9% of people had bought or worn protective masks.

Related: 5 things we said goodbye to in 2020

A lot of things have changed in the past 12 months, some suddenly (like the closure of businesses and the transition to remote work) and some subtlety (when you’re watching TV reruns and feel uncomfortable that the characters are walking around without masks).

As we take stock of our lives and count our blessings, we should also recognize just how much change we’ve been able to handle in the past year. (And if you’re a benefits advisor, you have a new benchmark to point to when clients tell you they can’t handle the changes you’re proposing).

Take some time to think back to a day, a moment, a detail that marked the beginning of this pandemic era for you, personally. No doubt you’ll find that things have changed even more than you realized.

Here are a few reflections to get you started:

The calm before the storm

“My family were on a week-long ski trip to Park City Utah at the end of February & early March 2020. We knew about COVID-19, but did not think anything about it reaching the US as most of the initial reports were mainly coming out of China. We realized that we should monitor the situation. There were a lot of skiers in Park City, but the resorts and lodging were not sold out as originally expected. In fact there was a very large conference that was canceled in Salt Lake City because of the concerns of transmitting COVID while traveling through the airports and on a plane. We realized that many of the restaurants were easy to get into without a reservation, though many nights we cooked at the house we rented in Park City.

“With each day of our trip, we were watching TV and the situation started to become dire based on news reports on national TV networks. COVID-19 somehow arrived in the US and businesses and activities started shutting down. Vail Resorts, the owner of Park City ski resorts announced that they were closing the ski resort the day after we left Salt Lake City to be back in Florida. It was so strange traveling at time there were so many unknowns. No one wore masks at the airport or on the plane on our trip back home.

“To this date, none of my family members (wife, daughters, & grandson) and friends ever contracted COVID-19 since enjoying our last real vacation and trip in early 2020 in Park City. I, like many others, yearn to travel again for business and fun.”

“I started to ring the alarm bell when my wife was six months pregnant when it all began, and we had plenty of unanswered questions to plan around. Life changed quickly, and we played it very safe–primarily so that I wouldn’t be solo with the twins plus a newborn if she were infected and held at the hospital.

“When it was D-Day, I stayed home with the twins while my wife (brave as she is) went to deliver the baby on her own. While I still wish that I hadn’t missed out on being there for the birth, I did have a few really fun days on my own with the kids–breaking all of mom’s rules with staying up late, making a mess, and more. Fast-forward to today, and I think that we’ve all learned that despite living in a very different world, we can find new ways to make great memories, and many of us will have found that we have a new appreciation for the simple things as well.”

Bringing it all home

“Being in Texas, going to a Tex-Mex restaurant and having a margarita is many people’s favorite thing to do. When the Mexican restaurants started closing, I was like, oh no…how are we going to get our margarita fix/?!? And then Governor Abbott decided to allow alcoholic drinks to go!

“One of my most fun memories of COVID was going to Mexican Sugar (a local Mexican restaurant) and getting their fajita and margarita kit to go. Their margarita kit came with 3 mason jars full of your favorite margarita! Needless to say, we frequented there quite a few times during the COVID lockdown. Thank you to Governor Abbott for passing this to where we can take mixed drinks to go.”

Extreme social distancing

“My husband and I were planning a camping trip to the Bisti Badlands New Mexico at the end of March. We weighed the risks and decided to proceed, as we were planning to do dispersed camping and hike in remote areas with few people. We did, however, have a hard time finding our usual camping meal staples and jugs of water due to panic buying (remember toilet paper hoarding?). My husband even had to make his own alcohol wipes for us to bring, since we couldn’t find hand sanitizer–I do not recommend it.

“We had a great time, but ended up cutting our trip short–we kept getting new updates on mask mandates and closures and actually feared that individual counties might start shutting down their roads and we wouldn’t be able to travel home safely. There were just so many unanswered questions in those early days!”

-Emily Payne, managing editor, BenefitsPRO

What moments came to mind for you, and what are you looking forward to getting back to most? Here are a few responses gathered by Seyfarth lawfirm.

Here are a few more headlines from March of 2020:

• Coronavirus prompts bleak financial outlook globally
• Senate passes $2.2T stimulus package
• Amid coronavirus pandemic, don’t forget about mental health benefits
• States reopen ACA exchanges for COVID-19 enrollment period
• Advisors, now is the time to take your advice: Do some business and estate planning