The Covid-19 pandemic era started around the same time for most of us: March 2020. That’s when lockdowns started and we were stuck at home watching Tiger King and baking bread. But when did it end for you? Did it end at the beginning of 2021? When you got your first vaccine? When you got covid?
My “Covid-19” era ended earlier this year, with life feeling finally feeling “back to normal”. But like we heard all throughout the pandemic, it’s a “new normal”. A lot has changed since March 2020, and I feel like many of us entered and exited the pandemic era as completely different people. As 2022 comes to a close, I wanted to spend some time looking back to reflect on how life changed throughout my pandemic era, starting with 2020.
Whispers of the Pandemic
In January 2020, I was looking forward to what the new year would bring. I had started a new job as a Product Manager at Zynga, and this was my first time working at a big tech company, having been at smaller scrappier startups before. I finally got to experience the big tech company perks I’d heard so much about and was starting to make new friends at work, sharing drinks at happy hours and gaming with them at the arcade cabinets in the office.
During a 1:1 with one of my coworkers, he shared that he was worried about a virus sweeping through his family’s hometown in China. He mentioned that he was pulling out of the stock market, afraid that something big was on the horizon. I figured he was being overly paranoid, and that there was no way a virus like that could hit the US (lol).
The biggest thing I was worried about was norovirus, which hit Yosemite when I traveled there with some friends. I was traveling a lot throughout the beginning of the year and was looking forward to a year filled with many more trips (RIP). In February, as some friends and I made our way to San Diego, one health-conscious friend masked up on his flights, worried about the news he had heard about Coronavirus. Still, even he didn’t think it was so serious, imagining it to be like a more intense flu.
The danger of coronavirus got more real as tech companies announced indefinite work-from-home and events got canceled. The Games Developer Conference, which I was looking forward to attending as a Zynga employee, was scrapped. Cleaning supplies and wet wipes in Safeway were cleared out. The seriousness of the pandemic really hit me once the NBA started canceling games.
Before everything shut down, I remember going out for some Thai food with a friend in early March. We were out near Market Street and things were eerily empty, with only a few daring souls outside. As we were eating, I felt a little tense, thinking that I was taking a big risk socializing with the virus spreading. As we left the restaurant, I remember rushing home, as if any more time spent outside would increase my likelihood of succumbing to the virus.
The Shutdown
On March 16th, the San Francisco Bay Area officially announced “shelter in place”. All businesses were shut down, except for essential services like grocery stores. My quirky neighbors next door started playing the theme from the movie Titanic (when the ship is sinking) on their accordion.
March through April was a weird time. It was hard to focus at work (I don’t think anyone was really working). I was fortunate, as the gaming industry was one that benefitted from the pandemic, as most people moved their social lives to the web. I remember spreading Instagram chain messages and playing Left 4 Dead and Portal online with friends. Animal Crossing, Tiger King, and baking sourdough bread were the popular trends of the day.
I started to get cabin fever and spent my time running. I ventured out to now desolate tourist hotspots like Fisherman’s Wharf and the Embarcadero. There were few people outside. I was so bored that I started running more and more, which eventually culminated in a 12-mile run across the Golden Gate Bridge and back. While I saw some life return as I made my runs through the Marina and saw some illegitimate outdoor bars, I still felt totally bored not being able to see my friends in person, as we were still worried about contracting the virus.
In the middle of April, I decided to go back home to my family in Los Angeles and ended up spending 3 months there. Spending time with family ended up being completely rejuvenating, as I hadn’t spent that much time with family since my summers in college. As an only child, it was nice spending a lot more time with them doing things like going on bike rides along Venice Beach, watching movies with a bottle of wine, and spending nights playing board games. But as covid cases dropped in San Francisco, friends ventured out and started seeing each other again. I felt a bit of FOMO and made my way back to San Francisco in July.
A New Normal
The summer of 2020 was the age of the friend group bubble. Prior to covid, I was used to a hyper-social life, catching up with circles of friends over food and drinks. But with the threat of the pandemic, many of us limited our social interactions to a limited set of people, and I spent most of my time with a bubble of 3 other friends. Although to be honest, I constantly broke the bubble and caught up with other friends here and there.
During this time, the city of San Francisco was a completely different place. Gone was the hustle and bustle of shuffling tech workers and tourists. Fisherman’s Wharf was now filled with locals and a peaceful quiet fell over the city as no one commuted in. The city encouraged restaurants to build parklets for outdoor dining and some streets were closed to traffic entirely. With these changes and the low stress of work, I felt like I was now living in a European seaside village. I spent a lot of time out with friends, drinking wine in the park and munching on Italian eats at outdoor patios. In the evenings, we spent time at a friend’s place, playing board and video games and watching movies.
I really enjoyed the way life slowed down. But it wasn’t all great. While cases were low, the pandemic was still looming over our heads and I kept wondering when would it be over. There were many covid scares where friends and I went to get tested (none of us ever got it). I was ready to see my other friends, to travel, to go back to bars and normal life. I remember feeling that I had nothing to look forward to, especially with rumors of a vaccine not being available until 2023. But at the same time, this forced me to focus on living life in the present.
A low point during this year were the California wildfires in September. The state was hit hard and air quality dropped all across the bay. Now there was no place to take refuge, as indoor locations were shut down (because of covid) and the outdoors was too smoky (because of the fires). One morning I woke up in darkness, thinking I had set my alarm to the wrong time. But I checked the time, it was actually 8:30 am but the smoke was so bad that it blocked out the sun. I walked out to a Martian landscape of orange skies, like something out of Blade Runner.
Still, I tried to make the most of this time. I managed to make a couple of small trips to Lake Tahoe and Santa Barbara. I got more involved in local politics, starting my volunteering with SF YIMBY to aid in a city council race. During the 2020 election, I remember sitting with some friends outside in the cold at a bar, watching the election results come in and seeing Biden’s victory.
A Covid Winter
I was optimistic that things were going back to normal, and I attempted to plan another trip with friends. But right around the election, covid cases started skyrocketing across the country. As the holidays came along, I decided to go back to Los Angeles to spend some time with family during Thanksgiving and Christmas. But this time around, it was much less enjoyable.
In Los Angeles, covid cases were extremely high, and after having spent nearly half a year not worrying about the virus, I started to freak out. Vaccines weren’t out, and I was worried about putting my family at risk. We were no longer going out in the sun and spent most of our time indoors. It started to feel like a repeat of March, but after having experienced a taste of freedom over the summer, I was over it. After Christmas, I decided to make my way back to San Francisco and prepared to enter 2021.
Looking back, 2020 was a weird year. It was stressful worrying about the virus and wondering when life would get back to normal. Still, there were some silver linings in the peaceful times with family and with friends. It was a somewhat calm time before the energy of 2021, which I’ll save for a future post.
great summary! forgot about those to-go cocktails lol
Loved it!