Photo via fernandozhiminaicela/Pixabay
June 22, 2021, 12:52 pm
Though the pandemic is not at all over for the vast majority of humans living on planet Earth, many of those lucky enough to be vaccinated and living in nations where vaccines are widely available are looking back on the hardest months of 2020 now and wondering what we can learn from it. Morbid as it may seem, many people can’t help but feel like the pandemic did create some positive changes in their lives, whether it was the ability to work from home or escaping awful dead-end jobs with the help of some extra unemployment benefits or just an excuse to hide for a while.
Featured Video
Hide
These feelings are common enough that an ask on the subject went viral on Reddit, posing a somewhat sensitive question: “Was there ever a time you’re thankful the pandemic happened? What was the reason?”
Advertisement
Hide
It can be difficult to talk about the silver linings of such a massive tragedy, but they exist whether we like it or not. The anonymous nature of Reddit has allowed people space in which to air these feelings of gratitude and relate to one another as well as discuss the need for social changes revealed by the pandemic.
For one thing, we need to do something about the traffic problems around metropolitan areas if the top responses are any metric.
“Did you not see the freeways under lockdown?” wrote one commenter. “I will never not miss how light that traffic was.”
Others talked about the extra time they got to spend with their families, particularly parents who had babies right at the beginning of the pandemic and got to enjoy time off that they never would have been granted otherwise because there is no federal law requiring paid parental leave in the U.S.
Spending time with children in their first months of life is an essential bonding period that parents can’t get back if they miss it because they have to work. The only downside mentioned by some new parents was that they had to wait several months before they could introduce the baby to friends and family members outside the home.
On the other side of the age spectrum, people expressed how thankful they were for extra time to spend with sick and aging parents, though the downside to that of course was the worry that they would catch COVID-19 and die from it. The lucky ones, however, grew closer to their parents as they survived the pandemic together.
Advertisement
Hide
Mostly, however, people really, really love working from home. It seems all those articles saying that people would rather quit their jobs than go back to working in some office building are not lying.
1.
I can schedule deliveries and never have to worry that they’ll be stolen off the porch.
2.
Stimmy checks cleared my CC debt.
3.
Was given the opportunity to keep my job, work from home, and move out of state.
4.
My kiddo got a year’s breather away from some problem classmates, and got an extra year to be a goofy kid.
5.
Did you not see the freeways under lockdown? I will never not miss how light that traffic was.
6.
One unexpected positive effect of working from home is that I haven’t gotten sick the entire time it started.
7.
It gave me a whole year to spend every day with my senior pup before he crossed the rainbow bridge.
Advertisement
Hide
8.
it gave me time away from school to be admitted into the hospital for more than a month and it saved my life.
9.
1. I got to know my daughter better. We are closer than ever. 2. I got to know my spouse better. He moved out.
10.
I had a taste of remote working and I’m not going back to the office. Frankly, I do 3x as much while I actually work 3x less.
11.
It gave me some time to think a lot about myself and where I was going, and I realised I was taking the wrong subject/trying to set myself up for a career I didn’t want.
12.
More time with my kids & the wife. Also allowed me to spend more time with my brother during his last months before he died of cancer. Time I otherwise would’ve spent working.
13.
Working from home has drastically improved my confidence at work. I didn’t have to deal with the social anxiety of going to work, interacting with people, feeling like an imposter.
Advertisement
Hide
14.
First child born right at the beginning of it. Being off from work with benefits for months longer than expected gave me so much more time with my child and wife than I ever would have had.
15.
My mom is 85 and in assisted living in a city 250 miles away. During lockdown I started calling her every day at 11am, and we became closer than we have ever been. She became a close friend. That is quite a gift.
16.
I have a sleep disorder and had to go off my meds while pregnant. Being able to sleep in longer without having to commute to work was a huge help. I also didn’t have to miss out on going out with friends because no one was going out.
17.
The pandemic gave me the time to stop going to church and reevaluate my whole belief system. Turns out I was in a cult that I had been in my whole life and devoted my whole life to. Needless to say I GTFO and am now a free thinking individual, not a programmed robot.
18.
It forced me to confront myself, a lot of my own mental issues and a lot of my own trauma. I hated it, resisted it and fought it. Eventually though I learned to work on myself slowly, and I don’t think that would have happened without lockdown.
19.
It made me slow down and re-evaluate what I was doing with my life. I cut out people who were dragging me down, and reconnected with old friends through group zoom calls. Changed jobs. Started taking care of my body and lost 30 lbs. Found a new hobby. I do wish I made these changes years ago, instead of waiting for a global health crisis to kick my butt into gear.
*First Published: June 22, 2021, 12:52 pm
0 Comments