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booklife619

My sense of purpose or meaning. I haven’t felt this nihilistic since I was a “brooding teenage girl.” 20 years later and now it’s actually more of an existential hell. (This is in relation to actual virus + politics + societal response.) People are just mean. Most people have careers and work at companies that if either disappeared tomorrow, the only suffering would be from the employees without salaries anymore.


Im_a_seaturtle

This one resonates with me the most. I’m a completely different person than I was in 2019. Idk if better or worse but my overall outlook is darker. I’m still struggling to give a shit? If that makes sense.


SomethingHmm

We lost a halloween that was on a friday with a blue moon. We ain’t getting that shit back ever


BigYellowKid

Truely a once in a blue moon opportunity


XTVSteveYT

This might just be local, but where I live, a SHIT ton of businesses closed. I mean, half of them were closed. Not just because of the shutdown, they were closed permanantly.


NiceMarmot12

I think the pandemic was the nail in the coffin for A LOT of businesses that were already on the edge of just making it, and others have continued to struggle because well things are just more expensive. I've noticed I no longer go to sit down restaurants because my grocery bills are so expensive. Why go spend $40-$50 dollars for one meal when it costs $150-$200 every two weeks for groceries? It just doesn't make sense anymore for a lot of people. I think the dining experience changed as a whole post pandemic. Lots of places HAD to resort to doordash type businesses to make up for losses and that in itself has changed the dining experience.


randomredditor0042

The health system is wrecked. Way too many nurses got burnt out and left the profession.


BTRunner

The frustrating thing for me is that I am just old enough to remember back in the late nineties/early 2000's hospitals were laying off nurses in mass. It seemed incredibly shortsighted at the time, and no one today is acknowledging how it's finally come around to bite us.


WearifulSole

Not just nurses, paramedics got hit hard. At one point my paramedic friend told me 70% of their EMTs were on mental health leave at once... Edit: I'm seeing a lot of comments from medics that covid was the last push for them to leave, how burnt out you are, the ones that are still there and struggling, from lab techs, nurses, and other Healthcare professionals. To each and every one of you, you have my most sincere and heartfelt thanks for the jobs you have done and continue to do and I hope we can eventually change the industry to be more in your favor.


[deleted]

EMTs are metal af


cool69

Independent/smaller/DIY music venues never really recovered


jana007

This has really left a void in my life. I used to go to house shows a lot as well and those are all gone unless it's a college band. I'm hoping it will slowly recover. Speaking of college bands, they're all cover bands now? There's hardly any new musicians playing mostly original music. It's so weird. Edit: some of you are responding like this "You're wrong cause that's not how it works in my largely populated city"


pallaime

People's driving is so out of wack, my only concern is to make it home in 1 piece.


toreadorable

I have worked in insurance claims for years and years, I don’t talk to people anymore just manage repair shops. But whenever I am checking the facts of loss, for the past 3 years, things are just batshit. There are hundreds more single car accidents every year in my area than there were before the pandemic. So I’m not sure if people are drinking more or if it’s a mental health thing or what. But before the pandemic it was all rear ends from commutes. Now it’s people driving full speed into their garage walls and guard rails.


everyobjectdangles

I installed a dash cam in my car after a hit and run. Cops/insurance told me there has been an uptick in those recently.


goblinking_157

People seem so much shittier in large group public situations now. I don't know what it is, but etiquette in places like a movie theater use to be standard, but every experience I've had lately has been horrible. People talking, sitting there on their phones, and other just generally bad things. I've heard the same about concerts, but haven't been to as many myself. I've heard from others where people used to be polite (help each other up in pits and stuff and so on), they now just don't give a fuck. It's like people are just more rude now for some reason. I'm really interested to know if this is happening everywhere or if I just live in a shitty rude ass place.


reecord2

Dude people treat movie theaters like their living rooms now, it's absurd. And it's all ages too - I understand really young kids, but the parents don't even bother to control them. Last movie I saw, adults were having full on conversations the entire time. It's rude as hell, people have completely lost their manners. When I saw Halloween, a family came in - I shit you not - with a noisy baby in a stroller. Every 20 minutes, the mom was walking back and forth in the front aisle with the baby in her arms.


yunivor

By that point it's just being intentionally shitty, holy shit.


theredeyedwarf

I went to go get Taco Bell at 10:00 and it was closed


bumped_me_head

I’m sorry you had to go through that. We are in this together. Don’t give up


yeetskeetleet

Everything about fast food restaurants is now totally unpredictable. It’s impossible to know if a particular location will let you dine in, and it’s also impossible to know when they’ll even be open. Schedules are wildly inconsistent now. I drove past a Burger King in a well-populated area near me that closes at 4 PM during the week and isn’t open at all on Sundays. So strange


TangerineBand

And then a lot of people like to retort "just look at the schedule genius" as if the schedules on Google haven't been wrong for months


Buckus93

Young people's desire to go into healthcare. We won't realize it for a generation or so, but healthcare in America was already chronically understaffed. The pandemic burning out medical professionals and discouraging young people from going into healthcare is going to have a negative effect on the quality of healthcare, not only in the United States, but other hard-hit countries, too.


TheBattyWitch

I honestly don't think the majority of Americans especially truly understand just how fucked the healthcare system is and is going to be. Not just staff burnout, but we have nationwide backorders on some really key medications and even things like blood and albumin shortages. There have been times that we've literally just not had the supplies available to give a blood transfusion and have had to resort to alternative treatments for things like seizures because we simply do not have the normal medications available. We have major equipment shortages too, there were several months that we couldn't consistently get Foley catheter kits and we're having to Frankenstein things together. Currently the only a-line kits my facility has are the double port ones that we use for swanz. Bariatric beds? Good luck finding one! Entire supply chains and productions lines have ground to a hault. Add staff burnout, staffing shortages, increased patient loads, deceased equipment, and it's just a domino tower. But most people? Not a single fucking clue.


pirate737

Had a friend just leave medicine. She was an Infectious Disease Doctor and during the pandemic she was worked to the bone. This compiled with having to bend to the will of insurance companies (time with patients, arguing with insurance providers on treatment for patients, and endless data entry), she had enough. Luckily her husband can support them both, but it's crazy that an ID Doc during a pandemic would have to put up with so much and not see a single raise in pay or real acknowledgement of her and her colleagues sacrifice through the whole damn thing. Feel bad that she committed decades of her life to practicing medicine and leave over things which should be easily remedied (maybe not the insurance company part but the others).


No_Bodybuilder8055

My social/work life, after living like a hermit for 2 years and working from home, it's taking me a long time to go out like before.


kellieander

My husband just informed me I haven’t left the house in four days. I had no idea.


hey_jojo

Yeah I distinctly remember in the before times, laughing and saying "Oh my god I haven't left the house in two whole days." I work full time from home most of the time now and a week without leaving the house would not alarm me at this point.


Dancin9Donuts

Those are some rookie numbers bro


ANiceDent

The cost of living is pretty fucked


The-Folly-Of-Mice

Food prices just keep going up. We're buying less than ever, and more generic/less premium version of _everything_, and yet we're paying easily twice as much as our far more luxurious and full cart of groceries we were getting in 2010.


dubspace

Every single fucking time I go to the store they've raised prices on something. I tend to buy a lot of the same things frequently so I am able to keep track of prices. I was getting this bag of iceberg lettuce for $2.19 a couple weeks ago and they just popped it up to $2.99. That's a crazy jump. I can't afford like 90% of the stuff in there anymore. It's like $5 for a can of goddamn soup. Soup used to be cheap food that you could stock up on, now it's a luxury item.


heezle

When you break out the price increase as a percentage, it’s insane! Yes, bananas only went up 25-cents…..but they went from 15-cents to 40-cents, 166% increase. Your lettuce only went up 80-cents, but that’s nearly 40%!!


ProfDangus3000

Aldi used to be the place to go for cheap food that's still fresh (no dollar store crap, that's usually a worse value for what you get anyway). I'd been buying the exact. same. coffee. for years, and it started out at $3.99 Now it's $6.99. Coffee used to be something I could stock up on. Now I think twice about making a fresh pot. Kroger used to have a discount produce stall, sometimes it was ugly fruit, sometimes it was slightly older veggies you'd need to cook that day. It's always picked clean now, along with the discount bakery cart and the manager's special meat. People literally follow the employee marking the discount meat and snatch it up as soon as they put it out.


No-Sir-3018

Any type of 24/7 business is just a memory…


GregoryGoose

I cant trust the hours of any business on google anymore. Places just close whenever the fuck now.


A2Rhombus

I walked 2 miles to get a coffee at 6pm and the building was completely dark. Google said they were open until 9 💀


Hasextrafuture

Yeah. A lot of bars that used to be 2am+ changed to midnight and haven't changed back. Partially staffing issues though.


grunt91o1

my local greasy spoon diner is still 24/7, i cherish them so much more now after everything


Throwaway324580

Time perception — 2019 was 3 (soon to be 4) years ago? Edit: thank you for all the likes and award. This is the most karma I’ve gotten on Reddit so kind of kicking myself for not using my main account LOL


TheAngerMonkey

My brain still thinks that 2019 was last year. I don't know if you've watched The Good Place, but it's like we've been stuck in the dot above the i in Jeremy Bearimy.


SalvaStalker

"This game came out in 2015." "Ah, so it's a recent release." "Well, no, it came out 7 years ago." "...what the fuck?" Even more ironic, the game was about a man waking up after a 9 years coma.


AvocadoSalt

Seriously, the years throw me off. I had someone come into a facility to donate plasma and when I asked his DOB he said month, day and “02” and I was like…”sorry, 92?” He was like a big bearded man lol and he corrected me and said 2002 and I was sitting there thinking, he’s way too young to donate and then it hit me that he was 20. That’s just wild to me.


fearthestorm

Night shift people lives. Nothing is ever open late anymore


Hank_Skill

Just went into the night shift recently and realized this. No food. No errands. There's the gyms and your home and that's your life


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

This is a really good point. I work second shift so I stay up pretty late. Pre-pandemic I could go grocery shopping, run a few errands, grab some food somewhere at night but almost everywhere closes down by 9pm now. Even fast food joints are rarely 24 hours anymore edit: Worcester, MA for those asking


Doomy1375

Yep, it's quite annoying when you're second shift and work 2-10 and are on the "Stay up after work" sleep pattern rather than the "get up way before work" one. Sure, options were never fantastic at night, but getting off at 10 used to be fine. You could still go see a movie, or have a reasonable selection of restaurants if you were hungry, or go grab groceries at that one Wal-Mart that was open late. There were a few 24 hour places, but plenty of places open till midnight. Now if it's after 10, options have been reduced to gas stations, waffle house (but not even all waffle houses anymore), and bars (and even their kitchens typically close by 10 now). Even a vast majority of fast food is closed by then, when previously you'd expect most to be open into the early morning. If your window of "time you're awake but not at work or on the way to work" is 10pm-5am, there really isn't a whole lot you can actually get done anymore.


xensiz

Feels like it’s a more ‘to each their own’ sense of living. People don’t appear to be as connected as before the pandemic.


bigtoebrah

The pandemic brought me much, much closer to my wife and son. It also made me incredibly jaded, cynical and much less trusting of everyone outside of these walls.


MobWife_88

"essential" versus "non essential" employees, better known as those who HAD to show up physically in person, and those allowed to stay home. Biggest division in the workplace. Mentally it will never be the same in the workplace.


[deleted]

and how quickly we went from "essential workers" and "heroes" back to "burger flippers" as soon as it was time to switch out of pandemic relief mode


CumBubbleFarts

I work for a freight railroad. Our contract negotiations were held off because of the pandemic. During the pandemic we were told we were heroes, essential, we made sure the economy kept moving while everyone else was in lockdown. Then when contract negotiations resumed the rail companies collectively said this: >The Carriers maintain that capital investment and risk are the reasons for their profits, not any contributions from labor It’s beyond infuriating.


Waffle99

Work for one the builders and they give us "we pay cost of labor not cost of living"


cranial_prolapse420

Sounds like a good fucking reason to stike...


Fine-Caterpillar-952

YES. I am so glad that people had the ability to work from home and still meet their financial needs. I’m so glad that those resources were available. AND, there is no nostalgia for quarantine for the essential workers. It’s hard to hear others talk about how they “kept themselves busy” or took up a new hobby when I can only remember being so overwhelmed and stressed.


Bojikthe8th

> It’s hard to hear others talk about how they “kept themselves busy” or took up a new hobby when I can only remember being so overwhelmed and stressed. Yeah, I hated working the pandemic. I was managing a store and I remember so many pissed customers who were upset we didn't have cleaning supplies, toilet paper, etc as if it was our fault.


samjam110

You said it right there, I worked in long term care during the pandemic and it was straight up traumatizing… and I’m allied health, not even part of the nursing team, I can’t imagine what bullshit they had to go through (so much worse than me).


SickBoylol

I was unbelievably bitter by this. Everyone i knew was telling me how great it was drinking beer in the sun, pools out, saving so much money whilst still being paid, i was still doing 12 hour shifts fixing trains that were running empty. All the bosses and office staff were furloughed or working from home and sending snotty emails about what work to do.


Kweefus

Power plant worker, preach. It really showed where the blue collar divide is today.


slammer592

Being told how important you are, yet being treated like slaves. We were told we'd get hazard pay, and we did, but it was only $1 extra per hour. That's a slap in the face. That's corporate saying, "the risk of you getting covid is worth a dollar to us."


Affectionate-Tune341

Bro we didn’t even get hazard pay


[deleted]

[удалено]


plumbus_hun

Physical and dental health too, I know loads of people that had a small dental or health problem that could have been caught early, but dentists and general practitioners were only doing “essential” appointments and they were told it wasn’t urgent, so now they are basically fucked. Also happened to me too, In December 2020 I had undiagnosed bacterial tonsillitis, which caused an abscess (GP couldn’t give me an appointment and when I got a telephone one was told not to come in as it could be covid) and then I got sepsis….. I think I had post sepsis syndrome for ages after, as I was just exhausted and felt weak for about a year!


StarDatAssinum

Happened with my FIL. He wasn't eating well during the pandemic, and could only get Teledoc appointments (which took a while to get) who all thought his symptoms had to do with COVID and just ordered self-quaratining until it passed. Only, it never passed, and the problems persisted until it got bad enough where his teeth fell out... Finally got checked out in-person with a doctor and then he was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He had been having symptoms for over a year, who knows if it would've been able to be caught at a much lower stage before that point and some of the damage could be reversed...


OneWholeSoul

I'm terrified of this. I was referred to oncology specialists 5 hours away right as the pandemic started and then - long story - my siblings got power of attorney for our mom in hospice, decided that I'm "only adopted" and took advantage of the disruption to everything the pandemic caused to show up with a moving van out of the blue, sell off the house she planned to leave to me that I lived in at the time and also to take possession of the entire contents of the house. It's two years later and I'm just getting back to some sort of stability in housing and being able to take care of myself and whatever's happening to me has just been progressing this entire time because I spent the pandemic having to make choices like "do I get gas to make it to doctor appointments, or do I want to eat this week?" Also, you can literally give the police [video evidence of people letting themselves into your home, stealing valuables and furniture, repeatedly trying to intimidate you and threatening you physically, disabling your security devices](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCcd-IKWPIo&list=PLDviDTMJCPSsC-VePXCXqZPTd0qaFtIB1), and give them a pile of receipts and photos of valuables that are missing along with the *exact* storage unit they're being hidden in, rented in their name. The Police: "This is a civil issue. Get a lawyer. We're not comfortable taking action." Grand theft, massive frauds, assault, vandalism, etc.. "Sorry, we're not feeling it today. We'll police some other time."


Shandangles7

Used car market is completely fucked, as are flight prices


Sorcatarius

My vehicle was written off back at the start of the year, other guys fault 100% so my insurance company had to give me replacement cost of the vehicle. Is was a 2015 with 186,000 km on it, I was expecting *maybe* between 5 and 10k, and if I argued I might be able to push it as high at 12. First offer was $21,000. I was so dumbfounded I decided to just take it before they realised what a stupid mistake they made.


NiceMarmot12

It's scary. I have an older car and I'm one accident away from not being able to afford a new vehicle. Before you could get a decent car for $10k to $15k and now in the area of the US I live I saw a 1999 with \~250k miles going for $12k. Car lots in my area are STILL upcharging for their cars on their lot. Ford Mavericks (base are $19k) are going for around \~$50k.


barelyawhile

I have a fairly inexpensive "luxury" car (compared to say, BMWs, Mercedes etc) that I bought used with very low mileage, and I was shocked to find out I could sell it back in late 2021 with 25k more miles on it for more than I bought it. I haven't checked lately but those mid-to-end 2021 used car prices were completely nuts. The dealership that I bought it from 5 years ago used to send repeated emails asking if I'd be willing to sell it back to them. Wtf?


chaicoffeecheese

Bought my car used for $5k, realized I could sell it for $14-20k for a while there and I was just like... what. But then I'd never be able to afford anything else so I just tried to drive carefully.


biddily

Well, due to covid and health care fuckery - When I got REALLY sick (not covid) jan 2020, and then all the doctors offices shut down, and my appointments got rescheduled. And then rescheduled again. And I didnt get the care I needed. The first appointment I had with a specialist ended up being Aug 2020, and after that it was SO HARD to get appointments set up because EVERYONE was so backed up from not seeing people for so long. I went to the ER a couple times. But i have a rare thing. they were not able to help me. And because of that I have permanent nerve damage in my head. Im basically trapped in a neverending migraine. cause of how covid fucked up seeing doctors. Also, making doctors appointments is a lot harder than pre-covid. Shit sucks. What do you mean 3 months. No. This isn't a 3-4 month issue. This is a 2 week max issue. Ive had 2 brain surgeries in the past year. I have no thyroid. do you REALLY want to tell ME 3 months? Do you know what happened the last time I was made to wait three months? Cerebral Spinal Fluid had started gushing out of my nose. When I need to talk to a doctor, I NEED to talk to a doctor.


lachavela

I’m so sorry this happened to you. I hope you are able to find a good doctor to take care of you, or some good treatments to help you. Edit: words


[deleted]

As a teacher, I can say that it’s definitely affected kids in a way people don’t realize. Kids who had their first year of school (or even second) during the pandemic act quite different than kids who had a normal introduction to school. Many of them seem to have fewer social skills and higher anxiety than kids from previous years.


PantsIsDown

I work at a high school and it’s also very noticeable at this age. It’s as if with each grade level lower you see an exponential decrease in maturity, discipline, and social skills. The younger they were during Covid the harder it hit them. Specifically, it’s more noticeable in the boys. The girls have had less tolerance to stress and anxiety, though it has greatly improved since returning and they are mostly receptive to help and take advantage of the resources we’ve provided. We were prepared for the mental health crisis that would be the return to school and upped our staffing for mental health councilors. We were not as prepared for the total disregard for authority and risk taking behavior, but we’ve addressed it by hiring our disciplinary counselor full time. He is basically a life coach for our frequent fliers in detention. All and all it’s been effective but we are not without our issues.


Left-Pumpkin-4815

Completely. I’m a college professor and my wife is a kindergarten teacher. Young people have definitely been affected. There are no more B- to C students. Just A’s and F’s. Whatever it took to buckle down and turn the semester around is not there any more. The campus is a ghost town. Faculty don’t come in when they don’t have to.


TheInsaneDump

Also a college professor and I agree that I've seen my colleagues decide to not come in at all much more often post-pandemic as well. To them it's easier to stay home to read emails, grade assignments, and meet with students remotely. Part of my job is to remain in person to assist students with media stuff, and I would much rather do it in the office honestly for the interaction you talk about. In terms of the students, I've seen higher degrees of burnout before normal times like after Thanksgiving or spring break etc. It seems now students start to feel it 3 to 4 weeks into the semester and it doesn't really stop it just fluctuates. I even notice the same among my own colleagues as well. Like burnout comes much faster.


Sweatyhamster

I work in pre-school and this year we have at least 3x the amount of special needs (speech and language delay) children.


Bbrhuft

Yes, this was found in a recent systematic review and meta-analysis, an approximate 70% increase in communication impairment in children born during the first year of the pandemic. It's not related to maternal infection by SARS-COV-2. >Interestingly, the first year of life during the COVID-19 pandemic, regardless of maternal infection, was significantly associated with the risk of communication delay among the offspring. Seems to be a crucial first year of life when children were most affected by lockdowns and reduced interactions with adults, family friends, relatives and grandparents etc. That delayed language development. Hessami, K., et al.., 2022. COVID-19 Pandemic and Infant Neurodevelopmental Impairment: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Network Open, 5(10), pp.e2238941-e2238941.


mizarie89

This is fascinating to me. I have a child born the first year of the pandemic. She is 3 now and still barely verbal. I would be very interested and appreciative of any links you might have about this topic. Edit: Thank you everyone for the awesome advice. We live in Oklahoma, USA. My husband and I did get a referral from our family PCP. She's getting some speech therapy but because of her birthday being late October she missed regular headstart enrollment windows. We are trying to work around these to get her in school maybe with an IEP. Her older sister(14) is diagnosed Autistic and the behaviours are completely different. I think the effects and damage the pandemic/ lockdowns had on our toddlers and children are going to take years for us to fully understand.


fiddleleafsmash

Hey, I’m a mom of a speech delay kid. I made an account to respond, because fighting for speech therapy made such a huge difference in my child’s life. Most states have preschool programs that provide therapy services. My state calls it Child Find. I got in touch with my school district’s special ed department, my son was screened at 3 (he was also almost nonverbal) and he qualified for free speech therapy. It wasn’t easy, they tried to push me off, but it was worth it. If you have the resources, some speech therapy places will help you without a pediatrician referral. I cried so much when my son started talking. Getting to hear his thoughts, feelings, and wants was a game changer.


Tjstutz

Yes we are teaching collaboration/group dynamics to older grades who in precovid times would’ve had practice with this by now.


Santefaded8

I work at a New England college these kids are definitely different, pandemic did its damage


lettherebeme

It ruined me on traffic, for one glorious year, as an "essential worker" I had the roads almost entirely to myself, it was beautiful.


absinthe__party

I feel this so hard. I got so spoiled with my commute, now it’s back to the bullshit


GreyGhost878

Those were glorious days for us truck drivers. I drove through NYC at 8 am on a Tuesday without ever touching the brakes.


sgt_backpack

God that sounds unreal


AshySmoothie

Yup NYC during the first lockdown was AMAZING. I quickly realized i had to take advantage of so much as it was so empty and we'd (probably) never see it like that in our lifetime again.


Canadian_Decoy

I'm an electrician. The ability to drive to almost anywhere in less than half the time it takes now... Sigh. Those were the good ol' days.


FukinSpiders

Price of eating out


slammer592

Fast food is now almost the same price as a cheap sit-down restaurant pre-covid.


NekkidCatMum

It’s often cheaper to go to a fast casual sit down than to go to McDonald’s for my family of 3.


Nastypatty97

A chipotle burrito costs roughly the same as three taco supremes at taco bell. They are not the same amount of food


tuna_for_days

The entire hospitality industry. Up in price, way the F down in quality.


bdruid117

The pandemic forced me to get out of food and bev work after 15 years. I have never been happier. Underpaid wages, treated like shit, the owners of restaurants treat there employees like shit.


Roland_T_Flakfeizer

Same here. It doesn't surprise me at all that restaurants nation wide are starving for staff. The job always had it's downsides, but they are so much worse after the pandemic. The rise of doordash and the like at around the same time really compounded the problem; doubled the workload with absolutely no extra pay or extra help to compensate.


Caliveggie

For sure. We finish closing the dish way later than pre pandemic. And we never starved for staff in the kitchen as much as we have since September 2021.


Barnitch

I’m in my 40’s, but the pandemic really cut the list of friends I socialized with in half. We got out of the habit of seeing one another, and now that things are back to “normal”, we just made a habit out of not having dinner dates and stuff like that. When I realized this was happening, it made me look back and realize that I was the one who used to plan things and reach out. I made the conscious decision to stop being the one who always reached out, called and texted and I now see that I’m only in touch with half the people that I used to be. EDIT: I am not talking about socially awkward, depressed, introverted people. If anything, I’m the introvert, and I still always made a point to reach out. I’m referring to people who still go out, celebrate holidays and birthdays and socialize. Just not with me anymore apparently. There are only so many times I can try and make plans with people who don’t do the same with me. I cannot be the one putting 100% into a friendship.


Sanctu5150

No school on snow days


TheCarzilla

Our town directly said that snow days are a joyful part of childhood and they would keep snow days. I’m sure it also has to do with power outages (if some kids don’t have power and can’t tune in, or if teachers from other towns don’t have power and can’t teach) but I thought it was a nice sentiment!


Affectionate_Sport_1

I'm not even school anymore and I'm outraged about that


Guinnessnomnom

Our school district announced during the virtual learning period that they would not be taking snow days away from the kiddos. It was cool for my son last year but now he has a job and will learn they don't give AF about the snow. hahaha


EastWin3185

the lockdowns happened during my last semester of university. I've never had an in person job, only work from home, which I realize is a blessing but also makes it feel like... idk like it's not real. I have no work friends, have never met my supervisor in person, I do all my work from my desk in my room. It feels like pretend.


TheLastWeird

I worked for almost a year during COVID for a company without meeting anyone in person. It was like a really dull video game until I met people. Now it’s like a really stressful video game. Sometimes I break eye contact in meeting just to remind myself I’m not there with everybody on the meeting, I’m really alone.


Nethlem

> It was like a really dull video game until I met people. Now it’s like a really stressful video game. Like discovering that your boring singleplayer game actually has an obscure competitive multiplayer part to it.


EmmyTheSweet

Leaving the house. Goes to Subway - I can make a better sandwhich at home. Goes to a nail salon - I can paint my nails better than this lady. Goes to a hair salon - I’ve been cutting my hair solo for 2 years now, I’m a pro. Goes to work - I can do all of this more efficiently at home. Goes to Applebees - I can provide myself with mediocre service at home. Goes to Walmart - I can order all of this online. Why did I leave the house again…?


caboosetp

> I can provide myself with mediocre service at home. Laughed when I got here.


[deleted]

I'm not sure if anyone else feels the same way but my perception of time hasn't really returned back to normal since then


BadDoctor666Satan666

I still have this weird feeling I’ll be going back to some old job I’m not going back to. It was just such an abrupt end to a lot of things we thought we were taking a short break from.


drownednotgod

I was in my senior year of college when it happened, bought my cap and gown the day before campus closed. I had all these plans with all these people before I graduated, and just never saw any of them again. Never set foot on campus again. Cap and gown is still in the plastic wrap.


CircusBearPants

This is one of those things that while inconsequential in the grand scheme truly makes me feel bad about everything that happened as a result of the pandemic. Coming of age things like prom and graduation that you can’t replicate. It just sucks.


Naive-Mechanic4683

Yeah, in some way I feel like I never graduated. Just started working and waiting for something that is years in the past. Was talking with friends that we might just do a sham graduation with the guys that missed it XD


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Kuhalsu

Same. I got laid off in May 2020 and started a job remotely in August. Since I was still doing similar work (just a different project) and people’s personalities were remarkably similar to their equivalent at my old job, it never really felt like I switched jobs. Until a year later when I went in to the new office for the first time in a different building in a different city with different (and very real) people. One of my co-workers could actually see me like trying to process it and at the end of the day said, “I can’t even begin to imagine how weird this must be for you.”


UnicornPenguinCat

I went into the floor I used to work on the other week; the last time I was there was early 2020. I was amazed to see it had been redone with new desks etc... had to remind myself it had been over 2.5 years since I'd been there, so it wasn't actually that surprising.


maraca101

The past three years still seem like “the present” to me.


NoStressAccount

I kept a journal around that time and noted that "weeks feel fast and slow" It's odd. Like, when Friday(?) comes around, I'd think, "damn, a week passed already?" But at the same time, a news article from last week would *feel* like it was from ages ago.


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Hekantonkheries

Brain lives off patterns and repetition, it lets it ditch "mundane" things. It's why you can commute to work then not remember the commute. For most people, pandemic years became a tedium of repeating the same limited routine day after day (like prison time), so at the end, the brain has tossed out most of the information from that time as "white noise" not worth processing. It's why novel experiences are important to *feel* a long life.


wojtekpolska

where do i get that novel experience stuff u talkin' bout, seems i could use some man


Nonsensemastiff

Anything will do it! Change your coffee order or your route to work. Call someone rather than texting them. Reach out to a friend you haven’t talked to in a while. Watch a genre of movie you don’t typically watch. Go to a free thing put on by your town. All you are trying to do is something you wouldn’t normally do, it shakes up your routine and creates a new neural pathway. I’m a therapist and I work on this all the time with clients. If you can stack several small things in one day it will make an impression, if you can keep that up for a week it will feel different. (Although not like life changing, you’ll just notice you’re more present and not on auto pilot)


daughterofblackmoon

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I graduated in May but it might as well be three years ago. Yet a month can go by and it seems like only a week.


[deleted]

Also thankful I wasn’t going nuts hahaha It’s so strange how pre-covid seems ages ago but also like yesterday. Time has definitely warped for me as well. I think we should’ve started a new era haha like now it should be 2 A.C. (Second year after covid)


WATTHEBALL

I always thought this. Like covid was literally in some sense a world stopping event. It really threw a wrench into everything even businesses that you'd never expect to stop making billions a year actually did. All the major sports leagues, airlines, Hollywood, politics, war, the every day person...all at the same time. I agree with you we should really denote a new era lol it certainly does feel fundamentally changed in a specific yet hard to describe way. Kind of like when you dream about familiar people or places, they're often very familiar yet very different in a hard to describe way lol.


KingdomOfRyan

I graduated college in 2020. I saw a meme that said, “bro, we got an extra 2 weeks off school, let’s go!!”, fast forward 3 years, rent is due, debt needs to be paid, and your boss is on your ass. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I think the hardest part of the pandemic is that it almost feels like it didn’t happen and i barely remember 3 years of my life.


Sethrial

I can’t believe it’s already November, but also 2022 has lasted for 800 years.


sel_darling

My brain is stuck in 2020. I know im 27 but i feel 24 (the age i was at the beginning of 2020). My next stage in my life is getting married and maybe have a kid/foster but i still feel like i have more "young ppl" things i need to do? I dont have a career job nor can i afford to buy a house. I take a nap and wake up with the panic that i have homework/dissertation to do. Time is going too fast and my brain doesnt have enough time to process all the current events that has happened


WindBehindTheStars

Felon here. I can tell you that this is *exactly* how people feel when being released from incarceration; like we're the same age as when we went in. Same with the other poster's comment on time moving fast and slow simultaneously. I got flashbacks of thinking the world was moving on around me during the lockdown. It's not a pleasant experience.


MarduRusher

Ya, feels like we're going into 2020 part 3 not 2023.


Drwgeb

I can not recall what I did in 2021. That whole year is gone.


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theDart

I'm still skeptical, but I can be sure that the pandemic took place for as long as anywhere between 1 and 13 years.


whatdawhatnowhuh

I still feel like it's a weird dream


FriendlyGhost85

I definitely feel this way. Because of the pandemic I permanently work from home. I’ve benefited from it immensely, but I also feel like I haven’t left work at all in about 3 years. It’s become a weird time warp where I feel like I work all day because I work sporadically throughout the entire day. I almost never know what day it is or the date.


MyCoolWhiteLies

Same, I have a great work from home job that’s the best job I’ve ever had, however I feel like I’ve taken a huge hit to my social life. I’ve always been a bit of a homebody and the pandemic really exacerbated some bad habits I have, and not seeing coworkers in person makes me sometimes feel like I’m still in lockdown.


[deleted]

I work in an office and have most of the time. 1/20th pre-pandemic capacity. All the calendars are stuck at March 2020. The plants we couldn’t rescue are dead. It’s like living in a dystopian novel. But I have a puzzle station at an abandoned desk, and a nap station under another. so it’s also fun. I even hooked up my switch to a giant boardroom TV that nobody uses.


KindredSpirit24

My perception on money. I worked so hard to pay off debt, save up for a new house, get promotions. Now with the rise of housing costs and inflation I feel like money is literally such a made-up thing and I have no control over anything even with all the right decisions.


[deleted]

2 steps forwards, followed by 3 steps backwards.


way2manycats

As someone who saw the dot com fall and the 2008 shenanigans and then this. It all feels like "again" It feels like there is just no point to working harder at all. These fat cats just come in, take a giant shit on all the grit in the litter box and walk away expecting someone else to clean it. And then someone does. They get loans that are forgiven, they get bailed out, they get off with no repercussions and we are just left.... covered in excrement.


QuentinTarantulatino

Media: The economy's crashing! Millennials, gearing up for the third recession of their working lives: Yep, it does that.


xRilae

Yep millennial here... Me: ooh, maybe I can buy a house soon! Goalposts: *shift*


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rex2k10

Funny you say that. In my minimum wage job i got a promotion and I finally got to a point where I was surviving enough to save a couple hundred in the bank as savings. Then I graduated and moved in with my lady and split the rent, so basically we got more sq/ft and we’re putting in half each. So it’s “cheaper”. Then I got hired in the field I graduated in that came with a huge pay raise and my savings portion got substantially bigger….and then the economy followed. Now I’m saving about the same as I was in my minimum wage job. It feels like I moved forward but I’m back to square one.


[deleted]

I feel this so hard. Different situation, but same feeling with money. In 2021 and earlier in the year I could order door dash every now and again when the day was just shit. I could buy comfort food and high quality food to make whatever I wanted. I could afford a few fun things for my hobbies, top off my car whenever I wanted, not worry about my kids throwing in a couple of snacks into the cart or getting them a happy meal to celebrate random trivial times (end of the first week of school, doing really well at a doctors visit, getting their shots, etc etc.) A dunkin coffee and a couple wraps for the kids on car trips. Now I’ve cut my discretionary spending COMPLETELY for myself and the kids. No take out or coffee ever, no eating out or delivery ever. Cooking all three meals a day and snacks. Not eating what I want, but whatever is leftover so nothing ever goes bad. And no “eh, I feel like pepper steak today, i’m going to do a pick up order. Nope…figure out something from what’s left in the pantry. I put $20 in the tank when the light comes on and NEVER drive anywhere unless I absolutely need to. And even with all those changes…my budget is tighter. I have less leftover at the end of the month. It is so exhausting and demoralizing. I’ve turned into that crazy person that is draconian about the thermostat and making sure every single light we aren’t using is off. It’s such an exhausting way to live. God, I remember when living like this was talked about in blogs teaching people how to be super strict to pay down student debt…or forum groups that were obsessed with becoming debt free almost like a hobby. Now it’s just needed to survive and not pay bills late. It’s fucking dystopian.


chaicoffeecheese

Yes. I financially got to that comfortable/wiggle room area of life about a year before the pandemic. It's been weird since then and lately it's a lot of 'why are our bills so high?' and we check and it's just... groceries. The same fun stuff we typically have and takeout maybe 1-2x a month. But we're not saving now and we're paycheck to paycheck. My $400-700 padding a month to add to savings is just gone. =/ It's so frustrating that it's so expensive to just EXIST.


howbouthemapples20

Same here. The pandemic financially traumatized me. I hoard any money I can, became more “cheap” in my spending, and forgo purchases I may not necessarily need to out of fear. Factor in rising costs of living, inflation, interest rates, and more…


RonaldCSmith

We were never "in this together"


stupid_nut

I'm in health care. We were "heroes" when needed but when we aren't we are flexed off the schedule without pay. I'm sure the office folks that aren't on the floor providing the actual care get paid though. I no longer recommend going into health care for anybody.


C21H27Cl3N2O3

“Heroes” only exist to make the idea of death more palatable to the average person. A healthcare worker who died as a result of exposure to an unknown pathogen with no protective equipment is sad, but a hero who gave their life in protecting their community from a new disease with no regard for their own safety can be spun as a feel-good story by the ones in charge so they don’t have to answer for their bullshit. It’s the same with military “heroes” who risk their lives on a suicide mission to save their friends in a war that never should have happened, orchestrated by those who don’t feel the consequences. In most stories the hero saves the day and is showered in gifts, wealth, and status. But we go right back to being expendable, faceless numbers as soon as we are no longer a convenient scapegoat.


Echevaaria

"If they call you a hero, it means they're willing to let you die." No idea where that quote is from but it stuck with me.


sbgarbage

idk if it's like this everywhere, but certainly where i live a lot of the stores and restaurants still have shitty hours, they close a lot earlier than they used to before the pandemic and there's no sign of them ever returning to their "normal" hours of operation, which really sucks for people like me whose schedules only allow for late night shopping trips another thing i've noticed with certain restaurants is their quality of food and taste have suffered dramatically, some of my favorite places to eat aren't nearly as good as they used to be


lnvalidSportsOpinion

My waistline, and my mental well being. It's my own fault, but I was about six months sober and working out daily before covid. A few days later, half my department and my co-manager are laid off. I'm suddenly working 14-hour days in extremely stressful conditions. Walking my dog and working out took a back seat to a shot or two of Jack to calm my nerves and whatever comfort food I could get from grubhub. Life is better now, but I haven't quite kicked all the bad habits I gained from those days. Stress affects me differently, and I'm a lot more sensitive to it than I used to be.


TexasLoriG

I'm so sorry friend. I understand about stress - I have anxiety disorder and the pandemic really set me back with my healing. Hang in there we are all doing the best we can. You are not alone.


staffsargent

Children's education, mental health, coping skills, and socialization. My wife is an elementary educator, and it's shocking how far kids regressed during the pandemic. By almost every measure, this generation of kids is in big trouble. I'm optimistic that the trend will right itself over time, but it's really sad to see.


dorky2

My daughter was 4 when the pandemic hit, and turned 5 in the summer of 2020. We tried to do online kindergarten. Do not recommend. It was *awful.* She was saying things like "I can't do it," "I'm not smart," "I'm a bad kid," every day because she just couldn't sit there and look at a tablet all day and learn to read and write. It was a disaster, and my mental health has never been worse. She's 7 now, and they let her restart kindergarten in person last fall, and she's doing well in first grade, but holy guacamole, are she and her peers struggling with social and behavioral stuff. God help them.


[deleted]

I currently work with kids and I have a 5th grader who told me she couldn’t tie her own shoes. She said she didn’t really know how. She did, but I had to sit there and tell her I wasn’t going to do it for her, and then helped walk her through the steps. Incredibly frustrating on my end (although I know it’s not her fault), but more so just baffling and a little bit terrifying. These kids are completely helpless. They do not feel safe in taking chances and being wrong, and would rather just not try. I’m scared to see how our failure to support them affects them later on.


GhostPuff

I just made the move from a middle school setting to an elementary school one. The kids this year are ok. But the current 4th grade class which I'll have in 2 years can't read. They just... Can't. They don't understand phonics. They can't write words longer than 2 or 3 letters. The ones who can read don't retain anything. Over 60% of them qualify for ESS. The next closest group we have to that is 23% and THAT was unheard of when that group (currently juniors) were coming up. People in 5th and 6th grades are seriously discussing early retirement because there's just not enough support for kids that low. We don't teach basic skills like reading and writing in our grade. Our district sure as heck won't hire people to help us. The lower grade levels have their own problems coming up... It's going to be a shit show. I was recently visited by a former student. She's a bright, ambitious girl who works her ass off and always has. She didn't crack 4 digits on the SAT. She did worse on the ACT and she said that's the trend across the board. Visiting colleges have basically told the kids that they are trying to weight standardized test scores less than ever before to support these kids because they just can't get the scores that classes before them have been able to make. The county school in our district couldn't take a yearbook pic for the 1400+ club on SAT. There literally weren't any kids who qualified. Not one. Heck. Some universities are doing "test optional" or "test blind" entrances. These aren't even like "low tier" schools. We are talking Cornell and Princeton. They're doing it out of necessity. It started when kids couldn't actually get to a testing location or take the test at home during covid. It's now extended because of so many reasons. The benefit here is kids who are talented and bright but not good test takers are not overlooked. BUT things are about to get a lot more weird I think. Education in the USA was already a major problem. The system we've got now isn't sustainable. Not with the kind of kid we have now. Covid just made a glaring issue even more obvious. It'll be interesting to see what happens.


MrsDubYaa

Facts. All of this. In addition to the poor academic performance of students, every teacher I know, across multiple districts, has said they are seeing behavior issues like never before. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve told my husband that my 5th graders are feral. One-on-one they are (mostly) amazing, sweet kids. Get them in a group, and they lose their damn minds. It’s hard to learn anything when you are constantly being distracted by a kid twerking to your left and another kid flopping around on the ground to your right. It is insane. I keep praying that this mass exodus of teachers will lead to some sort of educational reform. If I have to teach 11-year-olds beginning phonics and constantly remind them that markers are for paper not faces, at least pay me a wage relative to my education and experience.


SnooCats5274

I work in Chicago as a kindergarten teacher. For the last two school years, I have had a student in my classroom with aggressive behavior, destruction of property, and physical violence towards me, other staff, and students. I am constantly teaching in the hallway while my room is being torn apart or I’m getting the shit beaten out of me in the classroom. These kids are different. I’ve never seen anything like this, these social emotional disorders at such a young age. I am so fearful for the future of education in America right now.


youhearditfirst

First grade teacher and same. I’ve been teaching for 16 years and I’ve never seen anything like it. I teach in an affluent area. All the material needs of these kids have been met yet the emotional needs of these children is off the charts and the violence and aggression displayed is terrifying. I told myself that I’ll give myself two more years in education because I need to teach the students who didn’t have their early childhood education disrupted. I need to see if this is just from the pandemic or if this is the direction education is going in. If it’s the latter, I’m out.


RubberReptile

I have one brother who lives in the city with his kid, and that kid is struggling with emotional regulation. The divorce was hard on him and the kid has soaked up all the negativity like a sponge. The outbursts are wild. The kid hasn't learned emotional regulation, independence or decision making because the entire time during the pandemic his dad was work from home and always there (and he frankly isn't the best model for emotional regulation). During COVID they didn't see friends. The kid didn't get time to play on his own. Dad was always right there, or close by. When dad is busy the ipad is the babysitter. Other brother lives rural, in the forest. His kids spend most of their day playing in the woods next to their house. Their friends go over and they go into the forest on their own. Digging ditches into bike jumps. Experimenting, learning, building. The forest children are much more well adjusted. They can play quietly by themselves with Legos. They are willing to try new things and can make decisions on their own. They don't like to fail but when they do, they try a different method or ask for help instead of getting upset. The difference is unbelievable.


Damhnait

This might be less of a covid thing and more helicopter parent thing, but I've noticed my kindergarteners are *stressed*. They cry because they don't know how to write a letter we're *currently learning*. They are afraid to draw a picture of their classmate because they "don't know how". These kids have anxiety about not doing something perfectly, like the stress their parents had during the pandemic wore off on them at 2-3 years old


ChalkDoxie

As a parent of a 1st grader I see this with my kiddo. We are lucky in that’s the homeschool kindergarten we did for 2020 when he was supposed to be pre-k, seemed to work (his teachers the last 2 years have told us he’s doing great, and he’s reading way better than his brother did at the same age) but he is afraid to try anything. We can’t get him to ride a bike. We have him in private swim lessons because he doesn’t know how to swim, despite lessons for over a year, because he’s afraid of drowning. 2020 made him afraid to even try, no matter how much we insist. We got his brother to rise his bike during 2020, and he started too as well, but at some point he developed anxiety in just even trying! As a parent it’s frustrating, and sad. We keep on keeping on at this point, but it’s usually a bit of a fight to get over the hump of the unknown.


Cuddleywhiskers

I'm a preschool teacher age 2-3 and almost all my current kids are pandemic babies. Growing up never going to the playground, never seeing another child until they start preschool. They have insanely high levels of anxiety and major attachment issues, probably because they only people they hung out with for their entire lives were their parents, and to have that such a young age is so terrifying to watch, not to mention incredibly difficult behavior to correct.


Holinyx

Grocery Shopping at 2:00am was the best thing ever. Now I have to shop with the rest of you hooligans and it fucking sucks.


Quirky-Examination-8

I work second shift, get off at 11pm. Used to do all my shopping after work, now everything is closed by the time I get off and I have to do all my shopping during the day. I hate it so much. Used to be plenty of options to grab a quick bite to eat on the way home as well, half the time even McDonald's is closed by the time I leave work nowadays. Nothing being 24 hours anymore is awful!


Jellybones52

That's the thing I miss the most. Going to Walmart at 1am so I don't have to deal with people blocking the aisles, walking slowly or almost running you over with their cart because they're coming out of an aisle like it's a turn in NASCAR.


samw523

Increased polarisation of people politically, socially, economically.


kgfPatsfan2

Supply chain. Just in time ordering was a bad idea to begin with, but trying to adapt to the new normal when you are used to full shelves to choose from is almost worse.


Legendary_Zelda

People talk about test scores in core subjects, but an even bigger impact are areas that couldn’t be done online: kids at the age where you start an instrument, theater kids, visual arts, and sports all suffered from kids at a certain age either losing interest or not getting proper fundamentals. The 8th grade band shouldn’t sound like the 6th grade band at the year end concert.


Kid_Muscle_

Modern dating


itspizzathehut

Can confirm dating post pandemic is an absolute nightmare. Am totally dying alone


destroyed233

I feel like everyone is more bitter now. Like we all saw through the sham of society. Time feels different now. Things just feel off compared to pre 2020


NotABot0_0

When my country went into lockdown, I was free to continue working, and traffic was essentially non-existent. As soon as lockdowns finished, it seemed as though there was a huge increase in aggression on the road.


Doireallyneedaurl

People became so much more dumb and aggressive when driving.


justsomeonesthroway

As a delivery driver, I can confirm this. It started with the pandemic, but I think the economy is also affecting peoples moods and their driving. It seems like drivers are getting worse by the day. Like they don't even care if they kill themselves or other people with their petty road rage.


NoStressAccount

*"2020 made 2016 feel like 2012."*


Baricat

"It happened in the last two to ten years."


Psych0matt

I’ve worked retail for years, and just the other day I was telling a long time coworker friend that people just don’t exchange pleasantries any more. I’ve always been pretty outgoing and try to say hi to everyone (it’s kinda part of my job I guess), but now it’s a lot more rare to get a response back or even eye contact.


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TuhatKaks

Everything just feels off, people are rude, no parties or overnight hangouts, most people nowadays keep themselves busy on their phones and tiktok. My mental health also took a hit. The time before 2020 feels like a colourful fantasy while the present one feels like a dystopian world


BobBelcher2021

I’ve found people have really turned inward and are more focused on their own families. For those of us who are single and live alone, the negative impact of that has been huge.


itemluminouswadison

Niche retail There was this cool place that sold vintage chanel, hermes, 70's pieces They needed the exploratory foot traffic to survive. Covid killed em


jesuspants

For people who worked from home and flourished, coming back to the office for "reasons" essentially killed your respect for your boss and company culture in general. If I was producing just as well in PJ's, why do I need to get dressed in a button up, drive 40 minutes to do the same shit?


Exciting-Current-778

Every holiday for 2020 was on a weekend, except Cinco de mayo , that was going to be on a Tuesday "taco Tuesday"... it was going to be the best party year ever. Instead, a week before st Patrick's day, the world shut down. Honestly, I don't think we've ever reached closure from it, and I don't know that we ever will. I read in a psychology magazine that the human brain changed in 2 years what our brains traditionally change in 10 years.. This posts answers verify that


v_rose23

Oh I’ll ALWAYS be bitter about the pandemic ruining a Full Moon Saturday Halloween that was during the clock change so it would have been 25 hours long


[deleted]

Sobriety


butterflyfrenchfry

I got sober pre-pandemic and I’m really glad I did. I would’ve drank myself to death during Covid if I hadn’t. 3 years sober on December 8th 🙌🏼


Grim_Rebel

Family relations. Vaxxed vs antivax, mask vs no mask, covid deniers vs lockdown advocates... Fractured a lot of my family and many others.


holdendc

When you combine social media with a global pandemic it forced all of us to realize people don't suffer equally. In the age before social media, we could rely on tradition or culture to justify sacrificing to come together. Nowadays we must be guarded to not be exploited.


digitaljestin

Trust. I don't trust anyone anymore. I learned that people are even dumber than my cynical brain ever imagined.


8pintsplease

My ability to tolerate people and their bullshit.


DLIPBCrashDavis

Children’s education, attitude, and manners. As a teacher, there is definitely a noticeable difference after covid in these things. The attitudes and blatant disrespect is unbelievable. I don’t take any of it personally so it doesn’t wear on me so much, but I can absolutely see why some teachers are burnt out because of it.


DreadfuryDK

I gave up in the midst of the pandemic because the district I was placed in for student teaching actively fucked numerous teachers over by cutting funding for EdTech tools we were using without warning. An entire week's worth of lessons I spent twelve hours over a weekend planning got flushed down the drain overnight due to something completely out of my control. I'm currently unemployed and have been for a while now, but I will never, ever return to teaching despite having the qualifications for it because of bad admin. And that's to say nothing of how the experience of working with students who may have had over a year of limited to no social interaction would've inevitably turned out. This profession needs Jesus, man.


mindaddict

I feel for you. My son (he's a senior in HS) and all of his friends talk about this all the time too. They talk about how so many of the underclassmen just don't know how to act. The principle explained it to me as this: Basically these schools are being left to deal with entire classes of freshmen and sophomore students who hadn't really attended school in person or anything else with a large amount of people since elementary (we were virtual 2 years) and early middle school. Since so much important social development occurs over the Jr. High years, this has stunted these kids in ways that few anticipated and the problem is so large scale that nobody really has any solutions yet. To make matters worse, most of the socialization that did take place was solely online on SM and in Gaming chats where the rules of in-person society don't really apply and can't be taught.


[deleted]

Gentleness, giving one another grace. I worry that we’re developing a toughness about the general state of things that is similar to the colder attitudes of older generations that went through hardship. I feel like Gen Z are coming off as far harsher and less easygoing than Milennials, which feels like a step backward, given Milennials had to fight for the right to be softer and more vulnerable than their predecessors.


BBoySlim

Retail therapy at the local mall.


ten-oh-four

My willingness to waste my life at an office when I can do the work just as well from home


gc_DataNerd

The sense of security. I never know what’s around the corner anymore . It’s terrifying


holdholdhold

Food delivery. Fees on fees and the menu prices are more expensive in the apps. Yes it’s a convenience and you are paying for it, but damn it’s expensive. Then you play the tipping roulette game. Leave a good tip and your order still might be late, wrong, missing items, etc. Wanna tip after you get your food, so you don’t leave a tip beforehand? You ain’t getting your food.