What I’ll Miss Most About Pandemic Life

(And what I’m looking forward to get back)

Photo by Macau Photo Agency on Unsplash

Disclaimer: This is a quite narrow, subjective list, from the point of view of a European university student. And yes, the form is heavily inspired by Tyler Cowen’s similar post in Bloomberg, which I recommend. After reading his post, I’ve quietly been reflecting what I’ll miss about the pandemic life (when writing pandemic life, I’m referring to lock-downs etc, which we’ll undoubtably get out of sooner than the pandemic itself — but I believe that the 2020/21 pandemic experience will be remembered as an exceptional moment, so this is a list compiling my personal pandemic perks from this period).

1. Living in sync with the weather. This may be a fairly Danish phenomenon, as Denmark isn’t exactly known for its sunshine. Not having to be physical in a class has meant to one easier could get outside and take a walk in the sunshine when this was the case (this is written in a park, whilst enjoying the sunshine). And inversely, having the luxury of staying inside when snow and rain was heavy, instead of having to bike to university and be soaked at arrival.
2. Eating much better. This is one on two levels. First, you can spare yourself of horrendous sandwiches (and the occasional shawarma) since you primarily are eating home and can make a proper meal. Second, if one is doing intermittent fasting, it is much easier to do. My fasting scheme is quite modest — simply eating my first meal at 11 a.m. — but this is much easier to do if one isn’t bound to other people’s eating habits (eating at 12 a.m.). And again, you’re free to eat a proper first meal, instead of the same old hummus-sandwich.
3. Exercising more regularly/freely. Again, it’s easier to go for a mid-day run or have a short work-out when at home. Downside is having to work out alone or in your room, but luckily living in a dorm solves both problems.
4. Reading more. Less time spent on transport, more on books. Although, this was mostly true in early pandemic times, now reading habits (extracurricular) have gone back to normal.
5. Less large parties/binge drinking. Parties are alright here and there, but often one simply wants to get out and home. Also nice not to be in binge-drinking situations, which heightens possibilities in the weekend. It’s nice to have them again, but nice with a couple of months of socially accepted calm weekends.
6. Walking purposelessly. Usually, one has to get from A to B, but in pandemic times, you walk for the walk. When done regularly, you become quite observant of your surrounding, try new routes etc, feels like being a tourist on home turf.
7. Having fewer commitments. Never tried to have so little on my schedule (again, heavy emphasis on early pandemic days. Things caught up after). Allows better time for things above and additionally better time with friends, family etc.

Overall, I think that lockdown-lifestyle allows for much more rigorous habits, the importance of which I think is highly underrated. Business-as-usual society slums people into the same can, with little respect to times of peak performance (morning or night person) and different eating habits. Hopefully we’ll have a future that is a little more personalized (meant in a broad fashion) and less factor-style. All in all, flexibility is nice (not for procrastination — rather for letting one’s personal habits rule).

Some thing I look forward to get back:

1. Humor. Very hard to get a sense of the room via zoom. And a LOL on text isn’t quite the same.
2. New relations. Quite hard to properly know people from a new class or even just to know one’s teacher. This one isn’t original, but it just becomes all the more difficult to get to know interesting people. On the other hand, email is easy, but it can be hard to start totally cold.
3. Reading pandemic-related news or posts (some irony intended). Speculations about restrictions, press-conferences, mutations, etc. Mostly boring. On the other hand, scientists have had the scene. That’s nice.
4. Competitive sports. Both watching, coaching and participating. A good handball game has a meditative effect.

More points are quite generic. But overall, relations have been more formal, which is difficult for an extrovert as yours truly and it’s harder to be an outsider overall. With that said, I’ll look forward to the post-pandemic life, where I’ll try to keep some good habits.

What will you miss?