43 An Extra Week for March Break Gone Wrong (and Global)
Lauren Holmes
During Covid, I was in Ontario, Canada. I was 15 years old, and I was in grade 10, or a sophomore in high school.
I went into full lockdown for around 15 months, from when lockdown started in March 2020 to when restrictions lifted in June 2021. There was a short period of time from June 2020 to November 2020 in–between the first and second waves where restrictions were slightly lifted. You were able to see people and we returned to school in September, but this did not last as, come winter, restrictions were back in place. Day-to-day changes included physical distancing in public areas, where guides were on the floor to ensure you had as little contact with others as possible. Additionally, there were restrictions on store capacities, where less people were allowed in a certain building at once. Furthermore, masks were mandated indoors and sometimes even outdoors, and non-essential businesses were closed. Essential businesses remained open, and during this time I worked at a pharmacy, so I spent most of my time working, especially since the pharmacy became significantly busier with vaccines, Covid testing, and general questions surrounding the pandemic.
During Covid, my greatest challenge was the isolation aspect of quarantine. Prior to quarantine, I was someone who would constantly be hanging out with my friends and going places, multiple times every day of the week. I have always been a very social person so I would spend my time at school talking to my friends in class and at lunch, and after school I had a large group of friends that would go do activities, such as playing sports at schools, going to public parks, and going on long walks through the neighborhood, and sometimes going back to one of my friend’s house to play video games or board games. During quarantine, this shifted to online video calls and texting friends a lot, which of course was not the same. However, I also believe this was beneficial for me, as it taught me how to be okay by myself and enjoy my own company, and that loneliness is not a bad thing but sometimes is needed to understand yourself better and form a more meaningful relationship with yourself.
Two prevalent cultural changes I noticed during Covid were the increased community political awareness, and the increased individualization of society. During the vaccination, mask, and quarantine mandates, and considering the death of George Floyd and other incidences of race targeted police brutality, political awareness became heightened and polarized. What I mean by this is that there was a very clear divide between conservative and liberal values, with no room for grey areas or values from both ideologies to coexist. This was also perpetuated by the 2020 US election, between Presidents Biden and Trump, who both played a role in exacerbating the polarization. The second cultural change I noted was the shift from collectivism to individualism, which I believe was caused by the isolation and quarantine measures. With a focus on individual mental health and wellbeing, as well as the experience of physical isolation, the notion that you are responsible for yourself and should focus on yourself was very prevalent and was exacerbated by quarantine measures and social media. There is a dominant discourse of “not owing anyone anything,” and “putting yourself first,” which while I do believe is important in some contexts, as humans we need social connection and bonds, and justifying individualism through these ideologies can be harmful when overdone.
Blame was a very prevalent discourse during Covid. As soon as it was discovered that Covid was a result of a spillover event from a bat to a human in Wuhan, China, the racism began. With any pandemic, due to the widespread panic and fear of the public, the unknown, and the mass change produced, civilians all over the world look for the root cause of the issue; someone to blame for the suffering, fear, change, and death caused. After the cause was discovered, I recall seeing social media posts and hearing in public numerous comments about Covid being the fault of Chinese people, and that this was because of their “gross eating habits,” which stereotypes such as “eating cats and dogs” was also brought into the conversation. I feel the need to state that I never felt or thought this, because I did not. I feel horrible even typing these racist comments out, but it is an important aspect of Covid history that needs to be addressed. I remember that my mom was on the phone with one of her colleagues near the end of the pandemic, who confided in her that she did not tell anyone she was from Wuhan, China, because she was afraid of the racist comments that would have been made to her about the origins of Covid. This racism was generalized to the Asian population as well – individuals that were not from Wuhan, China experienced these derogatory comments just because they appeared to be Asian.
