People Reflect On COVID-19 Pandemic, Answers Might Surprise People

People are looking back at the COVID-19 pandemic, and the reactions might not be what you expect.

There's not a person reading this right now on the planet who doesn't know about the pandemic, and all the chaos that came with it.

Remember when we had to wear masks everywhere? Remember when sitting at a bar wasn't allowed? How about when the Big Ten initially canceled college football?

There are countless stories of overreactions and downright stupidity.

People on Reddit are reflecting on how the COVID-19 pandemic will be remembered in 25 years. (Credit: Getty Images)

Reddit users reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic.

I found myself scrolling through Reddit Wednesday morning - as I often do - and I stumbled across a thread asking a simple question:

"In 25 years, when someone asks what life was like during the COVID lockdowns, how will you respond?"

That's an immediate click, and the answers are all over the place. Check out the responses below, and let me know your thoughts at David.Hookstead@outkick.com:

• Covid moved my 10/12-hour workdays from a soul-crushing office to the comfort of my home. Turns out when you do not have to deal with toxic people the whole day and do not waste time commuting back and forth, you have time to focus on what actually matters in life. Those 10-12 hours turned into 8 and I was able to study in my spare time to switch careers and move to a country with better-paying jobs. Now I work from home, enjoy what I do and have great job security.
• COVID sparked something in me, and I’ve been on fire ever since. I started mowing lawns out of the trunk of my ’03 Accord, then taught myself how to climb and remove trees properly. Now I’ve got a big truck, a trailer, and a ton of equipment. Before all this, I was an alcoholic server/bartender, super depressed. Now, two of my teenage kids live with me, and I’m in the best shape of my life.
• I’ll start with, ‘Ahh, the great toilet paper shortage of the ’20s.'
• I’ve literally made jokes about this. "Grandpa, what did you do in ________" I still can’t believe I survived to tell a tale I don’t actually want to tell.
• It's when I was able to start working from home in the job that "couldn't be done remotely" - according to management.
• I mean I was a so called "essential worker" here meaning I worked at Home Depot, and every rich mother*cker in a hundred miles came in giggling about how they're so excited to be doing home renovations with all the free time they have right now and "oh we know we're not supposed to go out but heehee we're just so BORED at home!" Meanwhile my workload went up tenfold overnight. I went home every day sore and exhausted while corporate refused to hire more employees. I didn't recover from the burnout for a few years. It was awful.
• Psht... I was living that Covid lifestyle years before it became trendy.
• Girlfriend of a couple of years moved in with me a few months prior to lockdown(s). The ensuing months/years of being around her all the time made us realise that we were pretty much made for each other. Now married with twins on the way. Rest of lockdown was sh*t though.
• I worked in retail, biggest supermarket in the region. First people were cautios and friendly, 2 weeks in shelves were empty and people were pissed. Every other idiot started discussing the Rules and COVID as a whole, we even had fights happen regulary, mostly because of deniers getting into other peoples business. That pissy behaviour lasted 'til today. COVID killed a lot of people, but it also killed a lot of decency in the people.
• Hello there fellow veteran of the COVID retail war. It always pisses me off when people talk about those times and say "everybody was isolating/quarantining." No the hell they weren't. Some people may have been, but my store was hitting customer capacities well above what Black Friday usually did.
• It was strange—so much anxiety, yet oddly peaceful at times. I feel really fortunate that I had a stable work-from-home job and a house with a nice outdoor space.
• Alcoholism.
• I’ll probably say it felt like living in a weird time loop every day was the same, but also somehow completely different. It was a mix of baking bread, Zoom calls, and trying to stay sane while the world felt like it was falling apart. Definitely a time nobody will forget.
• Wierd and eye opening. I saw on large scale just how full of sh*t everyone is and that's across the board not supporting any side of any issue. I had some strange realization that the only reason I watched professional sports was because I always watched professional sports. Once COVID happened and the leagues halted I realized I didn't really need to watch millionaires playing children's games. I got outdoors and came to an understanding that media for the most part is just a cycle of outrage and fear in order to keep people hooked for consumption purposes. Thanks but I'll be fishing as the world burns and what common household item in my cabinet might kill me.
• A test-run of how badly this country would handle a severe crisis. We know that the people will turn on themselves, we know there will be hoarding, and we know that science and reason will be enemies. Could have been a time of unification and strength, instead it was the opposite and frankly we’re lucky it was mostly inconvenient to most Americans.
• Well, I was a frontline medic during that time, so I will get something of a thousand-yard stare, honestly. It was an intense time.
• Lonely. I had started a new school the day of the lockdown. I had to leave early from that day even because I had appendicitis. It was surreal. All the doctors and nurses were wearing trash bags and the guys in the ambulance were wearing actual gas masks, we asked. Everyone was freaked out.

Honestly, it's still hard to believe how the COVID-19 pandemic was handled, and we're years removed from it at this point. It's almost hilarious now.

I was in the Washington, D.C. region at the time, and it was absurd. The bars shut down for months, and when they finally opened up, you had to sit in tiny groups away from everyone else. It took the fun right out of the experience.

The place I was living in 2020 had a massive backyard (I have to keep the location undisclosed for a variety of reasons), and I'd invite people over for parties against local rules. I couldn't have cared less. You want to arrest me for drinking a beer with the boys, then so be it.

I also got obsessed with rotomolded coolers and bought a few. Check out this Orca Coolers beast featuring *HOLD YOUR BREATH* the Memphis Express of the now-defunct AAF.

A look at one of my coolers acquired during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Credit: David Hookstead)

The pandemic was handled in comical fashion, and nobody should apologize for saying it. Let me know what you think at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.