What the Pandemic has Taught Us

March 6, 2021 | By

   After twelve months of living with the continuous lingering fear of COVID-19, and vaccines that are yet to be widely distributed, or even prove very effective, the pandemic seems far from over. However, there are certain takeaways that the Pandemic has given many people a new look on life and a way to better their lives as well.

   For starters, for some people the pandemic might have helped them save money over the course of the last year. For instance, instead of going to restaurants, many have stayed home and cooked their own meals. Considering the hundreds of dollars that individual families spend at restaurants in a given week, this equates to saving thousands of dollars over the last year. Not only with homelife, but during the pandemic, we have seen more companies transition for their employees to work from home. From a company’s standpoint, from allowing their employees to work from home, this allowed them to indepthly understand the true number of people and positions needed to operate. Meaning that unnecessary expenditures on items such as materials, utilities, and sadly even salaries could be greatly trimmed to help the profitability of the company. And while this might be bad for individual employees, it can have a better effect for the consumer, as the product can become cheaper because of a lesser cost for both materials and labor.

   Not only economically, but also socially, the pandemic has shown us that as humans we require and want interaction. For many schools and universities that have gone all virtual or use multiple methods such as a “hybrid” (where students attend in-person on certain days and virtually on the others) paired with virtual and full in-person, this creates much stress among students. Both the stress and lower grades that many students obtain show that virtual schooling is likely to not be a long term solution for schooling. Instead, with the hope of the vaccine being effective, many schools are pushing for more in-person classes. This is because in-person forces most students to be more accountable and more responsible to do their work.

   Not just socially and economically, the pandemic has affected our lives in many different ways. Some for the better, and some for the worse. But with each day, we just need to keep pushing forward as a society, and remember to always try and do our best, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in.