Six years ago today, the World Health Organization officially declared COVID to be a pandemic. I think about how naive we were in the beginning — asking people to stay inside for “two weeks,” never thinking that the direct effects would last for months and the lingering effects for years.
I have been watching some shows from that time, and it’s hard to remember wearing masks, the six-feet-apart rule, only socializing with people in your “pod,” or the run on toilet paper, wipes, and hand sanitizers. There are still remnants of that time — including foot pedals for hands-free door opening, remote work, online shopping and delivery of almost everything, and touchless payments — but mostly, COVID has been forgotten.
Instead of letting the memory of the pandemic fade away, I think it helps to note the anniversary and the whole experience. It will be written about in history books someday, and we lived through it. We survived something that was unprecedented, unexpected, and even unimaginable. We adapted more extensively and more quickly than anyone could have predicted.
Don’t let the lessons learned from that sacrifice go to waste. Major change is possible if the will is there. We can do hard things. We are stronger than we think we are. Internalize those truths to make your future better.
