Radha Arian '27
It has been nearly half a decade since the Covid-19 pandemic started. Schools and workplaces shut down; sickness spread worldwide; virtual work and school, TikTok trends, the 2020 Presidential Election, and quarantine have somehow been nearly half a decade. Yet it sometimes feels as if the pandemic was yesterday, but my memories from the pandemic do not feel as if they were yesterday.
Ever since the pandemic somewhat ended, my perception of time has felt off. I often cannot decide if something feels like a long or short time ago. The memories of quarantine feel blurry, and the timeline of my life post-quarantine feels blurry.
For me, it felt like life during quarantine was on repeat, but maybe with different ideas each day. There was no real change for what seemed like endless months. That repetition of waking up, logging on to virtual school, playing video games, and going on walks seemed to be my life for a while.
The HuffPost published an article by Jillian Wilson about COVID-19 and the effects it has had on people’s perception of time. The article talks about Cindy Lustig, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, and her findings on the pandemic and people’s perception of time. Lusting discusses how the repetition of days feeling similar can cause our self-timeline to be off.
According to the article, “When your days feel the same, your brain lumps that time together, making it seem to pass more quickly, Lustig said. So, while the individual days of 2020 may have felt slow because of their sameness, the year overall zipped by.”
Quarantine for me did not end until February of 2021, so nearly a whole year since the world shut down in March 2020. It is crazy to think that there was a whole year of practically being stuck inside of my house, yet the amount of memories I can remember feels like it lasted only three or four months. But that is what Cindy Lusting is getting at repeating routine can cause people’s days to feel the same, causing our brains to just make these “lumps” of time and memories.
Sage Journals discussed a study that National Gallup gathered revolving around Americans and their perception of time. Going off of the research national Gallup collected, Sage Journals talked about Americans and what part of their perception of time felt off.
Sage Journals said, “Perceptions that time is moving too quickly or too slowly show an inverse relationship, as expected. Feeling rushed and that days or weeks are blending together also show relationships with both of these perceptions over a 3-month recall period.”
Paul Froese, a professor of sociology at Baylor University, discussed the effects Covid-19 has had on people’s perception of time with the Texas Standard. Froese spoke about why he feels the perception of time might be off in many people.
Froese said, “It all depends on to what extent does a society get back to a routine that feels normal and feels like you can you know what to expect from day to day. And I think just anecdotally – we all would say this – is that the pandemic is still kind of with us. We feel these kind of lingering effects. And clearly, future research will kind of spell this out in more detail.”
I feel the pandemic is still with me in certain ways. Mentally one of the biggest struggles is forgetting that I am nearing the age of 18 and slowly approaching young adulthood. I am not saying this because I feel I am immature, but I remember the COVID-19 lockdown starting in March of 2020, and my birthday was a week into the lockdown on March 20th, 2020.
As weird as the birthday that year was, I was turning 13 which typically marks becoming a teenager. I remember thinking then how much time I have from now until I am 18 and become an adult. But just like that it’s senior year of high school and I am nearing the age of 18. As I nearing young adulthood I often seem to forget how long ago the start of the pandemic was.
Sometimes it feels like I am still my 13-year-old self, confused but confident that I have so much time until I become an adult. Yet here I am writing this piece four months before I turn 18. It is crazy how time flies, especially when you go through many of your teenage years in a pandemic.