March 1st, 2020. I woke up in New York City. I was sharing a bed with my roommate Abigail, with our two friends Lily and Kelly sleeping in the bed next to us. We were in a hotel one block away from Times Square in NYC. That morning, my biggest concern in life was getting to the airport on time and making sure that whatever method of transportation that we took to the airport that day was hopefully cheaper than the expensive cab we had taken to get into the city two days prior. As we got packed up and headed back to the airport, something else was happening in NYC that day. The first positive case of COVID-19 in New York City was identified on March 1st, 2020.
I have some of the most vivid and intense memories of my life so far from the first half of the month of March last year. I can't believe it's already been a full year. In a mere two weeks in March 2020, I feel like everyone watched their lives go from precedented to unprecedented, and with each day that went by, there were more surprises and changes to societal norms.
I decided many months ago that around the one year anniversary of March 2020, I wanted to share a journal-type blog post to document everything that I remember thinking and feeling from that time. To be honest, I'm writing this more for my own benefit. So I can have a public record to look back on in years to come about what this strange time in life was like for me. But, I feel like you might also enjoy reading this and be able to relate to some of the things I was feeling and thinking at that time. This post isn't written to share my opinions on the politics of COVID-19 and/or the vaccine. Just an honest recollection of what life was like at the end of last February and March for me.