As the long journey in quarantine continues for many people, the attitude of the general public has been drastically altered from the middle of March to the present day. From fear and panic buying toilet paper to the now much calmer and more productive way of life. We have come very far in the way we live our lives now in what has felt like only a short bit of time.

March and a little bit into April saw a very strange and panicked portion of many people’s lives. As COVID-19 was gaining more media attention around the world, people started to realize how serious the virus could become. Many still thought that they would be safe and that COVID-19 would never make it across to other countries, as well as many finding the idea of school and work being postponed or canceled out of the question. 

For a large majority of people, COVID-19 was still very mysterious during this time. There was little research and studies on both how it spreads and how it affects those who get it. This created a large fear of the unknown and what could happen if you contract the virus. It was once the pandemic really started to spread around the world, is when things really got out of hand. 

The rest of April through May had this underlying unrest in the world. People had genuinely come to fear the virus and people had very strictly followed the stay at home order as well as many other mandates such as social distancing and wearing a mask. Despite the issues rising, new ways of life started to bloom. For one, the gig economy really boomed with more people using services like Uber or Doordash for delivering food safely. Supermarkets and other stores started to open their doors to people following social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines. The first stimulus check was sent during April too, helping families recover from any financial damage during the first month of quarantine. 

Summer was where things really started to change for many people. Quite simply, people were getting tired of being at home. Due to public outcry, restrictions started to slowly be lifted around the U.S. Restaurants and bars started to open up again as well, and gathering allowed to grow larger and larger in number. Not to mention protests and marches happening in the U.S. about racial injustice growing. As more and more was lifted off the restrictions, numbers of infected slowly climbed up until it peaked near the middle to end of summer where numbers hit an astronomical high with concerts running and many huge crowd turnouts popping up. 

As August approached, a huge hurdle had to be jumped through for many families and workers around the globe, what about school? Would it be ok or safe to still send kids to school now, especially when the number infected daily has been increasing? A debate sprung on what was the right choice for kids. While others said that kids will have a better learning environment if they worked at the school, others said that the risk of infection and spreading it fast was far too dangerous, and in the end, most schools tried to implement a hybrid model where some students go in at one time and the rest goes virtual but then switched to all virtual as concern from parents and teachers arose.

Times are changing for everyone around the globe. Even now as we speak, different discoveries and experiences are being created due to COVID-19. So much has changed from March to September. There was once a time where people wouldn’t even think about going outside their house, and those same people are now working and going outside with the necessary precautions. The future of quarantine and what will be the next method to fight the spread of the virus is as uncertain as ever. With vaccines being under-trial and more progress being made every day, life seems to be changing for many people. While COVID-19 might still be here for a bit longer, together the effort can be made to fight back and get back to life as it was before.