歪歪漫画

A couple of weeks ago, I started looking through a recent photo gallery by Forum photographers headlined Each image served as a powerful and emotional reminder of that strange time.

Scrolling through the gallery transported me back to the spring of 2020 and caused me to reflect for the thousandth time on how truly uncertain and scary that time was. Although I wish I could say otherwise, it鈥檚 an era I find myself ruminating over pretty often.

After reaching that five-year milestone, I feel like a lot of people found themselves thinking either 鈥淲ow, that feels like just yesterday,鈥� Or 鈥淲ow, that feels like a lifetime ago,鈥� or some combination of the two.

In March 2020, I was months away from graduating from Bemidji State. I spent most days frantically turning in assignments for my last few classes and preparing for the moment I would walk the stage and receive my diploma, a moment that would never happen.

I was riding high that spring; I had somehow landed my dream internship 鈥� a content creation role at the National Sports Center in Blaine 鈥� and I was elated to start.

And then life hit me in the back of the knees with a baseball bat. Just as I felt like I was ready to be thrust into the real world, everything fell apart when the lockdown was announced.

My remaining classes went virtual, our graduation ceremony was canceled and I was laid off from my retail job. At 21 years old, I found myself moving back in with my parents and filing for unemployment at a point in my life where I had expected to be moving into my first apartment and starting my career.

My internship was canceled because sports were canceled. Of course, everyone who knows me knows the story of my internship getting canceled because I bring it up a little too often; I sound like that old guy who played football in high school who constantly claims he could have gone pro if only it wasn鈥檛 for that one elbow sprain that ruined everything.

鈥淵ou know, I could have a really cool career in sports right now if only it weren鈥檛 for 鈥斺��
鈥淵es, Madelyn, we know. The internship. The COVID. We know.鈥�

Those days, weeks and months in quarantine passed by slowly, like trudging through spring mud.

I spent a lot of time cooped up in my childhood bedroom, allowing a sense of anxiety-ridden dread to overtake me like a demonic entity. But in between the mental breakdowns, there were also plenty of fun moments from those months quarantining with my parents and my two younger brothers, who were stuck at home too.

Some of my favorites include making various disastrous air-fryer recipes with my mom, going on drive-thru trips to Dairy Queen with my brothers and scheduling family meetings on Zoom.

Once the dystopian feeling of the shutdown started to seem mundane, I also settled into doing the typical quarantine activities.

I watched Tiger King. I learned TikTok dances. I made the trendy whipped coffee everyone was making. I spent a lot of time outdoors as the weather warmed up. I mountain-biked and rollerbladed and even took up running, a hobby that lasted for about two days.

And even though I thought the world was ending, things miraculously started returning to normal-ish. I was able to get a remote internship, then a remote job. I moved back to Bemidji and tried to remember how to be an adult and function in public places.

As much resentment as I have for how my life plans flew out the window during COVID, I know those times were worse for so many people. When I think about how others lost their loved ones to the virus, what I lost becomes so insignificant.

In another sense, I think it鈥檚 OK to feel validated in your grief for how a situation turned out, even if it鈥檚 not that serious.

When I really analyze it, a specific chain of events that kicked off in the spring of 2020 led me to where I am today, and where I am today is pretty alright.

And now that five years have passed, it's interesting to note which memories have stuck with me and which ones have faded away with time. As scary and uncertain as that time was, the more lighthearted moments spent with my family are what I remember the most.

So whether COVID was an insignificant blip on your radar, a minor setback in your life or something more earth-shattering, I hope you take some time this spring to remind yourself how far you鈥檝e come since five years ago when everything changed.