Coming Home to a New World - Back in March, 2020
On February 26, 2020 I flew to L.A. to spend time with one of my best friends. We went to some incredible restaurants, attended a comedy show on Sunset Boulevard, and walked through the shops on the Santa Monica 3rd street promenade. At the end of the weekend I hopped on a boat and spent the next 2 weeks on Catalina Island. Keep in mind I had no wifi and very little contact with the outside world during those 2 weeks.
While in L.A. I had heard of one or two confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. in San Francisco. When I got off the Island on March 13th, the University of Utah (where I work with the student organization InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at) had gone fully online, Disney had closed, and the NBA had shut down.
On March 16th, only a few days after being back in Salt Lake City, Utah, dine-in restaurants had closed, and social distancing was becoming more necessary. On March 18th we had a 5.7 earthquake that woke the city up early in the morning. That day I went to work to clean up my office from the earthquake, and experienced two large aftershocks that sent me into a panic attack. Fun fact...it is not fun being alone in a building during a large shake.
As a ministry intern with InterVarsity at The University of Utah, most of my time is spent on campus in bible studies and hosting weekly large group dinner events at the InterVarsity house. Within a few weeks of being back, most of our students went back home and ministry changed. We moved online with the rest of the world and began online weekly bible study zoom calls, weekly zoom prayer meetings, and one on one phone calls.
Before long all my plans had started to be canceled. My parents can no longer come visit me when they planned to, 4 weddings were postponed, my trip home was canceled, graduation parties canceled, and vacations and camping trips canceled.
I left Utah when my world felt normal. I could go to shops, I could meet friends at restaurants, I could lead bible studies in the student union, I could go hangout in my favorite coffee shops, I would go to the grocery store without anxiety, I could hug my friends all I wanted without any thought, and I could live my life without worrying.
I came back to a new world. A world where we have to stay 6ft a part from our friends. A world where to go orders is the only option. A world where we have to stay in our homes and avoid places where people could crowd. Parks had closed, coffee shops closed, masks sold out as well as cleaning supplies and hand sanitize. Getting gas in your car or going to a grocery store is an anxious and risky trip. In regards to the earthquake and hundreds of aftershocks...I constantly experience phantom quakes which leaves me in a constant unsettling feeling of thinking the world is physically shaking when it isn't.
Life feels like a dream. It feels unreal, new and complicated. It is a world we must all adapt to and grow to find joy in.
While in L.A. I had heard of one or two confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. in San Francisco. When I got off the Island on March 13th, the University of Utah (where I work with the student organization InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at) had gone fully online, Disney had closed, and the NBA had shut down.
On March 16th, only a few days after being back in Salt Lake City, Utah, dine-in restaurants had closed, and social distancing was becoming more necessary. On March 18th we had a 5.7 earthquake that woke the city up early in the morning. That day I went to work to clean up my office from the earthquake, and experienced two large aftershocks that sent me into a panic attack. Fun fact...it is not fun being alone in a building during a large shake.
As a ministry intern with InterVarsity at The University of Utah, most of my time is spent on campus in bible studies and hosting weekly large group dinner events at the InterVarsity house. Within a few weeks of being back, most of our students went back home and ministry changed. We moved online with the rest of the world and began online weekly bible study zoom calls, weekly zoom prayer meetings, and one on one phone calls.
Before long all my plans had started to be canceled. My parents can no longer come visit me when they planned to, 4 weddings were postponed, my trip home was canceled, graduation parties canceled, and vacations and camping trips canceled.
I left Utah when my world felt normal. I could go to shops, I could meet friends at restaurants, I could lead bible studies in the student union, I could go hangout in my favorite coffee shops, I would go to the grocery store without anxiety, I could hug my friends all I wanted without any thought, and I could live my life without worrying.
I came back to a new world. A world where we have to stay 6ft a part from our friends. A world where to go orders is the only option. A world where we have to stay in our homes and avoid places where people could crowd. Parks had closed, coffee shops closed, masks sold out as well as cleaning supplies and hand sanitize. Getting gas in your car or going to a grocery store is an anxious and risky trip. In regards to the earthquake and hundreds of aftershocks...I constantly experience phantom quakes which leaves me in a constant unsettling feeling of thinking the world is physically shaking when it isn't.
Life feels like a dream. It feels unreal, new and complicated. It is a world we must all adapt to and grow to find joy in.
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