Kylie Rancor
The pandemic has been hard on everyone, but that doesn’t mean the changes lockdown has brought were all bad. While nobody in their right mind is hoping we will all stay under the imminent threat of a highly contagious virus indefinitely, it’s hard to deny that there have been some benefits to the increased amount of time most of us have spent at home, among other things.
Eager to look on the bright side of the past year and a half of disruption, Redditors have been sharing some of the things the pandemic brought about that they’ve felt grateful for.
More than anything, this list serves as a reminder that it’s always good to reevaluate priorities, and it just may be time to do so on a larger scale as a society. It shouldn’t take a literal pandemic to remind us how to live our best lives.
1.
I can schedule deliveries and never have to worry that they’ll be stolen off the porch.
nakedonmygoat
2.
Stimmy checks cleared my CC debt.
DanielagainDaniel
3.
Was given the opportunity to keep my job, work from home, and move out of state.
lineman77
4.
My kiddo got a year’s breather away from some problem classmates, and got an extra year to be a goofy kid.
dohmestic
5.
Did you not see the freeways under lockdown? I will never not miss how light that traffic was.
ThyShirtIsBlue
6.
One unexpected positive effect of working from home is that I haven’t gotten sick the entire time it started.
richmondody
7.
It gave me a whole year to spend every day with my senior pup before he crossed the rainbow bridge.
SheBeOkay
8.
it gave me time away from school to be admitted into the hospital for more than a month and it saved my life.
Darcie-Jane
9.
1. I got to know my daughter better. We are closer than ever. 2. I got to know my spouse better. He moved out.
eddiethreegates
10.
I had a taste of remote working and I’m not going back to the office. Frankly, I do 3x as much while I actually work 3x less.
FormalWath
11.
It gave me some time to think a lot about myself and where I was going, and I realised I was taking the wrong subject/trying to set myself up for a career I didn’t want.
CaffeinatedPotential
12.
More time with my kids & the wife. Also allowed me to spend more time with my brother during his last months before he died of cancer. Time I otherwise would’ve spent working.
StarvingWriter33
13.
Working from home has drastically improved my confidence at work. I didn’t have to deal with the social anxiety of going to work, interacting with people, feeling like an imposter.
TooMuchBiscotti
14.
First child born right at the beginning of it. Being off from work with benefits for months longer than expected gave me so much more time with my child and wife than I ever would have had.
deathbydeepfriedmilk
15.
My mom is 85 and in assisted living in a city 250 miles away. During lockdown I started calling her every day at 11am, and we became closer than we have ever been. She became a close friend. That is quite a gift.
Oryx
16.
I have a sleep disorder and had to go off my meds while pregnant. Being able to sleep in longer without having to commute to work was a huge help. I also didn’t have to miss out on going out with friends because no one was going out.
leahgonz86
17.
The pandemic gave me the time to stop going to church and reevaluate my whole belief system. Turns out I was in a cult that I had been in my whole life and devoted my whole life to. Needless to say I GTFO and am now a free thinking individual, not a programmed robot.
sfisher24601
18.
It forced me to confront myself, a lot of my own mental issues and a lot of my own trauma. I hated it, resisted it and fought it. Eventually though I learned to work on myself slowly, and I don’t think that would have happened without lockdown.
SnooDonuts8606
19.
It made me slow down and re-evaluate what I was doing with my life. I cut out people who were dragging me down, and reconnected with old friends through group zoom calls. Changed jobs. Started taking care of my body and lost 30 lbs. Found a new hobby. I do wish I made these changes years ago, instead of waiting for a global health crisis to kick my butt into gear.
elfarmy