Streelman, 1

Devon Streelman

Mrs. Ebel

ERWC / Period 4

19 April, 2021

Reflection Essay

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us all into new and uncomfortable situations that we

had never expected to experience. These new situations and scenarios are those that we as a

society had to adapt and improvise to in order to keep our country and world as a whole safe.

These new situations have brought me increased anxiety levels, and even lack of motivation to

be productive, but also gave me long lasting hobbies and traits that will be beneficial for me

throughout my life.

All of us have had to make sacrifices, as the pandemic had caused us to change our way

of life, and we began to realize things we had taken for granted in the past. We lost the ability to

see our loved ones, interact with those around us, and this led many of us to increased levels of

anxiety and depression. For me personally, losing the ability to see my friends and family had a

big impact on my mental health. In addition, my girlfriend and I were not able to see each other

for months, which was difficult as we were very close. This led to utilizing my excess time to

facetime my friends, family, and girlfriend on a regular basis. This helped me get through the

rough times that we were experiencing as a society, and allowed me to connect with people

important to me safely. It was difficult not being able to celebrate our family traditions together,

such as seeing my grandparents during Christmas, missing out on the pool parties that my friends

and I used to have during the summer, and being able to connect with the people around me as a

whole. Once school began, my anxiety rose even higher, to the point where I had to reach out
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and seek help. The overwhelming assignments from school was not a good addition to my

already strange new way of life, and I had to find new outlets to divert my attention from things I

would become anxious over.

Despite all of the negatives, I have had some positive elements emerge from our new way

of life. For example, because I had to find new outlets to deal with my stress and anxiety, and I

now have an array of coping mechanisms that I use when I get overly anxious. These include

mountain biking, surfing, and even meditation. Surfing is a new-found hobby that I have been

practicing for the last year, and has allowed me to leave the house and make memories with

friends while maintaining social distance and shifting my focus from my stressors. Meditation is

something that I discovered as a direct result of my increased anxiety levels, and has helped me

get through a lot of tough times as it allows me to clear my mind and focus on what is important.

This is a technique that I now will be able to use for the rest of my life when dealing with

increased levels of anxiety. Mountain biking is something that I had got involved in because I

was accepted to UC Davis, which has a variety of biking paths and trails. This hobby has

allowed me to practice for biking in college while maintaining an adequate level of fitness

throughout the pandemic. I also have had a lot of extra time on my hands that I have been

utilizing in a productive manner. This included things such as working on college applications,

doing at home workouts to stay fit, and working on ways to improve my mental stability. The

COVID-19 pandemic has also opened my eyes to all of the events I had taken for granted in the

past, and has allowed me to be more appreciative of them. These include seeing my family,

going out with my friends, and even something as simple as having people over for dinner.

All in all, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced us all to change our ways of life and take

different approaches when handling certain situations. These new changes have obviously had
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numerous negative impacts on our lives, but there is always a rainbow after rain, and we have all

grown as individuals because of the hardships faced as a result of the pandemic, and developed

traits that will serve us well throughout our lifetimes.