This time last year I was drinking what is, in my opinion, the world’s best hot chocolate at the SAID café on Tottenham Court Road in London. As I was spooning the pure melted chocolate into my mouth, my friend Sophia and I were discussing our lives. I had been told to work from home the coming week and Sophia was still being asked to go in.

“We’ve been told it might be for an entire month,” I explained to her, excited to finally be getting a break from commuting. How little we knew what was coming.

One year on, COVID-19 has consumed almost every conversation, has changed every aspect of our lives and for many people has meant the tragic loss of loved ones.

Now, finally, a vaccine is finally out and, in the UK at least, there has been a very successful rollout so far, with more than 25 million people having had their first jab.

Although it sometimes feels like the world has stood still for a year, there was a lot I learned and I think I speak for many people when I say this year has been a year of internal reflection.

Here are just a few things I learnt from March 2020 to March 2021.

That working from home is fine (if you have an office chair)

Before COVID-19, I was commuting for three hours each day into work. As you might expect, this was exhausting. When we were told to work from home, my initial reaction was ‘hooray, no more commuting!’

However, this thrill soon wore off and I found myself missing my work friends, missing the biscuit tin being restocked in the office and missing the excitement about the weekend on a Friday afternoon.

Of course, I was lucky to have kept my job. Many I knew people were furloughed or made redundant and were struggling to pay rent. As much as I complained about work over this year, I am incredibly grateful to have kept my source of income and to have had something to do.

The main thing I’ve learned from this period of working from home is that investing in a office chair is essential. By the end of the first few months my back was aching every day and I genuinely felt about 80 years old (I’m 24).

After six months I eventually got around to getting one and my back thanks me for it daily. Not only that, but it’s made me so much more productive. Who knew?

That I should regularly examine my white privilege

On May 25th 2020, a 46-year-old black man, George Floyd, was killed in Minnesota, US by a US police officer. His death sparked the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement: a political and social movement protesting against racism and police brutality against black people around the world.

As a white woman in her 20s, it never crossed my mind that there is a massive difference between being passively not racist and being actively anti-racist. And that I was not being anti-racist.

During these protests, I listened to the stories being shared on social media: both by friends and strangers. I listened to people I know and love explain how they have been affected by racism on a daily basis – something that I had never experienced, and something that I had never once thought to ask them about.

It was uncomfortable and heart-breaking to hear, but it needed to be said. It was time for white people like me to shut up and listen, to hear how we can do better and be better allies to help invoke change.

It was a big wake up call. Since then, I have, and will continue to, keep educating myself on the issue, keep listening and keep learning and to actively fight racism.

That it’s fine not to be productive during a pandemic

As most people did when the first UK lockdown started, I decided to be *productive* and start a distance learning course alongside my full-time job. After all, Shakespeare wrote King Lear in quarantine, Twitter kept reminding me.

While this all seemed like a great idea when I started it, within two months I was crying in a heap on the floor about all the stress I was under. Work deadlines, exams looming, pandemic background pressure etc. 

Of course, looking back now at all the banana bread we baked, all the French Duolingo classes we started and all the Tik Tok dances we learned, it all seems to have been part of a collective coping mechanism. “We’re in a global pandemic. Our lives have all been turned completely upside down. Let’s make banana bread!”

I’ve learnt that It’s absolutely fine if you don’t feel like being productive during a global pandemic. It’s fine to have days where you feel like getting out of bed is just too much effort, or if all you can bring yourself to cook is pasta with a dollop of sauce.

Putting ourselves under so much pressure each day to be productive and to be our ‘best selves’ is stupid when we’re living with a background tension of a global pandemic and when even going to the supermarket is dangerous.

Exercise is great, dieting is not

Most of us have gained at least some weight since COVID started. It’s hard not to. We’re so used to running around going to group classes at the gym, frantically rushing to get to work on time, meeting friends.

When the coronavirus started, all of that stopped. For a period, in the UK we weren’t even allowed to go outside more than once a day.

Many people started dieting to keep the weight off, trying to get the perfect post-quarantine body. People started intense virtual exercise classes. I did both of these things.

I tried the interval fasting diet when it became popular. For those who don’t know, this is when you only eat at certain hours of the day: say 12pm to 7pm. For me this lasted one day.

By the second day, my boyfriend couldn’t deal with me being so hangry and I couldn’t focus on my work due to light-headedness.

I then turned to exercise. I ordered weights, I tried running and online group classes. Exercise was the only thing that broke up my day and made me feel normal. While it started as a way to not get fat, it started to be a vital part of helping my mental health. 

When I started to see it that way it became something enjoyable, rather than a chore.

What I learnt was that if you’re going to get into exercise, try seeing it as a way to improve your mental health instead of a way of burning off the lockdown snacks. 

Also diet culture fuels a multi million dollar industry, designed to make you hate yourself so they can sell you things you don’t need. You don’t need to lose that weight, you look fabulous. 

Family and friends are so important

A close friend of mine recently lost her dad. Another friend lost two of her grandparents. If there’s one thing COVID-19 has taught me this year, it’s that family and friends are important.

Think how great it will feel when we can freely hug our loved ones in a glorious reunion. We will never take them for granted again, knowing that once the only way we could see them was on a tiny screen (which lost connection a lot). We’ll go shopping, go for dinner, to the pub. Enjoy all the tiny interactions we missed for a whole year.

Good times are coming. We just need to hold on a little bit longer to reach them. 

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Written by Chloe Lane

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