For many of us – pandemic life meant staying away from people we love and our favorite restaurants and working from home.
Nearly a year and a half later, the pandemic continues...But there have been many takeaways...And we decided it was time to reflect.
Newsy put out a call out on Facebook and Instagram, asking: what's the biggest lesson you've learned from the pandemic?
We got dozens of responses...So I decided to reach out to a few of them.
"Yours was one of the more positive comments, you wrote: 'To enjoy life and not take the people you love for granted. They may not be here for long.' Why did you decide to post that?"
"During the pandemic, you know, we were all isolated and we didn't get to go see our older relatives or even any relatives," Kimberly Benjamin said.
Like a lot of us – Kimberly Benjamin stayed home for most of the pandemic and really only left to go to the grocery store.
"While we were in the pandemic, I realized, you know, the most important thing in life is the people around you, your family and your friends," Benjamin said.
Sandoval asked another commenter: "For your comment, you wrote: 'flexibility.' Can you kind of explain why you posted that?"
"The COVID restrictions opened up when I was out of the country," Ashlee White said. "I'm from the U.S., and I got stuck in a different country for about two months. And I just remember saying, 'I just have to be flexible. I'm just going to roll with it.'"
She also owns several small businesses, including one that relies on community events.
"As you know, lots of events, including big events, were canceled. So that took a huge impact on my business," White said. "So that's really what the pandemic taught me, is just be flexible because there's a lot of things that are just not in our control."
"What's the biggest thing that you've learned during the pandemic?," Sandoval asked Siedah Holmes from North Carolina.
"The biggest thing that I learned were a few things kind of like wrapped up into one really about slowing down and appreciating and valuing the time that you have with people," Holmes replied.
"How are you staying positive during all of this?"
"We have choices, I always tell people, you have choices," Holmes said. "You can choose to be happy or you can choose to be upset and mad. So every day before I go to bed or before I finish doing whatever I'm doing, I'm going to pull out that positive because that's what we have."
The pandemic isn't over yet, but the lessons learned will stick forever.
