Text Only

How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.

<strong> I have felt very lonely and insecure since returning home to living alone in my one-bedroom apartment after spending Thanksgiving through New Year's with family.</strong> I try to dive head-first into my work (working remotely for an archival project and my dissertation), and that does help. I've been scheduling Zoom hangouts with friends on most days. I have a very close friend in my PhD program who has been living with family for six months and is about to go back to living alone. I worry for her, but at the same time, it helps make me feel less alone that she's in the same situation. Honestly,<strong> the first six months of all of this, working from home, never leaving my apartment, never seeing anyone, really wasn't that bad. But I hit my limit, sometime around August or September.</strong> I became incredibly depressed. I just can't do this forever. Even though I'm not going to take risks, I honestly understand and empathize with the people who have lost it and can't take the isolation anymore. I am receiving an at-home test from my workplace so I can go back to working in the office a couple days a week, everyone staggered so we're only with one or two other people at a time. I am looking forward to spending time on site, but at the same time, it's incredibly lonely there with the staggered schedule.