In Accident and Emergency with chest pains because I'd caught Covid already.

apolgy for bad english

where were u wen COVID lockdown hit

i was at house eating dorito when phone ring

"Outside is kil"

"no"

Early February 2020. Someone in my main friend-group groupchat posted some news regarding Coronavirus. Me, happy citizen of UnderARockVille said "What the fuck is a Coronavirus?" and got gently made fun of.

A few weeks later aaaaand we were quarantining.

I had already shifted to working from home, ordering groceries for pickup, avoiding crowds, etc. for several weeks before shutdown happened.

I too thought it would last maybe a month or two, so started a degree thinking I would have at least a semester knocked out during lockdown. Jk, I had the whole degree done before we returned to office.

I was in highschool at the time. I just got suspended like a week before school officially closed for covid. It was for a fight, and I was in self-defence, and the bully probably picked me to harass probably because I'm Chinese-American and probably blamed me for Covid. I got arrested, but charges were eventually dropped, after like 10 months and multiple virtual court hearings or some bullshit.

I was glad to suspended from school, I fucking hate it. I always wanted to just skip it and get a GED (its a test you take to get the equivalent of a High School Diploma). So yea, eventually, I just quit and took the GED, passed on first try, zero studying (I mean, cmon, that shits easy), the scores when converted to GPA are better than my actual GPA anyways 🤷‍♂️

At that time I researched a lot about immigration laws, and learned that the USCIS could see juvenile arrests and "convictions" (its technically called "adjundicated delinquent") within the past 5 years, and also any adult arrests and convictions. Including overturned, sealed, or even pardoned ones. Laws are so bullshit, I'm glad my mother's naturalization gave me citizenship, it'd be so bullshit to potentially get deported for a school fight.

I was always a loner, I just chilled and watched a lot of pirated Movies and TV Shows, I remember watching a lot of Youtube, particularly Jacksepticeye (very wholesome btw).

(Btw, why does this world suck so much? 😓)

Wuhan, Hubei, China.

It was evening in the UK when it was officially announced but we had been expecting it for a few weeks as the UK government at the time dragged its heels unsure of what to do, spoiler alert I did not even get a day off unless you count the weeks i had off because I kept catching covid, the first time completely knocked me off my feet for a week.

I had requested a week off of work because I was miserable and about to quit. Was watching the governor of my state speak on tv with my family, and knew what was going to happen based on what was happening everywhere else. Look, the pandemic was clearly awful and the consequences have screwed up the world even more than it was already screwed up… but in that moment learning that I’d never have to go back to that job and I was about to get $1000/week to sit home, spend time with family, cook, relax, play games and watch movies? Oh, it was the best times of my adult life. So this is how the rich get to live? Turns out I’m not depressed. I just hate being a slave.

Probably at home? I worked from home running my own business so really didn't notice any change to my circumstances.

My elderly neighbour on the other hand - he was on a very long cycling holiday in New Zealand. He was up in the mountains when it all went down. He came down the mountain and found the place like a ghost town and had no idea what was going on!

At work. Co-workers said probably two weeks. I said probably a year.

I was doing my internship at a small accountancy firm in Belgium. Happy I got to leave and be home.

God damn, COVID was a blissful and amazing period. Basically the last part of my life where I spent a lot of time on the computer.

After that I got married and basically am just working and spending time with my wife. Of course that's fun. But I guess my "solo time" ended with COVID.

Kinda never, I never really experienced the lock down. I lived off grid and worked super rural at the time. I heard about everything shutting down all over the country but it never reached me. Still just went to work everyday. I also never got covid.

UK, so announced in the evening before it happened. My patio was in the process of being done and they struggled to get the slabs as all the builders merchants were closed, fortunately it did get finished - their last job for a while. Other than that I was working from home but I don't remember if that came in slightly before lockdown was officially announced. Went from five days in the office to none.

I was driving home with a good friend after camping out for an amateur radio contest weekend and we pulled into the Stud Country Tavern at North Dandalup for some lunch.

The staff member said that this would be the last meal they would be serving.

We asked why.

After looking at us as if we were mad, we were shown the local paper where the lockdown would go into effect that evening at 18:00, 22 March 2020 in Western Australia.

I was across the country, close to the shithole that was my home town. Was supposed to be there helping a friend of mine with his pot growing operation but to be honest, the whole thing was a bit of a bust even before lockdowns. But lockdowns hit maybe a two months after I got there and that more or less fucked everyone's plans.

But I was stuck there for a while. And my internet was spotty to non existent. And at one point the house got broken into and my shit got stolen. So it was overall pretty crappy times.

I was on one of the last few planes into Italy before they locked it down. I did not keep up with the status, so I arrived with tape on the floors everywhere, noone around, just confused on how to act now. Went home and started to keep track of the graphs and numbers of the spread.

No joke, at home convalescing from a long illness. I was already seldom going out for any reason other than family functions or to see friends at their houses for the most part. The whole quarantine, both official and unofficial were a breeze for me personally despite the difficulty that it brought others, having already adapted for my own personal health requirements.

Honestly, though, I don't know how I would have pulled it off without the 'net. Apparently the character George Jetson would have been born during the pandemic, which is lowkey kind of funny IMO, seeing as so many people adapted to talking with their bosses via tele-screen; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Jetson

I was at home. My boyfriend had gone to the store to buy toilet paper - I know, the irony - and he calls me and tells me everybody has gone insane and is buying a ton of toilet paper. He's standing there with with his humble little pack of toilet rolls while people are tumbling pack after pack into their carts and acting frantic.

Took him half an hour to get through checkout. We spent the rest of our night watching the news.

I think there had been talks of lockdowns for a few days or so before that and we had all been kinda joking about it a little bit, but most of us didn't really think it would happen until it did.

I still think it's low key hilarious that my bf went to buy toilet paper and ended up in the toilet paper apocalypse for half an hour.

I don't know where I was specifically, but I know what I was up to. Me and ex spouse were finishing packing for our move to Seattle. Lease signed, most our stuff sold to downsize, jobs quit. There was no undoing moving to the city in the middle of the plague for us and we weren't even sure if we'd be allowed in

At the door to Burger King

I was at work. My kid was in high school, and I got the news that school wouldn't reopen after March Break. I was in a role that was already remote-friendly/expected but had argued my way into keeping a desk (had done full remote before but was getting squirrely over it, and I had newbies in my old role with little on-site support that I used as an excuse). Thought to myself "K, I'll work from home next week so kiddo has someone around if necessary/to poke him so he doesn't just rot in bed all day".

Took home all my work stuff, which was a good thing when the notice went out saying I was not allowed to go back to the building.

I knew I was an "essential" worker before the ink dried on the state order. I think I lost my special letter work gave me. I remember in the begginning few weeks police were actively pulling people over to question them. I remember there was a militia in oregon? doing a roadblock.

Was walking to a grocery store when someone texted me about it. I only learned it was because of covid later in the day. I didn't think it would last any longer than a month, worst case.

"Lockdown" was me being moved to an off-site office with less personal space than the on-site office, with even more people. Even though the work was 100% remote help desk to begin with.

I was at work and we were told to grab our shit, load it in our cars, and go to that office space. We were given letters in case we were pulled over to allow us to go to work (nobody was ever pulled over.) Gov contractor work.

I was on my way to a dinner party; a coworker who had recently been fired called to complain / gloat about how mgmt must have known it was coming and didn't want to pay her unemployment. Which was probably true.

The news definitely put a damper on the dinner party.

I was already semi remote at the time so I only went to the office 2-3 times a week. I was home at the time when it was announced that offices will be temporarily closed down, so I was like 🤷, didn’t really matter much. The only thing special I did was go to the office to get my office chair. Then the scramble to buy masks because they weren’t readily available at the time.

I think I was in a college lecture when we were told that we were going to be remote for the last few weeks of our course.

I remember hearing about COVID for the first time a lot more clearly though, I was volunteering in a charity shop and the two managers were chatting about how the couple who ran the flower shop down the road just brought it back with them from their trip to china. I told my mum that it might be worth buying some hand sanitiser and she said "I'll worry about it when it gets to the village" safe to say it got to the village pretty soon after that.

There is a window for "Where were you when...?" questions, I think.

• Kennedy? Nope.
• Moon landing? Just about.
• Challenger? Yep.
• Princess Di? Yep.
• 9/11? Yep.
• Lockdowns? Whatever...

I think that I am drifting past that window nowadays.