02/12/2024

The Pandemic Sacrifices of 20-somethings

They lost something in the pandemic and have yet to find it

In January 2020, Luis was 21 and beginning the second semester of his junior year at a public university in New York City. He lived with family in Queens, and everyone pitched in to make ends meet. His father was retired. His mother collected disability insurance. His older sister, with whom he shared a bedroom, was a veterinary technician. Luis worked at a law firm. The apartment was crowded, loud, and sometimes crazy. But in New York City, what isn't? Luis was usually out in the world, anyway, because when you're in your twenties, the world is yours.

When COVID hit, Luis' universe suddenly narrowed. No school. No job. No parties. No friends. He went grocery shopping and was stunned to find the shelves nearly empty.

"People were just hoarding," he said. "There was nothing." A few days later, he lost his sense of smell. Soon, his whole family had the virus. It was scary, because by then Queens was one of the most dangerous places on the planet. Ambulance sirens blared around the clock. Local hospitals were filled to capacity, with so many dead bodies that they needed refrigerated trucks to store the remains. Luis experienced all this as a shock to his system. A few weeks earlier, he was looking at graduate schools and thinking about a new life in a new city. Now his main goal was to survive.

Please select this link to read the complete article from TIME.