COVID-19 lived from my point of view
1st lockdown
COVID was a truly life-changing experience for me. At the very beginning, I didn’t think that this disease would affect us so much and change our world and our way of life, I didn’t think that this crisis would last so long and be so big. When COVID arrived in Europe, everyone was caught off guard and no one knew how to react. I never imagined what would happen next.
In Belgium, the first lockdown started in March 2020. It was a total lockdown, we couldn’t leave our homes, everything was closed. Strangely enough, I experienced this first lockdown very well, I was at home with my whole family and the weather was great. We could spend a lot of time together, as we had to stay in a bubble. The only thing that was more complicated was the new way of taking courses. We had to take online courses for the first time in our lives and nobody was prepared for that. So, in terms of organisation it was not easy and both students and teachers were lost. Because of this new method, I had a lot of loss of motivation and it was not easy to start working when you are alone in your room. Despite this complete change of life in such a short time, I have taken a lot of positives from it, especially all the moments spent with my family. I also started to play sports again and I never stopped my studies.
One thing I missed a lot, however, was not having the opportunity to see my friends and go out with them. Just not being able to go out for a drink with them was hard on me.
End of lockdown
When the announcement was made that the first confinement was over, I was so happy. We were finally free after three months of confinement. No more being cooped up at home and trying to find things to do, no more running around in circles in the house. It was so amazing to be able to go outside again, to go to restaurants, to meet friends. Just leaving the house to go to the shop to shop made me happy. For a short time we could enjoy life before COVID again, even if there were some rules to follow, but it didn’t matter to us because of what we experienced during the confinement. As far as I was concerned, everything was over and we would soon hear nothing more about this pandemic.
2nd lockdown
Unfortunately, a few months later, the situation deteriorated and we went back into lockdown. Bars/restaurants and shops closed again. Personally, I had a harder time with this second lockdown. Why was this? Simply because I was so happy to have my freedom back after the first lockdown, we could finally live again. But the reality of COVID came back to chase our dreams and we had to stay at home for a second time. I was much less happy, I felt deprived of our freedom and I could not understand how we could not have been prepared for this second wave when this crisis had been part of our lives for some time. In my opinion, it was not well managed and there were many mistakes made by the authorities in our country.
For me, there was a before and there will be an after COVID. Indeed, this pandemic has turned our world upside down. No one was prepared to deal with this kind of situation. I think we should learn a lot of lessons from this disaster to be able to deal with this kind of situation in the future. The world will not be the same as before, I am convinced that there will be many more rules and that we will have less freedom than before COVID. I hope I’m wrong but when I see how it is managed by our authorities, I have little hope.
Impact of crisis
Of course the crisis will have had an impact on communication. We have seen an increase in new digital means of communication. It will undoubtedly be part of our lives whether we like it or not. The emerging post-Covid-19 world will be shaped by new dynamics and complex realities, immersed in virtual inter-connectivity and driven by cross-sectoral engagements.