Heading to the movies, shopping trips at the mall, eating out at restaurants, and waking up early to go to school at one time did not require much thought. However, this past March, the Coronavirus arrived in Georgia. Covid-19 drastically changed people’s lives in ways that they never expected, and no one prepared for this virus to become part of their everyday life. The CDC now discourages fun and simple activities that used to emulate normalcy.  Now when people think of going to the store, visions of people of all ages wearing masks immediately come to mind. The nightly news has become consumed with new cases and sky-rocketing death percentages. No one saw this coming a year ago, and it slapped everyone in the face suddenly. Students and teachers alike miss their pre-quarantine lives, since the things in life deemed “normal” went unappreciated. 

“I miss a lot of things about pre-quarantine life, but what I miss most is probably full time practicing for sports. With corona and everything happening it’s super hard to get in a sufficient amount of practice for myself. It definitely has been a major setback for me in terms of athletics,” NC junior Bentley Huff said. 

Huff, along with other athletes, did not have a chance to prepare and make adjustments to their workout plans. When quarantine ends, it will take hard work to catch up on lost time. A majority of them never realized how extreme of an impact in-person training makes.  The new social distancing rules do not affect athletes alone. Students of all kinds continue to find new ways to entertain themselves. 

“Quarantine changed my whole mindset and attitude towards things I used to hate. Take anime, for example, I always thought it was weird and I didn’t like it, but now it’s my favorite thing to watch,” NC junior Meryam Abuimweis said. 

Most everyone has new and unique hobbies, but they can agree that they want normalcy. People should take this experience with a grain of salt, and when normal life resumes, hopefully, they will practice gratitude.