The first lockdown here in Denmark hit in March 2020. At the time, I was in my last year of high school and had to study from home, and due to being at higher risk of getting seriously ill, I had to stay home and attend via video call while my class mates returned to school a month or so later. That was tough.
Fast forward half a year later, I had started university where my first semester was partly on-site and partly remote. That was fine since I’d already gotten used to studying from home. The next semester though (Q1 and Q2 of 2021) was 100% online, and I had never felt so demotivated in my life. I could miss lectures at 2 PM because I couldn’t get out of bed. It was that bad.
But, I managed to push through and completed my Bachelor’s degree in software development in the summer of 2023. Fast forward 2 years, today, I have been in a large private IT company working with IT operations (system administration, Linux servers, etc.) and now I’m back at (another) university working with Linux servers and pretty happy with it.
Overall I think I managed to do pretty well during the whole thing, but the pandemic definitely took its toll on my mental health. It did teach me one thing though, to really appreciate being able to be outside, being able to move freely, and being able to spend time with other people.
Except, we are.