Covid reflection.pdf

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Part of Covid reflection

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Covid reflection
Overall there were a lot of benefits for me personally during the pandemic, at least during the
first phases. I was able to increase the amount of time I spent with my aging beloved dog
Mickey during the last year and a half of his life. To me that was priceless. At least for a little
while when everyone was learning to pivot to online teaching and remote work, things were a
little slower at work, so I felt like I was able to breathe a little more. Things have since gone back
to the regular frenzied pace, but I needed thata break. We were able to move lots of back burner
projects to the forefront including lots of data cleanup. During the period of time when I was
working only at home I was able to cook at lunch time sometimes and that was really nice. I did
way more cooking at home than normal, which saved money, and I think we ate healthier. I felt
like I was able to rest more and not feel like I was missing out on events because there weren't
events happening. Sometimes I did miss certain kinds of events though. I'm bad at wanting and
trying to do everything. Quarantine allowed me to give myself permission to be a hermit at a
time when I needed a break from people. There were, however, some negatives too. A couple
months into the pandemic I had to fire my student workers, and it was very hard to have to give
them such bad news, and it also made it impossible for us to get as much work done. I did have
some anxiety about the future because this added uncertainty. In particular the library's budget
had more uncertainty, so there was increased job stress in that regard. I did worry about my
vulnerable family members and their health; I have a lot of aging relatives and one aunt who has
had an organ transplant. I did worry about myself staying well too, and I initially had some
anxiety about having to remember additional safety routines because I not particularly good at
that sort of thing.