When the Pandemic Became Real
Yesterday, I saw in the New York Times an article asking people to share when they knew the Covid-19 pandemic was going to drastically change their lives or when it became “real” to them so I thought I would share when is became real to me.
To start off, I am an essential worker who works in local government. While my office was closed to the public from March until June of last year, I went into work everyday. Once a day, I would have to take the mail from my office and deliver it to the mail room in the mail city office building because my office was in a separate building. I usually enjoyed taking the mail because it gave me a chance to get out of the office and walk around for a little while.
One day in April, I was taking the mail to main city building, which at this point was nearly deserted. The hallways were empty and the corridors were dark because half of the lights were turned off. It was starting to resemble the hotel from the Shinning if the hotel was a boring office building. At least I was able to take some cool pictures with a post-apocalyptical vibe.
I dropped the mail off in the mailroom and started walking back to the main entrance of the building. As I turn down one of the hall ways, I ran into one of the janitors that worked in the building who I always thought acted kind of strange, but I stop to say hi and talk to him anyway especially since there was no one else around. After the usual “hey how’s it going?” he starts to walk off. But all of the sudden, he turns around and says “its starting to get real huh?” and then walks away laughing hysterically in the creepiest laugh you can imagine. He laughed as if it was the funniest thing he had every said.
It was in that very surreal moment in April of last year that I started to realize what we were in for. The surreal manic laugh of the janitor was the starting bell for the terror the pandemic would bring.
