A Reflection on the Pandemic — It’s Effects on My Mental Health
by Kiran Jagtiani, President of LiveGirl Alumni Advisory Board
To say that we lived, and continue to live, through a pandemic is unfathomable. The past year has been a whirlwind for everyone, to say the least. What intrigues me the most is how over seven billion people's lives came to a full stop on a random day in March 2020. As a result, there have been drastic changes in not only businesses and the environment, but most importantly in people’s personal lives; the differences in lifestyles, friendships, habits and personalities has been something that I, personally, have found quite fascinating, especially in my own life.
While losing one and a half out of the four “best years of our lives” as a college student has left me upset, it has also given me the opportunity to press pause on life and truly reflect. Once upon a time, the idea of a “perfect night” would consist of blasting music and dancing with my friends. A year and a half later, the idea of a room blasting with loud music makes me cringe.
This is just one of the many new traits I have discovered about myself. However I feel like many of them have led me to appreciate spending time on my own. While I still maintain an extroverted and social personality, I have slowly learned that there’s a beauty in spending time alone. Not only have I been able to focus on developing new hobbies, but I have also learned to take time away from the world and reflect on life, something I never did before the pandemic. I’ve been able to discover so many different traits about myself, whether it’s how I handle different emotions, my approaches to different relationships in my life, and the ability to adapt to new situations.
In a way, this past year and a half has forced me to pause and think much deeper on topics that I previously would’ve never paid attention to. Some may think that this is “overthinking,” a word that continues to have a negative connotation. However, I believe that thinking to a certain extent is a good thing. Pre-pandemic, everyone’s lives, particularly one of a college student, was extremely fast-paced. We were thrown into a completely new environment, sometimes hours away from home, where we had to adapt to new settings and meet a completely new set of people. In this constant cycle of change, we often forget to stop and reflect on the little things in life.
The one lesson I learned in the pandemic is that it is vital to always press pause. Luckily we were given this one year “break” from life and were given the opportunity to find ourselves. However, if there’s one thing you can take away from this article, it is that you should make it a point to periodically stop what you’re doing and reflect. If you need to plan out breaks and schedule them into your calendar, or you spend thirty minutes on a Saturday doing so, reflecting needs to be a part of everyone’s lives. Assignments and hanging out with friends can wait; one’s mental health cannot.
