Endnotes: What Have You Learned from Living with Challenges of COVID?

We have been living with the impact and challenges of the coronavirus pandemic for a year now. How have you changed and what have you learned? 

I have learned that I am OK with not interacting in person with anyone outside my family, and my wife and I really are hermits.

Martin Goldberg (BS ’78), MATAWAN, NJ

No planes + no trains + many fewer trips by automobile lots more time for work and leisure.

Philip Neches (BS ’72, MS ’77, PhD ’83), SUMMIT, NJ

I’ve learned that even a life with unscheduled weekends leaves you with too little time to get things done prior to the Monday work week restart!

Tara Gomez-Hampton (PhD ’11), PASADENA, CA

Probably 50 years ago I read The Plague by Albert Camus. It has remained with me as being prescient and honest. Dr. Fauci seems like the reincarnation of Dr. Rieux in Camus’s great novel.

David Rennels (MS ’65), LA CA ADA-FLINTRIDGE, CA

As an advocate for social change and a city councilperson, I have learned that Zoom can save us a massive amount of “vehicle miles traveled”! I have also learned that I am not so much a person who can just live in my own head as I thought; I was fine for three to four months, but over the last six months have felt increasingly starved of contact with my extended human “posse”!

Dennis Pocekay (BS ’70), PETALUMA, CA

Professors have become the DJs!

Roger NG (BS ’85), HONG KONG SAR, CHINA

Being an introvert has its advantages. My mind has kept me company. The extra time is precious, and making time is (hopefully) now a habit. Time for my family, time to get back to favorite activities, and time to just breathe.

Karen Kiselewski (BS ’82), DELRAY BEACH, FL

More self-reliant for entertainment & intellectual stimulation. Closer communication with my wife. Better connected to more culture and intellectual events via Zoom than previous in-person interactions, although maybe not as much fun!

Jeffery Richardson (BS ’70), LIVERMORE, CA

I’ve learned to love all kinds of webinars. I’ve been learning about the 1918 pandemic, virus proofreading, and face masks. Too many DIY projects.

Douglas Ikemi (MS ’80), INGLEWOOD, CA