To Me, 1 Year Ago From Now
March 2020
The title of this newsletter is a blatant rip-off of the first episode of the series Attack on Titan, but I really couldn't resist given what I'm going to write about today.
It turns out that exactly 1 year ago from today, March 7, 2021, I was in Toronto taking in the sights after my visit to Waterloo.
I'd never been in another large Canadian city outside of Vancouver, and everything definitely felt foreign. I wish I'd taken more pictures back then, but I've never been much of a photo person. When I think back, some of the things that come to mine are completely unimaginable now, a year later. People huddled up like sardines in a can on public transit (without masks!), bars packed and open, getting on a plane and flying; these are all things that I (and I bet most people in the world) took for granted.
I remember calling up one of my friends who was currently studying at the University of Toronto and trying to surprise them with a visit. This actually worked out remarkably well, since they were actually the first person I saw when I walked onto the U of T campus (they were lining up for their Iron Ring ceremony). In retrospect, I can't believe how lucky I got.
When I flew back, I remember having a nasty cold (I wonder if that was actually COVID. I guess an antibody test now would be pretty useless). About a week later, UBC closed down in-person instruction and the public health authority announced a "two-week" shutdown to get the virus under control. Thus began the longest two weeks of the lives of most people.
March 2021
I'm writing this newsletter in a very different world and as a pretty different person too. I can't believe I'm halfway through grad school already. I'm always surprised by how much can happen in a single year, even though my past experiences have shown me time and time again.
I really don't want to jinx anything, but things are looking slightly better. Canada has approved 4 (four) vaccines for use (I think that's the number, last time I checked), and a number of large public institutions have announced their intent to resume in-person instruction in the fall (sans UBC).
I consider myself to be a pretty pessimistic person for the most part, but for once I'd like to be a bit more optimistic about what is going to happen in the next few months ahead. There's still a lot of unknowns with regards to what the pandemic will look like down the line (variants of concern), but hanging on to a bit of hope right now is giving me the push I need to keep going forward. Hopefully I won't regret this.
Until next time.