It hit me this morning on the way in to work, while listening to sports talk about conference basketball tournaments, that it was right at one year ago today when life really changed. I think the SEC tourney had just gotten underway when the plug was pulled on pretty much all sports across the country. I remember an interview with Bruce Pearl not long after, and hearing him say, we were on our way to Nashville when we got the news that the SEC tournament was off and to turn around and go home. By the time they got back to Auburn, news was out that March Madness was off and upon arriving on the Plains, they were told to pack up and go home. The campus was being cleared. That's a lot to process.
Things were getting weirder by the day, not only in sports, but in our every day lives. We had people freaking out in our office. One of our employees had taken a trip and before she got back, the other employees were saying they wanted her to quarantine for 2 weeks before she could come back. Schools were starting to close and one of our single-mom employees had no one to keep her kids and had no choice but to go on FMLA and stay home. We closed our office to the public for weeks while doing what we could to try and generate some business. Suffice it to say, those weeks of closure and not taking on new clients really caught up to us, and continues to do so today.
Rumors and misinformation were flying fast and furious. The reality was that no one, not even the so-called experts, had any clue about this virus, how it was spread, who could get it or if there was anything that worked to prevent it. Half the population was in panic, while the other somewhat shrugged it off and felt it was overblown, maybe even a bit of a political stunt. Early on, I had a couple of people I knew fairly well, who contracted the virus, struggled for weeks in the hospital and eventually passed from it. One was older but in great health. The other had numerous health issues and seemed a prime candidate for this virus to target. Still, we didn't know how to react to it.
It seemed that when summer hit, I went from knowing of two friends that had it, to an almost daily update of people I knew coming down with it. Then it hit family. It was quite real to me by then. Even as late as two days ago, I've had another person I knew pass from it. Most reports I've heard recently, say the numbers seem to be coming down, even if ever so slightly. Other reports say get ready for another spike because we're headed into Spring Break time and large groups of people will be gathering all over the country. I'm praying that's not the case, but most likely will be. I'm afraid we're not nearly done with this thing quite yet.
I got my first vaccine shot about 10 days ago. My second is schedule for the 29th. My hope is that as more and more people get the vaccine, we quickly start getting on the back side of all this. I'm ready to walk in a store and it not look like some bad sci-fi film with everyone masked up. The wife had some flu symptoms the past few days and went in for a test yesterday. It was, in fact, the flu. I'm ready to hear that people are actually getting the flu again and it's not Covid. Not that I wish the flu on anyone. I'm ready to watch sports again on TV and hear a real crowd and not see a thousand cardboard cut-outs in the stands. I'm ready to attend sporting events again and not worry that I'm too close to someone. I'm ready to actually shake somebody's hand and talk to them without a mask muffling our words. I'm ready to be normal again.
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