This month marks one year since the World Health Organization declared the global spread of COVID-19 as a pandemic.

On March 1, 2020, the first case of confirmed COVID was identified in NYC. Companies prepared for the looming storm and began allowing employees to work from home indefinitely. No one expected this to go on for this long, yet we survived through a year of isolation and virtual meetings. While we are finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel due to rigorous vaccination efforts, it’s hard to imagine jumping back into the old normal. The COVID world we have come to accept and live in now seems incontrovertible.

The NYC mayor and big tech companies are currently planning to reopen their offices by late spring. Employees are dreading and hesitant about resuming their commutes and working in the office for 8 hours and 5 days a week. I, for one, do not look forward to pondering what to bring for lunch the next day. COVID has turned the world around for better or worse.

I remember the morning of Monday after the news about the city’s first COVID case broke out. I headed to work. The subway was less packed than usual—some companies had already closed their offices, hence sparing noticeable space in the train. I could feel the uneasiness in the air, as if the passengers foresaw the calamity of the mysterious virus. A construction worker wearing a hard hat kept his eyes closed not because he was sleeping but rather in a meditative state. I exchanged looks with a lady standing across from me. We acknowledged each other with no words but our eyes only. We spread our feet wide and held onto the handholds to prevent falling on the moving train.

This time last year my colleagues at work had been preparing since December for the arrival of first cases in New York. They were talking about contact tracing and started pulling people in to help out with the upcoming public health emergency. Masks and gloves were reserved and prioritized for health-care workers at that time. The administrator in my office went around to put together the list of personal emails and phone numbers—for the worst case scenario. She said we as city employees were never allowed to work from home, even during 9/11. I thought to myself, “This must be really bad.” I was used to emergency preparedness by the means of fire and tornado drills at school, but the COVID outbreak might be my first time seeing the worst case scenario being manifested in real life. Unfortunately, the difference between natural disasters and COVID is that the fires and tornados come and go, while the pandemic is here to stay—and we were far better prepared for fires and tornados than for the virus.

The year under lockdown has transformed businesses, cultures, relationships, and our definitions of home and workplace (or the blurred line between the two). We have been cooking more at home and making sourdough bread from scratch. While some restaurants have leveraged by offering takeout and outdoor dining options, other business owners had to close their stores for good. I recently let go of my favorite Vietnamese place in Upper West after months of closure and no signs of reopening. I am still sad about it because they made the best lemongrass pork banh mi sandwiches. The New Yorker featured an article that examined the NYC restauranteurs trying to keep their businesses open and following the constantly changing COVID guidance during this past long and brutal winter (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/01/how-restaurants-survive-the-long-pandemic-winter).

COVID had an impact on our relationships. Due to social distancing, we were forced to be creative with socializing and staying connected. In terms of dating, COVID has been both a curse and a blessing. While opportunities to meet physically are sparse, people seem more upfront about having conversations about expectations (what they are looking for) and boundaries (what precautions they are willing be flexible with) right away. Couples in quarantine have been spending more time together than ever. Psychotherapist Esther Perel says it’s been a 50-50 split between breakup or more closeness among the couples in her practice during COVID.

Whether it be baking, learning to play a new song on the guitar, responding to the COVID outbreak in the city, or having a picnic with friends at the park, I have made it thus far in good health. That’s all that matters. I have been privileged to stay employed despite layoff threats last summer due to the city’s fiscal deficit. As we enter a new year of COVID, I am preparing myself optimistically yet cautiously for my return to the familiar yet strange world post-pandemic.