Some Ignorance

Does anyone else feel like they were completely naïve when it came to anything corona/COVID-19-related?

Because I sure do.

Less than two months ago, I was packing my suitcase for my short-term transatlantic move. That version of me was still completely oblivious to everything that was about to happen.

Now, of course, corona wasn’t unknown then. News about the “new” virus and resulting illness had been popping up daily for weeks. Except back then, it seemed like most people (including me) were still ignorant to how serious the situation already was and how much worse it would get – and how quickly.

So I happily packed my sweaters and blouses and blazers, already picturing myself in the cute Brooklyn AirBnB my boyfriend and I had booked, taking the subway into Manhattan like they do in the movies.

Even as more and more cases were reported in Germany (where I am from) and in New York (where I was going), I still didn’t think that the virus would really impact my travels. I was (and am, thank goodness) a healthy, young person, without any medical conditions. So really, why would anything happen to me? Why shouldn’t I be able to go?

It’s funny how all of this was only a few weeks ago.

On the 10th of March, my boyfriend and I hopped on a plane from Amsterdam to Toronto, close to where a lot of his family lives. Besides some people at the airport wearing masks, not much really hinted at the chaos that would soon erupt. We landed, we drove home to where we would spend a couple of weeks before my internship was supposed to start.

That all feels like it was an eternity ago. Life was still drastically different. We’ve only been in Canada for a month and a half, and yet, this Canada is not the same we arrived in.

Everything happened incredibly fast.

March 10th: We fly to and land in Canada

March 11th: President Trump announces ban of most travel from Europe

One day.

But you know, at that point, we STILL thought we would go. Because Trump only banned those who had been to Europe in the last 14 days. “HA!” I remember thinking. By the time we wanted to go to NYC, we would have been in North America for 15 days. Perfect timing.

I can’t help but roll my eyes at past-me. So clueless about how much more would happen. Maybe it was because I had been looking forward to this internship so much that I didn’t wanna believe anything was going to stop me from going. To a degree, that was definitely a part of it. But not all.

I was so unaware of how big of a threat the virus was and is.

And how quickly the internship of my dreams would go back to being just that – a dream. It would have to wait.