COVID PANDEMIC PODCAST-PIMENTEL

The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the lives of young adults. Maya, a public relations major, experienced negative effects on her mental health due to fear of contracting the virus and the inability to go outside and socialize. Hannah, a graphic design major, learned to appreciate spending time alone but also struggled with regaining social skills after being in lockdown. Jeremy faced unemployment for a year before finding a job at Amazon and eventually returning to his previous job. Zade used the time during the pandemic to reflect and start his own successful clothing brand. The pandemic taught him the importance of self-growth. Overall, the pandemic reshaped the lives of these young adults in various ways, highlighting the challenges and opportunities they faced. Welcome to Midori Talks, the show where we amplify the voices of young adults and explore the profound impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on their lives. I'm your host, Midori, and today we're diving into personal stories and experiences. Our guests today are here to show how they've navigated the challenges and changes brought about the pandemic. All right, guys, our first guest today is Maya Lerch, a 22-year-old public relations major. Maya, can you tell us a little bit about how the COVID pandemic affected your mental health, please? COVID-19 honestly felt like such a fever dream. I remember the years 2020, 2021, and 2022 all kind of feeling like a blur of the same year from hell. I remember that I was scared. My mental health wasn't doing the best because I have an autoimmune disorder. And I thought, you know, what if someone coughs and my mask isn't up all the way and I contract it and I die? And it really had a negative effect on my mental health. And on top of that, I couldn't go outside. I couldn't see people. I mean, none of us could. And that had a negative effect on my mental health. And for me, having, you know, good, stable mental health means going outside, going and hanging out with friends, working out, socializing. And I was freshly single. I was in my freshman year at college. It was my second semester. And all of a sudden, I couldn't go back for a couple years. My grades weren't the best. I wasn't engaged. I was just at home, sleeping a lot, not exercising. And I was an essential worker, too, so I was also just stressed. So it wasn't the best time for me. And it just felt weird for everyone. Like everyone was on the same page. No one had toilet paper. The freeways were empty. Women were giving birth by themselves without their support systems. And then on top of that, there were people who thought it wasn't real. It became very politicized, yet people that I knew had passed away, and their families are still, you know, facing repercussions. Their mental health still isn't the best. So you know, COVID was, I wouldn't want to say essential, but I feel like everyone learned a valuable lesson from it. And maybe if you didn't have poor mental health before, maybe you understood, you know, what it meant to have poor mental health when you're locked up, and you can't go outside. So I feel like it was such a learning experience for everyone. But it's really unfortunate that, you know, not just a couple people died, hundreds of thousands of people, like all around the world died, and it didn't have to happen. And yet everyone was scared. I completely agree. Although I'm not too sure I agree about the toilet paper part, that would kind of be a shit show if we didn't have any toilet paper, literally. Benhu, thank you, Maya, so much for sharing your experience. All right, guys, our next guest today is Hannah Perrini, a 22-year-old graphic design major. Hannah, can you tell us a little bit about the COVID pandemic and what it taught you about yourself? I can definitely say that COVID taught me so much about the type of person that I am. And I can definitely say that before the pandemic, I had a really hard time with just spending time by myself, whether it be going to the beach on my own or going to a restaurant by myself. But I would say that during the pandemic, I spent a lot of time on my own. And now I just, I mean, I love to go to the beach by myself and, you know, listen to the waves crash or just reading on my own or journaling, just doing stuff for myself, which is something that I just really didn't have that much of an appreciation for before the pandemic. And I was almost scared to do things on my own, but now I embrace it. And I think it can be so fun to just spend time with yourself. But one of the negatives, though, from the pandemic that I will say was I realized how introverted I am and how awkward I can be. I feel like it was really hard for me to come back from the pandemic and be very outgoing and extroverted and such because I had spent so many months just in my room, in lockdown, not really talking to people as much face to face. And so coming out of the pandemic, kind of regaining a lot of my social skills was a little tricky, but we're doing good now. No, yeah, I completely agree with you, Hannah. I feel like we have actually very similar stories that I'll actually be sharing later on in the podcast. So thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. Next up, we have Jeremy, who had actually experienced difficulties within his career working at the Santa Monica Pier. Jeremy, can you tell us a little bit about this, please? Yeah, sure. So the way the pandemic affected my work life was basically I was told by my company that for two weeks that we're going to be off because they didn't expect COVID to be that big. And that two weeks turned into a whole year of me being off and laid off at work. I mean, I was able to stay home and I was getting work unemployment checks. So that was the only thing I was paying my bills. And then eventually I ended up getting a job at Amazon and working through the pandemic until my job at the Pier opened back up and I quit Amazon to go back to my normal job. Damn, that must have been really hard for you being unemployed for a whole year. My mom actually was laid off during the pandemic and she still struggles to find a job to this day. So I can understand how difficult that must have been for you and your family, especially the fact that you had to raise a kid and support your family. So thank you so much, Jeremy, for sharing your personal story. All right, guys, it looks like we're on to our last guest today. Zade Bam, despite the difficulties that the pandemic had brought, Zade had created his own highly successful clothing business. Zade, can you please share your story today with us? My name is Zade Bam. And so I want to first start off with the fact that the pandemic was one of the most interesting periods of my life. I think what I can attune that to is the fact that life literally just paused. I mean, all my life I've been I've been kind of chasing something, moving towards something I was going through. I don't think too much about it, but, you know, elementary school, middle school, high school, there's always something after what you're doing. And eventually I was in college and a freshman year when the pandemic hit and everything just paused. No more work, no more school, no more of this. Everyone just was focusing on mental health, on family, on making sure that their loved ones are being safe, are being taken care of. And this was a very erratic period for everyone. And while it was detrimental to a lot of people, I think it also allowed a lot of people to have some sort of self-growth. For some, it was starting new hobbies such as baking bread, reading more books, learning to play the guitar. And for others, it was some physical improvements like hitting the gym, maybe yoga, meditation. Personally, for me, I was given so much time to kind of self-reflect, realize what I want to do, that I realized that I wanted to start a clothing brand because there was a lack of specific types of clothes that I couldn't find on the internet. And to fulfill that desire, I started hand-embroidering some clothes. And I quickly realized that, hey, the things that I like and the things that I make, others may like as well. And this kind of snowballed into a brand that today I can be happy with, be proud in. And so that's what the pandemic did for me. Thank you. Thank you, Zade, for sharing your personal story with us today. I mean, honestly, mad props to you. I saw you grow from 20 followers to over 30,000 followers just in the course of two years. And it's been, honestly, really inspiring to see your business grow as well as your own personality. And, again, mad props to you because you went to school for chemical engineering, which is huge. And that must have been really difficult for you. But I'm just really proud to see how your clothing line has grown over the course of two years. And if you guys want to, you know, shout him out or follow him, his Instagram is bam.studios on Instagram. He does, like, anime clothing and embroidery, and it's really sick. I think you guys should totally take a look. Thank you again, Zade, for sharing your personal story with us. We really appreciate it. All right, guys, it looks like we're coming to an end here. As we wrap up these conversations, it's obviously clear that the pandemic had reshaped the lives of these young adults in various different ways. I want to thank our guests, Maya, Hannah, Jeremy, and Zade, for sharing their personal stories and insights with us today. I'd now like to provide a short story of my own personal experience with the pandemic and how it affected me after this quick break. All right, guys, welcome back. So now it's my turn to share a little brief story. So basically in the early days of COVID, the isolation had honestly felt like a very brief pause and unexpected vacation almost from the hectic routine that I was so used to. At the time, I was living on campus in San Bernardino while working full time out there. I was meeting new people, exploring a side of me that I had honestly never seen before because I had finally had a sense of freedom. To be honest, I was partying a lot, and I did spend a lot of my time going out to meet new people because this was also new to me, especially since I didn't know anyone out there. Then the pandemic hit. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months, then into years. Suddenly, I was back home in L.A. doing my school online while working full time over here. I struggled tremendously with focusing on my online classes as I craved face-to-face social interaction. I became lazy. I would fall asleep during my classes. I lost contact with the majority of my friends that I had just made and became extremely introverted. I became extremely anxious when I had to talk to people at work since I was still considered an essential worker and lost a lot of my communication skills that I had worked so hard on. I broke out of my shell, then suddenly I was right back in it again. Time passed on, and I had found a new love for doing things on my own. Going to the beach alone and listening to the waves. Going on hikes by myself to listen to the birds chirp and the creeks trickle. Going to eat by myself and just sit in my car alone. I was finally becoming okay with being on my own and just left in my own thoughts. This created a new self-confidence that I had never felt before, and honestly, I prefer doing things solo to this day, such as going to the gym. Despite my negative education career experience that many others felt as well during the pandemic, I can say that the one good thing that did arise during it was that I had finally found my inner peace. I appreciate y'all for tuning in, and to our listeners, if you guys have a story that you guys want to share or just want to continue this conversation, connect with us on social media or through our website at midoritalks.32. Remember, your voice matters, and together we'll navigate the challenges that lie ahead. Until next time, this is Midori signing off from Midori Talks. Stay healthy and stay connected.