Why it's time to reflect on how lockdown changed us

It’s no wonder we don’t like to think about the Covid era, writes Lauren O’Neill on the five-year anniversary of the first lockdown. In retrospect, it altered so much that we once took for granted about work, relationships and ourselves

- Lauren O’Neill

I don't think I'm alone in the fact that I don't really like to dwell on lockdown too much. It was, after all, a complicated, sad time, and when I do think about it, in my head it's a weird blur of badly run laps around my local park, Google Hangouts, and endless Netflix. I was fortunate enough that in my own immediate life, nothing very bad happened, but it's just as true that nothing very good happened either.

Now, to look back on, it just feels like empty time - time that could have been filled by untold experiences, had the world been going around as usual. For some people, though, the impact was world-shaking: perhaps it was a period when long Covid changed everything, or time they could have spent with loved ones that they'll now never see again. No wonder it's not really a place our brains like to go to.