The COVID-19 pandemic took different things from people worldwide, depending on their circumstances; however, whether wealthy or poor, struggling or stable, the one thing the pandemic gave all people was time.
COVID-19 has taken social freedom away, and hurt the country’s economy. While the pandemic has been nothing short of a detriment to people’s normalcy, perhaps people could find something useful in their new, harsh reality.
“People are resilient,” LSU psychology professor Anna Long said. “They can adapt quicker than you think.”
Dr. Long specializes in crisis response. She encourages the youth to get through challenging situations. Whether they are struggling with their social or emotional state, her main goal is to help them overcome the obstacles getting in the way of their academic success. The pandemic has called for her expertise more than she ever expected it would, she said.
“People in the community have utilized me more than ever,” she said. “It has really been amazing.”
Before the pandemic, fewer schools had a focus on Students’ mental health, she said. When the pandemic hit, The Louisiana Department of Education realized how much student’s mental health would impact their success rate during this period.
Long said the state passed new legislation that encouraged all schools to do student mental health screenings.
“This led to more schools reaching out to me for assistance with that,” Long said.
With the state’s new focus on students’ mental health needs as they go back to school, Long has provided training and support to different schools with their universal mental health screenings and suicide risk assessments.
“This pandemic has expanded things I was doing on a smaller scale to a significantly larger scale, she said. “It afforded me the opportunity to help and share my knowledge.”
Long said the quarantine made her busier; however, for some people, the quarantine has created more time for them to take up new healthy habits, connect with family or focus on themselves.
LSU senior Daniel Guilbeau was able to do something during the quarantine that he couldn’t do before.
Guilbeau said he has always been interested in golf but couldn’t find the time to play or didn’t have the resources. During the quarantine, Guilbeau moved to his aunt’s house, which is on a golf course.
Every afternoon, he would borrow his uncle’s golf clubs and play the course, he said. Breathing the brisk evening air, watching little squirrels run from tree to tree, and nature’s silence is what Guilbeau appreciated most during his golf outings.
“Having that time alone allowed me to think clearly and create new thoughts,” Guilbeau said.
Even when life gets busy again, Guilbeau said he wants to continue to make time for his mind like he did in quarantine.
“I will always treasure the feeling those moments gave me,” he said.
New Orleans native Barbara Blank said the quarantine was a struggle for her and her husband. Blank and her husband own a healthy meal service in New Orleans called Clean Creations. Trying to navigate a food business during a pandemic while taking safety precautions was challenging for her and her husband.
However, amid the pandemic causing chaos in their work life, they had time to do something on a Wednesday morning that would have been impossible before the stay-at-home order.
“We laid on a cozy blanket in our driveway with our 4-year-old daughter, trying to find princess-shaped-clouds,” Blank said. “It was magnificent.”