How Has The Pandemic Affected Our Happiness?

There is no one way to define happiness. From some happiness can be a person, place, or thing. What makes me happy may make someone else miserable. I decided to take time and ask some of the people close to me what makes them happy. Something to remember while reading is that the response has to do with the effects of the pandemic.

The Covid Pandemic was a shift for everyone. During the lockdown happiness wasn’t the main emotion being felt by people. Anxiety, grief, worry and many other stressful emotions were consumed by everyone. Some people tried to make the best of being laid off, no school and not seeing the people they care about the most.

There is one question that became relevant during the pandemic. Does happiness come from what’s around you or is happiness something that comes from within? What truly made each person happy. Was it earning money? Seeing Friends? Getting to hug those that meant the most to us? The answer won’t be the identical for everyone.

I decided to take the time and interview three very close people in my life. I wanted to get a better understanding of what happiness can look like through different periods of someone’s life. Those three people would be my mother Tracy Althouse, sister Lauren Althouse, and boyfriend Blake Johnson.

My mother Tracy Althouse is a forty-five-year-old and who has been working most of her life. Currently she is working at Penske Truck Leasing. She is digital product manager, which means her day consists of managing websites and a mobile app. Her team takes the time to create new features that people request. Most of her days are spent working and coming up with ideas but when she gets moments to herself, she enjoys going on walks, spending time with family and working on her blog, 18wheelrv.com. Due to Covid Tracy had tackle the new experience of working at home. In a couple of paragraphs, we will hear some words from her.

My younger sister Lauren Althouse is a sixteen-year-old junior at Cocalico High School. As most people say junior year is the hardest year of high school especially for Lauren since this is her first full year of high school that hasn’t been affected by Covid. The first two years were filled with masks, lots of hand sanitizer and having to quarantine. Lauren is involved in many clubs. Some of them include Student Government, Global Scholars, and Spanish club. Along with academics she is still exploring ways to feel like a normal life post pandemic.

The final person I deceived to interview was my boyfriend, Blake Johnson. He is currently a freshman at Kutztown University. Sophomore and junior year for Blake were cut short due to the lockdown. Through high school he was on the varsity football team and captain of the lacrosse team. Now he spends his time like any other college student. Working on assignments, trying to beat the next level on his current video game obsession, working out and spending time with his friends.

Some information about myself is that I’m in a very similar boat as Blake. Two years of my high school have been impacted by the pandemic. I wasn’t super involved in school, but I still participated in events and volunteered. Today I’m a student at Kutztown University who spends most of her time trying to find a balance between being social and staying on top of assignments.

I started off each interview asking them all the same questions. “What makes you happy?” When this question was being asked each of the interviewee’s froze and took some time to themselves to think. Once their thoughts started to come together it wasn’t difficult for each of them to create a list.

TRACY: “My family, working on my website, taking walks, warm weather, and camping. Those aren’t the only things that make me happy. All those things help me relax when I’m not working. Most of my days are spent working and I need to find stuff I enjoy doing so I don’t get stressed.”

LAUREN: “My friends make me happy since I can be myself and we always have a good time. Going to Emerald Isle and swimming. It is my happy place. It’s so warm and fun. Taylor Swift makes me so happy. I have always loved her music and I can really relate to it making it have more meaning.”

BLAKE: “My dog Tucker for sure. He’s so cute and goofy. I’ve had him since he was a puppy, and he does everything with me. I love my dirt bike. It’s loud and I get to ride with my friends. They also make me happy, especially Toby since he’s my best friend. We always do crazy stuff together creating good memories that are always funny to look back on.”

TRACY: “I’ve gone through many tough times in my life, but one time that came to my mind first was when the pandemic first started. My stress levels skyrocketed due to worrying about work and the people around me. I was mainly anxious for my parents since they were high risk. I don’t remember exactly when my happiness came back but I remember feeling relieved when I found out I could work from home. I could still provide for my family. For my parents’ health though that stress went away once the BANDS lifted.”

LAUREN: “I’m not sure if this will count as a low moment in my life but that one summer that I was alone and didn’t do anything. My mom was busy working and so was my sister. I didn’t get many chances with any of my friends when they constantly kept on posting being with each other. It was hard to find things I liked to do. I just felt lonely. Towards the end of the summer, I was really happy though. We took our family beach trip to Emerald Isle, North Carolina. I got to be at my happy place with my family.”

BLAKE: “There was this one time I was pretty frustrated and unhappy. My dirt bike wasn’t running and when it would I wasn’t able to find it. I love my dirt bike and have been riding for such a long time. Riding helps me relax and is just something overall that I enjoy doing. All I wanted was to ride my bike especially because I had so much free time. After weeks of working and being frustrated I finally fixed the problem. I was so happy, like winning the lottery happy. I was then able to go riding with Toby later that week.”

TRACY: “I’d say more time. That is a hard question to think about. With everything I have going on in the next couple months I just need time. Things keep on piling on top of each other at work and at home. It gets very tiring. It’s more of the idea of not having to worry about all the things I need to complete. I think it would make a difference. It would allow me to do more things I actually want to do. Maybe if I had everything done, I’d appreciate all the hard work I do.”

LAUREN: “Money. I know there is a saying that money can’t buy you happiness but right now in my life I could use money. The only reason I’m saying money is because I need to buy a car and college is coming up. I’m soon finding a job which will help me feel better about my financial situation. Deep down I feel like this won’t help make a difference within. I don’t know. If I’m able to get everything I want, everything won’t really have meaning anymore. I guess that probably won’t make me that happy in the long run.”

BLAKE: “I’m going to go with money. I wouldn’t have to work or go to college. It would make my life better, but I would be missing out on a lot of things. College life, meeting new people, having to struggle with money and just overall building self-character. I would be a different person and be boring. Money is a weird thing and can be taken in both a positive and negative way.”

TRACY: “As I talked about a few questions ago, I have a lot to balance on my plate. I try to create schedules for my days, but something constantly changes or gets added. I wasn’t too surprised when I saw this was my lowest, but I thought that work may be the lowest. Although I enjoy what I do, it can get stressful which I guess can go hand in hand with my not-so-great time management skills.”

TRACY: “I wouldn’t have thought my standard of living was going to be my highest but after thinking about it that category makes sense. I’m comfortable with what my community provides for me and what I can provide for myself and my family. Relating to the the pandemic, I feel as if my standard of living wasn’t that affected. I was still able to make income. Certain necessities like toilet paper however weren’t available but that was the same for basically everyone.”

LAUREN: “I’m not sure. I don’t know my neighbors that well. I’m close to people in my school which is like a community. I’m involved in many clubs there and enjoy interacting with my friends. It also may have to do with the fact that we moved in a year before the pandemic happened so my family didn’t get a chance to really get close to our neighbors.”

BLAKE: “I know most of my neighbors back at home and here at Kutztown. I think it’s my lowest because although I know them, I haven’t got a chance to interact with them in a long time. During the pandemic I didn’t interact with my neighbors at home as much. It’s interesting here because everyone will just talk to anyone. After my first year, if I retook this survey community may become my highest.”

LAUREN: “I like school and entertainment. I take academics very seriously and my days consist of me going to school, coming home to work on my homework and watching a movie or show. Entertainment helps give me a space to relax and relate to certain characters. Hopefully this relates but I like to learn about cultures, mainly Spanish. As a junior I’m already in Spanish four and still plan to go further in that area of study.”

BLAKE: “In most of my free time I spend it playing video games which in a way can relate to the arts. I like to learn about stuff I enjoy like my dirt bike or fishing. I’ve always enjoyed school growing up. It was a way for me to see my friends and be social. I’m going to be honest I don’t know why this one would be my highest.”

Looking back on my end my lowest was time management and the highest was life-long learning and arts. With my own personal experience, I don’t always have the best time balance skills. During the lockdown I had to create a whole new schedule which was difficult. Reflecting on my experience I noticed I used to prioritize the wrong things and sometimes still to this day I do. One thing I love about college is having a loose yet fixed schedule. I have classes to attend and work that needs done but at the same time I can go to the gym or read when time fits.

It was interesting to see how the results were all similar in some way. Blake and Lauren had the same strengths and weakness. Tracy and I had the same weakness. By sitting down and talking to them it was captivating to see how the pandemic, even though it’s still in place, has really affected people. Lauren may have been closer to her neighbors. Tracy wouldn’t have been working from home learning how to separate home and work. Blake wouldn’t be as open to do things.

The first thing I’d recommend is to create some kind of schedule. It will help plan out your day or week. With having a schedule, it will allow you to think about what your goals are and how you can reach them. Having a routine down gives you time to prioritize what matters most to you which leads to creating happiness within.

Something that should be a part of your schedule is daily exercise. It’s known that exercise is good for your health. If you’re having a stressful week and don’t know how to relax, exercise can get the frustration out. Overall, it will help clear your mind giving you a feeling of peace. Just putting time in your daily routine for a ten-minute walk will help with your well-being.

What I consider to be the most important thing to maintaining happiness would be pushing the pause button. There are so many times in life where we overreact. By pushing the pause button, it allows us to step and breathe. Is this really something I need to be getting worried or frustrated about? As people we constantly add extra stress in our life all the time. If each time we start to feel like this and “push the button”, it will relieve so much stress leading us to feel better within.

Over the past two years everyone’s life was switched upside down. Remote school and work, wearing a mask, being stuck inside and the constant stress of life ever going back to normal life. Schedules weren’t the only thing that was being affected by the pandemic, but people’s happiness itself changed. Finding new ways to create happiness within became a struggle. Through these interviews process, I learned everyone has their own source of happiness, yet there are similar keys for the creation of it. No matter what situation people are faced with there is still some spark that can be used to overcome worry. Although happiness seems to be someone or thing, it really comes from being balanced within.

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