I feel like one major lasting impact of lockdown for me was my relationship to my dad/football.
lost my dad’s dad to covid during one of the lockdowns (feel like the whole period has blurred together for me now). I had moved to Denmark a couple months before the pandemic started, and I couldn’t go back home to visit him in hospital/attend the funeral. my dad is on the autism spectrum and didn’t want to talk directly about it. I felt really useless being so far away and not being able to be there for him, and because we were both in lockdown there was nothing for us to speak about aswell because we were both just sitting at home all day
so then I made a huge effort to start following leeds united cause he’s always been super into football (I hadn’t cared since I stopped playing when I was around 16) and I think it was following football that got me through the majority of covid. it gave me a concept of time and the passing of days and something to look forward to (eg ok just gotta get through 3 days until the game on Saturday), but it also gave us something to talk about regularly which didn’t involve putting him under the pressure of trying to deal with his grief. I could feel close to him and like I was somewhat there for him despite the distance between us
I follow Leeds super closely still and it’s been a really great thing for me and my dads relationship
(also since this is my first post after lurking for 2 years I just wanna say thanks a lot to you all for all your effort and contributions, I’m really grateful for this place)