Three years ago, everyday life was hijacked by a disease and our lives changed, in some ways, forever.
At first, it seemed like this unusually named virus would be a stutter step, that our lives would only be disrupted for a few days, maybe a week. On March 18, 2020 — a normal Wednesday — schools and colleges were closed, a curfew was put in place and New Jersey’s National Guard was deployed.
Then, two days later, on Friday, many of us packed a few items from our offices knowing we likely wouldn’t be back for a couple of weeks. We had no idea that we would be gone for two years, or more.
That Saturday, Gov. Phil Murphy issued an emergency order and just about everything was closed. Saturday night at the movies was postponed and Sunday Masses were canceled. There were no more hair or nail appointments, no more gym visits and no March Madness. By this time, there had been 16 COVID deaths.
By the time we arrived in 2023, New Jersey had lost more than 36,000 people to COVID. Over those three years, we buried our parents and spouses, our friends and even our children. More than 3 million of us contracted the disease.
Thousands who survived lost their jobs or their homes, or both.
Today, we’ve mostly returned to normal. And on May 11, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will finally let the public health emergency expire and officially our long nightmare will be over.
So how did those three long years affect you? Did it change you mentally or physically? Did it change how you interact socially with others? Did you change how you shop? We want to know. We’re hoping you’ll share with us 300-500 word essays about that change. We’ll share the best ones with our readers.
At the very least, we think these essays will help us learn more about how the worst pandemic in a century affected individuals in New Jersey. But we’re hoping for more. We hope readers will see the extent of the impact on our communities and understand that it will take some time to heal. We may also see that some of the changes weren’t all bad.
Please email the essays to oped@starledger.com by April 7, 2023, and include the writer’s full name, address and phone number. Addresses and phone numbers are kept confidential. Please include the essay in the text of the email. No attachments, please.
Submissions must be exclusive to our publications and our online home, NJ.com. They may be edited, published and otherwise reused on any medium. Because of the volume of emails, we cannot always provide information on their status.
Thank you, and we’re eager to hear what you have to say.
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