For Muskingum University student Sarah Irvin, the pandemic has been a year of challenges and self-reflection. One of the good things that she said came out of the pandemic was practicing better hygiene.

“I think that individuals and businesses are practicing better hygiene overall. I know I’m more conscious about how many times I wash my hands a day and sanitizing places,” said Muskingum third-year student Sarah Irvin.

Irvin said that one of the good things about how businesses sanitize is that gyms now clean their equipment better. In addition to the extra cleaning, Irvin said that the lockdown gave her a more appreciative outlook on life.

“I just didn’t realize how much I took for granted.” said Irvin.

Irvin said that one of the ways that she coped with quarantine was to distract herself.

“Well, I just tried to keep myself busy I guess. I think of all the things that I didn’t get to do. before COVID[-19], and I try to get those things done now that I have the time. That’s definitely how I coped with it.” said Irvin. 

She said that her and her family spent their quarantine doing a lot of building plans.

“During quarantine we definitely got into a bunch of projects. I live on a farm, so we were able to do a lot of stuff on the farm that we weren’t able to do because of time, like building a new shelter and stuff,” said Irvin. She also said, “I guess I just was able to do all these things that I couldn’t do before because of time. Because of school and work.”

Irvin said that she learned how to better manage her time and work out a lot more than she used to during the lockdown. She also said that seeing people come together during the pandemic has helped her grow.

“Well, I’ve definitely seen a lot of growth in the community,” said Irvin. One example of growth is the pizza shop in Philo, Ohio. She said that her dad, who helped with the pizza shop, would give out free pizza to people who couldn’t afford to buy food.

Irvin said that she plans to maintain the things she has done in the past year.

“Well, I’m most definitely going to continue to do all these things I didn’t have time to do before and I’m going to make time to do it. And that’s working on the farm and bettering my animals there and bettering myself by working out and eating healthier and stuff like that” said Irvin.

Irvin also said that if she could go back to say something to her past self at the start of quarantine, she would tell herself to relax.