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  2020-03-12

  An unrepeatable trip across the pond

  This photo was the first time the pandemic became real for me. In March of 2020, My wife and I took a well needed 2 week vacation to the United Kingdom. We very much needed a break from work & it just so happened that a friend of mine had a birthday and would be celebrating in Scotland by taking a two-week ski trip around then. What could go wrong? We figured we could take two weeks and things would be pretty much the same when we returned. We were mistaken. Only a few days after we arrived in Scotland,these & similar signs began to appear in public areas. Our ski-trip evolved into an escapade where we were hotel confined for most of our time. While we still got out and were able to explore the area a bit, for the most part we remained indoors since we were unsure as to what was “safe.” Getting back stateside was an adventure in it’s own, from the cancelled flights to the intense screening process at Heathrow. All the while, we continued to see the Coronavirus cases stockpile worldwide. We finally made it home and entered another quarantine, which it feels like we are still in seven months later. In the months since, I’ve lost extended family members, and a friend to COVID, and truly wish I could go back to the start of that trip, back when the virus was something real, but maybe not something tangible for me personally. This story/photo is important for me because I truly believe that this pandemic is a world changing event. Even though technically, the ‘19’ in COVID-19 signifies that it began in 2019, March 12th 2020 is when it truly started to show me just how real this virus was.