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  2022-04-26

  Most magical place on earth becomes a lot less magical

  This is a photo of me at Downtown Disney in February of 2021. At this point the pandemic had been going on for almost a year. I had been going to Disneyland once a year for several years up until the pandemic. This photo is from when the Disney parks were not yet open, but we could go to Downtown Disney and basically only go to stores and eat food. Luckily we were able to eat food at a table, but before we went it was only take-out. We went for an afternoon and evening to walk around the shops and listen to the Disney music playing on the speakers - and as you can see, I wore my Mickey ears to get in the spirit of Disney - but it obviously was just not the same. I went home and told all my friends and family that it’s just not worth it until the parks are actually open. This seems like probably a minor inconvenience to some, and it’s definitely a first-world problem, but it did really affect me. This was an experience that I always looked forward to each year and saved up for and took time off work for. This is just one aspect of life that changed because of Covid-19. I think many people experienced different things like this. One might say that I was religiously making sure I would go to Disneyland for years in a row, to the point where I was not stopped by a pandemic. I think many people had to make sacrifices for the things they are passionate about during the pandemic, more than we probably realize.