It’s no secret there are a lot of things we miss while staying at home. At first, it was quite the novelty – working from home? Amazing! Spending time with your family under a nostalgic lens? Heartwarming. Getting to reconnect with long-distance friends via FaceTime and Hangouts? Priceless.
It’s safe to say that there are things everyone is missing. Whether it’s their favorite coffee shop, a cup of ice coffee to go please, or their gym, everyone is missing something from their life before COVID-19 restructured the way we’re living our lives. Hairstylists miss their clients and their clients sincerely miss them. Retail stores are slowly closing down without consumers browsing the most recent sales. Gyms, where athletes and Americans go to get exercise remain still, with weights, racked appropriately — gathering dust.
At first, having a quick break from the hustle and bustle of American daily life was good. Most people expected to be back at work after the first two weeks of staying at home. It’s just that as the days grew into weeks, and weeks have grown into months… where is the light at the end of the tunnel?
So what, exactly, have people been missing the most while they’ve been stuck at home? For some people, they’ve been alone at home for a few months so they likely miss seeing friends and family. For others, traveling is probably a big part of their lives so they miss seeing new cultures, new places. For the foodies, they miss restaurant food and sampling new cuisine.
And for others, still, there is a lust for the daily life pre-COVID-19. Econolight sought to answer this by surveying over 1,500 American adults as to what they’re looking forward to, most, once the shelter-in-place orders are completely gone, quarantine no longer looms as a threat, and it’s safe to resume daily life as we’d like.
Unfortunately, the answer to that question is unclear. Although search interest for “when will COVID-19 end” was peaking in the United States in March, the volume of searches is, once again, beginning to rise. Research from Bloomberg suggests COVID-19 will extend chaos into 2021, meaning we may not be visiting our gym, favorite coffee shop, or stylist any time soon.