(WBRE/WYOU)— This week marks five years since the COVID-19 lockdown began. For young people, particularly Gen Z students, the disruption would go on to have long lasting effects on their health and wellbeing in ways different than that of other generations.
"I lost my childhood during COVID and I'm still trying to recover that. It's hard because you don't know how to recover it. I don't think we ever will from what we have lost, from all the losses and all that's happened during COVID," said Mark Kucewicz, Penn State Wilkes-Barre.
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What was supposed to be just two weeks originally, stretched into months, if not years, of uncertainty and isolation. For students, those sudden closures altered life's trajectory in unexpected ways.
Abby Blancato attends the University of Scranton, and said she is one of many now college students who say they have struggled with developing proper social skills due to the isolation.
"I definitely lost the communication skills to be able to talk to someone one on one like making eye contact and not being awkward. I definitely have gotten social anxiety because of it. Like there are times where I don't know how to speak to someone, and I used to be able to do that all the time," stated Blancato.
"We go through a lot of anxiety, depression, things like that, and for me it was more of an elevated thing and I felt like us being locked down for those two years, it just caused more of that. So for me, it would've been better for me to drop out then stay in that virtual learning where I don't have a teacher in person explaining everything to me," added Brianna Wilson, Swoyersville.
While the lockdowns brought a lot of uncertainty and loss, many young people say those tough months also helped them grow, build resilience, and see things differently. Lessons they're holding onto as they move forward.
