I was going to grad school in New England during the swine flu scare in 2009. My school took it really seriously and it was in the news quite a bit. I wouldn't say I was scared but I was definitely nervous about it. I ended up getting vaccinated for it at something the county health department put together at an elementary school. There were tons of people there. Then not long after that, not much ended up happening.

That's what I was expecting with COVID. Much ado about nothing. I remember reading about it on my news app in November or December 2019 and thinking, "Why are they making such a big deal about this? It's just some cold over in China." In late February 2020, about two weeks before it started doing its thing in my state, I had a conversation with my parents where the basic gist was, "This isn't going to change anything about what I do. It's just a cold." That attitude changed awful quick, once our state locked everything down... By then, I was taking it very seriously.