Relationships hurt, especially in a pandemic

When you’re in a relationship, there will be many ups and downs that come with it. That’s the natural fate of being in one. But something that many of us didn’t expect to happen was a pandemic. This felt like a slap in the face to a lot of budding relationships, I’m sure of it. When COVID-19 first started, it was tough to see any friends or go out anywhere because everything was closed. Being online and communicating through social media and instant messages was the only way to actually maintain a relationship with friends or a significant other.

If something that was so special to you immediately got disrupted by a force of nature, how would you feel? It would hurt, right? I think that’s the case for a lot of people. Not being able to be there for the people you care about in person can be rough. I have felt this by being separated from people who I thought were gonna be in my life forever, or at least through high school. That wasn’t what happened. Friends who I would see almost every day were suddenly people I only talked to on Snapchat, and that led to not talking at all, mostly because of not being able to see them or gain any connection through social media.

Everyone’s relationships have been impacted by COVID-19 and it’s time we take a closer look into that. The people that are affected by this can be your neighbor, a friend, someone you’re close to, or a complete stranger. With this you may never know how a person is feeling, or the way they see any relationship that they are in now. The people that are affected by this are mainly teenagers, but some adults do feel the pain of losing a boyfriend or girlfriend, or just disconnecting from family members because of not being able to keep in touch.

With relationships it can feel like a task to do most things, and sometimes people don’t want that. Especially during a pandemic, it has become harder to complete a lot of activities that you and your partner might want to do, or that you and your friend might want to do. I know from personal experience, friendships that were broken over this pandemic felt like a slap in the face.

Roshna Omar, who goes to Boston Latin Academy, commented on how relationships can always change. “[Friends] aren’t always going to reciprocate those feelings that you might put into the friendship,” she said.

This is a common issue with friendships or relationships that have broken over time. It’s because of just having that feeling that your person isn’t putting in as much as you are, and it can take a toll, especially when it’s during a pandemic.

The way people deal with relationships breaking might be different for everyone. It could be that cliché of eating ice cream and watching a movie, or trying to distract yourself from the life around you. During the pandemic it has become much harder to break off relationships it feels very condensed and hard to try and face reality. “Going back to school [online] helped [re]gain those relationships,” Omar said.

Being back in the swing of things helped a lot for her. This is especially with school friends because of having the same classes together and being brought back to texting about the things school brings up. This is helping strengthen relationships that might have been weak a couple of months ago.

Relationships and friendships are not easy, and we all know that. When something is interfering with that relationship, it can make it even tougher than before. If you have someone there who will stick through it thick and thin, that can make things much better, especially in the time of need. But sometimes those people aren’t gonna be there anymore and therefore boil down the relationship into nothing.

As Omar put it simply, “People aren’t always gonna be there for you no matter how long your friends for.”