The pandemic has been a challenge as I live with my grandma and there is always the underlying worry of whether she will be safe or not. Her visa expires in November and she wants to return to China but there's a lot of difficulty regarding who will travel with her and complete the mandatory quarantine. We are super fortunate to have had no local community transmissions for over a week now and in comparison to the rest of the world, I would say we are doing much better in that I can see the pandemic no longer affecting our country within a short-term future (by next year even?)
I think life has been different for certain though. I've been doing online uni almost the entire year and it was a hard adjustment at first. But I think quarantine has brought a lot of change to my life that I would consider even after the pandemic - I realised how good exercise was for my mental health and I also grew a lot better at making myself happy by virtue of spending so much time alone. I also think the pandemic has given me time to reflect on a lot of the relationships in my life and how much I value them - I've cut some people off, distanced from others, grown closer and prioritised the people I care about. Honestly I do feel like this is the year I've grown most as a person even if it isn't too apparent to others. I think transitioning to a new phase of my life (starting uni) + coping with the pandemic was a huge adjustment at first but I would say I'm managing it OK. My heart does go out to everyone who has been a lot more affected though, I consider myself extremely lucky to be OK at the moment.
covid is an absolutely horrible thing, but I'm glad you've been able to get a somewhat positive learning experience from it so far. hopefully that continues!
I've been consistent with exercising for the most part too, and it's definitely helped my mental health. still, unfortunately the present has been more harsh on my mental health than the first few months of the pandemic, but I'm hoping it eases up soon.