I cant believe this is the final episode. I’ve had so much fun creating these posts and meeting all the new faces I have throughout this experience. And for everyone who has read it and supported this series I am forever grateful for your love.

If you haven’t read the rest of the episodes, you can do so at the bottom of this page.

I set out to prove to myself more than anything, that the emotions I have been feeling, my worries and fears, are justified. I set out to question the phrase being thrown around the British media ‘we’re all in this together’. We can’t see our loved ones, we can’t hug them or sit with them and have a cuppa like normal, but in that we are together.

I know there have been some comments and messages about the comfort and hope this blog post has given people. For me to have been able to help people who were struggling or just needed some reassurance has filled me with such pride. I cannot thank you all for these messages enough.

Now then, onto the USA…

Unless you have been living under a rock, you will know most of the facts about the USA and its battle against Covid-19. Over one third of ALL cases are in the USA with 1.6 million cases. And almost a third of deaths are there too as tragically 98,000 people have lost their lives to the virus in the states.

You might also be aware of the anti-lockdown protests, The president telling people to drink bleach (DO NOT DRINK BLEACH) and there are many other crazy things to have came out of the country in the last 10 weeks. I’m not going to go into any detail of these things, partially because I don’t have the high (or low) IQ to understand how the most powerful country in the world has a small percentage of the population denying the existence of a virus that has taken the lives of so many of their own?!?!?!?! This kind of thing is giving the USA a bad reputation and I simply don’t understand it.

Lets get onto the main reason you’re all here, the interviews with Americans. I have managed to grab people from 5 different states from east to west. These are; New York, Alabama, Georgia, California and Nevada.

Please don’t forget that these are all real people, who are not experts and are simply stating their opinions and discussing their real lives in response to the questions I asked. Those questions are:

1. Briefly introduce yourself, where in the world you are and who you are locked down with.
   
   
2. How has this experience impacted you and your daily life?
   
   
3. What is the general feeling of the lockdown situation in your part of the world?
   
   
4. What are you doing to stay positive/active in this weird time?
   
   
5. What are you missing most from ‘normal life’ and what will be the first thing you do when this is all over?

Also please be mindful that English may not be the first language of these people so if there are any spelling or grammatical mistakes just ignore them (Like you do with my own writing!).

Taylor, Upstate New York, New York

Hi, I’m Taylor and I’m from upstate New York. Due to Covid, my husband and I are on Lockdown with our two young boys. My husband works in dairy production and I work at a small bank. We are considered essential workers so we are still working during this crazy time. 

The lockdown has been hard for us because we no longer have childcare. As a result, this has forced us to work around each other so that one of us is always home to care for the boys. This makes it hard because it feels like single parenting. We feel alone a lot of the time. 

The Lockdown is beneficial to stop the spread of the virus. That isn’t to say that I welcome it with open arms. It is definitely hard to accept, especially with two boys that don’t understand why they can’t go have fun. 

I stay positive by being as active as I can. I take the boys on walks or go for runs by myself to clear my head. When the sun is shining, we are getting outside to enjoy the fresh air. 

What I miss the most about life before Covid is the way you could just walk out the door without a thought and go wherever you wanted whenever you wanted. I miss going to my local YMCA and working out while the kids played with other children their ages. I miss being social with my friends and family. There is a lot that I took for granted before but now realise that those things are luxuries that I can’t wait to get back. 

You can connect with Taylor on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taymotivated_/

Hali, Atlanta, Georgia

Hi my name is Hali! I’m a business consultant by day (sometimes night, depending on my hours), a baker and recipe-creator in-between. I love to travel and was actually travelling in Patagonia when the world started shutting down. I flew back to the States and am currently in Lockdown with my parents in Atlanta, Georgia.

Normally I travel 4 days a week for work, so it’s surreal to be working from home every single day. I also normally live in San Francisco, so I haven’t seen my friends and boyfriend in over 2 months. On the flip side, it’s been great to hang out with my parents. I also feel like I have much more flexibility in my schedule and I can invest more time in creative projects and developing new recipes.

We’ve actually started opening up in the past week, so it almost feels like things are returning to a new normal. However, people are worried about a second wave, and there’s so much uncertainty about what the future holds.

I try and walk outside every single day, even if it’s just up and down the street where I live. I have also been baking an incredible amount of bread and pastries (to balance out all the walking of course). In a sense, I feel like I have more space to be creative and try out long, lengthy projects. Channelling that creative energy has definitely helped keep me sane.

I miss hanging out with my friends in person. The first thing I’m going to do is throw a big dinner party where everyone comes and brings their favourite food. We’ll eat and chat and enjoy each other’s company late into the night.

You can connect with Hali on her socials:

• BLOG: http://halicopteraway.com/
• INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/halicopteraway/

Grace, Alabama

My name is Grace Moore. I’m located in a small town in central Alabama! I’ve been on lock down with my boyfriend, Josh, well sorta. he’s still working, my step-son, and of course our dogs!

Honestly living in such a small town I don’t think I will ever say “we have nothing to do” again. It hasn’t been easy by no means. It’s been boring. It’s been financially stressful, but I will say it has also been good. We’re doing better than we were before mentally and financially somehow. It was definitely weird doing Easter alone.

Most people still do what they want. I mean we had our obvious closures of like everything, but a lot of people are actually making the best of it around here and getting outdoors and just enjoying their time off and time together. Like I said it’s hard financially for a lot of people, but mentally it’s done some good I feel like. It’s given a lot of people much needed breaks.

Just making the best out of it. We’ve gone fishing multiple times and mainly just spent our time outdoors. I can’t even begin to count how many projects we’ve done since being at home!

For us a lot of our “normal” stuff has opened actually yesterday and  today. The first thing I did was go shopping lol. I mainly miss working and miss being able to go into a store without waiting in line.

You can follow Grace on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_graceemoore_/

Lydia, Las Vegas, Nevada

Hey everybody! My name is Lydia, and I’m 27 years old and living in Las Vegas, Nevada with my husband Andrew! Las Vegas is the most popular city in the United States for trade-shows and conferences, so before Corona virus I worked full time as an event specialist and did some modelling on the side. 

This experience has impacted Andrew and I DRAMATICALLY. As soon as the Corona virus hit, Las Vegas immediately cancelled all trade-shows, conferences, and events for the foreseeable future, meaning that I am completely out of a job. Andrew works as a tour guide to the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, and Hoover Dam, so his job was similarly affected as tourists flooded out of Las Vegas and quarantine was implemented. We both went from full-time to unemployed within a matter of days. 

Nevada has been blessed to be on the lower end of Covid-19 cases compared to many other places in the United States. I believe that Nevada accomplished that by locking down completely by mid-March. Andrew and I have been doing our part by staying home and only going out when absolutely necessary (like getting groceries or picking up prescriptions at the local pharmacy), and even when we do go out we both wear masks and use hand sanitiser frequently. I know that many people started getting impatient with the quarantine situation in mid-April, but Andrew and I have been taking it seriously because he has asthma and we don’t need him getting sick! Nevada started Phase 1 of reopening the state a few days ago, but we’re both still mostly staying close to home. 

Andrew and I take daily walks, bike the empty streets of downtown Vegas, or go hiking when possible, which has become more difficult as temperatures in Vegas have started to rise! I’ve also used this time to experiment with creating more creative and unique content for my Instagram feed. We both Facetime our families frequently: his family and my siblings all live in Michigan, and my parents live in Bangkok, Thailand. We have been able to access weekly services from our church on YouTube, and I’ve been reading new books for the first time in several months! I normally travel a lot for work and Andrew works 10-12 hour days, so we have been enjoying the fact that we can spend whole days with each other, cook dinner together, and catch up on Netflix shows!  

I am definitely missing the freedom to travel! I normally travel at least two or three times a month for work as well as to visit my family in Michigan, so the fact that I haven’t gotten on a plane in almost three months is SO BIZARRE! We also had a trip planned to Switzerland and Paris for mid-May, so cancelling that vacation was pretty difficult. I’m looking forward to planning my next trip, visiting my family, and going to brunch (bring on the mimosas!!) as soon as it is safe to do so! 

You can connect with Lydia on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lydia.r.penn/

Taylor, Orange County, California

I’m Taylor, the owner of taylordailyblog.com where I write about lifestyle, fashion, and travel. I work as a publicist for spirits brands and cocktail events and have been writing since 2013. I’m based in Orange County, California and am locked down with my boyfriend and dog. 

Shortly before the pandemic, I was offered and accepted my dream job. I’ve since lost my job because of company-wide layoffs. This makes everything harder, especially since the more people protest without distancing and wearing masks and gloves, the longer it will actually take for places to safely reopen since more of the virus is spreading (ironic, right?). If everything stays closed, I can’t find work. Trust me – I want everything to open too, but there is a civil way to go about it.

In my county, there’s a huge divide between what the next steps should be. People are protesting quite frequently without taking safety precautions, however COVID-19 tests are hard to come by. What I’m concerned about is those who want everything to reopen quickly and choose to put themselves in unsafe situations (protesting, etc.) by doing so. This, in turn, sends more people to hospitals with symptoms, which then puts doctors, EMTs, nurses, etc. at risk. I’m not just drawing at a conclusion here: this affected me first hand. I’ve been following orders and patiently staying home so that everything can reopen slowly and in a safe manner. However, someone infected with COVID-19 came into contact with an EMT I was living with and transferred the virus to him. He is now isolating elsewhere, but I had to drive to a different county to get tested because I wasn’t allowed to get one here. I’m still awaiting my results.

I’ve been taking my dog into the yard and sitting outside with him to break up being in the same room most of the day. I’ve also been doing a lot of no-weight workouts where I’ll focus on balancing or using my body weight. I have weekly Zoom calls scheduled with different friend groups, which gives me something to look forward to every week. These have been crucial to maintaining a positive attitude. I love being social, so video chatting with my friends is the highlight of my day.

I’m a very social person, so I miss being able to move around and visit anyone I want. I think the first thing I’ll do once I personally feel safe is go to my favourite bar and order a Negroni.

You can connect with Taylor on her socials:

BLOG: taylordailyblog.com
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/tayvillanueva

And with that, the series is finished.

I just want to say a HUGE thank you to every single person who helped me make this into what it is. Its been the highlight of my Lockdown experience and I am forever grateful for your input.

As to you, the readers, Id like to say an even bigger thank you to yourselves as without you I wouldn’t have had the drive to finish this series. I’d love to hear what you thought so leave a comment down here and tell me what Lockdown is like where you are in the world.

Don’t forget to Subscribe down below for more of my blog posts. Don’t worry I have more ideas just as exciting as this one. I hope to see you all on the next one. And thank you again!

Stay Safe, Stay Home

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