“I have always felt very proud,” said Wang-Polagruto, 47, a senior coordinator of clinical research at the University of California, Davis Health, of the 41 gymnastics meetings that Gabriella competed in. out there and making those skills difficult and scary. “
For most of last year, Covid-19 restrictions have banned the practice of indoor gymnastics where Gabriella lives. His coaches tried to make the best of it by getting gymnasts to lift weights and stretch outside, said Wang-Polagruto.
But not being able to practice routines or learn new skills at the gym began to wear out Gabriella, who has been doing gymnastics since she was 3, said Wang-Polagruto. And when the family received the news last month that the practice could finally be resumed indoors with a very limited capacity, Gabriella surprised everyone by announcing that she no longer wanted to return.
“That was very, very difficult to hear,” said Wang-Polagruto. “We were prepared for her to get out of the sport of a lifetime at some point, but not in that way.”
Wang-Polagruto hopes that Gabriella will find new passions. She expressed interest in cheerleaders.
But for others, what the pandemic stole cannot be filled with anything else.
Navarro, the Louisiana store employee, lost a grandmother and aunt to the coronavirus. He was unable to visit them to say goodbye, and Zoom’s funerals with distant relatives, he said, did not close him.
“Even with technology as big as it is today, it still doesn’t bring the warmth you need between you and a loved one,” he said.
Why this seems to be the longest year ever
In addition to the challenges that the year brought, for many people, it also seemed impossibly long.
Susan Sedlacko, 26, of Columbus, Ohio, looks at her last photo before the pandemic – a photo from a trip to Memphis, Tennessee, in early March 2020 with friends – and doesn’t believe it was just a year ago.
“March seemed to last four years last year,” said Sedlacko, youth development coordinator at a nonprofit organization that serves children and families. “There was a time when I forgot that we had gone to Memphis because so much has happened since then.”