he pandemic was a strange time for everybody.
It is generally known that Covid altered our sense of time. Studies have shown that stressful events, particularly being confined to one’s house for extended periods, can cause one to feel as though time is moving more slowly. It is now very difficult to recall whether it was quick or slow.
One writer has coined a term for this sensation and many women have come forward on TikTok to talk about their experiences.
What is the pandemic skip?
In a recent column published in The Cut, features editor at New York magazine, Katy Schneider, discusses “the pandemic skip”, which she defines as “the strange sensation that our bodies might be a step out of sync with our minds”.
Schneider mentions a few examples in her essay, including one about her colleague, who started the pandemic at age 29.
“Now, she wants to make up for the time she lost: to travel with her husband, to work, to go to dinner with friends — all the things a young, carefree person roaming around in the city might concern themselves with.
“But she also wants to have children, and she’s worried she needs to settle down and start soon — according to obstetrics guidelines, her body is now two years away from being considered ‘geriatric’.”
“I’m really 31 in my head, which is a problem, because now I actually don’t have time for my brain to catch up with my body,” Schneider’s colleague told her recently.
A number of women on TikTok have come forward on the app to share their pandemic skips.
Schneider concludes her essay with a reminder that everyone is moving forward with their lives in some way because, frankly, there isn’t anything else you can do but make decisions now, and it’s unfortunate that many of these significant decisions are being made just after a “once-in-a-generation black hole”.