In Laman's Terms: What Did We Learn In March 2020?

"I hate him!"

In Laman's Terms is a weekly editorial column where Douglas Laman rambles on about certain topics or ideas that have been on his mind lately. Sometimes he's got serious subjects to discuss, other times he's just got some silly stuff to shoot the breeze about. Either way, you know he's gonna talk about something In Laman's Terms!

Ya know, two days before March 2020 started, I turned to my Mom and said "March 2020 is gonna be a life-changing month."

How right I ended up being. Just not for the reasons I thought.

March 2020 was supposed to be the month I traveled down to Austin, Texas to cover the South by Southwest Film Festival for The Spool. It would be my first time attending this festival as well as my first time ever visiting Austin, Texas for more than an afternoon. My excitement for this excursion had been building up for months before the entire endeavor got cancelled on March 6, 2020 due to the COVID-19 A.K.A. Coronavirus outbreak. I thought that would be the biggest cataclysm of the month, but oh boy, we were only getting started. A week later, social distancing was the name of the game as people were told to sit in their homes. By Thursday March 12, 2020, my college, the University of Texas at Dallas, informed its students that classes would be moving online for the rest of the semester. Our graduation ceremony would be postponed to an unknown later date, a discouraging development given how I'm graduating this semester.


While all of that is disappointing, it's also not a big deal in the grand scheme of the Coronavirus. A cancelled film festival and moving college classes online really are small potatoes compared to what so many have had to suffer, including losing loved ones to COVID-19. Still, I bring up my minuscule worries not to create a pity party but because I'm sure most of my readers have had a similar experience with disappointments stemming from the COVID-19 outbreak. It can feel like we're so isolated right now as we all wait inside our homes (which is the right thing to do, for the record) and practice social distancing. In a perverse turn of events, though, we can all find ourselves being bonded together in how much our individual worlds have been adversely turned upside-down by the month of March 2020.

Perhaps we can also find bonding in sharing exactly what we've learned in the last whirlwind of a month. What are our individual takeaway's from these last 31 days that really have been like nothing else in modern history? Above all else, March 2020's biggest lesson for me was in demonstrating how the world could be captivated by the saga of one man and his ramshackle tiger zoo in Oklahoma. Yes, Tiger King really has taken the nation by storm. Maybe it would have been popular under any circumstances but with everyone stuck inside and looking for something entertaining to keep their minds off everything happening outside, it really has become the go-to comfort food. Count me in among the million riveted by this documentary series. I never binge-watch stuff but I scarfed down all seven episodes of Tiger King in the span of a single Saturday!

Another key lesson is to never underestimate the importance of video chatting. Services like Google Hangout, Skype and Zoom have always been widely used for work purposes. However, perhaps it's just my experience talking, but I've never found them to be equally ubiquitous in casual social circumstances. Normally, I'll text my friends rather than Zoom them (it helps that a text is technically free while Zooming for more than 40 minutes cost money). But with everyone stuck in their homes, video chatting has become a savior for any kind of social connection. A text isn't enough when you can no longer exchange face-to-face conversations with your best friends, only Zoom will do!

On a more serious note, a key lesson March 2020 has offered is reminding everyone of the importance of people we can take for granted. Retail workers are a perfect example of this. Speaking as someone whose worked as a Walgreen's cashier since September 2017, the widespread perception of people who work retail isn't great. Much like working in the fast food industry, retail work is usually used as an example of low-end jobs that are the subject of scorn. Right now, though, such workers are proving crucial in helping people get vital medicine & food in times of chaos. Hopefully it can lead people to improve their perception of retail workers and realize that all workers have some kind of value.

Even more important in this pandemic are healthcare workers & doctors. I know I'm not alone in feeling that there aren't enough words to describe my gratefullness for these individuals as they work around the clock, frequently in conditions that don't offer nearly enough supplies. These medical professionals have always been important. In this health epidemic, though, their essentially is on full display. This reminder makes me wonder if maybe the biggest lesson from March 2020 (in addition to the lesson of world leaders taking contagions seriously instead of dismissing them as hoaxes) is to just value our neighbors. As we sit in our homes every day, we are constantly being reminded of how important our friends, our retail workers and especially our medical workers are. Let's cling to remembering how important these people are to help us get through the long journey of social isolation ahead.

I know that's, to quote Michael Bluth, "a little cornball", but considering how it's wall-to-wall misery outside, maybe a little cornball is OK right now.

Stay safe folks.
Stay indoors.
Wash your hands.
Watch a good movie.
We can get through this.