When a phrase like “I’ll just drop everything and move to Spain” appears in conversation, it’s often a wistful addendum — something said in jest during a time of hardship.
But Kathleen Hoffman is serious.
Spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic and concerns over proposed cuts in her pension benefits, Hoffman, 54, has decided to leave her job as a teacher at Missisquoi Valley Union Middle/High School in Swanton in search of warmer winters.
She’ll move from St. Albans to Madrid in September, and instead of teaching English literature, she’ll teach English as a foreign language.
When Hoffman began to share the news, some of her friends and family were shocked — or thought she was kidding. How could someone leave their career of 31 years and move to an unfamiliar country all by themselves?
“This is something I’ve wanted to do since I was in my 20s,” before marriage and parenthood put things on hold, Hoffman said. “With the pandemic and everything that happened, I said, ‘You know, I think it’s time to do something different.’”
Hoffman is one of many Vermonters who made surprising changes in their lives in the last year, which was dominated by the indelible impacts of the global pandemic.
The human toll has been devastating: Covid has killed more than 600,000 Americans since the beginning of the pandemic, a number that approaches the population of Vermont. The worldwide death toll is approaching 4 million.
Against the backdrop of such loss, swaths of people have reevaluated their priorities. Some have changed careers or worked new hobbies into their daily routines.
Paul Foxman, director and founder of the Vermont Center for Anxiety Care in Burlington, said the pandemic “has precipitated an explosion in anxiety,” but he hopes some people have also made positive shifts in their mindsets.
“I’d like to believe that people got quieter, slowed down and realized that they could do with less,” he said.
Mental health impacts
By now, the impact that Covid-related fear and isolation wrought on people’s mental health is well documented. Mental health researchers learned there’s no “one size fits all” response to the pandemic, according to Roxane Cohen Silver, a professor of psychological science, public health and medicine at the University of California, Irvine.
“We have also learned that the pandemic has not affected all people evenly and that some communities of color have been hit with greater rates of illness and death and uneven access to the vaccine,” Silver said, according to SciLine, a nonprofit news service.
More people have sought out professional help for mental health. Foxman said his practice is receiving six or seven new referrals each week, and his therapists are all busy.
Foxman said the pandemic brought together all three ingredients of the anxiety formula: uncertainty, ambiguity and unpredictability, which are normal responses to stressful and uncertain situations.
“That’s destabilizing for virtually everybody,” Foxman said.
He estimates there will be a transition period before people fully adjust to a “new normal,” whatever it entails, and it will be a challenge for those with clinical anxiety — which can be severe, and continue on long after the risk has passed — to be comfortable in social situations.
The pandemic has taken a significant toll on younger people. There has been a “tremendous upsurge” nationwide of youth hospitalizations for severe mental health problems dating back to the fall, according to Julie Balaban, an assistant professor of psychiatry and also of pediatrics at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine.
Children were affected differently, based on their age and stage of development. Parents struggled to keep younger children busy and active in lieu of school or child care. Lockdown also raised tensions for some children in adolescence — “a normal time of conflict with parents,” Balaban said.
Some kids were able to stay connected with their friends over social media, but Balaban fears a difficult transition back to in-person schooling for less-outgoing students.
“Even when schools reopen, it’s going to be a hard transition for them because they’ve been out of it for so long, and it’s not something they were comfortable with or skilled at to begin with,” Balaban said.
New hobbies, new jobs
Now that the pandemic is waning, Vermonters are looking at what changes they will take forward with them, and lessons they learned.
Julie Trottier, 55, from Williston picked up on the sourdough bread trend and still bakes fresh loaves to share with her friends.
Others found new ways to get out of the house, and new appreciations of the world around them. David Zeidler said he and his girlfriend, Julie, hadn’t been together more than five months before the pandemic struck. The pair of restaurant industry workers, off from work due to the shutdowns, were suddenly stuck at home for days on end.
“It was getting a little cabin fever-y,” acknowledged Zeidler, 39.
In search of something to do outside of Zeidler’s Essex Junction apartment — now shared by the couple — they packed lunches and set out to join the 251 Club, a group that encourages Vermonters to visit all 251 of the state’s towns and cities. (They made it to all but two.)
Zeidler, originally from Connecticut, said he now has “so much more of an understanding of the state as a whole, underrated parts of it and beautiful parts I didn’t know about.” He kept extensive notes, and looks forward to revisiting less-traveled parts of the state now that restrictions have been lifted.
The pandemic has led to a change in Zeidler’s work-life balance, too. He’s working fewer hours in his server/bartender job, putting more time into the PR company he runs for small bands, and toward reconnecting with old passions.
Lindsay Toye’s career change was more total. The Hyde Park resident had been working as an office manager at a homeowners association in Stowe before leaving the position due to pandemic-related challenges. Millions of other workers nationally have left their pre-pandemic jobs in search of better pay, better hours or better fits.
Toye, 28, decided to get back into candle making, a craft she had previously pursued only to make Christmas presents for friends. She creates elaborate arrangements that mimic succulents, using soy wax candles and different shades of verdant dyes.
Toye now runs a stand at the Jericho and Jeffersonville farmer’s markets, and her business, GeminiGenuine, has over 1,000 followers on its Instagram page. She said she walks dogs in Stowe on the side to supplement her income.
“I grew up going to craft fairs and having a real interest in being an artist, but just never having the gusto behind myself to really go full force with it,” Toye said.
Hoffman said she had a moment of panic when she realized that her health insurance was expiring at the end of the month. Every now and then, she said, she’ll have an “Omigod, what did I do?” moment.
Then she thinks of her father, who died at 52, and didn’t get to see the world the way Hoffman has.
“It’s time to go do something for someone else,” Hoffman said, “and for myself as well.”
