Expectations in Reality
Some families will have to wait to assemble their own jigsaw puzzles amidst this global pandemic.
Graphic by Grace Peng, News Editor & Vecteezy
Sean O’Neal, Staff Writer
There are some obvious effects of an international pandemic: a relative downturn in the global economy and a decrease in foreign trade, an uptick in the number of patients being admitted into hospitals, and a large amount of disruptions interfering with the schedules of the working class to name a few. However, an infection on such a large scale comes with a myriad of additional effects, ranging from slightly unexpected to wildly astonishing.
For starters, the entertainment industry is currently riding the wake of confined boredom. YouTube has seen its most drastic rise in daily viewership it has ever had, while new Netflix subscriptions hit their peak in the first week of April- entertainment services are at their busiest yet. Yet as the hours drone onwards, the collective population has begun to realize that sitting on the couch forever doomed to watch more Tiger King eventually- eventually- gets a tad bit tiring.
If one (armed with a proper face mask, of course) were to walk into Target or Walmart right now and ask for certain commodities, only a handful of items would be truly out of stock. The beginning of the quarantine saw toilet paper and paper towels as the most in-demand items. Milk, butter, and usual grocery items at home are always high-ticket products, as well- but the brave employees continuing to work the aisles will also let you know that they are completely sold out of jigsaw puzzles. Video games are incredibly popular now, with many of the Nintendo Switch consoles completely sold out of stores, but so, too, are the classic jigsaw puzzles. While the industry has certainly existed for many decades now, the quarantine has provided it the largest customer base ever as families across the country gather them up to put together over the coming weeks.
Some of these families, unfortunately, will have to wait a bit before they can assemble their own jigsaw puzzles. Another effect of the current pandemic is that the adoption process has ground to a veritable halt. American families who have adopted children from China have had their plans temporarily derailed, as the US travel advisory has left these adopted children stuck in Chinese orphanages overseas. The general confusion among international governments and the lack of concrete knowledge on the nature of the coronavirus has left these families without any sort of timeline on when to expect to meet their children.
The reality of the situation is that the world is scrambling. With the increase in international contact over recent years as globalization takes a firm footing in the economy, a virus on this scale is bound to disrupt every given individual in society. All we can do for the time being is listen out to the hard workers diligently putting in their best efforts to protect those at risk.
