This pandemic has really fucking sucked, man. I was starting to make plans to come out of my shell and be more social right before COVID hit, then immediately put off those plans once it had spread throughout the US.

For the last two years, I have been living with my family and being incredibly cautious, i.e. no traveling, no gathering in large crowds, no indoor dining, etc.--basically spending the overwhelming majority of my time at home. I still haven't gotten COVID (to my knowledge), but the pandemic has taken a toll on my mental health, pretty much from being so lonely and having a virtually non-existent social life. I mean I obviously saw my family every day and always appreciate their company, but save for seeing friends a few times, I have had almost no interaction otherwise, y'know?

Now that I'm finally moved out of my parents and living on my own, I feel comfortable enough to finally start thinking about dating for the first time in my life. I just started downloading some free dating apps (which, LOL, so much shit is behind a paywall, even basic features that should be free like filtering--yay, capitalism!). But like I can't imagine that most people would be willing to put up with me not wanting to eat indoors or go to a bar because of me not wanting to take my mask off (does anyone with lots of dating experience right now know if this caution about indoors stuff is common?). Taking your mask off indoors in a public place is probably the easiest way to get COVID, but I also feel like dining at a restaurant, getting a cup of coffee, seeing a movie, etc. are fundamental to the dating experience. Obviously outdoor dining options exist, but that might not always be the best option, weather permitting.

To this point, I've been taking all this precaution because I'm still afraid of COVID and long COVID in particular scares the shit out of me (as an aside, does anyone know if other diseases also exhibit/exhibited similar long-term effects?). I'm not even immunocompromised or anything, just sounds like some awful stuff to have to deal with.

But at the same time, I hate being so atomized and the toll it has on my mental health, largely as a result of all this caution. I'm certainly not getting any younger (27), our sociopathic leaders of the western world are clearly content to just let this shit rip and eschew even the most basic precautions, and the most :doomer: side of me thinks that things in America are going to get much, much worse in the not-so-distant future, maybe even before the end of the decade. For those reasons, I'm feeling like it's becoming increasingly useless to wrap myself in bubble wrap and watching my life pass by, and that I should just try to live a relatively normal life with what youth I have left, even if it significantly increases my chance of getting :covid-cool: and any nasty repercussions from that. And hell, who knows, maybe this virus will get even more ridiculously contagious that one-way mask wearing will become completely useless.

Anyone have any advice or been trying to come to terms with similar thoughts?