The landscape of society is fast-changing.
As the COVID-19 pandemic devastates countries around the world, it has forced people to reconsider aspects of their daily lives.
Activities that were once normal are on pause.
With stay-at-home orders prevalent in counties across the U.S., people are finding unique ways to celebrate their birthdays and stay connected to family and friends despite social distancing guidelines.
Read on to see how other UF students are celebrating, and to gather inspiration for any upcoming birthday celebrations you may have.
For some, the popular video conferencing application Zoom has become a crucial tool in maintaining ties with loved ones.
“I’ve had three friends with birthdays during quarantine,” said Samara Barradas, a junior at UF. “We’ve met on Zoom for happy hour and one of them was actually a ‘surprise’ Zoom party planned by a mom. Also, we made videos from home for one friend, and combined it into a 15-minute slideshow of all of us sending our wishes.”
Zoom has shot to prominence, skyrocketing in searches, as shown by Google Trends.
This isn’t the only sign of its sudden explosion in users, however.
For the month of March, Zoom experienced over a 100% increase in downloads.
With just 2.1 million downloads in January, the video conferencing app soared to nearly 27 million downloads in March (as of March 26).
On March 26, Jolie Freedman, a sophomore, celebrated her birthday through Zoom, too.
“I sent the link out to some of my high school and college friends,” she said. “Some of my friends even put the link on their Instagram stories. I ate cake and my friends all sang ‘Happy Birthday.’”
For others, the celebrations have ventured beyond the confines of a screen.
Viviana Moreno, a current junior, is helping to orchestrate a parade for her friend’s birthday on April 21.
This parade won’t involve any direct contact, though.
Instead, cars containing eager loved ones will pass by the birthday girl’s house, where she’ll stand outside and greet them.
They’ll likely make signs or play their favorite songs as they pass by, Moreno said.
“My best friend’s mom did a mass text to family and friends to do this for my friend’s birthday later this month,” Moreno said. “She’s also going to do a Zoom invitation when they do the cake.”
No matter when or where birthday festivities are happening, things have changed for those celebrating as society has increasingly become more homeward bound.
Kristina Kobza, a sophomore, celebrated her birthday on April 4.
“I had very different plans,” she said. “I was going to have a small get-together with some friends, maybe go to 8 Seconds in Gainesville.”
These plans changed when UF announced that classes would remain online for the remainder of spring semester on March 17 at the governor’s recommendation, following an announcement that four UF students had tested positive for COVD-19.
This transition found her home in Naples, so she came up with a different way to share her birthday cheer with others.
“I had a picnic party with my family where each household was 6 feet apart,” she said. “We played a yoga challenge game and took a quiz about me.”
Kobza also celebrated virtually, hosting an online Zoom party with friends from UF where they played a drawing game, she said.
Freshman Chadé Neriscio was planning on keeping it simple for her March 26 birthday by having dinner and going out with friends and then spending the night at a hotel with her boyfriend.
Neriscio ended up staying in a hotel in Gainesville with her boyfriend about a week and a half before her actual birthday, as she was moving back home to West Palm Beach following the decision for classes to transition to the online format, she said.
“I always manage to have a good time no matter what,” she said.
A Curaçao native, Neriscio spent her birthday at her host family’s home in West Palm Beach, where she played basketball, volleyball and soccer with her host siblings and flitted through lawn sprinklers with them in swimsuits. They ended the day with cake.
“I’m staying with them until the airport back home opens up,” she said.
Her home island is on lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19, she said.
While these stories all show celebrations done differently, they share one thing in common: love and unity prevailing in the time of a crisis.
They show that despite the current social boundaries put in place to combat this pandemic, people have connected with each other and remember the meaningful things in life.