Two weeks after her final vaccination, Queens resident Shellie Florez is finally ready to embrace all the life that she has missed out on after staying at home for a year: which is mostly just seeing her one friend that doesn’t currently live with her.
Shellie, who has three roommates she has been friends with for years, originally thought that her post-vaccine life would be radically different than the past year – but it turns out, she doesn’t have many friends living nearby that aren’t her actual roommates.
“I thought I would start taking all these trips with my friends and going out every night once I was vaccinated, but it looks like I’ve just continued to watch TV and hang out with the same three people. I’m still really excited to see my one other friend, though! We always would see movies together!”
When Shellie reached out to Pooja Agarwal, the one friend she doesn’t currently cohabitate with, she proposed several things they could do together.
“I haven’t really heard from Shellie in a couple of months, so I was just expecting to do a casual catch-up or something,” Pooja says. “But she then sent me like three Facebook invites to a comedy show, a couples’ massage, a bouldering lesson, and a movie. It was like relax, do you not have any friends? And then I realized she doesn’t really have other friends.”
Shellie defended her actions, insisting they are a product of her living situation.
“My friends and I thought it would be a great idea to live together during COVID, but now everything we do, which is mostly watching TV, is within this 900-square-foot apartment. I am excited to go out and see Pooja and do new things!”
At press time, Pooja asked for a rain check with Shellie.
