Well, another week has gone by and I’m still not a millionaire.
Gov. Mike DeWine’s Vax-a-Million campaign is over and I’m no wealthier than I was when it started.
It’s not the result I was hoping for, but I have to admit that it is the outcome I was expecting.
Still, my quality of life has improved dramatically over the past month or so, thanks to the vaccine.
Since COVID-19 struck, we’ve been taking cautious, baby steps back toward our old lives.
But on June 2 when masks officially came off, it feels like we all started to sprint.
Things seemed to change so quickly that I’ve often caught myself wondering, ‘Is this allowed?’
Activities that felt so tedious a couple years ago now feel like a treat.
Grocery shopping without a mask? Yes, please.
Even just being able to see people smile is something we’ve been missing.
Beyond just smiling or a quick greeting, I’m now remembering what it’s like to actually be social.
We can get together with groups of friends without any concern that we’ll make them sick or bring the virus back to our more vulnerable loved ones.
With these worries lifted from our shoulders, I’m fairly certain that I’ve seen more of my friends in the past month than I had in the year prior.
Almost every night, I’ve been meeting up with someone to catch up on all the things that have happened to us in the past year (spoiler: a lot of staying home, working and waiting for this to end).
Now, it feels like the worst of the pandemic has ended.
The $1 million lottery isn’t what motivated me to get the shot, but it’s still been fun to dream about the possibility of being paid so much money for doing something that made my life better anyways.
Every Tuesday for the past few weeks, my brother and I have jokingly texted each other that we only had 24 hours until I became a millionaire.
Torey, who lives in California, found it funny that Ohio had such a huge incentive to get the vaccine.
Being vaccinated for free was enough of a reward to him, especially since he lives with a few family members with health issues that make them particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.
The freedom that would come with the shot was more than enough for him to sign up.
Even when California later announced a COVID vaccine lottery with more prizes than Ohio’s, he was unfazed.
“Apparently you have to sign up online to get into the lottery,” Torey told me. “So I probably won’t bother.”
I think we were both lucky enough just to get the shot.
-Kayleen Petrovia is a reporter for the Journal-Tribune.