Time Magazine International Edition

What we owe 2020-somethings

In January 2020, Luis was 21 and beginning the second semester of his junior year at a public university in New York City. He lived with family in Queens, and everyone pitched in to make ends meet. His father was retired. His mother collected disability insurance. His older sister, with whom he shared a bedroom, was a veterinary technician. Luis worked at a law firm. The apartment was crowded, loud, and sometimes crazy. But in New York City, what isn’t? Luis was usually out in the world, anyway, because when you’re in your 20s, the world is yours.

When COVID-19 hit, Luis’ universe suddenly narrowed. No school. No job. No parties. No friends. Soon, his whole family had the virus. It was scary, because by then Queens was

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Time Magazine International Edition

Time Magazine International Edition3 min read
Stepping Up
Where do you find influence in 2024? You can start with the offices of the Anti-Corruption Foundation in Vilnius, Lithuania, where TIME met with Yulia Navalnaya earlier this spring. There, the activist is working with 60 supporters—whose anti-Kremlin
Time Magazine International Edition1 min read
The Leadership Brief
Rachel Botsman, one of the leading experts on trust, believes we’re thinking about it all wrong. We hear a lot that trust is in decline. That’s not your view, is it? Trust is like energy—it doesn’t get destroyed; it changes form. It’s not a question
Time Magazine International Edition3 min read
Robert D. Bullard
I am a Proud Boomer and Vietnam-era Marine Corps veteran. I am also an environmental-justice fighter. When I began this work in 1979, environmental justice was a footnote. Through our efforts, it is now a headline. But these days, millennials, Genera

Related Books & Audiobooks