Lessons Learned Through 8 Months of COVID

 

The effects of Covid-19 have had tremendous impacts worldwide for the lives of most citizens in their home. For some, it was a nightmare being forced to stay at home and be limited to the amount of time we spend outside and out in public. For me, through the ways our society has adapted to life living with this virus, not much has changed to my typical college lifestyle because I'm spending my first semester at home in my first semester since transferring from ISU. I never planned on being out a whole lot aside from work and getting out for hobbies , but these months spent at home has made me appreciative of things in life I normally take for granted. 

Time with others. In my household there's so much going on. My dad works in the dining room all day, my sister has a much longer school day than me in her 5th grade classes, and my older brother is working through his senior year of college. The days wane by slowly yet somehow the weeks fly by at the same time --and we're already in mid November. Because we all have our obligations to school and work that take up so much of our time, it's seemed hard at moments to find time for each other and indulge in family time when we could sit back and just enjoy each other's presence. Luxuries like sitting together on a Friday night and watching the newest episode of  The Mandalorian on Disney+ are never taken for granted. 

Keeping myself busy with things not constantly devoted to school has been tough but a decent experience so far into this semester. Spending so much time at home is something I haven't been used to recently for school. It's made me eager to get out and has led me to rediscover old passions that I gave up early in my life to make way for things like soccer that resulted in fulfilling most of my free-time after school up until senior year of high school. I've recently gotten back into skateboarding which was my biggest passion when I was 8-10 years old until I started focusing on soccer. Now I find myself following a weekly routine that allocates room for me to go to the skatepark 3 times a week so that I can have some time to ease my mind from the stresses of school and focus on something I enjoy. It's also allowed me to meet and recognize new faces from the usuals at the park. Recently I've realized how beneficial rediscovering passions and old hobbies has been so far into this era of depressing Covid-19 news and stay at home schooling. I've recommended my siblings and parents to find things like this too to look forward to doing so that we could take our minds off our daily obligations like work and school. I've also enjoyed getting out and putting headphones in and listening to podcasts or music as I go for long walks. Sometimes alone it's nice to free my mind and enjoy the outside, but other times walks have been a great way to spend time with my little sister or my brother. Keeping myself busy and motivated has paid dividends thus far into my year.

At the forefront of the winter season it's gonna be much harder to find times to get out and do these things outside that offer an escape from the scary events happening this year and the stressful work from school. Given the way this year has unfolded with bad news after bad news, it may appear daunting at times to find hope and happiness for some people --especially those that have been affected in some way or another to the introduction of COVID-19. The Holiday Season for some is an intimidating time of the year, especially now that going out and connecting with friends and family is much harder to do amidst a global pandemic. I've realized this year how important it is to keep people close to you in life, and especially to prioritize your own well-being and focusing on yourself. Nobody knows how long it'll take for our lives to go back to normal. Or even if the new normal is going to be completely different from what we knew before our world was shook by this virus. A lesson I've learned is not to wait until tomorrow to make things better for yourself and others around you. Start today.