As everyone is now painfully aware, things are weird. Everyone’s lives have changed. I’m now working 100% from home, like many people, and have a lot more time on my hands.
This past weekend, we went shopping to try to be prepared.
I also moved out of my office on campus.
I went to IKEA and bought a table and chair and brought back my monitor and stuff from work. I found this bulletin board and hung up some stuff I had around. I transformed this corner, which used to house our bookshelf into my new home office – on a budget!
One upside is that I’ve had more time to cook and eat breakfast, maybe not all the most exciting foods. This was breakfast the other day!
I’m also trying to go on walks when I can.
I can put energy into taking care of my plant babies and propagating them to make more plant babies.
I recognize that I am in an incredible place of privilege to have a safe and comfortable place to live, I will still be getting paid and I did not lose my job, and I can protect myself and those around me by isolating myself. I have seen a lot of conflicting messages about how we should think about this time. On one hand, international media are telling us “Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity while social distancing during the plague! Shakespeare wrote King Lear while isolating himself from the plague!!”, implying that we should all use this time to do our best work and change the world. On the other hand, many of us – myself included – are experiencing high levels of anxiety and feelings of depression. How could I think about doing something great, when I barely feel like doing the bare minimum? I don’t even want to get out of my pajamas.
Somewhere in the middle are the people who post about finally being able to read that book they’ve been meaning to read. I think we should all lower our expectations. This is an unprecedented interruption and once-in-a-lifetime (hopefully) chaos that I, for one, was not emotionally prepared for. I want to make the most of this time, but I also want to just get through it and stay sane. I want to watch TV, call my friends, read the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, and maybe do some crocheting. Spending too much time on Twitter (now deleted from my phone!), I started to think that I should be updating my blog, making incredible food, learning a new language, writing a book, and running 10k every day. I would like to do some of those things, but if I expect myself to do all of those things (and it’s only day 4 of self-isolation/quarantine), I won’t last the months that we will likely be living like this.
Over the next few weeks, I’m hoping to find nice things to do with my time like calling friends and sleeping more. Maybe later down the line I will have energy to do more, but for now I hope I can just stay sane and keep going. I hope everyone stays as healthy, safe, and sane as they can!
