What Has Quarantine Taught Me?
As we continue to navigate this new temporary normal, I hope you and your families are healthy and safe during this time. I am praying for anyone directly affected by COVID-19. It has been about 5 months of this unconventional lifestyle we all have been forced into and I just wanted to highlight some lessons or takeaways that I have learned in quarantine.
We learn our greatest lessons in struggle, adversity, sadness, or whatever craziness life throws you.
BLESSED. Of course, I realize everyday how blessed and fortunate I am. Everyday that I get to open and close my eyes is a blessing. However, there have been so many unfortunate things that have altered the lives of so many. People are losing loved ones, losing jobs, losing the experiences and memories of major life events and plans, and even some of us feeling like we’ve lost our sanity. For me, I lost my job back in October 2019 before the pandemic really hit home for many of us. Yet, somehow I’ve managed to press on unscathed and financially stable while so many others struggle to get by. Losing my job obviously was not my proudest or happiest moment but this life event was not one I needed to wear in shame. Losing a job happens all the time to people and for me I had to go through this and come out the other side realizing this happen to me for a reason. For me, I had to take it in stride, figure out my career life, what I wanted and did not want next, truly relax in this moment and not stress, and take the time I needed to self-develop not only as a professional but person. In the midst of all of this, the pandemic, unemployment and much more, I realize there was so much to be thankful for and how blessed I am.
SELF-REFLECTION. I like to believe that naturally, I am a pretty self-aware person. Stubborn, hard-headed and even difficult at times but I try to self-reflect and self-improve often as I can. I know I am far from perfect and not that I ever want to be perfect, but I truly want to be the best version of my constant evolving self. I want to be better for not only myself but for those around me and those who come in and out my life. During quarantine and my time unemployed, I have been doing a lot of much necessary self-reflection. The process self-reflection and self-evaluation can be daunting. It requires you to be unrelenting honest with yourself even when you do not want to be. Being able to look in the mirror and look at and accept the parts of yourself that aren’t so pretty can be a taxing process, but in order to grow you must know you you are and figure out how to be better. I’ve had time to reflect on the person I am, who I want to become, how I plan to progress, and a few things I want to change. Isolation for me has never been something I was uncomfortable with or personally struggled with. I have been single for about 5 years and I have lived alone in the same timeframe. So being alone is something I am very comfortable. My personal battle is while being alone, I can be TOO consumed with my own thoughts and getting so far and deep in my head that it messes with my ability to remain calm, cool and collected. This has been something I try to work on constantly. Again, this is all part of my process of self improvement.
PRODUCTIVITY. Being productive, staying productive and being okay with NOT being productive too has all been a challenge, especially in pandemic and unemployed season. Being productive has always been a rollercoaster for me. I get moments where I am super productive and checking off everything on my list and other times, my productivity tank is empty. I had to evaluate what being productive should look like for me and no one else. There are so many things on social media that tells us if we do not do XYZ during quarantine, we are doing quarantine wrong. That will have you thinking you are doing something completely wrong in life. I had to check myself think about what matters to me and the things I wanted to use my time in being productive. I have focused on working out, eating better, beginning to run, redecorating my apartment, picking up an interest in plants, teaching myself the piano, journaling, starting this blog, and the biggest one building mental agility. The mental agility goes hand in hand with some of these things I picked up or wanted to focused more time on.
THINGS ARE GOING TO BE OKAY! For me, I have to constantly remember, I have made it through my worse days yet. I am a Virgo and being in control of things, IS MY THING. Being able to let go and let God is something I have to remind myself of constantly especially with in my faith and relationship with God. Most times, I have spanned the possibility of 100 different scenarios or conclusions of a situation before it has had an opportunity to play out for itself. Being able to settle on the possibility of the unknown is hard for me and always has been. I have to take a moment to remember what happens THINGS ARE GOING TO BE OKAY regardless of the outcome.
I saw something on Instagram that said, “I thought 2020 would be the year I get everything I want. Now I know 2020 is the year I appreciate everything I have”. I think this is true for most of us. 2020 has shown us how quickly life can change and how we can be thrown some major obstacles. I hope that you have taken the time to really sit back and reflect on life no matter how good or bad your circumstances have personally been. Life is so so beautiful but in that beauty comes some hard struggles we all have to deal with but I hope you learn to balance all that life throws at you in the best way possible realize there is a blessing in every situation.
