Today is April 2, 2020. We've been in quarantine for 18 days now. Well, my family has. But we started quarantining before it was mandatory, back when it was just strongly suggested.
I know people who are still going to work, people who wish they could go to work, and people who don't know if they will even have work to go back to when this is all over. I know people who hate quarantine because they feel trapped, and people who love this chance for life to slow down a little.
Time definitely runs funny when you don't have things like work and school to help you keep track of it. Most of the time it feels like days have suddenly become twice as long. But in the grand scheme of things, 18 days has gone by quickly.
It feels like we have more time, but really we have the same amount of time, we just have less things to fill that time with. Instead of spending 20 minutes driving to Starbucks to get coffee, I now spend 5 minutes at the coffee pot in my kitchen. Instead of spending an hour or more commuting, people now commute 30 seconds from their bedroom to their office down the hall. Instead of having to squeeze in an on the go dinner, we now have seemingly endless evening house in which to gather around the dining room table. There are no more after school activities for kids, and there are no more girls-nights-out, so instead families are gathering in living rooms. Dogs of the world have never been so happy now that their owners are home 24/7.
I've done my fair share of griping and complaining about being "stuck" at home and being bored for the last 16 days. But then on day 17, something shifted. I realized that most of those feelings were simply a mindset. I was feeding into the badness of the situation and giving it the power to dictate not just my schedule, but also my happiness. Being at home doesn't mean you can't still be happy. There's no sense in wallowing in despair when, really, things could be much worse. My family is healthy, nobody I know has passed from the virus, and we have everything we need at home. Why was I complaining so much?
So I stopped. I stopped whining to my friends about how bored I was and how I couldn't wait to be free again (I still can't wait to be free, but I try not to dwell on that). Instead I decided to make something good come from every day.
Yesterday, I walked 2 miles with Zeus, my dad and I took the ATV out for a ride around our property (and maybe a little neighborhood joyride...), and then we broke out our air rifle for some target practice. All things we could have done at any point in the 16 days prior, but just...didn't.
Today, we tested out a new recipe I found on Facebook back in October. We could have made it at any time, but apparently we were waiting for some kind of excuse to come along. And it did.
Quarantining wouldn't be my first pick on a list of activities, but it only sucks as much as you let it. Make the most of your abundant free time, your chance to slow down, your chance to be around the people you care about. Start a workout regimen and blow your coworkers away whenever you do finally get back to the office. FaceTime those cross-country relatives that you don't talk to enough. Read that book or watch that movie that you've been meaning to get to for like, a year.
You are by no means obligated to use this time to become a better person, but at the very least, don't become a worse person. Don't let your situation turn you bitter and spiteful.
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