True historical events only occur a few times during our lives. They shape us to the core and make us who we truly are as people. The Coronavirus pandemic is one of these times. I'm a person that tries to look at the world with a "glass half full" approach and wanted to share my reflections on this past month.
Things I Appreciate
Health- The pandemic has revealed how important our personal health truly is. I am thankful for the health that I have and will strive to maintain it through sleep, diet, and exercise.
Relationships- I often take for granted how important and often I communicate and interact with other people. The social quarantine shows just how important friends, family, and all social interactions are to each of us.
Time- The COVID-19 pandemic has completely cleared my personal calendar with a giant eraser. While this was initially disturbing, I have now come to appreciate the time that it has created in my life. I now appreciate the additional time for family, reflection, reading, creativity, critical thinking, and even the little things like going for a walk in the sunshine. We all have a limited amount of time on this planet and this time period allows us to reflect on how we want to spend it.
Community- On top of our personal relationships, this pandemic has renewed my sense of our local, state, country, and global community. For the first time in generations, the whole world is working together, for the greater good, on a single problem. It is refreshing it see how humanity can coalesce together in times of need and rise up to the occasion.
Innovation- Within a period of a few weeks, the whole world has truly changed as we know it. Schools and workplaces have all transitioned to functioning remotely. Despite the rapid rate of change, most people seem to be adapting quite well. I am optimistic that this innovation will carry over into new normals of how schools and workplaces can be run to allow people to live better and fuller lives.
Things That Are Less Important
Material Goods- At least in the United States, we have become a very materialistic society with fancy purses, cars, jewelry, and clothes. The shift this month to home-based work really makes me reflect on what I can easily do without. Not that I'm an extremely materialistic person, but this time period forces me to re-think how and why I purchase material items.
Busy Schedules- A generation ago, kids had a lot more free time to just play and be kids. Adults had events planned, but not a schedule with literally every day/hour of the week booked. In a matter of days, we have transitioned from planned out daily lives to a mostly-free calendar. While this change has felt uncomfortable, I think it provides a hard reset for re-evaluating what is important in life how we choose to live going forward.
An Opportunity For All
I am choosing to look at this time in history as an opportunity. Instead of wishing this time period ends quickly, let's make the best of the time we have. We can learn a new skill. We can sit down and have daily family dinners. We can choose to become healthier through exercise, better eating, and/or better sleeping. We can even finish the project we have always wanted to do but never had enough time.
Life will eventually return to a normal state where this pandemic appears like a small blip in time. In the interim, let's make lemonade out of lemons and become better individuals and therefore, a better society.