By now, the COVID-19 global pandemic has affected, in one way or another, all living things in this planet specially the dominant species, humans. You can always find positives in any kind of situation, even in the mainly negative ones. Collateral positives, in a way.
Since I am mostly a positive person, my first post about this subject will be about how this pandemic has impacted my life in a positive way. I’ll save the many negatives for future posts.
First and foremost: To my knowledge I have not gotten infected. The members of my inner circle have not gotten sick either. Some relatives that did get infected were able to overcome the disease. For that, I am very grateful.
I am part of a very lucky segment of the population. All I have had to do so far is work remotely (which I like), limit my social interactions (which given the current stage of my life is not such a bad thing) and wear a mask.
My financial situation has not been directly impacted. Since I don’t have to commute to work, my days now feel like they have 27 hours. I have been able to spend more time with family. I can take my son to school every morning and pick him up most afternoons.
In order to replace the gym and keep myself “fit” I had to become an avid walker. During the summer I was logging more than 10 kilometers every single day. I was regularly riding my bike and jogging too. I miss lifting weights, which I had to replace with pushups (I make sure to do at least 100 every day), pullups, chin-ups, crunches, squats and some exercises with elastic bands.
I have read, studied and listened to podcasts, a lot. I started to blog again. I have tried to grow as a person. I found ways to stay in touch with people that mean a lot to me.
The lockdown forced us to “reset” our lives. Many things that we took for granted were removed from our day to day in the blink of an eye. Suddenly, there was time to fill. We were no longer that “busy”. We could pursue hobbies, re-watch that Netflix show that we loved so much or become amateur bakers (every geek I know is baking their own sourdough bread).
I was forced into a personal retreat that I didn’t know I needed this much.
My internal operative system needed a reboot that I kept delaying because I didn’t want to have to re-launch all the applications I had open (sorry for the nerdy metaphor).
The end of the pandemic is now been advertised. Several vaccines are been developed. People will soon start been inoculated. There is Hope.
Now that I have been given the possibility of a clean restart in many areas of my life, I must ensure that my new normal is not exactly the same as my old normal. Distractions and liabilities must be gone together with this pesky virus that has forever changed our lives.