COVID Season 1: Lessons Learned
It’s been just over a year living in a global pandemic, and the fact that I’m even writing that sentence is beyond my wildest imagination of what I thought my adulthood would be like. Never in my dreams would I think that a virus would literally take over the world and alter the way we live and function.
I don’t know if there’s a single person who came out unscathed by COVID-19, but at the very least there were definitely lessons learned. Albeit, these lessons were definitely unsolicited from the universe, but ultimately here is what I’ve learned so far. (Note: I’m so sick of the word “pandemic,” so I’ll be using and italicizing other colloquial terms as substitutes for your reading pleasure.)
1. Be adaptable.
I think this is one of the lessons that we all had to learn with a quickness. Looking back at day one of shelter-in-place, I remember Noah going to the store to stock up on groceries to last us about a month. Things like canned soups, pasta, cleaning supplies, bulk items, etc. because we for sure thought this was an apocalypse! Sounds dumb now, but at the time all we knew was “stay home” and time will tell. We had so little information that was always changing, the only thing we knew was that this virus wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. I was on the edge of my seat every single day for new information about what the fuck was going on and how long we’d have to stay home, because at that time I was worried that it would be several months before we could leave the house again (LOL!) Not to mention, I had my bachelorette party and basically our whole wedding planned, I was really hopeful the virus would be “over” by then. (Again, LOL) As things got progressively worse globally, internally I had to come to terms with losing my job as a freelance stylist, cancelling my bachelorette party and then wedding, on top of dealing with only staying inside my house and wondering how we were going to pay for anything with my entire source of income gone. Emotionally, dealing with all that loss was really difficult because it pretty much happened all at once, so I had to face this new reality that looked like this: “There’s a virus that is killing thousands of people a day and nobody knows how to stop it, you aren’t allowed to leave your house, cancel all your plans you’ve had for the year ahead, pray nobody you know gets this virus, and hang tight.” This was our new normal.
2. “When people show you who they are, believe them.” -Maya Angelou
Seems like no truer words can apply to the last year when it comes to those around me. The panda bear has definitely exposed some sides in all of us that we either didn’t know we had, or didn’t want to see. For better or worse, I’ve learned more about people than I wanted to, and it honestly has been a good way of learning who to set strong boundaries with, and how not to feel guilty about it along the way. There’s been such a drastic scale of how people are handling the panera bread, from straight up deniers to those who have only leave the house out of necessity; I can say what I think is right or wrong (cough get vaccinated cough), but at this point it feels pretty inconsequential. All I can say is, if you don’t know something, do research. Read unbiased and credible sources. Google will be your best friend in this situation.
3. Everybody else is not you.
This has definitely been the HARDEST lesson to learn in this panadería, because I see people wilding out risking their lives (and others’ lives!) and health because they “don’t want to live in fear” or “need” to see loved ones maskless because of their mental health as if everyone else in the world isn’t going through the same thing but I digress! I can talk all the shit I want and rant about how irresponsible others are being and how much I dislike people’s behavior, and honestly I’ve gotten in some pretty big fights with loved ones about it. However, I’ve constantly been reminding myself that other people aren’t me! I cannot stress that enough on myself and whoever else needs to hear it. It sucks and is honestly annoying to watch others act so stupid but you know what? I am not financially or emotionally responsible for anyone but myself, so even to this day when I feel myself getting worked up over other people’s bullshit I remind myself how great it is to only have to worry about me. The only priority I have in this life is to take the best care of myself as possible.
4. Your best will look different every day and that’s ok.
None of us have ever been through a pandemic before. None of us could have predicted the emotional toll it would take on us to deal with so much loss for so long and the deprivation of touch we would experience. Most days of the pandora have been tough for me, but there were some days where I managed. Being on antidepressants has helped a lot, but it took this experience to get on them which is telling. I’ve been having trouble finding the balance between carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders while also juggling my own problems in my Sarah world and the thing is, I don’t have to. You don’t have to do it all. You’re even allowed to do nothing some days. Working from home and trying to be an exemplary employee, maintain sanity, being a good partner and dog mom, checking in with friends and family, keeping my house clean, being a good ally, it’s literally too much to do every single day! I’ve been reminding myself to keep things slow so I can focus better, and if that means some things will be late then that’s going to have to be ok. I think it’s better to move slower and devote your energy to one thing at a time than to try and half ass a lot of things at once. And if some days you don’t want to do anything, rest is deserved too. All we can do is try our best.
I know we’ve all been handling this pangea in our own ways, so I wanted to let you know that if you’re reading this, I hope you’re proud of yourself! This shit is not easy to say the least, and here you are, leisurely reading a blog post in your spare time! We’re doing it, we’re surviving, sometimes thriving, and sometimes not so much and thats ok! It has been a YEAR, one for the books that we’ll be reading and talking to our friends about once we’re allowed to eat at each other’s houses again. Can’t fucking wait!
