I confess that as an extrovert, this quarantine has at times been difficult to navigate. I found that just like there are stages of grief, I go through many stages of quarantine. For me there are five main stages:
Naive Optimism
You wake up with the alarm, get dressed, and put on make-up. You do a little work-out and go about your day telling yourself (and anyone around) that this will all be over soon. You will be able to go out with your friends and hang out in no time. Your summer plans have not changed. This too shall pass.
Drab Pessimism
You roll out of bed, look at your clothes and think "What's the point?" You stay in your pajamas for the rest of the day. You eat half a package of Oreos for breakfast as you binge-watch Tiger King. You tell yourself (and anyone around) that this is never going to end. You feel like you are going to be stuck in your house forever and you are never going to see your friends again.
Quaran-Cooking
Fresh baked cookies are now a food staple; and even though you have never made bread in your life, you can't stop making it now. You've made over ten different kinds and you even traded two rolls of toilet paper for some sourdough starter from your next-door neighbor.
Quaran-Cleaning
Spending a month at home has allowed you to see all the areas that don't get much attention - the blinds, the curtains, behind chairs, stuff on shelves that you haven't cleaned behind since the day you moved in. You realize that if you are going to be forced to stay inside another month or more, all that stuff is going to have to be freaking cleaned!
Quarantine Envy
I think we all might be guilty of this one. You can't help but think that So-and-So is lucky. You would like to be able to:
Stay at home/work from home/ go to work/ have a job/ quarantine with family/ spend just one freaking minute to yourself/have time to binge-watch Tiger King/feel productive/look like you have it all under control/be able to get through a day without that feeling of panic deep within your chest.
These are not linear - sometimes I can go through multiple stages in a day! Some of these stages are good - my house will be clean by the time this is over. Yay! Some are not so good - The pessimism can get me down and all the baking is not good for my waistline.
Let me know if you go through any of these or if you have stages different from mine! Hang in there everyone. As the naive optimist says: this will be over soon (just probably not as soon as we all would like.)
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