The recent coronavirus pandemic shines a light on just how many things we all take for granted. Because we have had to limit contact with people outside our homes, we have lost many of the things we once considered normal. Instead of trips to the grocery store, we are opting instead to use companies like Instacart or Peapod for food deliveries. Many of the local parks are closed. Daily interactions with friends are no longer possible, as nearly every school is closed. Surprisingly enough, students are actually beginning to miss school. At the beginning of the closure, most students were excited to be able to sleep in and stay up as late as they wanted; however, as the weeks become months, the desire to see other people in real life has become more important than the nice break from school.
To keep busy, people have begun to figure out how to do many new things while in quarantine. At my house, my sister has learned how to give haircuts. I have not yet let her use her scissors on me, mostly because I’m letting my brothers be test subjects so that I can ensure she is fully capable. But pretty soon my hair is going to be long enough to make the risk worthwhile.
In the quest to find ways to get more exercise while staying close to home, my family recently got a basketball hoop. I realized that though I do not have a future in the NBA, playing basketball is still a fun way to pass the time when we are stuck at home not seeing anybody.
The newest way that I have found to entertain myself is to see how long I can go after cleaning my room before it gets messy again. At the beginning of the quarantine, I cleaned out my entire room and threw out three trashbags full of random junk. This was about a month ago. My room now looks just about the same as it did before I cleaned it out. I was shocked because I have not bought a single thing since this quarantine began. I found a few of my dog’s toys, more than 10 empty water bottles, a lot of dull pencils, and about 30 books that I must have gathered from the rest of my house. It was actually enjoyable to look through the piles, and despite my promise to myself that I would be cleaner, I am confident that in one month, I will be sitting in my room wondering why there is a half-chewed dog toy under my bed.
One of the best parts of this whole situation has been my two older siblings coming home from college. Nearly every college in America is closed due to COVID-19, so my older siblings are stuck at home. I would argue that we are probably enjoying having them at home a lot more than they are enjoying being here. But I’m choosing to focus on all of the positive aspects of the coronavirus. While it may seem sad to consider everything that we don’t have, we begin to value everything that we do have, more.